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

Transcend/MDI, honest question - confused

Posted: Feb 14, 2010

In all the conferences, we are told that the work that is being outsourced to India (30% of our work) is 3rd shift and weekends because American MTs don't want to work those times. Can somebody PLEASE explain to me why that seems to be when there is the most work. We are required to work 1 weekend day every week, and I usually have to jump in and work the other weekend day because of the "SOS" e-mails that start coming in Friday. I am really puzzled why there is so much work on the weekends if that is supposedly when it is being sent to India.

The "we are sending work to India because..." should end with...sm - mt68

[ In Reply To ..]
because it is cheaper. Think about it realistically. IF they are sending 30% of the work over to India to cover the fact that American MTs don't want to work weekends and third shift, that means realistically 30% of the work on your account would have to be performed on the weekends and third shift. So, the next time you have an 11:00 p.m. Saturday consultation with your GI doc or a 3:30 a.m. Tuesday mammmogram, you can be grateful that those India MTs they hired to cover your off times are there to transcribe your records.

The bottom line is it has nothing to do with coverage, as you have guessed, but everything to do with cost.

Thanks Hit the nail on the head. - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

weekend work - is not always busy

[ In Reply To ..]
I don't work for the company referred to in this post, but I do in fact work every weekend, some days I get a steady flow of work and more often I sit for several hours of the day waiting

That doesn't make sense to me. - My 2 Cents

[ In Reply To ..]
The original poster's question seemed to be why there seems to be more work on the weekends.

The majority of us MTs want to work M-F so the work SEEMS to be lighter, because we are all working what we consider to be a normal week. So, um, the work is higher on the weekends because less of us work. Even with the 1 weekend per month MDI requirement, they often do NOT have enough coverage to keep the work moving in TAT.

BTW, Transcend may say 30% of the work is going to India, but that does NOT mean that every account has this occurring and, from what I have heard in conferences, MDI-MD accounts are still being done by MDI MTs, they haven't transitioned any accounts to Transcend per se nor any Transcend MTs over to MDI accounts, and same with sending MDI accounts to India yet because there is no need, when they are staying within TAT weekend days and weekends.

Of course work done in India is cheaper, but that has nothing to do with why weekends are still busy - that is a very basic answer, and that is because a certain percentage of MDI MTs are not working on any given weekend and a certain percentage are.

My 2 cents.

1 weekend day per month - --

[ In Reply To ..]
I think only old-timers are required to work 1 weekend day per month. I have to work every weekend. My account is always empty on Sunday, but I am still required to work it every week work or no work. I guess I am just stubborn because I don't want to give up Saturday with my family.

Work to India - MT who knows

[ In Reply To ..]
Well, don't you agree that the REAL reason the work is being sent to India is because of the CHEAP labor? I think so, I mean the MT pay standard here in the USA is pretty shabby itself and then for US citizens to compete with third-world countries such as India, who pay next to nothing, well, I really don't think it has anything to do with covering shifts or holidays here in the USA. I mean someone can sugar coat it all they want and say that is the reason but I think that the real reason is pretty obvious. MT jobs as worker here in the USA is turning into nothing more than poverty and welfare wages.

This will help ... - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
The 30% figure that was given to us represents 30% of the whole workload. It isn't JUST weekends or nights.

We still have US labor scheduled for all shifts and weekends.

People who make those commitments, especially for weekends, are often not really wanting to work those shifts and therefore either don't show up or do not continue working their entire shift. Going into the weekend behind because of absenteeism on Thursday nights and Fridays makes for a bad weekend.

The same happens in any kind of company: Fridays seem to be "employee skip day" and sometimes Mondays, too.

People just don't want to work.

I wholeheartedly disagree, an example that disproves this. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I work every single Friday and Saturday and have done so for the past year. During that time, I have only taken off 3 Saturdays and they were scheduled time off. I normally work during the day, but will work evenings when the volume gets high. When I was hired I was told that EVERYONE had to work at least 1 weekend day and that had been the policy for some time. C also specified that there weren't that many who had weekends off as they were the ones who had been there a while.

Normally when our accounts start nearing 200 minutes, the call goes out for extra help to clean out the accounts. On a Friday night on this one particular account, the call went out when it reached about 250 minutes at about 7:30 in the evening. All day long it had been relatively quiet with little work. So even though I had already met my line commitment on my primary, secondary, and tertiary accounts for the day, I jumped on to help out. By 10:00 that evening the backlog was OVER 1100 minutes. I went to bed that night thinking that for sure I would have work at 8:00 the next morning since our lowest TAT is 12 hours and most worktypes are 24 hours. Lo and behold, there was NOTHING on that account the next morning.

My first question would be, if there are so few people working on 3rd shift, how did this backlog get cleaned out overnight unless it was all sent overseas? Secondly, why was it ALL sent overseas when we have 12 to 24-hour TAT? I could see sending the work that would go out of TAT close to 5:00 a.m., but why send EVERYTHING??? There was 1100 minutes at 10:00 p.m.! Why not save at least a couple hundred minutes for the ones who come on in the morning? It just doesn't make sense that we all sit here on the weekends during the day with little or no work when they keep saying that we can't go into the weekends with such a big backlog...and then the work starts piling up again in the evenings. They say that no one wants to work evenings on the weekends, but why would we after we have been sitting here all day long grabbing the little work that comes through during the day? THEY make it that way by sending ALL the work OS the night before. Maybe if it was a little more fairly distributed they might have more willing to work in the evenings.

Does not disprove a thing... - See message.

[ In Reply To ..]
You do not know how the work was done. Or that it was sent overseas! You assume, but you do not have any way of knowing this for sure.

Well it doesn't take much to assume, but that's why I questioned it. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
It can only be one of two ways: Either they DON'T have enough people to complete an 1100-minute backlog, in which case they need to send it to OS. But then that leads to another question...why send it ALL to OS?

OR -

They DO have enough people to complete an 1100-minute backlog and, therefore, no need to send OS.

It's not really a matter of assumption. It's either/or.

I agree with this.sm - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
There are a few people working third shift, and it is quite possible that one of those have done at least SOME of that work. It is also true that there have been many times work is out of TAT even though we are working, some nights we just can't keep up with it. I am not saying nothing is going overseas, but if more people would work third shift, then..............

same experience - --

[ In Reply To ..]
I have had the same experience. There will be a huge backlog, and I think I will get up early to get it, and its empty. So they are sending it oversees or there are a ton of night owls. I wish they would not send it all though if that is what they are doing. One weekend my account had 100 minutes and they put on an SOS because only 1 person was on typing. I got on to find out all that was left were DS that would not go out of TAT until 11:00 a.m. the next morning. I think they need to be a little mor careful with those SOS messages. I have 4 accounts and get swamped with e-mails constantly about how backed up they are. After a while, its easy to igonore them.

yes, yes, and everybody in line at the Food Bank is there because it's a great way to socialize - duh

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

To "This will help" - Quite a generalization - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
"People just don't want to work."

Some people don't, in any line of work.

Many do.

This will help - itype2

[ In Reply To ..]
If people don't work or don't show up for their shifts, the company needs to take disciplinary action, that is what would happen to an on-site MT. I work on site and have worked one weekend day for more years than I care to remember. Maybe more people would be willing to work nights and weekends if the companies made it worth their while with shift differentials and more money for weekend work, just like a real employer. Our graveyard shift is India's day shift so not only do they get the work, they also get the best hours. I totally disagree with your statement about people not wanting to work. Pay them what they are worth and show them they are appreciated and their attitude might change.

percentage of work to India - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
When I first became a Transcend employee they told us on a conference call that it was their POLICY to outsource 20% of work. They did not specifically state weekends - they just stated 3rd shift. So I was left with the impression that it did not matter if the work was within TAT - it was their POLICY to outsource a specific percentage of work.

% to India - longtimemt

[ In Reply To ..]
And I was just told that it is 30% going to India as per policy, whether it is out of TAT or not.

Orientation for MDIers, slide show - 20% - Other thoughts.

[ In Reply To ..]
Recent orientation slides showed 20%, not 30% of Transcend's work is going to offshore vendors.

A point that was made to MDIers in the conference calls with Transcend and MDI management since the merger was first announced (and also in emails) was that it is no longer enough to JUST keep work in TAT.

Some of us are insisting that some of this work sit overnight so we will have work in the morning since the TATs, in our minds, allows for this.

But, it's been made very clear at least to former) MDI-MDers that the goal is to get nowhere near TAT, they want it done fast fast fast (to show prospective clients?) that we far exceed any promised TAT. (anyone remember the house cleaning memo?)

Don't know about Transcenders, but former MDIers surely have seen all of the detailed TAT info, the kudos for TAT percentages, etc.

So, there WILL be SOS calls for help in the evening when there is lots of work and 1 person on related to the new goal for TAT being far shorter than it actually is.

There is no way they are going to let the work sit overnight like we are used to from the days of old, for us early birds to pound out the stats and HPs first thing. I remember those days, it worked fine, and the docs and hospitals were happy as could be.

It just isn't that way any more. Enter MTSOs and big money.

Just my viewpoint.

Work sitting overnight - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
I was also told that as well - they will not let work sit overnight for any reason regardless of TAT, which is to get it out as fast as it comes in. But with that said - how come some accounts do sit overnight and then they ask for help or OT?? There is NEVER any work in my pool for the morning like you said "the good ol' days". I am not an MDIer - so this policy is fall all apparently.

Oops should be - this policy is FOR all. - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
n/m

My guess. - See message

[ In Reply To ..]
My guess is that there is no one policy that fits every account every single day of the week. Sometimes, there will be accounts/TLs/ROM that allows the work to sit overnight and then ask for help and approve OT. Other times, same account, maybe not.

I'm assuming you RLee have many years of experience. I'm at 25 - work flow since day one has always been an issue, and everyone is always wanting to try to pin it down and know why the feast/famine phenomenon still happens even now - and not always attributable to overseas etc. Sometimes, it probably is. Sometimes,it is simply not.

Does it really matter? If I can't change it, why put energy there. I put my energy into making sure I get my lines in.

To: My guess. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I've been at this almost as long, 19 years, and I agree that we've always been trying to pin down the feast/famine phenomenon. We couldn't pin it down, per se, but at least we knew that around the holidays work would be slow, and during the summer months around vacation time, the volume would be high. The famine didn't happen often. When the work was slow, it was slow for a few days, at most a couple weeks.

But something is definitely different here. There are periods of famine that seem to go for MONTHS. Then, *BLAM*, there is usually a major shake-up in the company structure, policies, or sale of the whole company itself. I think it is not only normal to put energy into something like this, but also wise. Even though we need to realize that we are going to have feast or famine, we have to watch for warning signs of company health, and with this happening at so many different companies on so many different accounts, we also have to protect our own financial health. My opinion is that those who are concerned are doing just that...in addition to TRYING to put their lines in.

When there aren't any lines to put in, unfortunately energies seem to drift towards worry.

Getting lines in - RLee

[ In Reply To ..]
There is no one company policy for every accout - it is the "same" company policy for all accounts (as to work being within TAT and the percentage of overall work being offshored) so I have been led to believe - although some accounts may have more specific guidelines compared to others. I do have 22 years experience, but fortunately in my experience with other companies I was never without work completely with the exceptions of Monday mornings, weather, days after major holidays, docs on vacation - things beyond anyone's control that may affect work volume, but not for days on end. At this point it does not really matter to me what Transcend's policies may be because my ENERGY is exhausted with them as to trying to get lines in when the jobs are not being made available to me on a consistent daily basis. I am now directing my ENERGY into looking for new job opportunities and only wish for the best, but I will voice my opinion and the facts as I know them.

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