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

Low census all over the world? - Union MT, for the moment

Posted: Feb 01, 2013

I'm lucky enough to have one of the few remaining MT/E jobs that is NOT an MTSO (albeit not for much longer).

I've been reading here for quite a while, including the General, M*Modal, and Nuance boards.

It seems as if nearly everyone, everywhere has seen their work dry up in the extreme. At Nuance and M*Modal, of course, they reckon it's because it's all going to India, and all things considered, they're undoubtedly right, at least in part.

However, it doesn't seem like it's only the Big Two. I've seen similar messages from people here who work for other MTSOs.

AND where I work, our incoming dictation has dropped DRAMATICALLY in the last few-to-several months. I know my department isn't outsourcing (yet). Our supervisor says she was blindsided by the drop in volume and doesn't know what's causing it. (And I kind of believe her. For one thing, wouldn't you expect her to be embarassed to admit she doesn't have a clue what's going on? For another thing, she's to the point of admitting she's afraid for HER job.) My employer has had EPIC and Dragon for years, so it's not that one or both of those suddenly siphoned off a quarter of our work. (Though I have wondered if there had been some change to direct entry in EPIC that made it easier for the providers to use it instead of us. Though I'd really expect my supervisor to know THAT much, and tell us -- in the past, she's been pretty upfront about that kind of stuff.)

At least for us, the famine started well before the end of the year, so it's nothing to do with holidays or with people not wanting to jump in and pay their insurance deductibles in January.

Has incoming work dropped off drastically where YOU work? If it has, what explanations are you being offered? And what do you believe is the real explanation?

Some possible causes that I see - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
My very large organization with facilities in every state has an EHR with point-and-click functionality, as well as offering providers Dragon and dictation options. As time goes on, we have increased the number of custom-written P&C reports dramatically--we have employees who do just that full-time. More and more of those reports every day.

The organization as a whole is looking at moving to VR software, not just Dragon on individual PCs. Our transcription has appeared for several years to be just run through VR without any appreciable editing, requiring the doctors to do significant editing,so using our own VR system would be the same, but at lower cost.

We also have more and more physicians who can keyboard just fine, having grown up with computers, even using them in school and residency programs. They're used to the technology and used to thinking it's less work to just do it themselves. They are very good at boilerplating their reports so they can just crank them out.

There has also been a downturn in the number of people seeking medical care. When the economy is terrible and people are unemployed, they can't afford insurance, can't afford medical care, and so forgo it.

I think you may be seeing a combination of things. It might have been a trickle here and there for years, but now the little trickles are joining up.

Overall yes, but this is a SUDDEN large drop - Union MT

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X

My hospital is actually booming. We are on OT indefinitely and had to hire - another MT recently. nm

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nm

Low census - Anonymous

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I work in ambulatory care. Visits are actually up but there is no MT work (except for QA) because it is outsourced and because Epic and Dragon, I would guess it is affecting you too. If you are in an acute care facility, maybe admissions are down, January can be a slow month. I think you are reading more into what your supervisor said than what is actually there. Saying she was blindsided by the drop in volume is a far cry from admitting she's afraid of losing her job. Just a thought, but that's none of your business. Low census means empty hospital beds. fewer admissions/deccreased number of patient visits. What you are referring to (technology) is not low census.

Running out of work, me too but I know - Making a living

[ In Reply To ..]
for a fact the only hospital I do the work for is crowded, not being able to admit patients because no beds. I have had 2 dictators mention this fact so it is not because of lack of patients but who knows, I have not asked. I doubt the company would tell me even if they knew.

Union MT - Anonymous

[ In Reply To ..]
This does not pertain to your question, but I wanted to ask what you meant when you said that your job was not for an MTSO (albeit not for much longer). The thought in this forum seems to be that union MTs will be able to hang onto their jobs when others cannot, so I wondered if you could explain what you mean. Also, wouldn't the union go to bat for your manager? You seemed to imply that she was afraid of her job.

Answers - Union MT

[ In Reply To ..]
"This does not pertain to your question, but I wanted to ask what you meant when you said that your job was not for an MTSO (albeit not for much longer). The thought in this forum seems to be that union MTs will be able to hang onto their jobs when others cannot, so I wondered if you could explain what you mean."

Two things: First, about 1/3 of us have already been laid off, and our supervisor is making no bones about the fact that it's not a question of if, but when, more of us will be laid off, because our work volumes are down so much. Second, our union contract provides that the employer can outsource the work and negotiate with the company they outsource it to to hire us (no mention of guaranteeing work, same wages/benefits, anything). When/if that happens, we will become cannon fodder for M*Modal.

"Also, wouldn't the union go to bat for your manager?"

Goodness, no. I don't think managers anywhere are union. Certainly ours aren't.

"You seemed to imply that she was afraid of her job."

I laughed when a previous poster chided me for jumping to the conclusion (or however she put it) that that is what our manager meant! She (our manager herself, let me be perfectly clear) SAID so in words of one syllable.

Thank you - Anonymous

[ In Reply To ..]
That was me, managers don't usually share stuff like that, so I guess you are lucky although that is probably more info than I would want to know. Thank you for answering my union questions. I think it is good for the MTs here to know that unionizing may not be the answer. I've never belonged to a union so I didn't know if managers were members and as far as going to bat for others I guess they don't. Well, at least you will probably have a job if you choose to go with the new company. My department was kicked to the curb in September and we couldn't work for the new company because they are not US based. I'm working in a non-MT job and doing some QA on the side, so it ended up okay for me. I'm sorry you are going through this and sorry if I offended you before. Thank you for the explanation.

No prob. - Union MT

[ In Reply To ..]
"Thank you for answering my union questions. I think it is good for the MTs here to know that unionizing may not be the answer."

Well, I know that wasn't a question, but I'm going to pretend it was anyway, because it's something to which I've given a lot of thought, actually.

Our union is pretty toothless (sad to say, I think most unions in female-dominated occupations are likewise), and it generally takes incredible perseverance to even get a union rep to answer an email, much less address an issue.

HOWEVER, I have absolutely no doubt, having been watching this all play out for a couple of years now, that we're much better off being union than not. For however long our jobs last, we're making good money -- and our jobs wouldn't have lasted a minute longer if we were non-union, we'd just have been getting paid far less meanwhile -- a LOT less -- until being laid off. (Meaning less money saved and a lower weekly unemployment check.)

Also, even though our union rarely actually DOES anything to stop some of the s**t management pulls, it's pretty clear that the mere existence of the union (i.e. the fact that the union MIGHT take action if things get outrageous) inhibits management quite a bit.

(If this seems strange when contrasted with the fact that our manager sounds unusually candid -- that particular manager is actually a pretty good sort, but she has to dance to the tune played by those above her... and some of THEM would fit right in at either of the Big Two.)

"Well, at least you will probably have a job if you choose to go with the new company."

If you can call M*Modal a job. I've been reading the M*M board for a while now -- for precisely this reason -- and spending 14 hours a day checking the computer in the hope of getting a report or two to edit, then for all of that still ending up with maybe 20-30 hours' work in a 2-week pay period... I just can hardly imagine.

"My department was kicked to the curb in September and we couldn't work for the new company because they are not US based. I'm working in a non-MT job and doing some QA on the side, so it ended up okay for me."

I'm glad -- and again, reading the boards here, I think that when the takeover company "hires" the MTs from the taken-over, it's always just the beginning of a very, very, very nasty story. Sounds like you had a narrow escape!

"I'm sorry you are going through this and sorry if I offended you before."

No prob -- and thanks for the nice response. Having been reading the boards here for a while, I have profound appreciation for what a rarity that is! (Though I do kind of suspect that there are just a couple of people posting here who have serious mental health issues and are always in attack mode... it's just that the anonymity of the boards makes it seem as if they're everywhere.)

Just started picking back up to normal on my accounts - at mmodal.

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/

Census chronically down at our hospital - Tired of being broke

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Our numbers have been way down at the hospital since last fall and to top it all off, our boss hired another lady full time when we only needed her PRN. So our production has been down across the board. Every time I turn on the TV all I see is how the flu epidemic has people lined up at all the hospitals. Not so at this one!

Workload - me

[ In Reply To ..]
Yes, I had a drastic drop in workload, but this was due to physicians taking breaks after the holidays, ones who worked during the holidays while others went on break. I work directly for them and see the patient sheets myself as well as office managers contacting me.

Also, some patients have an out-of-pocket expense at the beginning of the year and are seeing the doctors less while they pay this off (everybody but me it seems, as I get sick this time of year).

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