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

Acute care! Acute care! Acute Care! - PT

Posted: Oct 04, 2010

That's it! I've had it with transcription companies that only offer acute care transcription and don't pay you anything for it anyway! That if you don't have acute care experience or been lucky enough to obtain it. SOL. I'm changing my profession.

Acute Care - No more

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I hear ya! I used to love hospital dictation and wouldn't even consider doing clinic notes, but with the event of voice recognition and way toooooo many ESLs I have bailed out and am doing clinic notes and don't think I could ever go back, even though I do miss it, but what I miss is how it used to be. I applied at a company that sounded great until they said, "heavy ESL account." I politely declined, stating I met all of their requirements, but would not consider working on such an account. It is absolutely horrible and all of our experience is for naught any longer because the profession has been so brutalized, it is not to be believed. When I read what these MTs say about the accounts they work on, I will never, ever complain about my little ole' clinic notes again. The only thing, I am an IC and I wish I could get back on employee status, but that doesn't look like it is going to happen, if I continue to do what I am doing. It seems, it is always a trade off of some sort.

Acute care - nn

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DITTO!!! Heavy ESL, 7 cpl. yeah right!!! I am so blessed to have clinic work right now and LOTS of it, i make 7.5 cpl but with NO ESL and very good dictators, I don't mind the 7.5 cpl. I refuse to even work for 9 cpl on a heavy ESL account anymore, I am tired, been doing this too long and as I get older, I do not want to 'learn' difficult ESLs. If this job that I have ever go the SR route, I am hanging up my typing fingers for good.

Best wishes in your new trade, PT. Would recommend only - Fellow Traveller

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accepting a job that pays. Live and learn, right? Please come back and let us know how you're doing at ??

Exactly!! - why on EARTH

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Why on earth would I want to type acute care with 500-1000+ dictators to learn for the same rate ER notes are paid.

I've never understood why acute care is so difficult anyway. - JustMe

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I originally learned how to MT in a 1-year program at a college, then worked doing clinical for several years before moving to an ER account. Yeah at first it had some new terminology, but basically you just followed the format and looked up the words as they came and I honestly don't recall it being some huge learning curve.

I've been doing acute care now for about 10 years. Maybe I need someone to explain to me how an H&P or discharge summary is any different than a physical exam or a regular check up from a clinic? Maybe I've just been doing it too long to remember?

Nope, I agree with you - BTDT

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I started with Psych, which also included meds and physical exam, etc. I then went to pediatric outpatient multispecialty clinic, and from there to acute care. As you pointed out, at first there's a bit more time involved looking up unfamiliar words and a little different formatting but, besides that, it was extremely easy to make the transition. Maybe some MTs just catch on quicker than others, or maybe some MTs enjoy feeling superior because they do acute care.

To me, the only difference I detected was perhaps more ESL dictations but that's it.

I'd encourage anyone wishing to go from clinic to acute care to give it a go. I didn't find it nearly as difficult as some posters portray it to be on these boards. Sometimes I wonder if they discourage this for job security, lol!

The breadth of knowledge required is much greater. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
In clinic notes, you get a handful of dictators, making it easy to can reports, and when you do the same dictators again and again and again, you know what they're going to say before they do it. In addition, you're usually dealing with one specialty at a time. The exams they do in office are usually much more limited, as are the details of the lab work. You don't as a rule have paragraphs full of all the things that went wrong, all the meds that were tried and failed. All the tubes have been pulled and the lines are out. At most all you have to know in clinic is that the sutures were out, not what type were put in, nor all the muscles, tendons, nerves, and blood vessels that were encountered in the course of surgery.

Even if you have an ESL dictator, they are usually one in a group of other EFL speakers, and, as above, with clinic notes he is going to say the same thing again and again and again. Acute care means going from a staff list of 10 to a staff list in the hundreds, across all specialties.

Nobody has said it isn't learnable. But it's not quite as easy as you would like it to seem. Frankly, I've done 25 years of acute care, and as a second job took on a clinic one, too, so that I could have some no-thinking required easy money.

We shall have to agree to disagree as I had no problems with the transition - Been doing it all since 1987

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Perhaps I'm just smarter than the average bear, but I had NO difficulty with the transition, except for the extra research time involved when I first started acute care. The same exact terminology is used across all fields, be it clinic or acute care. Also, if you'll re-read my post, you will see where I was doing MULTISPECIALTY work, not a single specialty field at a time. I was thrown in to the fire from psych to clinic and did fine, just as I had no problem transitioning from clinic to acute care.

Any MT with common sense and good reference materials, who knows how to research effectively, can make the transition, especially with the surge of VR/ASR takeover.

To discourage a good MT from expanding her/his horizons and taking the dive into acute care is, IMHO, doing them a grave disservice. If I did it, pretty much any other dedicated MT can do the same.

Acute care! Acute care! Acute Care! Again! - PT

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You don't understand. They won't hire me because I don't have acute care experience!! How can you get experience without experience!

Can you ask your current employer to train you? - Hmmmm

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Just a suggestion, but perhaps your current employer would consider training you on an acute care account if you're doing well on your current account. I'd give it a shot and ask them. If not, you could always apply to one of the companies that hires newbies, explain your situation and let them know you're looking to train on an acute care account. Although technically not a newbie, you would be new to acute care yet have experience in transcription, so it might give you an edge in getting a little higher cpl than what a complete newbie would be offered.

Agree it's both easier than suggested and - Poppy

[ In Reply To ..]
harder than also suggested. There's a whole world of difference between, for instance:

Moving to acute care while being paid per hour worked, with most dictators fairly intelligible and a supportive environment, and

Learning while being paid on production, with a full slate of today's dictators, many totally unintelligible to anyone new to them (much less new to acute care), and often with little help available.

I've stated my belief that the Internet and availability of electronically stored reports make transitioning to acute care much, much easier than it was in the past.

I learned the second way, however, in a boiler shop environment where I was supposed to be grateful for the opportunity to learn. And was, actually, even if the management was really stupid. It took a long, long time learning with dozens of dictators instead of a handful, even working in-house so I could ask experienced MTs for help. Since we trainees were expected to pull our own weight, our manager never even considered the benefit of routing work to us that would help us learn, such as several of one doctor or specialty at a time, or to route the dreadful ones to skilled people familiar with them. I still remember those totally worthless "reports" I miserably sent on to QA after often an hour of struggle over each one.

Finally, but certainly not least, without my husband to support me I absolutely could never have afforded the time it took to learn, advancing my earnings over weeks from literally pennies per hour to finally minimum wage, and then that continued climb to what could be considered minimally adequate pay with a basic competence.

Not to be discouraging. It worked for me, and as soon as I attained a minimal competence I was out of there, suddenly making a lot more money at a company that wouldn't have had me before and also learning much much faster as I headed for the happy end of the learning curve (up, up, up!)

For people trying to make that move, make yourself some good luck by continuing to look for a good place to learn (you only need one) and trying to stay away from boot camp-style sweat shops--unless you feel, as I did, that you can use them to advantage. Even a month invested is a month of experience and an employer that can legitimately be listed on a resume.

BTW, how did I get the sweat shop job? I lied about my experience. They only accepted newbies right out of MT school and people needing to build upon previous experience for exploitation. :) Funny now.

Puleeze, get over yourself. I started with acute care, just jumped in and - because I know how to research, NO PROBLEM. nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Thank you for validating my post (SM) - So tired of MTs putting down other MTs

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I've been the whole gamut, as I posted above, since 1987. If you've got common sense, a desire to learn and good research skills, of course you can make the transition to acute care. Heck, it's even easier now what with the internet and reliable websites at one's fingertips than it was when I had to have 100 pounds of books to flip through.

I find it really tiresome to see a few posters who do acute care seemingly putting down other MTs who do clinic work. While I would never advise an MT who struggles with clinic work to jump on in to attemping acute care, any industrious, skilled MT should be able to make the transition.

Thanks again for validating my earlier post...I knew I couldn't have been the only one out there who successfully made the transition, LOL!

So tired of MT who thinks cause she does whatever specialty, her - skill set is better than others. nm

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nm

Fact is employers want those with more experience and skils. - nm

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nm

Visit board much? Many here think more experienced MT let go - to hire newbies at lower cpl. nm

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nm

No acute care experience - companies won't hire - PT

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Again, you don't understand. I am looking for a job (period!). I have clinic transcription experience. I am not working now because I had to quit my last job to take care of my dying aunt. Now I'm looking for work because I have more time to devote to working again. All I seem to see these days that's listed on the online medical transcription sites is jobs requiring acute care experience. All I'm saying is that I don't have acute care experience. I can obtain it if someone hires me and allows me to train at it. No one wants to do that. They are too cheap! Even if I got a job in acute care and they allowed me to train, they probably wouldn't pay me anything. You get over yourself!

Acute Care - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I am an old-time MT 30+ years and have always done acute care. I learned in a medical records department. I have also done clinic work and specialty office work. I like the variety of acute care, don't mind switching account types. The only dislike is the ESL docs, some are great, most are bad, but then so are some non-ESL docs. I just go with the flow and if I have a terribly difficult time with the account, I ask to be switched. I actually asked to be taken off one account because I was "bored" with it and it wasn't all that bad. To each his own I guess.

PS - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I forgot to add. I did not have any "formal" MT training. As I said I was "thrown in" in medical records. I did have a lot of biology, but for the rest it was trial and error and I have done fine. Now if my brain would be as fast as my fingers, I'd be all set.

acute care - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I have 7 years experience in ER transcription. Is this considered acute care?

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