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

How long would you give us? - s/msg

Posted: Jan 15, 2014

The situation: one of the last on site jobs left, for a medical franchise, great hourly pay and bennies. platform not so great, but dictators mostly very good. Company switched over to a decent speech rec. program, doctors catching on pretty fast, now many doing their own editing, though not all of them yet. but now we are running out of work, and although we still get paid by the hour, we mostly just sit around with nothing to do. today i got about one or two reports per hour. we all are pretty sure we'll be let go. For those of you that this has already happened to, how long did it take between the time the speech rec. was doing a pretty good job, and you all got fired? Some people think we still have a few weeks to months. others think it could happen tomorrow. who's right? What were your experiences?

How long would you give us - lmv

[ In Reply To ..]
I'm sorry to hear about your situation because it's very scary when work is hardly anything at all and you are just waiting for the day they tell you they don't need you anymore due to lack of work. I worked in the same clinic in the same department for over 10 and once speech recognition went live with the physician's it wasn't even 2 months before I was let go. We knew it was coming but I really thought after having over 10 years in that I might be ok, I wasn't. If I were you I would start thinking about what your next move is going to be and be prepared because I sure wasn't and it was so hard. I hope the best for you though.

You had better start making a backup plan NOW. - It will happen, you can take that to the bank. SM

[ In Reply To ..]
It's happened so many times at other places just the way you describe.

It's going to happen in about a year where I am, but most of the people are still blindly sailing the River Denial. I'm lucky, I figured it out early, about a year and a half ago, and the manager finally started to admit about this past summer that something's going on. "We'd tell you if we knew something..." or "it has to be cleared through HR..."

Bull-sh. They've known this for a couple years now, the complete plan's been in the works for a while to get rid of the department.

You need to start looking for something and figuring out what to do. It's going to be a very difficult transition from A Job to nothing, and it could happen tomorrow.

So many people vacationing along the River Denial, and their vacation is going to come to a very rude and abrupt ending, but by then it's too late.

Don't keep hoping that "maybe it will be okay, maybe I won't be let go..."

Good advice for all of us - Alice

[ In Reply To ..]
This is good advice for all of us, even those whose situation is not exactly the same. For instance, I started working at a company just about a month ago. I was told that this is a huge account and that I'll never run out of work. However, even in the early days of the account, I am constantly running out of work. But here's the thing that really bothers me--

Right now, the account is all straight typing. Soon, it will go to VR. Then, the work will dwindle even more. I believe there's a chance that the huge group of MTs hired to get the account going will be thinned out when this transition occurs. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we were all terminated and the account sent to India, as this company does have an Indian team. I have not been happy with the way that I've been treated at this new job, with very little specific account instruction and very little feedback. It gives me the impression that they consider me to be temporary, even though my work is high quality. While I'd like to believe that I'm just being paranoid, I've experienced this type of intuitive feeling before, when accounts were getting ready to go elsewhere, and it turned out that I was just being used and then was discarded like an old piece of equipment once the need no longer existed. My persistent denial ended up hurting me in the end.

So, I am thinking of my current job in MT as a temporary position and am working on my exit plan.

My exit plan is to avoid the medical field altogether. - Medicine has become a scam industry.

[ In Reply To ..]

AGREE! - Alice

[ In Reply To ..]
I think your observation is 100% correct. In my former life, I was an RN, and things have certainly changed in that career path... I can actually remember when doctors called the shots and decided what treatment you received. The insurance companies didn't decide this, although there were definitely some pros and cons with insurance and they did try to get out of paying whenever possible. There just weren't as many insurance companies back then, certainly no HMOs and PPOs. I'm going back about 40 years..

However, I'm afraid that scams are in many industries now, and companies seem to only want to use us. Do any of them actually care about us? Well, there may be situations where your direct boss might actually care about you, (or absolutely hate you and make life miserable for you...). There might be some good jobs that I just haven't found yet...I'm drawn toward having an online business, but customers can be quite a challenge, and you are at their mercy..

how long? - jane

[ In Reply To ..]
not long. was let go very recently from a job i had been doing for right at 20 years. the seller of the medical records program which was sold to my boss was not very candid about what the machine did or maybe he just did not look into it thoroughly enough. they are sorry this happened but apparently can't or won't do anything about it. get ready to do something else if you possibly can. i was on sick leave for back problems and resultant surgery. when i told the office manager that i was ready to come back, i was told the job was gone. she had hinted at this a little early but i did not pick up on that.

How long? It is already over. - Sm

[ In Reply To ..]
It isn't a question of how long you have left. If you are geting only 2 reports an hour, it is already over. Management needs to keep you on board long enough to do the work during the transition, but that transition happens fast.

You should have found another job already. You should have been retrained by now.

I don't mean another job in MT, either.

If your employer has not already made plans to place you in a different job, they have no intention of doing so. You will need to find one on your own. Start with jobs at your facility, then look at others.

If they have not discussed plans with you, they don't have any, so do not expect to get a nice severance package or placement assistance.

A word of warning ... do not wait, holding out until the end. Once you are unemployed, finding a job is much more difficult. You have to BE employed to get a job. Employers do not want those who were laid off. Studies are showing that they don't want those who are collecting unemployment, either. I suggest taking the first job you can get just so you have one.

You should have been retraining by now. You should have started that two years ago. Don't wait on that, either. Start NOW.

You must have - A sweet clinic account

[ In Reply To ..]
If the speech wreck is doing well with the dictators, you must be doing clinic work. Back in the day, I would have recommended you get trained for acute care, but this isn't back in the day, so you have to get out of MT, in my opinion.

If you do choose to stay, get yourself acute care training at a really good school, because all you will get is crap work if you go to an MTSO. Be warned: You would not make an hourly rate and the pay would be really, really crud.

Red flag - ts

[ In Reply To ..]
My advice is find something NOW. I just lost my job 2 weeks ago. It started just like you have described. One day I had work, the next it tapered down to here and there, and now GONE. No work. This happened overnight. Companies won't clue you in, but the signs are there. I stayed in my job because it was my first job and became easy as pie. My advice to you is take this as a big red flag. Seek out work elsewhere whether it be MT or something else. It happens in the blink of an eye and companies won't tell you because they use you while they can not caring if you can make ends meet or not. I never learned acute care along the way, turned down jobs outside the home along the way, stayed with 1 business, and now...No job. I'm looking daily for any job. Don't end up not being able to "live" or meet daily bills holding out for things to get better. Do what you can to cut back on expenses now while you look for other jobs. I hate to see you end up like me without a job. I do have help since my husband works, but I'm a provider for my family with kids. Best of luck to you.

red flag - jane

[ In Reply To ..]
you are so right, yes the ship is sinking and like the titanic passengers there are not enough life boats. if i wasn't past 70 and able to draw social security.... at least it is there for now.

My experience - Anon2

[ In Reply To ..]
First, I am surprised that they let you sit around with nothing to do and that you are not being asked to use your PTO or flex. VR has not worked very well for my providers but it is getting better. For my department, outsourcing was our downfall. It started gradually, then we had a fully functional EMR and they just kept outsourcing more and more until the MT department finally closed. We had plenty of advance warning from administration (at least a year) that change was coming. As the work dwindled, they helped place us elsewhere within the organization and had projects for us to do when there was no transcription work. We now have 2 QA editors but everyone else is gone. If you are sitting around with nothing to do, I would not expect that to last very long. My advice is not to sit around and wait for the other shoe to drop. Try and find something within your organization so you can keep your benefits. Ask your manager if there is something you can do to make yourself useful during the lull, that may speak volumes in regard to wanting to keep your job when the layoffs start.

severance package - my experience

[ In Reply To ..]
When the hospital where I worked in-house sold out to Nuance, they offered the MTs a "severance package" that consisted of $1000.00 if the MTs signed a form that said they would not attempt to collect unemployment. That was about 4 years ago, though. It's probably not the norm.

s/m - EmTee

[ In Reply To ..]
I remember around December 1999 when I was told the transcription department where I formerly worked was going to be outsourced that if any MT wanted to stay until the department's closure, we would get a severance/bonus of $1500. However, with that, we had to have perfect attendance and could not miss a day from the time we were told about the closure until April 2000. I agreed to stay on, didn't miss a day, and I did receive my $1500 severance.

get a backup plan but wait till they let you go - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Worked for 2 hospitals that outsourced, saw the handwriting on the wall and left both before I got let go, BUT both hospitals gave 1000 a year severance for every year you had worked for them plus paid medical care for 1 year. The last one I lost out on $8000 cash plus who knows what the medical would have been worth!

I mean this in the kindest way, but why didn't you do anything until now? nm - 1159MT

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

One word: UNEMPLOYMENT. - I earned it. I want it.

[ In Reply To ..]
X

UE - Anon2

[ In Reply To ..]
You do realize that UE only pays about a third of what you currently make and only lasts for a few weeks? Also, most states expect you to do a weekly job search and have 3 contacts a week, which means actively applying or interviewing or involved in a worker retraining program. I agree with the other person - it is much easier to get another job when you already have one.

You're right about getting a job while you already - have one, which is why I likely wont get one.

[ In Reply To ..]
PS: I was right. We did get let go today.

That attitude will hold you back - more than anything else.

[ In Reply To ..]
The defeatist, fatalistic attitude that you "won't get one" for whatever reason will hold you back more than anything else.

If you have just been laid off, it is normal to be upset, but you have to overcome that and take steps to brighten your outlook and improve your prospects.

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