A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry
Email from Career Step (MT school): truth or fiction? - orchid
Posted: Oct 16, 2012
I've been considering getting into the MT field, and I emailed my Career Step academic advisor last week to ask him what he thought about the future of MT. Here was his response:
**********
Thanks for the email. I understand your concern about the future of the industry. The rumors that Medical Transcription is going to be phased out in the future are not new. We’ve been hearing such talk for over 20 years now, and the opposite has proven true thus far. I can tell you that 5 years ago we didn’t have close to 100% job placement, but we do right now. We have noticed a trend of the industry using speech recognition software to do the transcription. Instead of phasing out medical transcription, this has only increased demand dramatically for Medical Transcription Editors. The problem with the speech recognition software is that it’s only about 50% accurate and it probably will never be much more accurate than that. There are too many variables that make it far from perfect such as accents, doctors speaking too fast, doctors eating or coughing during dictating, etc. So right now, there’s a huge demand for Medical Transcription Editors to listen to the original audio file, and then go through these 50% accurate computer generated documents and basically proofread to turn them into 100% accurate documents. Only about 30% of the industry uses the voice recognition software due to cost, additional training, and inaccuracies.
We are one of the very few schools that trains on both Medical Transcription, and Medical Transcription Editing. We work with over 200 companies nationwide on a regular basis and over 700 companies on any given day and the feedback we’ve heard from our employers is that they want to hire students who have been dually trained in both the transcription and in the editing. There are still plenty of traditional transcription jobs available too, as our placement rate would suggest. Everyone I’ve spoken with in the industry isn’t worried about their employment opportunities now or in the future.
I recently spoke with a woman who works at M-Modal, one of the largest Transcription companies. She told me they are sending work overseas because they can’t find enough qualified and properly trained people here in the US. Our program fully trains you to start working immediately upon completion. There’s also a good chance the federal government stops allowing US citizen’s medical records being sent overseas.
**********
What do you think? I want to believe him, but at the same time I know he's trying to sell me a product and probably get commission...
Well, it is probably true in the sense that - sm
[ In Reply To ..]as a new grad, that person would more likely to be willing to work for the low wages that are currently being offered. In this particular industry at the moment, experience does not play a part in your wage. And, when some companies say they cannot find qualified/trained workers, what they really mean is that they cannot find them who will work for that low wage.
Thanks - orchid
[ In Reply To ..]That makes sense... thanks so much for your feedback!
what's this about the government stopping - records from going SM
[ In Reply To ..]overseas? Really? Since when? I have heard nothing about this and I think he is lying to you. Their goal is to offshore as much as they can and to solely use VR. How unfortunate for them that VR sticks and they still need us to edit. If we were paid for our knowledge and experience, that would be one thing, but we are not. Wages have been going down and IMO will continue to go down as far as they think they can take it. You will never be able to support yourself on the present wages, but as a secondary income that is not really needed to survive, you can make some extra money. Basically, I think he painted a pretty picture for you but the reality of this job is demoralizing, being treated like dirt because they really do hate us, hate that they need us.
I think . . . - Also in the industry
[ In Reply To ..]I think you should not listening to a paid "counselor" for a for-profit school. Yes, his continued employment depends on his enrolling students.
You do not need to take a course to learn MT editing. If you learn MT, then editing is very much the same. Schools who teach MT editing are just trying to make a buck.
Work is being sent to India because the workers there will work for next to nothing and there is less governmental regulation over working conditions.
The easy work goes overseas and the more difficult work is left to American MTs, who no longer have the easier work to balance out the drop in pay they incur on difficult work.
MT editing is no bargain for an MT. It takes longer to edit a report than it does to transcribe it from scratch. The pay rate is also far lower, so you lose both ways. Not to mention, it is deadly boring work.
As for only 30% of the industry using VR, well, you don't know what "30%" means. It could mean only 30% of hospitals, or doctors, or who knows what. If it means only 30% of the MTSOs, it is a misleading number because 2 or 3 of the MTSOs do the majority of the work. It would be more meaningful to know the percentage of transcription that is done by VR.
As for them having close to 100% job placement, well, that's great. This number may have increased because their overall enrollment has been dropping and only very motivated people are left, or because they flunk out the duds earlier, or because they have an agreement with employers that necessitates the employer to accept their students if the employer wishes to use the school's MT employment testing service.
There is a huge difference between GETTING a job and KEEPING a job. You can place all your grads in a job, but if few of them do not have that job 3 months later, well . . . hmm. It isn't the placement rate you are concerned with, but the success rate of the students over time. Do they keep the jobs? Do they get up to speed quickly? Do they get off 100% supervision quickly? Do they begin making money quickly? Are they hired into positions that require more experience?
There is an MTSO who posts on the main board a lot. She and some other MTSOs mention Andrews as the school employers prefer and M-TEC as the second.
There are still some MTs making a good go of it, but I wouldn't want to bet the farm that you would be one of them. I think the industry is changing and there aren't a lot of jobs an MT can move into either laterally or upwardly. Unlike fields like coding, where coders can move into jobs that require coding knowledge but are not necessarily front-line coding jobs, like compliance, auditing, documentation improvement, informatics, etc., MT is MT is MT.
If you want a second opinion, you might call Linda Andrews at Andrews School. She will explain what she is seeing, but will not sell you on any of her programs. She is high up in the industry, so she knows a lot about it. If she doesn't know the answer to your question, she can locate someone who does.
I don't want to squash your hopes for MT, but again you do need to be careful about taking advice from people paid to provide their employer's view. I wish I could say this was a problem just with for-profits, but we also see it in public colleges where the survival of an MT program and its faculty depends on selling students on it.
Also, just a mention about "job placement." When schools talk about job placement rates, they are not necessarily talking about placement in the kind of job you want. This is a huge problem with all schools, which count any job as a placement. An MT student could be placed as a receptionist in a car dealership and they would count it. "Buyer Beware" is incredibly important in selecting schools nowadays. For more information in this, Google federal guaranteed student loan program and "diploma mills."
I think med. records or not, NO job should be sent - offshore. (sm)- Meerkat
[ In Reply To ..]All these greedy, sleazy companies should be told, "Either hire HERE, and do the job HERE, or don't do it at all. And if you STILL insist on doing it offshore, then be prepared to renounce your U.S. citizenship and move offshore yourselves. And stay there."
Some of those sleazy companies are owned by OS. Not US. Do you - realize how many 1000s are OS owned? nm
[ In Reply To ..]x
Of course I do. My own co. included. So make the US- - based mgmt. go live in India, then. nm
[ In Reply To ..]
They dont have the same right to work as you do? It is just a job to them - they dont set policy. nm
[ In Reply To ..]x
There is no shortage of MTs, just shortage of MTs that want to - work for pennies. nm
[ In Reply To ..]x
There is a huge shortage of qualified MTs who.. - just me
[ In Reply To ..]can send in client-ready work, follow directions, or use critical- thinking skills. I just counted 93 errors on a 2-page report, several of them critical erros, one life-threatening. The doctor speaks clear English. This is not done by a newbie either. Some of the transcription did not even make sense as it pertained to the report. Some did not match dictation at all. Oh, first thing you do is name the file.....usually by the patient's name and date of exam, as in samples sent. Incorrect dates... OK....
I am embarrassed to even be an MT anymore - Leaving MT
[ In Reply To ..]When I hear stuff like this, I am ashamed to even be associated with it. Good grief. When I was transcribing for a small rural hospital, I was appalled at the templates the hospital had provided for us. I guess whoever typed up the templates did not know how to use a spellchecker or much less research terms. The sad thing is the doctor approved of them and we had to use them as is, at least in terms of the incorrect terminology (INA handpiece for I&A handpiece, stuff like that). I did correct the spelling errors and typos (sis was typed instead of is, and so on). It sure does make one wonder about this whole MT thing. I cannot wait to be done with it.
My point is you would get quality MTs if you paid a - quality wage. nm
[ In Reply To ..]x
The pay for editing is the big problem - Leaving MT
[ In Reply To ..]Voice recognition editing only pays about half of what straight typing pays on a cents-per-line basis, and MTs are fleeing the industry because of that. It is not a livable wage. One of the odd things about MT is that the demand has continued to increase at the same time as wages have gone down, and I mean really down. I am leaving MT because of this very reason. I have been an MT for almost 5 years, and even in that short time the wages have fallen by a lot. US MTs are just not willing to work for minimum wage, and that is what this job has become for the most part - a minimum-wage job. Yes, there are still some good jobs around, but they are getting to be few and far between and very, very competitive to get into.
I agree with all of the above, and furthermore... - I might ask myself...
[ In Reply To ..]How much money would I need per week, month or year to provide for myself and any other dependents and possibly put something into savings if I were to become the sole breadwinner for my family. I think a lot of folks, at least those on this message board, that ME (and you will likely be doing mostly ME at 3 to 4 cents per line) is not the occupation of choice for that scenario.
Even if that never becomes your situation, why would you pay to learn and study for a job where you could never be sure from one week or month to the next what your actual paycheck was going to be... that is the problem with doing piecework. A lot of times (especially nowadays) the pieces are just not available, and who really knows why.
HE deserves a proper spanking - but first, let's debunk - READ ME...sm
[ In Reply To ..]I have never read so much disinformation in one place. What a complete and total crock. He should be ashamed of himself.
Notice the following: "We work with over 200 companies nationwide on a regular basis and over 700 companies on any given day". Where, pray tell, did those 500 extra companies come from? I guarantee that if you were to ask him to account for this mathematical anomaly, he would squirm. Not to mention the voodoo percentiles he tends to quote in this thinly-veiled PR piece.
Dude knows not whereof he speaks. The reason MTSOs are sending work overseas is because it is CHEAPER - there is no dearth of qualified transcriptionists in the US. There is, however, a dearth of even minimum-wage jobs in the MT industry here in the US.
To my ear, this guy is just one more out-of-touch fool in the never-ending caravan of unscrupulous fat cats who seek to mislead individuals (predominantly the female kind) for their own profit.
Let the buyer beware.
Another issue - justmoi
[ In Reply To ..]Doctors also have the ability to self-edit, meaning they read and correct their own report as the speak thus bypassing transcription/editors altogether. This is why my department went from 17 employees to 2 employees.
They may try to self-edit as they go along (sm) - Annie
[ In Reply To ..]Doctors do not have minds for simple mundane work like editing as they dictate. VR editing is harder than editing transcription because many of the errors just don't stand hout like "he" vs "she" which VR still can't seem to distinguish. How often to the doctors forget what gender their patients are while dictating? All the time. Same thing with left vs right. They will not catch these errors. I think they will need the wake up call of a few malpractice suits to get this, but it's coming.
I was ROFL at the entire pitch! Ridiculous! (sm) - Annie
[ In Reply To ..]Shortage of MTs?? Uh, that's why every ad posted gets up to 1,000 resumes?
The 100% job placement. Ask him for one contact who was placed in an MT job right after school when 99.9% of MTs jobs insist on experience, they are not going to take someone without experience with so many very qualified applicants who have been doing this most of their lives.
The Indian MTs can work for .02 cents per line. What comes back is horrid. If you were to work for .02 cents per line in this country, or the going rate for editing at .04 cents per line, you would be homeless in no time.
The 50% accuracy with VR is another lie. With a good dictator is much more accurate and the program trains itself through our editing the corrections, thus we edit ourselves out of jobs.
my 2 cents - anon
[ In Reply To ..]First off, I think the advisor's words are mostly BS. My opinion, from my experience in this field, is that new grads see MT as a job that is mostly paid a line rate, which means the more lines you transcribe, the more money you make. I know that was tempting for me to get into this field 10 years ago. The rude awakening for me was to see that even the fastest typist has to slog through difficult dictations. Also, you are at the mercy of the company you work for if you are working at home. If there are no jobs available in the system, you sit without any work to do and make zero money during that time. There are so many variables to how much money you make like this, you can't depend on a "steady" paycheck. I believe newbies are eager to accept a low payrate because until you actually start working and see how hard it is to make a living on even 8 cents a line, well, the math becomes a harsh reality then.
And no way do I believe the crock that there are no qualified MTs in the US. I've seen reports that come from India, and they are deplorable. I've seen them with tons of errors that make be embarrassed to call myself an MT if that is the kind of work healthcare facilities associate with MTs now.
Unless that academic advisor is a working MT, I wouldn't see his words as anything other than a salespitch or misinformation. If you want to really see what this field has come to, spend about an hour reading posts on this board. That's the real story.
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