A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry
Call to action-ASR - Adios
Posted: May 28, 2010
We have talked about unions, organizing, etc. Probably not very realistic. But surely there is some way to have our voices heard in numbers regarding the fact ASR is not the product they tell us it is. All these numbers being based around the fact we can be so much more productive on ASR are lies. If it were true, we would all shut up and produce. Our voices are not being heard. MQ should stand behind their claims. I tried again to get positive changes made to ASR, with great promises about how hard they are working on it, only to have it go down-hill again the last couple weeks. Suddenly, all the heart patients are having cabbages. They are coming in because they are tachycardiac. Temperatures are coming over as 36.VII, etc. Surely they can do a better job of making sure the tools they give us work, especially when they use it to justify lower per line pay.
Not sure how to do it. Maybe we all e-mail the top guns at the same time, maybe we all snail-mail the top guns at the same time, there has to be a way to be heard. CCM's can't do it, they are given a job and have no power. They can try but they will get no further than us. Training personnel only know what they are told. They aren't on the front lines anymore. Middle-management are just trying to keep their jobs. We need to reach top management. But it has to be in numbers or it is useless.
I am leaving either way, but the injustice just eats away at my stomach. We need to brain-storm this.
Then we can work on audits.
I emailed my CCM and***** what's her name sm - MQMT
[ In Reply To ..]and my CCM said this is the way it is going to be and it is not going to change. This was in reference to them taking away money from me because I sent too many QA lines in to be relistened to.
Why not do something positive, not negative like bonuses for those who don't send to QA with good audits (correcct audits not junky stuff) and for those of us who still use QA sometimes, then don't give us a bonus. Wouldn't that be better? I don't understand the negavitiy stuff!!!
I still say this is all going to come around and bite mgt in the butt. Just give it time!
I Don't Get It - MT
[ In Reply To ..]Not sure what you all think you are going to accomplish. Here's why: MQ has been using ASR for a very long time and they know the deal and have heard it all. They also have Indians editing the ASR. Well, I left the Q a year ago (was QA back when there was a QA Dept) and the Indians were editing the ASR. I know because I was required to give them feedback on the edited reports.
All that happens is, a client complains, MQ pulls out all the stops to make it right for the client, by putting the account on full QA or something, then they go back to their old ways.
Save your energy and either look for another MT company (not advised) or look for another career (advised).
I'm not clear on why, after all these years of MQ knowing how you feel, you think your letters are actually being taken with any respect. Anything positive they say is just to shut you up. The CCM who said "it's here to stay" is probably the only honest person in the bunch.
I think it's a nice thought, but please be realistic here! You are all just spinning your wheels. Sure, feels good to write a letter and vent to them, but nothing ever changes no matter what they say.
Why not write a short story/article about what its - like to be an MT - something like -sm
[ In Reply To ..]"Life as a Medical Transcriptionist", or maybe a better, catchier title. Just tell it like it is: Your experiences, how long you went to school or learned on the job, how hard you work, what your pay used to be like before ASR, and what it's like now. The promises made and broken. The lies told. The cpl dings. I don't think you even have to mention what company you work for, if you're concerned about retaliation. And properly written, truthful, shocking, not-too-long, etc., it could get published by a women's magazine, business magazine, medical magazine, newspaper, etc. The possibilities are limitless, and you might even make some extra pocket-money if someone wants to publish it. Most importantly, those who read it will be shocked that this sort of thing goes on in this country.
Just to expand that idea, lots of work at home mom-type sites might be interested - In your story, too
[ In Reply To ..]I would think once you had it down precisely the way you wanted it, any number of sites/publishers might be interested in it. With the huge work-at-home-mom sites out there, I would think you if you could get this into the right hands, it could go places (assuming you're interested in pursuing this path).
great idea - kv
[ In Reply To ..]Let's all right an article and inundate every local newspaper and women's magazines and online magazines. I read an article on Bankrate the other day about great part-time jobs. First one was MT. Did you know that MTs make $17.36 part time? I did not know that. The other day I made about $4 an hour. Tell me more lies. If people who know nothing about a profession can get BS published, then those of us who know the truth should be able to get published. Do you all remember that sociology research that AAMT paid to have done at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachuetts? Researcher's name is Gary David or David Gary. He has a web page in Sociology Department at Bentley. I know his research did not benefit me, did not elevate my profession, but he gets kudos for his research. He and his team have published at least two articles in journals based on our surveys. My survey answers were brutally honest. He probably omitted my results. Everyone go to wordpress and open a blog. Someone mentioned on another thread that at one point today or recently there were only 161 or 141 (?) MTs on this site. I wonder how many of those are company minions watching the company boards. I want everyone to stop working for a day, but if it's only 100 of us, what good is that? Twelve years ago I asked for the same thing to happen.
they don't care - weekendwarrior
[ In Reply To ..]You are just going to end up with a nice fat bullseye on your back instead of being just a number flying under the radar with most everybody else. I tried that route a couple years ago with the first ASR cuts, cesspool nonsense, etc., and trust me they don't want to listen to your bitching and complaining nor do they care. If fact, you will probably get written up for insubordination and fired. A mass email to people who have no clue what we do on a daily basis will serve no real purpose, but maybe getting a better job preferring not as an MT and telling MQ to stick in in your final interview would make you feel better. I know that is my plan. Good luck!
Dont' care. - Adios
[ In Reply To ..]Thanks for your honesty. Actually I am working on getting out of this mess and starting a new career, though it is sad after all these years. I just felt if we all communicated at the same time and en masse, it would be harder for them to ignore our pleas for taking care of ASR.
I probably already have a big fat bullseye on my back, but since I have already made the decision to leave I don't really care. If they fired me I could work full time on finding a better job.
I do have to say that hearing that Indians are auditing ASR answers a lot of recent questions. I just will never understand why they won't spend a little more energy on making ASR work. That is what I am asking for here. Make it do what we are told it is supposed to do. Make it learn. And don't send us in circles chasing our tails by reported the problems report by report.
In the end I will be out of here but I would have liked to make a difference. Transcribing has been good to me for a lot of years. Sad ending.
They "dont care" only as long as nobody takes them - to task for the way they cheat MTs, (sm)
[ In Reply To ..]and the sham that is ASR/VR/speech rec, or whatever they want to call that mess. The whole industry has become a scam operation. They've gotten away with it because MTs have just sat there and taken it, having been brainwashed into thinking "that's the way it is", or "ASR/Indian transcription or auditing, etc. is the wave of the future", or that "we're lucky to have a job." MT is a big, fat expose just waiting to be investigated, and reported.
Sitting Back? - MT
[ In Reply To ..]MTs have NOT sat back and taken it. If you want to write a letter so you feel like you're doing something, go ahead, but know that your voice doesn't mean diddly and probably won't even get read past the first sentence, if read at all.
As long as I'm here, someone may have misunderstood my note about Indians. I said Indians were editing the ASR, not auditing MTs. Of course, I escaped MQ a year ago, so something may have changed and now their auditing. Wouldn't surprise me.
"Sitting back". Your attitude is the epitome. - Watergate. Investigate. MT-gate.
[ In Reply To ..]X
reliable people get relied upon & jerks get perks - planetspinz
[ In Reply To ..]The CEO three years ago left to be replaced by another CEO, who will soon leave to be replaced by another CEO. Executives in corporations have no loyalty to anyone but themselves. We can learn from them - use MQ as a way to move forward in your life. Get what you can here and then move on to better jobs. That's what success is all about. That's my plan. Remember reliable people only get relied upon - it's the jerks who get the perks - be a jerk and get those perks.
Best advice Ive read here all week. - Planetspinz, you rock! ;D
[ In Reply To ..]x
Three years ago - A few MTs did that.
[ In Reply To ..]Apparently, they went right to corporate and complained in particular that they kept getting NJA. Corporate got *****. Their reaction was "You want work? I'll give ya work" and shoved the cesspool down our throats. We shouldn't have to know what that word means, but we do. It was our punishment for trying to have a voice in our job, like how dare we challenge corporate? In the blink of an eye, we were boggled beyond belief with any and every client MQ had as long as there was work. I personally did 36 different clients within the first week. Corporate must have been snickering, saying "Be careful what you ask for. Now just shut up." We were supposed to have learned our lesson. You think you got it hard now with ASR? You ain't seen nothing.
That was the last straw for me... - cesspool
[ In Reply To ..]That was right after ASR people were told they were getting a pay cut to edit, while weeks before that happened, I had been trying to get a raise...doing tier 3 work and getting tier 2 pay. When the ASR crap hit the fan, I was told I had to wait. What? Why? And then the cesspool and I was gone.
I still read this board just to see what's going on and it makes me sad. I learned on the job at MQ fresh out of school. Had a great trainer who corrected all my work and gave me all the help I needed. I can't believe where the company ended up.
That has made me just that much more determined - to see these crooks shut down. sm
[ In Reply To ..]The crooks should be "careful what THEY ask for!" They totally underestimate the frustration and fury of their MTs.
At this point we don't have much left to lose in this business. And what they don't seem to understand is that a person with nothing left to lose can be their most dangerous adversary.
they also sent out a survey first- beware - weekendwarrior
[ In Reply To ..]Don't forget MQ sent out a survey and skewed the results to fit their agenda. MTs were complaining about running out of work so thus came the cesspool. Then the survey about ASR and so MQ decided that we were overpaid. So I guess all I can say is heads up when they send out a survey because changes are coming that are not good for the MT.
No consistency - anon
[ In Reply To ..]I have noticed an absolute refusal of ASR for even consistency -- in the same line it will use a numeral for "one" and then 3 words later spell it out? WTH? I swear my ASR is getting dumber~~
ASR could work - anon
[ In Reply To ..]I think ASR could work if it was given the time and manhours. I have worked briefly on a few accounts that were actually not that bad, and you only have to "edit."; however, the majority of the ASR accounts I have edited are a disaster. I believe it may not be the ASR's fault, but the MQ bookkeepers who found that it was more cost-effective to just let us "fix" the reports instead of working with the program and getting it fine-tuned into the asset that was promised.
The action that works - Anon
[ In Reply To ..]I understand and sympathize with your frustration and your feeling that you are being treated unjustly. But this is work, a JOB, and they only way one can effectively express displeasure with a job situation when you have been ignored by management is to LEAVE. As long as you stay, they will continue to kick you. When ASR came to my account with Spheris, I gave my resignation and was out of there. I just refused to do it, and am happily working now at a company with straight transcription only with decent pay, no offshoring, and fair treatment of its MTs. That is really the only solution. If you keep letting them kick you, they will keep kicking you. Leave. That's the only answer, really.
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