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I do what comes my way, my way. - Retired MT

Posted: Dec 12th, 2015 - 7:42 pm In Reply to: I have a question for you, Retired MT - Long-time MT

As I mentioned, I did not seek this out. When I retired, I had no intention of doing this. I took early retirement because of a serious illness, with the thought that as I recovered, I might consider doing something else in the future if I felt up to it, but as weak and sick as I was, I was not in any hurry to do so, and I was not sure I would ever be physically up to it. And I certainly was not going to go back to this wretched career with the way things are.

But I am wonderfully recovered, God has certainly been good to me!

Here is what happened. A friend of mine, an RN got tired of nursing, went to work as a practice manager for a small-ish clinic, 5 doctors, total, and 2 of them part time. The doctors hated VR and did not want to do it any more. They wanted an MT to do the reports and get them back the next day, just the way they had always done.

So, my friend called me and asked me to transcribe. She had a nephew who was trying to save money to go to med school, and had some transcription experience. She suggested I contact him to see if he would help, which I did.

The clinic agreed right away to pay what I asked, which was considerably more than I was getting when I retired, but I was more than a little reluctant to take it on, and had they not agreed to pay me what I asked, I would not have done taken the account.

My friend and I worked a system that works for us. The clinic set up an FTP site where I download and upload work. I download files in the morning and do them in MS Word. I used to send them all back the following day, but now I send them back as I do them. MS Word is very powerful and it is possible to do this with macros.

I also download a PDF file of the daily schedule. I convert the PDF File into Word and with macros import the info on the PDF into the Microsoft word report. I transcribe the reports in MSWord.

When this account had all five doctors on board, I sent most of the work to the sub who was super-super reliable, very very fast, and very good, but when it came back I proofed and edited it very carefully, and then uploaded it to the client.

Subsequently two doctors left the practice and the work load fell considerably which was perfect timing as my sub had started med school and was no longer available. The doctors who left were the talkative ones, and I was left with 10-20 hours of work a week which was just the perfect amount for me.

Now what has happened is that I get calls from from other small practices, who heard of me through this clinic, asking me to take work because they hate VR, or to edit their VR.

Everywhere I go, I hear from MDs how much they hate VR. I also hear a lot from MDs who want to go back to the way things were but they just can't find MTs. I know this may not be typical of other parts of the country.

Of course, I am not connected with big practices, except for health care because of my Dx, but these docs grumble about VR too.

Most of the time, I do not accept the work, once in a while I do. I don't want to work full time or get into this in a big way, I am retired!

I do not use any call-in system. I do not work in EMR. I do not have any money invested in this, except for my computer, earphones and foot pedal. I download files from the client's FTP site and send them back. I transcribe them in a simple format in MSWord. I do not send cc's, I don't want to worry about the risk of sending a report to the wrong party. The clinic has a clerk to import the files into their system, and send out the cc's. They have the patients' charts, they can double check to make sure the reports are going to the right places. This is my standard procedure and I am not changing it.

In summary, the practice will set up an FTP site that I can access and put their reports to be transcribed/edited there. Take a screen shot of those reports, and send it to me. I double check to make sure I got the files. If they can't prove they uploaded the files to me, and I did not get them, I am not going to take responsibility for them.

Secondly, they send me a daily patient schedule in a file that can be converted into a text file, otherwise I am not taking any responsibility for getting the patient's names, numbers, and dates right,since I am just guessing. With a text file that word can read, I can just import the info into my formats. I make extensive use of custom fields, this makes everything very quick and very accurate.

Everything is typed in a standard format. I do not use different formats for different clients, it is too much time and trouble for me to do that. I do not fool with the BOS, it is a waste of time as far as I am concerned, the report is either correct and useful, or it is not, and I do my utmost to make sure it is correct, it is the doctor's responsibility to make sure it is useful.

As far transcription is concerned, I am intelligent machine, what doctors say, is what they get. I highlight things I have questions about, so the doctor can fix it if he/she made an error. I do not try to get above myself, and it made me very angry back in the day when I would look at what some high-handed QA CMT would take upon herself to change. I DO NOT DO THAT and I DO NOT APPROVE OF THIS PRACTICE AT ALL!!!!

If a client wants something fussy, they are welcome to go elsewhere. I don't fool with this nonsense, if the term is in the dictionary it is correct, period! And I will not fuss with apostrophes, slashes, hyphens, etc., a mammagram is a mammogram, a Tinel sign is a Tinel's sign.

Nitpick this stuff with me, and you can just go nitpick with someone else.

I don't know what my experience is very atypical, or if it would be typical if other people tried it. Or if tomorrow it all goes away, and if it does, I do not care!

All I can say for sure is, since I don't care whether I work or not, although I do like the money, I am in the driver's seat, and if I find that I am not in the driver's seat, I am just going to get out of the car.



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