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

Mergers - not good

Posted: Mar 04, 2011

As a current DTS employee and having gone through a merger before, being acquired by MQ from a different company, the merger was not good. I am hoping that things will be different this go around, but it just does not look promising. Everything they promised and said would not change did change. We did not take an actual pay cut, but changing platforms provided their means of a pay cut. I went from making excellent money a month, to struggling to make even $1000 a month. I did not look at and pay close attention to the writing on the wall right in front of me.

I had the mindset and believed them when they said we would make more money. I bought into their BS for several months and suffered tremendously financially. I pretty much fell into financial ruins. That was at least 4 years ago and until this day, I have not been able to find another job that provided the volume of work nor the MT-friendly platform I had before the merger, and definitely no where near the potential to make the money I made.

This go around, I do have enough sense to look at things differently. I definitely will not believe fully what the suits are saying as they will definitely tell us what we want to hear in order to avoid a mass exodus. As with the merger before, everything was good from October until that Jan 1st actual switch fully to MQ. I hate that the loyal MTs had to endure what we endured financially and emotionally. With most of the MTSOs being alike, when you fall from something that is good and has been good for a while, with the new company you really just do not recover.

I will say this to my DTS co-workers, take my advice and at least start putting a plan B in place. I was dupped into thinking things would not change and boy oh boy do I ever regret that. The jobs are no longer very plentiful that you can easily find a new job the next day. I like my AM and the team that I work on, but my gut is telling me look out because the worse is yet to come. I can honestly say I hope I am wrong, but hmmmmm......time will tell.

You have said almost word for word what I said - In MDI merger. sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I was working for Lernout & Hauspie (L&H) when they sold to MQ. L&H was by far the BEST company I had ever worked for, but I assumed since they were so good, they wouldn't sell us all out to a bad employer. I had the exact same mindset and positive attitude when I went into it.

I even had the exact same mindset and attitude when I found out MDI-MD sold to Transcend. I made a promise to myself that I was not going to let the bad experience with the L&H/MQ merger taint my thinking, but I had this awful gnawing feeling in my gut. I kept brushing it off, thinking it was just a leftover fear from the prior merger trying to take over my positivity. lol

I gave it my very best shot with Transcend, a year in fact. All I can say is, "I was not wrong." Things changed drastically and did not stay the same as we were promised. Soon that gnawing feeling in my gut turned to stress day in and day out until I realized that "hoping" things away doesn't work. Time most certainly DID tell.

If you have that gut feeling, trust it. PLEASE, PLEASE have a plan B in place because the majority of you will need it.

Gut feeling - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
I worked at Transcend through a merge as well (no longer work there though). All their promises of nothing would change were all false!!! The daily stress of the whole work situation was like Chinese torture. It is an awful feeling to wake up to every morning wondering what the day will bring. You are so right by stating "hoping" things away does not work with Transcend. For those of you with the gut feeling now it will only get worse. Have a backup plan because you will definitely need it.

My opinion re: what DTS'ers can expect going forward - another peon

[ In Reply To ..]
Expect to hear terms like "no plans at this time" and "not in the foreseeable future" with respect to changes in your current pay rate, accounts, platform, etc. At some point, your accounts will, in all likelihood, be transitioned to BeyondTxt and ultimately to VR. The platform has its good points, but personally I find it bulky and cumbersome, with huge lag time when toggling to and from the multiple demographic screens or, as they like to call it, the Blue I.

Depending on how your facilities interface with Beyondtxt, you may have to make multiple entries in the Blue I and re-enter the same information in the body of the report.

There are those who claim to be able to maintain their income level after migrating to VR, and I am not disputing that; this has not been my experience, however, in part I believe due to the huge push to put as many physicians as possible into the VR pool, regardless of the quality (or lack thereof) of their dictation. You will be told that drafts must meet a 75% marker to be converted to edit mode, and they will make that sound like a positive when, in fact, it is not. During it's "learning period" on your account, VR will insert random headers, turn perfectly clear words and phrases into something entirely different or omit it all together. The importance of consistency will be stressed during the "learning period" during which VR will be learning the doctors, the required styles, etc., and you will receive multiple emails telling you to "do it this way" and subsequently you'll receive another email telling you "no, do it this way."

You will be told to "embrace" your new role as an editor, and that, by utilizing keyboard shortcuts, etc., you will be able to double your production. You will receive proficiency reports that, at least on paper, may back up this claim of increased production; however, again, this has not been my experience and I find that, when doing my own production assessment those production numbers are off by at least 100 lph.

If you are a high producer doing straight transcribing, it will probably be more difficult to edit at a comparable rate, though there are those who claim to be able to edit upwards of 600 lph. Again, I do not dispute their claims, but this has not been the case in my situation, on an account with multiple ESLs who frankly have no business being on VR, on an account that requires entries in certain fields in the "Blue I" that, when factoring in the lag time, the comma-happy nature of BTX, and the fact that for every 100 words in a report I may be making 25 corrections (and usually am), it has been impossible, in spite of due diligence on my part, to even come close to my previous income.

This has been my experience. As they say on infomercials, your results may vary. My advice is to sock away as much money as you can during the "honeymoon" period in which you'll still be doing straight transcription at your normal pay rate, while keeping an eye out for other opportunities. Hopefully you won't have the same negative experiences that some of us have been dealing with. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and hopefully your experience will fall somewhere in between. I wish you the best of luck in the coming months.

You were dupped? - Anonymous

[ In Reply To ..]
No message

possibly, but duped is more like it.....nm - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
duped....dupped....duh.

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