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

Is anyone happy being an MT - rtanzi

Posted: Oct 30, 2010

I am surprised at just how many or your are miserable with what you do. I am a new MT ans I am also having trouble finding work. It's not easy. I can see that having editing to fall back on would be good. I have read the posts about don't do this just to work from home. I have small children and my only choice would be daycare if I went to work somewhere, which would eat up half my pay check. Sometimes it's not just money, sometimes it's for the good of the family. I know it's not easy to do this with them around, but there aren't many other options.

rtanzi - Mrs. Jackson

[ In Reply To ..]
Yes, I am very happy doing this, have done it for years and still make $30 an hour. (In the 90s, it was $50--California pays better and the times have changed since then.) No, I will not list my company because my boss asked me not to. It is a smallish kind of company and when I praised it on here once they were flooded with resumes from newbies. My boss generally prefers to recruit her own people. People need at least five years to apply, and the owner of the company usually recruits/hand-picks the people she brings on. I am only tell you this so that you will know that there ARE good companies out there with happy people working for them. For me (and this is highly subjective) what worked was to get out of a nasty huge national filled with sharks and into a smaller company.

Mrs. Jackson - returning MT

[ In Reply To ..]
Well said. I have escaped the national but am now searching for that smaller company. I have 15+ years, took a 6-month break, and am now trying to find that perfect match.

It has been good to me - cll

[ In Reply To ..]
I started working at home as a transcriptionist when my youngest son was in kindergarten. I wanted to be at home with him, as I thought he was going to have problems when it came to school. It has been a Godsend for me. My older son was in third grade at the time and began having severe problems. We never thought that Danny would have problems but he became very withdrawn and having problems socially in school. I was called by the school and having to go there at least three times a week. Had I been still working in an office, as a certified medical assistant, I surely would have lost my job due to having to constantly leave or my son would have suffered even worse if I was not available for him. Two years later, he was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome (very high functioning form of autism) and then right after he was diagnosed my younger son, Tyler was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, as well. He is now a senior and his older brother is going to the community college. I can tell you, the flexibility for all the doctor appointments, therapy, school, etc has been irreplaceable. This has definitely been the correct answer to for my family.

I can give you a tip about typing with young children. My kids were told if they needed something to come stand next to me and when I stopped typing to ask me what I need. They otherwise would constantly interupt me every minute or two, as they usually played in the same room that I typed in. They had a hard time with this, not understanding what I was doing, so one day I put the headset on them and let them listen to the dictation for a few moments. This was a real eye opener for them, as they never understood that there was someone actually speaking to me over the headphones and after this, they were much more respectful about what I was doing.

You need to do what is right for you and your situation and I wish you much luck with your MT career. There are ups and downs but in the end, you need to do what is right for you. Remeber that sometimes you just need to vent and get it out and then it helps you move on, so it is not necessarily that everyone hates MT but sometimes just needs to vent and know there are others out there that understand. Good luck!

Yeah I'm happy but it's hard work - PT MT

[ In Reply To ..]
This is a PT job for me, I've got a FT job in a different field, and I must say I have been earning a very decent wage. Don't ever let anyone tell you it's easy, though. This is a tough job. You need to be focused, and there really isn't any room for error. The money can be really good, but I feel that I earn every cent that I bring in. Outsiders often think it's easy money - hey, you're sitting at home at your computer and making a bundle, can I do that too? - but once they investigate a little, they realize that this ain't a field for the fainthearted.

NEED HELP TO GET STARTED - Brownie7

[ In Reply To ..]
I am very interested in getting started doing part-time home transcription. I have worked for a law firm for 14 years. Transcription is what I do 75% of the time. I do a lot of legal documents; but, I also do a lot of medical records summaries. I need extra income long term. Could someone tell me how you get started doing this? I would greatly appreciate it!

I think these days you really need a course - Check the board for reputable schools

[ In Reply To ..]
You really need to take a course. The field is quite specialized; unless you have experience typing actual medical reports, you will find it almost impossible to find a job. You need to test with companies, and without good knowledge of medical terminology it would be very difficult to do well. Mind you, you could always try; many MTSOs have on-line testing. I think if you're serious, though, you need to look at one of the reputable schools - M-Tec, Career Step, etc. Good luck.

THINK I HAVE ENOUGH EXPERIENCE TO AT LEAST BE ENTRY LEVEL - Brownie7

[ In Reply To ..]
In all of our litigation, we always get the last 10 years medical records on a Plaintiff or Defendant. We do personal injury. Have done all kinds of summaries -- even autopsies. Probably 80% of what I do is ortho. Can you suggest some good companies where I might try the on-line testing? I really appreciate your response!

Answer to your question - Good Luck

[ In Reply To ..]

I don’t want to discharge you from seeking employment as a Medical Transcriptionist, but there really are no “entry level” MT positions. Companies either require at least 2 years of actual MT experience or they only hire newbies (recent graduates, no MT experience) who have graduated from certain schools with a very high grade. Anyone else applying is usually ignored.

You may have years of experience in medical record summaries, but it really depends on the dictator. Are those summaries dictated by someone in the office who has read through the medical records submitted or are you typing from hard copy medical records yourself?

There is a huge difference between medical record summaries dictated by someone you are used to and having an ESL (English as a second language) dictator stumble over not only medical terminology but common English words.

From your post, I get the impression that what you are looking for mostly is to work at home. There are lots of companies now who do both medical and legal transcription. Perhaps you can apply to them for at-home legal transcription and once you have proven to them that you can handle it, they may allow you to transition over to medical transcription.

With the number of newbies graduating from schools who cannot find work as a Medical Transcriptionist in this tough economy, I am afraid that you will become discharged. Most of us (even veteran Medical Transcriptionists with years of acute care transcription) who are looking for work have taken countless tests on-line, only to never hear back from the company. They do not tell us what we did wrong on the tests or even if we passed or not.

As far as companies that have on-line testing (usually MTTEST), here is a list I compiled a few months ago. Go to their website to get the link for testing. If they are not hiring, they will not allow you to take the test.

American Transcription Solutions (ATSI)
Clearwater, Florida

Amphion Medical Solutions
Madison, Wisconsin

AssistMed, Inc
Beverly Hills, California

Breitner Transcription Services, Inc
Canton, Massachusetts

Clear Choice Transcription, LLC
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Encompass Medical Transcription, Inc.
Pewaukee, Wisconsin

eTransPlus
Nashville, Tennessee

Iridium Services, Inc. - Oncology
Miami, Florida

ITS
Intermountain Transcription Solutions
Providence, Utah

JLG Medical Transcription Services
Oldsmar, Florida

L S Services
(iMedX Inc)
South Point, Ohio

Med-Scribe Transcription Service, Inc.
Teaneck, New Jersey

Multisource Document Services, LLC (MDS)
Aurora, Colorado

OSi
Douglasville, Georgia

Precyse Solutions
Alpharetta, Georgia

Premier Office Technologies, Inc
Highland Heights, Ohio

Probity Medical Transcription
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

SoftScript, Inc.
Santa Monica, California

Transcend Services, Inc.
Atlanta, Georgia

TransPortal
Charlotte, North Carolina

TransTech Medical Solutions
Houston, Texas

Voice Systems
Panama City Beach, Florida

WordZXpressed Transcription Services
Atlanta, Georgia

I do wish you good luck and hope you are able to find what you are looking for.

Brownie7 - MTSO

[ In Reply To ..]
You need a formal MT education. I would recommend, in order of preference:
1. Andrews.
2. M-TEC.

I am sure that their staff will be helpful, answer questions, etc. Good luck to you.

P.S. Please don't settle for one of the "matchbooks." Yes, they are cheap, but they are worthless.

You can try testing, and not saying that your experience won't be greatly helpful - because it will

[ In Reply To ..]
You may even be able to pick up some lower-paying jobs that are related to medical. I think you're going to be surprised though how much more there is to learn in order to do actual medical transcription. Your experience is going to be greatly helpful in speeding things up in some parts of whatever course you take though, if you take a good course. If you take a speedy, "we'll get you through this in 3-4 months" course", you might as well just go with what you have now and keep testing until you find something.

Very happy - imamt

[ In Reply To ..]
And I've been around for a very long time. Spent 20 years as an MTSO and now work for a smallish MTSO.

I still stand by my comment that doing this job just because it can be done at home is not the right reason for doing the job. As the job becomes redefined, you're going to find most employers will be just like those if you were sitting in an office, much less forgiving about needing to tend to a child's needs, or go to school, or so and so's sick. And IMO to enter into this thinking you can circumvent having to deal with those issues is going to cause you issues.

I still wish you luck in finding a position and making it work. I've been blessed with this career for 35 years and still make an okay (dropping wages has turned the "really decent" to "okay") living at it. I'm self-supporting and can tell you, I'm a damn good MT but there are still weeks when things are slow that I worry how the rent will be paid if slow work is longer than a few weeks.

personally like it a lot...sm - michelle

[ In Reply To ..]
I personally like being an MT a lot. I have been doing this for almost 15 years and have built a business for myself. I now have almost 40 doctors and 7 typists working for me. Yes, electronic medical records and voice software has changed the dynamic of this industry, but I still make a very good living doing what I do. I still personally type every day and run the day to day operations of my business. I have had 3 children, now ages 14, 11 and 7, during the time that I have worked as an MT and I am NOT saying that it hasn't been a challenge some days. It will be a challenge and sometimes you will be typing into the wee hours of the morning after you put your kids to bed, but I always looked at it as a positive thing that I was there for them that day and able to put them to bed and then I go work the night shift so to speak. Don't give up yet! Being a new MT can be intimidating, but just keep looking and hopefully soon you will find something that is a good fit for you and your family! Take care and good luck!!!

home - editor

[ In Reply To ..]
Take a hourly in-house hospital job, put kids in daycare. Its hard enough to make it at home let alone take care of kids. Working for production is a whole different ball game. You would have to be superwoman. Trust me, Ive battled this for years and I'm experienced. There is no way I could make enough production and pay attention to my one 9 year old ....Also, working at home might sounds great, but after years it sucks. You never get out of the house, especially with kids.

Happy Transcriptionist! - Goosedown

[ In Reply To ..]
I am a new MT (1 yr experience) and dearly love my work. I don't make much monty yet, but I will be patient. I know the key is experience. I learned lots at school and even more on my job with a neurology clinic. To me, all the waiting and looking is worth it.

I love transcription - I just don't like transcription - companies. I prefer working - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
directly for the hospital, over working for middlemen who takes most of any profit from being an MT for themselves.

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