A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry
The MT profession has really gone down the tubes - Fed up
Posted: Oct 30, 2013
The MT profession has really gone down the tubes. I have no desire to do this anymore and that's why I've been training for other things. These Quality Control people have nit picked to the point I just cannot stand it anymore (forgetting "the" or taking out "the") and the other extremely petty crap that they ding for (and it has no bearing on patient care whatsoever). Who wants to work like this anymore (and for the rotten pay on top of that to boot)? It never used to be like this.
gluttons for punishment - I guess
[ In Reply To ..]You're right. It's as though we voluntarily sit at our desks just waiting to be demeaned and abused. A profession in which we used to know that we were valued, that we were smart, that we had a skill that not everyone else could do has turned into a profession in which only the hardest of hearts can survive. It's shameful the way some companies treat their dedicated MTs.
Fed up - kabina
[ In Reply To ..]Yes, totally agree. I lost a good job end of December thanks to VR, got another job within a month and it's been a struggle ever since, all the grading of that BOS stuff which to me shouldn't be something to worry about. It just makes everything so much more difficult, and all for less money and the constant threat and worry of EMR and VR. Sometimes it just drives me crazy. I'm trying to find some alternatives to get out of this. Not to mention how they keep so many people on the accounts that you can't get work, etc.
The Main Reason... - Hanging In There
[ In Reply To ..]....I'm still at this is because I have a toddler at home so it's convenient. However, once she gets in school I may be flying the coup as well--that is if I can continue to make a "somewhat" decent wage until she starts school. I'm making MUCH less now than I did 10 years ago when I got into this profession. I seriously think this is the only profession where you make less and less the more and more experienced you become!
I'm in the same boat - sm
[ In Reply To ..]I have a 3-1/2-year-old at home and I cannot afford daycare or preschool. Once she's in kindergarten when she's 5, I will not be doing this anymore. No benefits, no raises, no opportunity for advancement, and I'm making $1000 less every month than when I started this job 10 years ago. So depressing but I really have no other option.
Same boat - Me Too!
[ In Reply To ..]When my children were small, I was able to work evenings at a local hospital and they stayed at home. It was wonderful. Now that I don't have children, I am still doing this, because I do like working at home and not having to go out into the world and fight traffic, time clocks (I'm an IC), clothes, etc. I have a pretty decent company to work for, but nothing great by any means. Been there over three years, never a raise! Never an incentive! Just a paycheck once a month! Want more money, work more! The thing that forgives a multitude of sins, no VR! Yep, straight transcription, but they are clinic notes, so you know how that can be. I can manage to get 200 lines an hour, but I have to grind it out. Anyway, it is really sad, what this has become, because there are so many really good MTs out there and women and men who truly take pride in their work only to be kicked to the curb! Very sad indeed!
UGH!!! - so tired
[ In Reply To ..]I am in such wholehearted agreement with all of you!! I used to pride myself in my job and the knowledge I felt I had, the skill I felt it took to do this job! I have been doing this for over 20 years and I am making less money now than when I started. There is something very, very wrong with this picture! VR is killing us and making these companies rich! Sending our work overseas is killing us! I used to work in a hospital, but they "downsized" and used an outside company. I can't tell you of any hospitals, offices or clinics that use in-house transcriptionists anymore! All outsourced to these companies that hire so many people, cram us all on the same accounts to that all of the work gets done, they get paid and we sit with no work! I am in dire need of something else but I cannot afford to go to school for it! I put 20 years of my life into this "career" and now I am almost 50 and have to change! I am so tired of busting my ass for less and less pay!! I am so glad, however, to read these posts from y'all and know that I am not alone in my thinking and have some validation!
Kicked to the curb - Me too
[ In Reply To ..]I was kicked to the curb as well a year ago. My employer outsources everything and then it gets sent offshore. We all got jobs, I was asked to stay and do QA, no one went to work for the MTSO. I took a pay cut but do get raises and have a chance to recoup some of my losses. I'm in my late 50s. I studied coding but decided that was not for me. One question that comes to mind, though: When your hospitals outsource, do they make you go to work for the MTSO? I have read posts from so many people saying that when they absorbed the account, they absorbed the staff too, it seems as if you should have been given a choice. Our local hospital (small, 120 beds) still uses in-house staff but they never hire new people (no one ever quits) so it's impossible to get a foot in the door. I'm sorry salaries are what they have become, hang in there.
Outsourced several years ago and yes we - were told would have inhouse
[ In Reply To ..]jobs if we wanted, did not have to take the company job. Out of about probably 10 people I know of no one who decided to take the offer and stay inhouse. Our hospital probably about 350 bed, large. When you take into consideration we not only had our base pay but also were making production then, hard to downsize for hospital pay, probably then would average at least $12.00 less an hour than the MT was making. I lived a good 10 miles from the hospital then and after then moved even further away, probably a good 25 miles now so ok with my decision not to stay.
Tomorrow is a new day - office girl
[ In Reply To ..]I typed while our kids were in school. It was nice to pick them up and take them after school wherever they needed to go. I could always help other moms who worked, taking their kids along. Then the clinics went to EMR and the hospitals went to large national companies. My friend who was a nurse at one of the schools started helping install the new software at the hospitals and told me I would be without a job in 5 years or less. The MTSO decided to pay by report instead of by line, then asked that we pay $300 a year to cover her insurance expenses. Now I am back in an office I worked at before transcription. Even things here have changed. We email each other phone messages. The volume of mail has been reduced to almost nothing. The only thing I am happy about is I am paying off my IRS debt and starting a retirement account at age 50.
Every situation is different - Me too
[ In Reply To ..]Where I work, we had all been there forever. I had been there 18 years and was one of the newer hires. I chose to take a pay cut and stay because I have a great benefit package and would have been losing a lot. Our department was paid well across the board, but with us I thought they were pretty fair with salaries when they placed us elsewhere, I don't think I would have done as well anywhere else, and I never wanted to work at home. We get merit raises, a holiday bonus and usually a cost of living increase, so for me it was the right thing to do. I certainly understand not wanting to make that commute every day.
Ugh - poppy
[ In Reply To ..]There are quite a few hospitals who still have in-house transcriptionists. I work for a hospital (I work at home) and the pay is really good, benefits are just about the best I've ever had, so I am very thankful. I do, however, wonder from day to day if the same thing will happen to use and we will be outsourced. For this reason, I am starting school in Jaunary for Court Reporting/Closed Captioning. I'm 48 and never thought I would have to go back to school, but this VR and outsourcing really worries me, so off to school I go.
Always worked in hosps, went home for that reason. - and it was a lifesaver. Paying for it now.
[ In Reply To ..]Get out after your kids are whatever age you think. But get out.
This is exactly why I started exploring how to integrate what we do - with good jobs. sm
[ In Reply To ..]The contention over the silliest of edits! These are verbatim medical reports, not novels coming through, each needing editing so Bob Smith's hip replacement makes the NYT list of most important everythings. Its a verbatim account. Oh, and that typo? The "an" instead of "and" is not quite as devastating as all freaking that. I have been doing this forever. And it has just gotten to be Stupid Time.
Interesting to hear others experienced what finally drove me away after years in MT - and it wasn't the declining income, not at first. It Wasn't SR. It was outsourcing the jobs to India and the MT program graduates who entered the pool as well.
Those of us in it for years were doomed. The labor pool became so huge, so global with all those implications, that it was OVER. I used to make a great living at this.
I've been seeing reports that are full-on EHR. They are like DOS, kinda simple and primitive but a living, breathing, in-the-workplace prototype. Someone is going to make this better or replace it with something better. But either way, its happening.
The picking combined with the realities of the situation does make a good case for bugging out. And no, it just never, ever, ever, ever used to be like this. Never.
Could you please explain? - sm
[ In Reply To ..]"It was outsourcing the jobs to India and the MT program graduates who entered the pool as well."
I can understand about being upset that jobs are being outsourced to India, but I don't understand why MT program graduates entering the field caused you to leave MT. Are you saying you left because MTSOs began to overhire?
Its market forces! One doesn't want to compete - with the tide. nm
[ In Reply To ..]s
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