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

Dollars and dictators - buns

Posted: Jun 23, 2012

Really aware this morning how much our ability to make money depends on dictators. If you have an account where the majority of dictators are terrible (not ESL), for all the reasons many of us have experienced, it really does not matter how fast we type, how many expansions we have, or how much vast medical knowledge we have worked to obtain. Just made $3.36 in 26 minutes due to an extensive ADT search and a dictator who takes his time reading the medical record while talking out loud to himself, dictates, stops to watch a television program blaring, and then wants sections removed because he cannot remember where he stopped. Goodbye lines! Any feedback on how you deal with this type of situation on a daily basis is greatly appreciated.

Nonproductive dictators - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I feel your pain. I have plenty of that kind of work. I have one ditzy PA that has been reminded of the PAUSE feature numerous times to no avail. I can hear her banging on a calculator, talking to people that come by, answers her cell phone and talks for several minutes (I got to hear all about her loan mortgage application process recently), calls to make appointments for a manicure, and the list goes on and on, the whole time I am sitting waiting with the speed at 100%. Her reports are voice recognition, so I typically go through the rest of the report and correct what I can while I sit in silence. I've been doing her work for 2 years now, and I used to get very angry when she landed in my queue, but now I look out my window and watch the clouds roll by and consider it a little break. She is also a "stop & can't remember repeater" and she says ummmm ummmm ummmm ummmm ummmm ummmm constantly. I really wish she knew and cared that I get paid on production. From what I gather, I think she uses her dictation time to take a break herself. Not much you can do about it. One thing for sure, it makes you appreciate your good dictators more.

If I only had one or two like this I'd take it like a "break" too. Sadly, - I get too many breaks like this.

[ In Reply To ..]
There is something fundamentally wrong with a production system of any kind that exercises no control whatsoever regarding the quality of the "raw material" that is input to the process.

Imagine that you ran a widget factory, making custom widgets for your clients. A client comes to you with a specification list and a drawing, and you produce a widget.

Okay, now imagine that you would permit the client to give you anything from a proper CAD drawing to a sketch on the back of a coffee-stained napkin. Imagine that you would allow the specification list to be incomplete, or perhaps missing entirely. Imagine that the client might fall asleep at the counter while placing his order and you can't wake him up - you just stand there until his nap is done.

So, what you do is, you beat the crap out of your machinists if they don't produce perfect widgets from any pile of garbage that a client cares to submit. That's how you "build quality" into the system - at the back end.

If any of you have had any business training, you'll be able to join me in predicting how fast your widget factory is going out of business, because you're either going to have clients who are unhappy because the widget reflects their input, or your machinists are going to walk out on you en masse because they won't tolerate such treatment.

MTs post on provider forums - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
After posting yesterday about my ditzy PA and stating not much you can do about it, I woke up this morning with an idea. If there are forums for MTs hopefully there are forums for providers. Our MTSOs won't tell dictators we get paid on production, so maybe we should search for provider forums and educate them on how just a little effort in etiquette would help our ability to make a better living. I think most providers are appreciative of what we do, but they just need a reminder every now and again and they sure aren't going to get it from an MTSO. Again, no one has our back but us and we have to start somewhere. So, what do ya'll think?

Here are a few doc forums - I found quickly

[ In Reply To ..]
It would be interesting to see how they would respond.

http://www.docsboard.com/forums/content.php?s=15cfa11f397fa0d428f1a2f7ca42f7da

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=35

http://www.medscape.com/connect

It would be interesting to see how they respond.

http://www.physicianassistantforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/1-Physician-Assistant-Student-Forums

http://www.clinicaladvisor.com/

http://www.mommd.com/forum/

It's a great way to get sued if that's what you're after. Don't fool yourself s - the providers know

[ In Reply To ..]
They known darn well that we are paid on production. They don't care as long as it's cheap.

How on earth did you come up with that? Get sued? - Not gonna happen LOL

[ In Reply To ..]
And no, the providers don't know how MTs get paid - how would they? That's not part of contract negotiation between the providers and MTSO, large or small. They may have an "idea" if the transcription is done in-house, as there is more opportunity for face-to-face casual talk.

Get sued? I don't think so. - Get ignored? Probably.

[ In Reply To ..]
My feeling is that a lot of doctors are arrogant jerks who could care less what the poor little clerical peons think of their behavior. Why else would you have so many who not only waste our time, but act completely rude and unprofessional while dictating? They may not know or care how we get paid, but they sure as heck know there is a real person on the other end of the line, which should be enough to make them do what they know is right.

Exactly! - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Not to mention they would never act the way they do when dictating if they were talking to another doctor.

I just posted on a physician forum - and

[ In Reply To ..]
asked if they knew US MTs were paid on production and laregly worked from home and my post didn't get ignored---within 1 hour it was removed by a physician moderator. I was very careful to make sure it was posted in a category that said it was for anyone to use and any subject.

Question: Would you mind going back to that forum and letting us know - sm

[ In Reply To ..]

1. Some of the topics that weren't deleted, and...

2. Whether any of those were posted by non-physicians?

3. Please reproduce exactly what you said, or as near as you can remember.

Thanks!

doc forum - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
1. How old were you when you started medical school?

What are you reading just for fun?

Workplace sexism.

Things I want my daughter to know before she's ten.

2. Forum category: General Discussion, open to all. Discuss anything & everything. A must-read forum for all visitors.

3. Are physicians aware most US MTs work from home and are typically paid on a production basis.

Sued? Maybe you are an - MTSO

[ In Reply To ..]
and are trying to discourage conversation between the MTs and the providers.

If you get paid per report, it can - msmt

[ In Reply To ..]
be really depressing when you get a report that takes an hour to do.

So true! - Tiredofit

[ In Reply To ..]
I had a 35 minute report the other day with an ex-treme-ly S L O W dictator, who had all the time in the world it seemed. In the end it was 7 pages long, several blanks that were completely indiscernible, taking me an hour and 20 minutes to transcribe. Stupidity like that ruins your entire report, which this happened to be my first one after logging in. I agree with the widget concept. They promise the world to the client, the client takes no responsibility for what it takes for the dictation process, puts it on the MTSO, who in turn makes it ALL THE MT's responsibility from ADT to correct work type, dates, etc. Reports could be processed so much easier and accurately if the DICTATOR was held accountable for correct entry information and quality of the report. This job just isnt worth the hassle any more and definitely not worth the 2 cents we make dealing with the bottom of the barrel dictators! Nuff said!

Bad dictation etiquette....putting an end to it - just me

[ In Reply To ..]
I actually emailed the horrible dictation on a cell phone today with numerous blanks on the operative report despite transcribing this physician for 11 years off and on at different facilities and will be charging 6 cpl more than normal rate JUST BECAUSE IT WAS SO HORRIBLE. This seems the only way I can get their attention NOT to do it again. Honestly!!! I have a land line written in my service contract.

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