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

There goes another MT Department. s/m - mt2

Posted: Nov 24, 2013

I have a sister who is the head of med rec in a hospital in Iowa. This hospital is part of a large system. They are moving to VR within the next year. Those MTs are worried about their jobs. I told my sister to give them a heads up - their $20+/hour jobs will be gone. Their superb benefits will be gone. I feel for them - this is happening to all of us - being paid peanuts for our experience and knowledge. They already have EMR in place and there are patients who, once they've logged into their portals, will call and tell the MR Dept they never had a stroke or heart attack, etc. but it is in their record! I also have seen plenty of mistakes in sample reports. I hope the entire VR industry falls on its a$$.

Know the feeling, I just lost an account due to VR - sm - InkMT

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out $1K a month now, expect to lose the rest soon. Luckily I have another IC job which at the moment seems "secure" and I can pick up the slack there for now, but as we all know that is not truly the case, but at least I am not quite destitute yet. But the writing is on the wall, making plans to get out within a year so I don't have to worry about money so much.

I looked at some of the VR work, it is really awful. Typo's, wrong words, formatting is awful (what formatting). I am curious to know if the "higher ups" will put the screws to the doctors to improve their notes or just ignore the whole thing since VR will save them a bundle on paying MTs. Wonder how long before someone dies due to VR, people blindly follow GPS directions and end up in lakes and rivers, so presume nurses, doctors, etc will follow whatever the chart says (even if obviously wrong)and end up killing someone due to OD or wrong medication. Makes you wonder.

You try to give a heads up, but some people at UWHC - keep their rose-colored glasses on SM

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There will be a lot of crying and hand-wringing come January 2015 and "why didn't they tell us" when the curtain comes down.

If any of you people reading this are from UW, you need to wake up. Don't wait until January. Your manager and supervisors and lead people are doing what they are told to do so they can keep their jobs too. You can't trust anything you're told and the union as it is now can't do anything.

Your cushy jobs with benefits and very good hourly pay are going to be out the window. I'd bet anything the department will be sold out to Nuisance from what I've heard and you'll all be getting the same slave wages everyone else gets per line.

Make some plans, do something to help yourselves. Everyone's going to be cut down, don't think or hope you'll be one of the few left standing. I hate to see it happen, but it's going to.

and the managers will keep their benefits and hourly wage - while you work for peanuts. NM

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NM

Another department gone - nana

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I have a friend who works at St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, part of Trinity Health, a huge organization who buys up Catholic Hospitals all over the country, and this past year they went to VR and these poor women are now constantly having to take days off because of no work, pay has been cut by $6.00 per hour pretty much. Now radiology just went to VR to make the situation even worse. My friend has to use PTO time when work is low and in January that will stop also. She is frantically looking for another job and not having much luck.

She is scared to death she is going to lose everything and praying she find another job. VR is no friend of ours thats for sure.

VR is not my friend, either - Old Pro

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Not so long ago I had a sports injury and had to have some spine x-rays. You should have seen the hodge-podge that came back on the report. It clearly was done on VR, it made no sense, and heaven help them if they have some really serious case that has to go to court or something. Good luck to people figuring it out. I wonder how the radiology department dared send such a thing out? How on earth did we allow ourselves to get into such a mess?

old pro - nana

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We didn't, corporate greed did. They don't particularly care if they get sued, that is what they have insurance for. They don't care if there are errors, that is what they have doctors notes in the chart for. The only thing these greedy hospitals care about is profit. And then when it comes to bite them in the butt, they will cry to the government who will fix the problem.

I work for a clinic and we use two separate - hospitals

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in our town. One is VR and done by an MTSO and the other has in-house transcriptionists. Even if I didn't know which hospital it was from, I could tell you in approximately two lines if it is being trascribed in-house by the people with 30+ years experience or by the MTSO using VR and offshore labor. The difference is unbelievable---sentences that make no sense, words left out, words ADDED, etc. Sad that it is all about the money.

Absolutely. Some advice to readers, from someone who has been through it - sm - In-House Lead

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This very scenario happened to me and my coworkers; it's also happened at every single hospital of size in this corner of the country. (And, the latest trend is the dinky solo community hospitals are all merging with larger hospital systems, so there truly is no hospital which will be immune anymore, so do not think for a minute this will not happen to you.)

It's probably already too late for the OP's sister, but for other in-house MTs who might be reading this: Do whatever it takes to get into a lead position. Even if it's a PITA and/or you don't want the responsibility and are shy and fear the phone and just really want to sit in the corner and type. Do it anyway.

If that's not an option, there's a small chance (very small) that administration might have the foresight to keep on a skeleton in-house crew to work STATs and answer the phones and work the pending queue when the lead(s) is/are off. STATs, phones, and clearing pends need to be covered at least 16/7/365 (and in some places 24/7/365), so this could be what saves you. You need to be learning NOW everything you can about how the software works behind the scenes and about your department's workflow. Make yourself indispensible. Work the weekends, the holidays, swing shift; work when nobody else will.

Five years ago, I saw the writing on the wall and set about placing myself so that I would be the last person standing. Unfortunately, it did come to that.

If you can't be the go-to person for the hard-to-fill shifts and/or a SuperUser of your transcription software, start looking around at other jobs within the hospital for which you're qualified. No matter what, you do NOT want to go work for the outsourcing service. Oh sure, they'll make it sound good and will dangle the work-from-home carrot in front of you. And, hey, you already know the account, so you can just slide right in and start making bucks, they'll tell you. This is also what the MT manager and director will tell themselves so they can sleep at night. The transition period is one of the very few times (perhaps the only time) they'll *actually need you* so they're gonna make it sound good. But it will be disastrous financially. You want to stay at the hospital and continue to be paid hourly... even if it means working in sterile processing.

In-House Lead - Been There

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What you say is absolutely correct. MedQuist ate the hospital I was working for, promised the world (oh, ha, ha) and the rest was like a trip to hell.

EMR errors - HIM Tech

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The first thing I wanted to say is that those errors you are referring to are generally errors in documentation at the time the patient presents for their visit. In many cases the clinical staff (MAs or nurses) enters that information into the record. One wrong click and the patient has had a stroke. I was an MT who now works in medical records. We get calls like that, not only for incorrect entries but also for information that does not get entered at all. The other thing I wanted to say is, in management, even though you may suspect something, it is not usually a good idea to share with staff until you have the details. I hope your sister is not relying on you for her decision making. That VR situation could play out in many ways; some MTs may still be needed to edit, some may move into QA spots and some providers may still dictate. At my facility, they were given a choice; we still have 50 or so holdouts who prefer straight dictation, and some of the new staff members prefer to dictate. Administration is not happy about it but they are permitting it. The last scenario is that some of those MTs may find employment within the facility.
When our layoff came, all but 2 or 3 of us were moved into other positions, benefits intact. We took pay cuts across the board, but nothing too drastic. Going to work for an MTSO at a 50% pay cut is not necessarily the only choice when a layoff comes. The decision to give people a "heads up" is not for you to make, although I know you think the handwriting is on the wall. A lot can happen in the course of a year and it does not necessarily have to end badly.

The heads up is - totally ours to make

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Because your manager or supervisor cannot or will not tell you what is going on, it is up to colleagues and forums like this to give you advance notice, comrades, of what is waiting for you in the new year. Read this board and believe most of it! Management, as this above poster comments, is not your friend. Information is your friend!

First of all, my sister is not a MT. She is the head of a MR Dept. - mt2

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She is in charge of chart reviews, clinic billing among others. She is not a MT. I was NOT giving her a heads up. SHE told me about what was going to happen there. The MTs there are worried and have good reason to be. She knows all about VR and how crappy it is. She sees the EMR of the hospital records.

There will be no straight transcription if the VR goes through. They have already started a couple of MDs in the clinics on it. Those MDs hate it and were told "better get use to it, it's coming."

I was simply stating that yet again, another company will be moving in to take over transcription for another hospital system. More MTs making crappy wages while these companies make millions.

You need to get off your high horse.

Thanks - HIM Tech

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Thank you for pointing out my flawed judgment and thinking. In many facilities, MT falls under medical records. I incorrectly made the assumption that your sister was also MT manager. Feel free to continue to cause more anxiety for people than already exists. I was worried when I went through this and I still worry about when my job will end, but in the end worrying never accomplished anything, it happened all the same. From experience, it takes quite a while from "a couple of MDs" to full blown use of VR. I do chart review myself, so I know VR is awful. I miss being an MT but we all do what we have to do. MTs do not have to accept crap wages, they do not have to go to work for the MTSO. I obviously don't understand that part, but why do people think that when the work is outsourced, they have to go along with it and agree to the new terms? It's rough, but there other employment options. Don't tell me I don't know what I am talking about, because I have been through it myself.

HIM Tech - You are right in saying that the - sm

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the MTs do not have to go to work for the MTSOs, but many do because either they cannot find another job before the outsource and cannot afford the gap in unemployment or they buy into the hype that nothing will change and they will still be doing the same work for the same doctors and the same hospital, but only now be employed by the MTSO.

I was one that bought into the hype and I could not afford the gap in unemployment. I took the job because it was promised to me and it was something I could do in the meantime until something better came along. I understand your perspective on things as well as the OP. It is only natural to worry because obviously things will change whether you want them to or not, but like you said worrying never changes things.

Both you and the OP make good points; just keep in mind that things don't always work out as smoothly as they did in your case.

Luck - HIM Tech

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Thank you for your explanation. I know that I was extremely lucky to have landed on my feet when our department was closed. We were told that we only had 1 year until we would be gone and then ended up lasting 2 more years. I started looking for jobs almost immediately. I didn't know what I was going to do, it was the first time in my life that I was ever facing being out of work. I considered many MTSOs, but there were a number of reasons why that would not have been a good fit for me. I also learned coding in the interim but for me that was extremely difficult to break into, I had more job interviews than I can count. Family members were actually the ones who advised me to hang tough: I'd been there almost 20 years (most of my colleagues longer than that) and my employer "did the right thing" in the end and thankfully I found something that matched my skill set. For us, going with the new MTSO was never an option because they are in India, so that offer was never made; I probably would have done that too, for the same reason as you. I know I didn't need to share any of this, but after all that stress and worry, it was a happy ending. it was many things, but I would not have called it smooth. I do completely understand the worry. Keep your eyes and ears open, apply for everything internally but hang tough, because really no one knows for sure how things will play out. I do have to point out though, that my facility is small compared to a place like UPMC or UWHC, we only have about 2000 employees total, and I am sure it is much different at a big medical center. I do hope everything works out for the best.

Luck had nothing to do with it. You took action. NM - In-House Lead

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Cheers to you!

They should start trying to transfer out NOW. - In-House Lead

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.... not when the announcement is made. By then it's too late. There'll then be a mad rush of 24 people all trying to transfer into the same few open jobs.

One of the first clues that this is about to do go down is the manager and director together will all of a sudden be in a lot of lengthy meetings and will be out of pocket together for long periods of time. That's because they are setting up the handover to Nuisance. A transition of this nature is months in the planning, long before the MTs are clued in.

HIM Tech - roybrit

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Thanks for injecting a voice of realism and hope. Much appreciated.

I see ur point HIM TECH, but unfortunately - that is not always

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the case for some facilities. When this happened to our department, the hospital promised to work with us and told us we could get jobs with the MTSO and that we were more than welcome to apply for other jobs within the hospital. There were 24 of us and sad to say, none of us were placed into other jobs within the hospital with the exception of our department lead because they needed her there for a smooth transition.

the rest of us took jobs with the MTSO, some took the severance package and went on unemployment when that ran out and some found jobs elsewhere. Sounds like your hospital took good care of you all, but not all health care systems operate that way.

Mayo Clinic too - MT

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Mayo clinic is laying off 82 transcriptionists and going with one of the nationals...sad!!

And they Mayo Clinic is disbanding their transcription department too - mdscribe

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Mayo Clinic cutting 82 jobs in SE Minn.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/11/22/business/mayo-clinic-jobs

If your sister values her job - sm

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I hope she doesn't take on your suggestion. Unfortunately, she has no business telling the MTs what may happen especially if she's not their manager, and not involved in the change-over.

There are ways the sister can let the MTs know - between the lines SM

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without actually coming out and telling them. That's how I found out and started putting pieces together and figuring out what's going on at my place.

Any small hint or clue is nothing more than common decency, respect for the employees at least.

VR coming - kt16

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There's time to prepare. Take coding classes. MT is gone!

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