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

The EPIC slaughter of transcription has started. - MT and coding will be 90% eliminated

Posted: Dec 29, 2011

Our government mandated and incentivized this to happen. Where was the MT lobby when this slaughter was planned? Now that it's started, everything medical must use EMR by 2016 or face penalties. No one is immune and no one's job is safe or protected. Is there some legal action MTs can take to receive unemployment or re-training benefits. I simply cannot believe that the government would destroy this industry and put millions of mostly women out of work forever.

Can we get something going here?

I work using an EMR platform now and still have a job typing. - sm

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I work on an EMR system and some of the information is already in the system, but some is not. I transcribe the dictation for the information that is not in the system, i.e., whatever the physician wants to include into the report. Generally it is the HPI, the PE, impression and plan. I have been doing this for quite some time on this EMR system, so don't think that MT jobs will be totally wiped out by it. Now, if you're talking about the point and click programs out there, they might eliminate MT jobs as it is just a form that is used and one points and clicks on the options that they want.

Many specialties don't lend themselves to point-and-click systems - nm

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nm

True, they do not. However, the ones that do - looking

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can eliminate a transcription department. This has happened to me.

It eliminated the whole department? What types of reports were you all tying? nm - wondering

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cardiology, radiology..pathology...more to go - looking

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nm

so basically all the clinic work went. Acute care stuff is still being typed? sm - wondering

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consults, ops, histories (basically the harder stuff).

Our department of 25 will probable keep 2 people and they won't be very busy. - 2500 lines a day down to 100 lines a day

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23 jobs lost is slaughter. And it's not like there's a lot of hiring going on. We staffed a hospital that did EVERYTHING. You just wait and see. MTs won't do well. The IT suits will do just fine. AND being in this business for over 30 years means retraining and rehiring is not likely. MTs will starve.

not the slaughter thing again... - histrionics

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The histrionics and hyperbole surrounding this issue have become completely tiresome and counterproductive.

Is there going to be a "slaughter" redux every week now?

The industry is dying; it is not being slaughtered by the government. EMR does NOT mean the end of transcription.

Contrary to your perception, there IS no MT lobby. Nor is there a ticket-taker lobby or waitstaff lobby.

Finally, if "millions of mostly women" lose their MT jobs, how does this put them out of work "forever"??

You only shoot yourself in the foot with this kind of over-the-top language.

thank god a sane voice - mt2

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I was wondering if there were any left!!

will you calm down, this is nothing new.I work in EMR like above poster - and they still dictate fully, hosp&clinic

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they'll still get sued if they don't, just not over medication dosages or lab results.

You better hold on to your job with everything you have - Because jobs like yours are hard to find

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I would trade places with you in a heartbeat. How would you like to be looking for work along with many, many other unemployed MTs?

many of them under- or completely unqualified - is the end of that last sentence

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Sure there are some really good MTs who happened to end up working at the wrong place. However, from what I'm seeing there are more unqualified or poorly-prepared MTs that can't find new jobs because they can't pass tests. They got lucky with the first job but things are different now. It takes real skills to get and keep a job, plus being in the right place.

You would be shocked to know the industry stature of some of my coworkers losing their hospital jobs - There is nothing unqualified about them

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While EPIC does not improve patient care, it does make clerks out of clinicians. I hardly think that's a good use of their time.

When the doc sits with his back to you as he pecks - away on the EMR, why even go? (sm)

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We might as well just call in and leave a message what our symptoms are, and fax them a photo of us. Then they can just mail us some pills.

No need for brick-and-mortar clinics anymore....They could practice medicine from home, over the PC. In their jammies. For chump change pay. Just like we do.

I'm seriously considering stopping going for my regular doctor visits - sm

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I take a medication that requires me to have my blood tested every 3 months. He makes me go in and 'see' him, but he comes in, sits down at the computer, and I don't see him again. It's a waste of my time. I think I'm going to find a way to drop that drug and drop going to the doctor.

Ha! The other day I TOLD my doctor how I wanted my own medication titrated! - he just called it in!

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I think 90% is a little bit dramatic - changed but not slaughtered

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I would say that 15% may be lost and other jobs using the same skills but in a different form will be gained. The downside is the part where we wait till the dust is settled and things become what they will be, until they change again. We'll of course see people panic, some lose jobs and others do very well when that happens next time too.

EPIC slaughter - Kitty

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I worked on accounts for a couple of years that used EPIC and did not lose my job due to that. I lost my work once our company was taken over by one that sent 50% of the work global and then ALL of it.

Kitty, I am so sorry for your loss - I hope you were able to find another job

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nm

Our hospital is going to Epic and we don't - anon

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even really know what that means. Nobody is telling us anything. I originally thought it was a system where we would look up patient info that we needed when typing reports but it sounds like I am totally in the dark about what Epic is or means- can anyone tell me what to expect?

We need to take back our government, and SOON. - nm - Meerkat

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That will not change anything - Not the government doing it

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Everyone loves to point the finger at the government for this, but it's not the government and it's not Obamacare that's doing this. EMR and EPIC very different. All EPIC is EMR, but not all EMR is EPIC.

I have worked on an EMR system for years and they still dictate. I also lost a job at the beginning of this year to EPIC.

All the government mandate says is that clinicians need to go to an EMR system if they want to maintain Medicare income. They are not mandating what type of EMR and they are certainly not mandating that it be a non dictating sort of system.

Blame the government for a lot, if you want, but at least blame them correctly.

I can see the fear that is going on about EPIC, but the word "slaughter" when used in reference to MTs is a bit much, imo. Is the industry changing and shrinking? Yes, absolutely. Will there still be straight typing jobs 5 years from now? Highly unlikely. Will there be more off shore workers than US workers? Maybe, maybe not. Will there still be a need for editors to edit the crap that VR systems spit out? Yes, abso-freaking-lutely.

The MTs who cannot or will not change with the industry and become editors and become much more technologically minded will find new careers or retire. The MTs who can go with the flow and adapt no matter what will still have jobs and very possibly will do well. Only time will tell.

I agree it is not the government. A lot of the doctors - actually want it and really

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do like it. It is a pain in the behind to start up, but once you get a good EMR software going, it is pretty awesome. A lot of the hospitals in my area are going to some sort of system (not EPIC but unsure what the name is) where they are eliminating a good portion of the their transcriptions. One in particular is a VERY large hospital in a major city and also owns other offices. I think their transcriptions just got the boot this month. I agree that not all will go to this, some will stay with the transcription departments, but there is definitely not going to be near the need for transcriptionists we are used to.

let's think about the role of government - for one sane moment...

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What, exactly, does the government have to do with this?

When small mom & pop shops were displaced by big-box stores, was the government responsible for that? When the local butcher went out of business because a grocery chain moved into town, was the government responsible for that? When automobile manufacturers took jobs out of Detroit in favor of Mexico, was the government responsible for that?

Companies and industries are allowed to conduct their business in any way they see fit as long as they are not breaking the law. Change happens; we have to adapt or fall out of the gene pool.

Of note, I AM one of the newly unemployed. After 12 years of well-paid service in a multiphysician specialty practice, I have been laid off.

The government is not to blame. EMR is not to blame. Voice recognition software is not to blame. The blame lies with the physicians who would prefer to ditch a salary and forfeit quality assurance and patient care in order to increase their profits. And you know what? That's not against the law, either.

Don't talk about coding unless you are a - Coder

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You are making assumptions about coding that are inaccurate. What you are calling "coding" is really a clerical billing function. Without an EHR, doctors check off diagnoses and procedures on a paper charge ticket, then a clerical worker in his office enters them on a bill. With an EHR, the doctor checks them off on the screen and the EHR generates a bill. Less is required of the front office staff. However, that staff does not include a coder. It often happens that the office staff glorify the billing function by calling it coding but it is not true coding.

Just so we are clear, a coder is the person who consults with that doctor to advise what codes to include on the charge ticket, whether it is in the EHR or on paper. The coder provides instruction on correct use of the codes and audits the coding and billing done by the office. This can be a consultant position for a small office or a full time one for a larger office. A medical center might have 10 to 50 coders doing recoding of complicated services and 5 to 10 auditors. No facility in its right mind would bill what a physician coded without checking it.

There is also the entire field of inpatient coding that is completely different, as well as coders who specialize in chargemaster development.

My faclity has been fully electronic for years. Most office notes are point and click. Acute care notes especially long ones, are still dictated. We have a huge transcription contract.

You mentioned funds and opportunities for retraining. The federal government DID work with AHIMA and colleges to develop training programs for IT related to EHRs. There are jobs for people who can develop point and click templates, and who can install, maintain, and train EHR users. MTs would have a lot to contribute to that.

There are options for you and every one of them would be interesting and worthwhile. However none will seem suitable to a person who only wants to focus on paranoid, irrational fears and on dragging others down with herself.

Stagnating in a job has never been a good idea. Your fellow MTs who chose to advance and learn new things are profiting fom all these changes that you fear. Your current skills can be used in different jobs. You just need to be willing to exert the effort to get out of your MT chair to do it. If you only want to gripe and generate hysteria, then you will suffer and you probably deserve to do so.

something going where? - MT2

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Stomping our feet (or writing letters to our Congresspeople) will not stop technology. Unfortunately, MT is a job that was designed to be done away with by technology and eventually, that will happen.

However, what is mandated is an ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORD. Many entities have been using an EMR for years. Back in 2000, I worked directly in the client's electronic medical record.

All this Chicken-Little-ing is crazy making.

IF you are a truly good MT, well-rounded, and productive, YOU WILL HAVE A JOB DOING MT.

Geesh......

Narrative dictation can interface with EMR... - see message

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EMR does not necessarily mean it is a point and click entry by the clinician or doctor. It means that the medical record must be able to be accessed electronically (not just in a paper chart). Electronic Medical Record.

No need for hysteria.

Some of the MTs know what they are talking about...sm - wise1

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To call people hysterical and talk "down" to them is doing a great injustice, they may have already been affected by the Epic system and know of what they speak...sounding know it all, does nothing at all for anyone.

But not everything is going to Epic - sm

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Therein lies the hysteria. There are many systems out there - Epic is just one of them. There is no mandate to use Epic. There will be no "slaughter." I understand that this particular thing has happened to a some MTs, but come on now! The hysteria is ridiculous. MTs will always be needed ALWAYS! Maybe not in the numbers there are now, but there is a place for them (us). I look at it as like where I live. Booming economy and housing. Built a crapload of houses with thousands (literally) a month moving here. Drove the prices up so high no one could realistically afford them and then BAM! The market takes a gigantic nosedive (no hysteria here, all fact) and there are thousands of empty homes all across the valley. People move out, the prices drop to where the American dream is almost within reach. The MT field is way over-saturated and has been for a long, long time. This is like mother nature - time to clean house and balance things out.

I think you are right that there is always going to - be a need in some sort of

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fasion, but not nearly as many. What I have seen is that there may be a really good MT on an account that goes EMR (I mean the type where transcriptionts aren't needed), and then they are pretty much out of work. They don't go taking MTs that aren't as experienced or as good off of an account to put the really good one on another account. There are some that think all good MTs will have a job, and I really don't think that is necessarily the case. I see it as a luck type of thing. I do clinic work, so this is a really affecting the clinic aspect right now.

Well, I know what I'm talking about too. - see message

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And I am entitled to my opinion that the OP was being hysterical by referring to the "epic slaughter" of MT by EMR. Actually, you were speaking "down" to me. The pot calling the kettle black? I think so.

Hope you've learned ops! (nm) - CMTx2

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