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

I want input from MTs!! - Angel

Posted: Feb 05, 2010

Hey everyone out there in MT land!

I am looking for some input from you all. I have started my own business in transcription, and we have clients and employees!! We are still small but we are growing VERY quickly.

I have been doing TONS of research into lots of things. Some of the topics include offshoring (which we REFUSE to do...we are only for US and Canadian MTs), transcription wages, EMR concerns, as well as the entire process of transcription and how to make it easier not only for us MTs but also for dictators and physicians.

I have quite a collection of articles and other resources that I have personally collected and have been using to market my business. I am looking for some input from some more MTs that just myself.

Does anyone want to share and discuss some things that you are looking for, fighting for, fighting against, and hoping for? With your employers, your dictators, coworkers, supervisers, etc?

What are some things that you think happen in your current or previous places of employment that should be handled differently? I have designed my whole business on what I think is best for everyone, and I am looking for some more input to see if it can be improved. I have also been doing a lot of research on the quality and problems that come from outsourcing and some of the risks. You would not believe some of the applications I received from MTs, as well as some of the websites I have checked out for other MTSOs. Actually, you probably would believe it!

I want my business to be not only the place to get high-quality, trusted, and respected transcription service, but also THE place to work for.

I would love to discuss this with some MTs with an opinion about it, but also those with some ideas! Thanks in advance for your input.

I have to ask. What makes Canada different from India? Both - take wages out of the US. nm

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nm

Well...while I do not currently have any Canadian employees...sm - Angel

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I have received quite a few resumes and applications to look at. Most of those I received were from MTs who seemed to be not only qualified but educated as well. I guess a better way to say it is that while they may take some wages out of the US, they don't take it for 0.02 cpl and then force us to have to check their quality.

And while I am not employing any from Canada yet, in the future it may be a great place to find qualifed MTs that can stand by their work with my company. I still have a lot of researching as far as being able to enfoce and HIPAA laws, etc. though so I haven't decided officially yet. I am not ruling it out though.

I just do not think it is fair that companies can come here and send all their work over to India or the Phillipines, etc. and bring down or wages. If I WERE to employ Canadians, it would be at a wage comparable or equivalent to here in the US. Does that make more sense?

And, not only that, but is that a fair assessment? I haven't exactly picked a side as far as Canadian employees yet, but that is pretty much how I feel up to this point.

makes perfect sense to me (wages). We are all North Americans. - no message

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x

So what if we're all North Americans? What am I missing - here? The money still goes out of the country. n

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nm

Canadians dictate reports of Canadian patients - See message

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Some countries don't hire MTs to do transcription in their own country. The people who work there only transcribe American records. That's not a good thing for American MTs. Canadians hire MTs to do Canadian medical reports. That's the difference I see.

What I want as an MT... - Cathy

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I want to be treated with RESPECT. I want an employer who is HONEST. I want to be treated as a valued, highly-educated professional, not some piece of garbage that doesn't deserve my manager's time of day. Lastly, we want to be treated FAIRLY.

Unfortunately, even though those are very basic things that everyone wants in a job, I have yet to receive them from my employer.

We just want respect and to be paid fairly for the job that we do. Treat your employees as if they are sitting at a desk next to you. I think it becomes easier for our employers to treat us badly because we are faceless to them. I'm guessing that my manager would not say the things to my face that she e-mails (hopefully not!). It's not really a big secret how to keep us happy.

I agree completely...that is how I felt as an MT. sm - Angel

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When I was a newbie I got ZERO support from my supervisors and it was incredbily frustrating. I remember that I actually cried on my first day. I had been assigned over 20 reports by this dictator who was so difficult that the samples on their own site had over 5 blanks in it.

It was a long day. I ended up getting his work again a few weeks later, and I got better at it and actually filled in the blanks for their own samples.

And absolutely nothing positive as far as feedback. It was frustrating.

I also agree with you that there are many things I have been emailed that would probably have never been said to my face!

Are there any specific things or ideas that might make you feel more respected? Aside from fair pay that is. :)

I'm hoping that even though MTs are literally all across the country that we can build a more personal working relationship with everybody. MORE COMMUNICATION is huge to me not only between MTs and account managers, but also between our clients and account managers/MTs as well.

What I want as an MT - Pauline

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I have 30 years experience being an acute care MT. I used to be a hospital acute care MT and my hospital decided to outsource which in turn I lost half of my income for real. The company I am currently with who took over my hospital who does not pay for spaces at all. I would love to be paid for spaces and filling in the demographic page as it does take a person hitting that space bar for spaces after all and filling in the blanks for demographic page. It does not totally populate by itself. Sending Christmas gift even if it a small thing, does not have to be expensive. It is the thought that counts. For the past 2 years since being with this company we have never received even a Christmas Card. Treat good MTs with praise. That goes a long way with making us feel good for the work we do for company. Treat employees like you would want to be treated yourself if you were in our shoes. Communication is a plus for sure before MT and Client. We are not mind readers. Could think of more, but the main issue for me is the money, bottom line.

It starts right here: Do you really think that MTs are - edu

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"highly" educated?
The education that is required to be an MT is

High school
MT training program.

I call this far from "highly" educated.

The perception of "highly educated" is very relative!

Well I might not say highly educated by some standards... sm - Angel

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but I definitely think more than a high school education is required. I went through the appropriate courses, etc., but I also think that a lot of my "education" came from work experience.

And just because I didn't get the "higher" education that other people get for different professions, I still think I can do my job better than they can. Not only that, but I work with words and sentences all day and I feel that I have a better understanding of words and language than a lot of people, even those with a college degree.

What starts right here? SM - Cathy

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Yet another person being disrepectful to MTs and talking down to us?

Perhaps a better word would be highly knowledgeable. In order to be a good MT you need to be knowledgeable about many things--human anatomy, disease processes, drugs, etc. I catch discrepancies in reports every day that could affect patient care--anything from the wrong anatomy being dictating to incorrect and dangerous drug doses to patients being prescribed medications that they are allergic to. If you aren't knowledgeable you can't catch those discrepancies and alert the dictator. You can't just take someone off the street to do this job and do it well.

I don't understand why everyone thinks it is okay to be so disrespectful and condescending to MTs. Would you treat a secretary at your doctor's office this way? I got more respect when I worked at McDonald's in high school than I do as an MT...

Highly educated... - wrkn4pnuts

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"Highly educated" and "intelligent" are two different things!

As in: One can be "highly educated," but not "intelligent!"

Do you have Canadian accounts - sm

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for those Canadian MTs? If not, you'd be sending US's work out of the country. Please don't do that. We need the work.

That is a great point. sm - Angel

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I don't currently have any Canadian accounts, but that makes more sense to do it that way. That is a great idea.

Makes it easier for me also to stand behind my principles...

One very important question - MT Bottle

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How are you able to compete with national MTSO's who send their work overseas since they're getting work done at such a low rate? I would think the competition would be tremendous.

Not if she keeps her overhead down and doesn't - sm

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become a huge bloated corporation with tons of managers, assistant managers, area managers, regional managers, supervisors, assistant supervisors, etc. etc....

The competition is pretty brutal...sm - Angel

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but I am mainly targeting smaller offices right now...not hospitals except for overflow. (we aren't quite big enough yet).

I have also come up with some ideas to help me stay competitive. I started a program that enables clients to earn some cost of their transcription back by referring us. Basically, if another clinic or physician is referred to us, then the referring client gets a percentage of that work. This ultimately keeps their costs down and helps us keep clients long term and earn more at the same time.

It's not perfect yet, but it has been working well so far.

What I want as an MT ..... - Happy MTer

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As the other posters have pointed out, it is mostly about the money. I have over 20 years experience with both clinic and acute care, can transcribe virtually any specialty and yet I made more 15 years ago than I do now.

Be honest about the amount of work that you have, do not overhire for accounts so that you can make a 24-hour TAT into a 12-hour TAT even though the client is only requesting 24-hour.

The one thing that I dislike about my job right now is that I have to go back and forth in between several accounts, which is time consuming and less productive.

Something else besides the money, honesty, respect is more along the technical line. Obtain a program that is MT-friendly, one where an MT can actually produce the amount of work that they are capable of doing instead of being a headache and cumbersome.

I am sure that there is more but off of the top of my head that is about it.

Good luck to you!

Angel - caringMT

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I think any MT would be blessed to work for you due to the fact that you truly CARE and want to do things in a way that is best for everyone involved. That fact really comes through in everything you have said. Companies that really care are rare these days and so refreshing to come across. I think caring, trust, and good communication and feedback are very important things on the part of both the company and the MT. I wish you continued success!

Thank you that was really sweet of you to say! nm - Angel

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I really meant it..sm - caringMT

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After reading on your website a couple weeks ago, I thought your company sounded like a great place to work, and so I sent you my resume. Now after reading what you have posted here, I think you would be amazing to work for! Thank you for looking out for everyone involved in the transcription process.

We are looking for more clients because you would not believe sm - Angel

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the response I had from my ONE posting for a position. I put up one posting on Craigslist in my area, and over the next week or so I had over 200 resumes!

I will be sending out more tests soon. I actually felt a little sad when I started getting all those applications. I want to be able to provide work for EVERYONE because I know how much we have all been struggling for fair pay, respect, steady work, etc.

And you should see some of the articles and things I have found and the AWFUL quality. I got some things off MTStars, and many other things from various places. I actually printed some of the resumes/emails that I got from overseas applicants and I was TRULY appalled by what I read and saw.

I am going to be posting some of those examples up on my site, maybe even later tonight. It is HORRIBLE to me that this kind of quality exists, and not only that but they take OUR work as well!

Anyway...got my little rant out of my system. This stuff truly gets me going!

One more thing I thought of - MT Bottle

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This may sound trivial but I think it bears mentioning. There should be a line of communication between the MTSO and the facilities' dictators regarding problems with their habits in dictation such as habitually cutting off dictation, etc. all in an effort to produce an accurate medical document.

It seems to me that many MTSO's are afraid to approach dictators in this regard.

Quality should be of utmost importance.

Anyhow Angel I wish you much success. I love your ideas about referring prosective clients. Hopefully we'll be hearing in the near future that things are going well. You sound like someone I would love to work for!

How about not being expected to - work on your day off

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just because your accounts ran out of work?

I don't see how it is my problem if the account runs out of work, and I refuse to work on my day off to make up hours I lost due to no fault of my own!

One thing that I feel would be important - would be s/m

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help with all the technology that might be needed. I an overwhelmed when I read the jobs board. The company I used to work for (recently sold) had very friendly tech people who were very happy to help the MTs get up and going with whatever they needed. When someone rattles off "you need XXXX" and I have no idea what they are talking about,I get very frustrated. I know some MTs on this board are very tech savvy, but I don't think we all are.

Your company - RLee

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I have a telephone interview with your company next week. I am really looking forward to it. You sound like a very honest, sincere, and caring person who TRULY cares about her MTs and the MT industry, as if you did not you would not haave posted on this board, and most importantly give feedback. That says a lot in itself. Also your company is smaller compared to most, and I personally feel that makes a big difference. From my own personal experience, I have come to the conclusion the smaller the company the more apt you are to be one big HAPPY family and get through whatever the issue is at hand, instead of telling the emmployees what they want to hear at that moment when in reality everything being said is one big lie just to avoid the issue at hand. Thanks for taking the time to ask what concerns us MTs.

What is the name of Angel's company? - Just curious

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x

Angel's Transcription Management is my company. Guess my secret is out! nm. - Angel

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