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

VENT on ESLs! - FedUpAsUsual

Posted: Mar 20, 2011

Why, oh why, do I put up with making 7 cents a line trying to understand languages I don't speak? I do the best I can trying to decipher their garbled mess of dictation and then 90% of the time my ESLs dictate in what sounds like what surely must be an underground tunnel, or whisper, or take 3 minutes between words.

I long for all English (American) speaking doctors again, making a decent line count, and getting glowing reviews and periodic raises (which I haven't seen in over 6 years now).

Why do I put up with then getting in trouble when I can't understand what they say, or misunderstand what they say? I'm to the point where I despise this job lately - no benefits, low pay, ESLs and all the problems encountered with getting STUCK with them and then having to deal with accounts on voice rec that make the pay even lower? I hate being my job being jeoparized because I don't speak other languages?

For goodness sakes, they're not going away. Get over - it. Hypnosis maybe? Tell yourself

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I'm okay, you're okay, they're okay. Remind yourself you're a good person and bear malice toward none?

You DO realize people in other industries have accents too don't you? That Americans in other countries have accents people there have to deal with? That a very large portion of the world's almost 7 billion people live away from their birth places and are climbing on and off planes every second? If you can't fix your attitude, your only release from all this self-imposed misery is going to be the grave.

To Get Over It - Lee

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We all could "get over it" if we received recompense in line with our skills and for the aggravation we have to endure. Obviously the globe is shrinking. I would not call the plight of medical transcriptionists self-imposed misery. We are victims here.

LOL@victims! That's what is wrong with this - entire board!

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nm

Lee, OP's not complaining about pay. She's not - even complaining primarily about difficult dictato

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She's complaining about people who are different from her, longing to go back to some imaginary era when our immigrant country was only white and English speaking. Transcription is merely being used as an excuse to post her particular complaint on this board.

Then why are you on it? - ???

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x

To remind myself that I COULD just ..... - sm

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throw my hands up and decide to be miserable like other "victims" here!

No your condescending attitude is what is wrong with this profession! - Should not sit back and just take it!

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You are very smugh and condescending. The MTs are not responsible for what has happened to our profession and our pay. It is the greedy MTSO middlemen who have sent the work offshore and developed the very ineffective ISR programs. We're just trying to do the best job that we can under the circumstances.

I feel sorry for people who think they are superior for whatever sad reason...

I'm not smug nor condescending. However, quit playing the "victim" card and DO SOMET - suggested anyone.....sm

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sit back and take it. Get involved where it matters. Whining and complaining, on this board or anywhere else, is not going to change ANYTHING. I have no issues with her vent, that is completely understandable! I took exception to the word "victim." Last I checked, the door to the profession swings both ways, so if you feel you are a victim, then YOU ALLOWED IT!

We've come thru 30 YEARS of government overly - friendly to business. The entire middle

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and working classes have had and are having their pockets picked. DON'T LIKE IT? Of course there's something you can do.

Stop voting your money into the pockets of an uber-wealthy class. Insist on campaign finance reform. It's now virtually impossible to get elected without selling oneself to special interests first. If even a small percentage of people wise up, it'll tip the balance and make a tremendous difference on voting day.

Your whole theory is - BS....

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P.U.

I guess rape victims allowed themselves to be raped? Accident victims allowed themselves to be run over?

We have about as much power to stop what is happening to us as we have to stop a moving freight train.

Your arguments hold no credence.

OK sunshine...then just go down with the ship - sm

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If you have the foresight to see the "end is near" then are you just going to sit there and wait to drown? THAT is my argument. You are allowing yourself to be a victim. Comparing this to being raped - omg could you show any less class? Go find another job, go find another field, start your own business - THAT is my argument. If everything is so awful in transcription, then you are not a victim, but you aren't showing much intelligence sitting there typing now are you?

''get OVER it'' - pamt50

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My, such wisdom! So wordly wise! Thank goodness YOU are here to pontificate. Try not to run out of cliches.

Another rude answer, not worth reading. - nm

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Excellent point. - nm

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nm

It's the "wonderfulness" of globalism - Old and Tired MT

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I have my own theory as to why we are "blessed" with so many foreign doctors-- especially the hospitalists who can hardly make a simple English sentence. They will be the first to jump on the bandwagon for socialized medicine and will gladly become government employees, since they are already employees of the hospitals.

Another theory: Try researching suppression of - new medical schools in this country.

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It's gone on for several decades, with an effect and intent (hidden behind an excuse of maintaining quality) of keeping physician incomes very high...but eventually resulting in too few physicians to meet the expanding need of a longer-lived population at any price, requiring importation of foreign physicians.

This isn't my fancy. Go ahead and research. Pragmatist

Be careful what you wish for - as they say

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I have some American doctors who are very bad at dictating and it takes me longer to go through their reports. I think it all depends on the individual dictating and do they care whether someone understands on the other end. I also have some foreign-born doctors that when their names pops up I cringe thinking...oh no, but they are so good and I understand every word very clearly.

Hope you have better days ahead of you.

To Fed Up - Lee

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Even if you spoke their language, you probably could not understand them. I speak Spanish and German and still cannot decipher what some of the Spanish-speaking dictators are trying to say. Some of the foreign doctors learned their English in non-English speaking countries and carry with them the accent from their own language and the accent from the country where they learned English. It is a mess. You have my sympathy. These dictators beat us to death mentally. If I were a nurse, I would refuse to do anything they told me unless they wrote it down. Dangerous for the patient. As far as the MTSOs go, they must promise the clients that "their MTs" can walk on water just to get the account. It's a pitiful mess. You have my empathy. Vent away, it is understood completely.

You say it well. - I would add

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not to bust your ass with ESL garbage. Do the absolute best you can with a listen, possibly two and send it in. Perhaps the message will be gotten, perhaps it will not by both the docs and the MTSOs. You desire quality and you want efforts beyond, then compensate accordingly. Compensate.

''not to bust your...'' - pamt50

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This is excellent advice! Very unfair that these unintelligible so-called 'physicians' are permitted to dictate pure garbage while MTs pay the penalty with lower production figures and higher QA submission rates. Excellent advice, though, not to stress.

What you describe is not an ESL issue. I just did the - same on a lazy born-here dictator who is

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important enough at his hospital that his unintelligble reports go through SR so we're paid 50% on them, come out a total mess, and routinely 100% get routed to QA because of his complaints about even one blank. You bet I don't spend a second trying to fill in any of the many questions on them.

MT professionals understand that difficult dictators are just part of the job and are not sidetracked by bigotry into forgetting that this is a PAY issue.

If bigotry wasn't sucking up so much indignation and diverting energy from pay rates, where it belongs--and where change is actually possible--we might actually be able to do something about the pay issue.

Lazy born-here Dictator - Lee

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Oh so true on the lazy born-here dictators. I wish we could just reject those unintelligible dictations without any repercussions, or demand more pay for deciphering? Perhaps assign a difficulty range for each dictator and charge the MTSO/Client accordingly. Am I dreaming? For example for a dictator who cannot even pronounce his or her own name, a $10 per minute research fee to cover the stress and aggravation would be nice. I hope you are not considering me a biggot, I come from a very diversified background, i.e., U.S. Concentration camps during WW II. Facts are facts though. We are being mentally abused being held to a high standard and at the same time working for clients who are audacious enough to think their dictators are good enough to be verbatim.

To the OP: Sweetheart, the US is a nation of immigrants - sm

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your white slip of intolerance is showing.

A dirty grungy one, too. - NM

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