A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

What is with all this firing and termination this week... - MT

Posted: Nov 04, 2012

People are being terminated without warning at M Modal, according to the board here. People are being picked on at Nuance even more than usual by QC and supervisors. These are the 2 biggest employers in the industry. Why this now? And most people only make minimum wage. There can't be such a big economic reason for firing people who are paid so low with this kind of technical skill. What is going on here... and why... thinking aloud, but ideas would be appreciated. Not feeling secure at all right at the moment and I am in this over 20 years.

Transition of VR (sm) - Angie

[ In Reply To ..]
As we have always known, we can't be completely replaced by voice recognition. They can replace our hands but not our minds. As we edit VR, we teach the software how to adjust to the doctors typical errors, phrases, normals, accents and sounds to ignore. Our editing tweaks the program for each individual doctor to the point that errors are dramatically reduced. Their will still be errors, but they will not need the number of editors they did before, thus more will be out of work. The first time there is a malpractice suit that was caused by a VR error that is the ONLY time they will recognize our importance.

I hear you, but... - See Message

[ In Reply To ..]
ASR/VR cannot ever be trained to fix dictations where dictators back up over their words when they change their mind, or dictator who repeat words over and over, and those types of issues. I see this mostly in acute care in the hospitals. Also, the people in hospitals are sicker than those in the clinic, so the exam isn't necessarily as repetitive as a clinic exam.

You are right (sm) - Angie

[ In Reply To ..]
The good dictators can have their software trained to almost perfect. You are right about the ones who apparently do not understand how VR works as many doctors are under the impression that MTs transcribe verbatim, not knowing how many malpractice suits could result from verbatim. There are so many doctors who do not understand that if they dictate "correction, take out the ovary and put prostate". Will most of these errors be OK with them? It will be interesting to see just how far they will let this go.

I have yet to see VR reports absolutely correct after 10 - P

[ In Reply To ..]
years of using VR and I am talking about the most excellent dictators on there. I have loads of ESLs so not mentioning those but the very cream of the crop after all the same dictators, same kind of reports you cannot just slosh thru a report and hope it is ok because it is far from it. I type of the same acct day after day and VR is sorta ok but not even 100% on the best of the best. Having said that, I am glad to be on VR now because we have, as stated above, loads of ESLs and it does as well on those as on the non-ESLs.

I know VR can't be perfect, even with a perfect dictator (sm) - Angie

[ In Reply To ..]
As it will still mix up "he" and "she", type a word for a cough, hiccup, or other background noise, not catch doctor errors. Will doctors be OK with reports like this being cc'd to a colleague: "The patient is a 51-year-old woman... African American woman who comes in with 3 month history of numbness on the left... right side of her face and oh go back to age and make that fifty-two. Now back down to where I was..." If doctors can't even figure out where to hold a mic so their dictation is audible and not covered by breath sounds, or know how to use a pause button, how would they ever be able to correct their errors in VR?

But that was not really what I was talking about - P

[ In Reply To ..]
I know how they change around, going back and putting things in here, adding on here. You know though this used to not happen several years ago. I never had the amount of dictators acting like they do now with all the updating, constantly. What I was talking about was just the plain ole dictation and how if you have an excellent dictator, excellent report coming thru VR still can mess it up regardless. I hear 1 doctor that is almost word by word clear as a bell, no going back and repeating, etc. and yet VR makes the biggest mess out of his dictations. He does an op. Gives preop like he should and then drats if VR is not putting the postop alongside the preop and that is not what he said. I agree with the going back and forth, that I agree with, just was not what I meant by my post.

This is what I think - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
You are right, we aren't making much money but when we can be replaced by someone in India for a penny a line, or whatever they pay them, that is what is going to happen. The only thing that can change this off-shoring policy is our government, and they can't figure out why unemployment is so high in this country.

I dont work for this company, but I have experienced.... - anon3

[ In Reply To ..]
pretty much the same thing. If you were brought in on a merger, you will be the first to be let go. Perhaps your line rate is a little higher than someone they can hire "off the streets," or you are eligible for benefits they don't want to pay, or perhaps, and this is stretching it a bit...perhaps they found out the identies of some who post on this board and decided to get rid of them. Whatever their motives, it stinks! I feel for all who were let go. As I said, I have been there too, and finding alternative working conditions is difficult, as so many others operate much the same way. I wish all of you the best!!! Keep the faith. Think positive, and something better will eventually come your way!

I've watched companies lose accounts or offshore and - lay of 20 people at once. sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Transcriptionists already went from $25 an hour 10 years ago to minimum wage today. Now, there is no job security. What is it going to take to get people to realize everyone needs out. Now. This job is going to be mostly gone in 5 years, at least in the U.S. and what is left will pay minimum wage. I don't understand why anyone would stay. I'm on my way out exit door too.

All this firing and termination - Anonymous

[ In Reply To ..]
Please define "all this firing and termination." For all you know, 1 or 2 people could have been terminated or "picked on" at Nuance. The same people can post over and over under different user names to make thing appear worse than they actually are. Without actual numbers, it's difficult to know what is really happening.

Absolutely true about more QA since Nuance took over, endless, every day - P

[ In Reply To ..]
Wondered why in the world QA on my particular place went from every 3 months to every day QA and intense, micromanaging and found out Nuance was on the scene now. Do not know if my company bought out but have the above information about Nuance from 2 leaders at my place. My QA always in the 98+ to 99 but have now been counted off for a comma??? This is insane.

I think they're "cleaning house." - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
When, for example, Nuance and MModal fully take over in-house transcription, they "grandfather in" all the existing in-house MTs as part of the deal with the hospitals/clinics.

The MTSOs give those MTs some time to acclimate, and then the MTSOs begin to advertise that they're short-handed and need more MTs, even though the current MTs are getting NJA. They give these new MTs time to get trained and then they start "cleaning house" of all the MTs they no longer want (for whatever reason, and not necessarily due to poor performance).

This is my personal conclusion and is based on what I've seen personally and what I've read on MTStars over the past year or so. Others may have a different opinion, which is perfectly welcome.

What you really mean... - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Is that they take the MTs working for the companies that they buy, use them for a period of time until all is well with the account, and then get rid of them b/c they make too much money. I saw this happen time and again with the people I worked with before the buyout.

"...too much money." - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
That might be true in some instances, but MM's, for example, "grandfathered" MTs are more often making much less than the MTs who were already with MM.

I've seen on this board too many times that some MTs with MM are getting 10/6 while others are getting around 9/4. That's a massive difference in pay and the difference has nothing to do with skill level or quality or productivity; simply has to do with the bargin-basement price quoted to the client by MM, so the MTs **and only the MTs** on that account get the bargin-basement wages.

AND, it's not only the 10/6's who are being let go. Lots of the lower paid MTs are also being let go for just any number of reasons. It could simply be that the CCM didn't like that MT, or that that MT didn't work OT one weekend, or that the MT requested two holidays off instead of only one, etc.

When I was outsourced to MedQ (now MM), I was started at 9.5/4. We were given a higher straight typing line rate based on experience, but the 4 cpl for ASR was across-the-board.

addendum... - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I should also mention that while we were still in-house, we were about 30% ASR and 70% ST. After we were outsourced, it changed to about 98% ASR and 2% ST and no incentive. AND, we were only given shift diff on ST and NOT on ASR. All this dropped our pay by about 50%.

If that's "too much money," I hate to see what they consider "average." Actually, I guess their "average" would be India's wages. I'd probably be happy making what the Indian MTs are making if my cost of living was what it is in India.

Terminations - JL

[ In Reply To ..]
Where are you getting the info about terminations at M*Modal?

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