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

A medical transcriptionist of 10 years lost her job today - Suzie

Posted: May 17, 2011

Dear Fellow Transcriptionists:

I just want to vent and tell you what happened to me today. I lost my job today because I got a 97.9 on my quality review, which was done on my work in about 3 years. I was working as an independent contractor and I was told that I was being terminated and when I asked if I could be put on another account, they said they were not hiring employees just independent contractors, no employees.

I am so upset. I have been a transcriptionist for 10 years this month. I have never been terminated from a job before. I am 54 years old. I am starting medical coding school on June 13, 2011 and I want to get a job as a transcriptionist starting at 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. EST and then study.

I just had to vent and get encouragement. On my other reviews, which were over 3 years ago, I got a 99.9% and never below. The quality control person looked at some of the hardest dictators. I was not flagged.

Please if you can and feel like it, give me some advice in that should I stay as a medical transcriptionist or forget about it.

Thanks for listening.

Fondly,

Suzie

EST and stop at 2 p.m. EST

Sure, get another job. Whatever they were up to, it - should not continue to be your problem.

[ In Reply To ..]
Put them behind you. Hope you love your coding classes, too.

Was this with NEMT? (no message) - MT 44

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x

nemt... lost jobs - they do that

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:[

NEMT - anonymouse

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Yes, NEMT done that to me. I had a 97.89 and needed 98% and was let go. I hate that company.

That's awful - Alice

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I think it's awful that they treated you this way. Nowadays, while MTSOs are trying to find ways to replace us with machines, they are already treating us like machines and expecting us to be like machines.

While "hate" is a strong word, I have to admit that I share the same emotion with regards to NEMT. I left NEMT not because of the QA rating issue, but because not only was/is the QA department stricken with tunnel vision and rigid thinking, but NEMT called me an IC, while treating me like an employee on so many levels. Plus, I was making about $6.00 per hour on an account with over 30 worktypes. It was a nightmare.

Response - SS

[ In Reply To ..]
Dear Suzie,

Perhaps you should consider being an employee-status MT.

If there is an MTSO who terminates an employee-status MT the first time she scores 97.9 percent, I have not worked for that MTSO.

Sometimes an MT can fail a QA review directly attributable to not complying with account specifics, e.g., transcribing acronyms as dictated rather than transcribing them in long form. Transcribing the acronym was my denouement; if I had transcribed "blood pressure" instead of "BP," I would have passed.

Reconsider giving up on an in-demand profession to which you have devoted 10 years of your life. Instead, consider employing your skills for an MTSO that is a "little more forgiving" for the "error of our ways."

Wishing you success in your next assignment as a Medical-Language Specialist.

that stinks, as we all know some days you get nothing but crap, good luck coding. nm - tiredMT

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xxx

That happened to me as well - BeNice

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I had only been with the company for 1 year and it hurt, I questioned my ability as an MT just as you are but I decided that I would give it one more try and if that failed...I would face that issue then. I got another job after 4 weeks and now, after being with them for 2 weeks (they let me start using Vista but had informed me that there system was really not ran smooth with Vista) I had just purchased a new computer and worked for 2 weeks and then experienced an issue with my computer, took it back to the store, recieved another one ( running Vista because they did not have 1 with XP) only to find that it is now XP or nothing. So, today I cried, prayed and did some more crying because I can not afford to have Vista removed and XP installed because it would affect my warranty if a problem came about. Oh, this was about you, wasn't it...well, don't giver up on this career because obviously you are good at it to have been around for 10 years...we can expect some difficulties no matter what the job is...but if you have been around for 10 years you can do it...that was just their loss.

Good luck coding - see message - MT/coding student

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But understand going in that the QA is tougher in coding than it is in MT. 99%-100% accuracy is consistently expected because loss of revenue is at stake, and audits are done routinely. Even a small error can make a difference in how a bill is paid, or not paid. Most large facilities have production requirements for coders too. I'm an MT who works for a private employer so I understand the QA process. We are reviewed every 3 months and 99% is considered passing. If we don't pass, our pay gets cut and we are put on monthly review until our quality improves. I see my documents and the errors are my fault, I never thought anyone was "trying to get rid of me." I'm sorry you lost your job but I am surprised that they didn't give you a chance to improve your score. Anyway, I hope you enjoy coding, it is very challenging.

It's not your fault. It's part of a systematic "cleansing", - if you will, by the MTSOs of all - sm

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workers who:
a) Have more than 6 months' experience,
b) Want more than 6-7 cpl,
c) Have been around long enough to know that the changes in MT have NOT been for the better for anyone but the MTSO execs,
d) Actually have the audacity to have IQ's higher than 50, and who also have ideas on how things in the business could be improved.

Those "QA quality reviews" are a bunch of BS. They can pull any jobs they want to run your scores. If they think you make too much money, or are too experienced, or too old, or too opinionated, those "scores" are easily manipulated. If they pulled 10 reports you typed, and they were all 100%,then if they want a reason to fire you, there's nothing whatsoever stopping them from pulling another 10 reports, and ANOTHER 10 reports, until they find enough mistakes to justify letting you go, and hiring 2 Indians to take your place.

You didn't do anything wrong, except try to earn a living. You aren't a bad MT, you just had the bad luck to get stuck with a lousy company.

And you're in good company, because these days all but a lucky few of us work for bad companies.

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