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

Waving the white flag.... - Dejected

Posted: Jul 05, 2011

I have finally given up on this career after a very dedicated attempt to make it work. I have been working in this field for over 10 years now and am a very conscientious employee who rarely misses work but it is time for me to surrender, I guess. I don't understand how anyone can make a living on 4 cpl for VR. I don't even have any drive left to work anymore because I can't make any money anyway. My husband thinks I am crazy for sticking around as long as I have and I am somewhat embarrassed with the situation I find myself in at this point. Honestly, I think my company is probably hoping I will just quit. I am a very good transcriptionist, but I guess there is just no place for me anymore with the VR future. Greed is such an ugly thing.

I agree - NJMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I agree, although in my area physicians and hospitals still pay really well in-house.

Good luck.

white flag - thankfulmt

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I agree too in respect to the way so many MTs are paid. It is so unfair. I am very fortunate because my hospital pays very well and excellent benefits. Couldn't ask for better.

Mine Flag Started Waving January 2011 - --

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It really is embarassing to see how so much hard work and dedication to a field has not been worth it. The pay is just too low for the number of hours needed for a decent paycheck, even $10 per hour. Medquist is advertising that starting salaries are $30,000-$50,000 dollars for an MT. Definitely a lie and false advertising. I refuse to tell anyone I even worked as an MT.

I drew the line the first time I saw an ad for 7 cpl - and made the break

[ In Reply To ..]
I had considered making when the cpl went from double to single digits. I am still dealing with the aftermath, but have become good at translating job skills on a resume when responding to a related job posting. Temporary work and job placement counselors can be really helpful when taking the first steps out of the slave camp.

Slave camp is totally correct! - --

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I usually state that I did professional editing. This is no longer a profession because working some fast food jobs pay more. This is really true because in some areas (D.C., Boston, Chicago), these jobs must pay $10 per hour.

waving the white flag.... dejected - anon

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I agree. I thought I'd seen it all when I was working for a company that wanted me to learn how to transcribe according to the UK and Irish guidelines. Apparently, the account had been in the Phillipines prior to coming to the US. The manager told me their work was better than the US, and I said to myself, "hmmm, I wonder what kind of offshore QA she's done?" I've done quite a bit of QA on this work from overseas and it's pretty bad, then I received her feedback, that said it all! Even though it was promised that the dictionary would take care of the language differences and not to worry, and a new platform was only days away, (8 weeks later and no new platform). The pay was 8 cpl to work on old templates, templates that deducted lines before you even started the report, and those lines were most always headers or lines that had to be deleted or some of them actually had previous patient names and addressed in them. The company did not provide a way to count lines, we had to wait two weeks before getting a line count, and it never matched what I had when I kept track on my line counter. When I questioned this the first time, they admitted something was incorrect but the second time, never even responded to the e-mail. I know after 25 years in this business that I transcribe more than 50 lines an hour and can transcribe more than 6000 lines in a 2 week pay period! After the constant e-mails about new words to put in our spellcheck root directory to make sure we weren't transcribing like American MTs, Gee, I wonder why we did transcribe like Americans? Ya think? I packed it in and left. Nice people though, just poorly managed company. If they'd get their act together and hire someone who could handle the account, and a CEO that would listen, they'd have a winner. So, I am now doing QA for a very nice small business, making in three days what I made in 10 for this other company. And I like QA, but the quality of work these days leaves a lot to be desired and I can certainly see how MTs feel discouraged when they get an 8 minute report and you can understand every other word. We're not paid for quality anymore we're paid as warm bodies in chairs. So, MTSO's want 8 cpl as an IC, you're going to get 8 cpl, that means we don't do more than a 10 second search and we don't hit the rewind more than once. You want more, you pay more and now with the offshores wanting as much as we make in the US, (or almost at much)the MTSO's are in a pickle. They can't get quality US MTS to work for what they offer, the other day I saw 6 cpl for acute care not VR and was appalled.

I am glad to see the change coming though with MTs holding their ground and not working for below minimum wage. Let's face it every medical facility has to have some kind of transcription, there may be less jobs but the jobs that will be actual transcription hopefully in the near future will pay more. Everyone cannot possible afford that expensive Escription or the other platforms, and the doctors HATE VR, and the EMR, well that's a lawsuit waiting to happen, and that will soon be a new job for us, reviewing the EMR for accuracy. I've seen that coming.

For now I'll do my hourly QA three days a week and supplement with EBAY, which is fun and makes up the difference.

Full time MT, FORGET it, don't even try to make a living in this business, it's great part-time, but never full-time. You'll work yourself to death, and make minimum wage, if that. The new grads make as much money as the seasoned MT, now to me there's something wrong with that picture. In any other profession, or most of them anyway, we're compensated for our experience, but not here! Warm body is all the MTSOs want, evidenced by the constant ads with their revolving doors, ya think they'd get a clue, right? Well most of them have clueless managers anyway so.......they need to pay the managers on production and then maybe they'd be available when you need them.

MT TERRIBLE business to be in, no respect, no quality, and greed all the way around. And my last comment is if there is no money in this business and the MTSO's have had to take such a pay cut how can they afford to pay their managers 50K a year, and themselves live in gated communities and take European vacations every year! Yeah, right they aren't making any money..........

Good for you, Dejected. Good people are being defined BY their ability - and willingness to find better work,

[ In Reply To ..]
leaving behind a higher percent of older folk like me who just want to hold on a while longer--but tend to have more of the health problems that come with age--and others less desirable for various reasons whose personal issues keep them from doing better.

Maybe not yet, but eventually, all you guys'll be missed by this industry, although probably not vice versa.

On entering it myself, I got the strong impression that a lot of people who have what it takes to do it well had to be underachieving big time. :) So, good luck finding something that really interests you and is worthy of your abilities.

This could have been written by me... - Old MT

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I could have written this post. In fact, I did on the main board under heading "My MT career is over." Last day was June 30. Everything you wrote could apply to me. I was good, very good, but I was flogging myself everyday to make a living. Can't do it anymore. Now, I'm taking a summer break and will look in the fall. Not sure it will be MT though.

Well said - done also

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Completely agree. Been doing this for 20 years and tired of it. Low pay, bad systems, ESL docs, screaming supervisors. DONE! I'm also very good at my job, but guess that doesn't matter much anymore. Let the offshore people do this work. Good luck.

Well said - Sally Sue

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Has anyone encountered surly support staff - doesn't that make you mad. Especially when there is no reason for it.

Going through same thing, after 35 years as MT. - Any motivation to work is long gone.

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Signed up for AHIMA classes today. Let MTSOs try to sell - their product as high quality with staffs of

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continuous waves of newbies and the sort of people who flooded in looking for a way to not work. They'll be forced to outsource to the Philippines just to get more people who can and will do a decent job.

I feel more "stuck" than most MTs (sm) - Maggie

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My husband & I hope to purchase an RV and travel around/across the country next year. So I need to hang on to whatever work-at-home MT work I can get, so I can do it from the RV. Otherwise, I would be looking for outside work with steady hours, and steady and reasonable paychecks.

thats not more stuck... that is more fortunate - some dont even have homes

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let alone the luxury of traveling around the country!

That still sounds like a lovely plan, Maggie. Just continue - to think of it as your choice. After

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all, it was always a tradeoff, but MT can still work for those who can afford to trade off yet more for something worth it. I always thought we might do that some day ourselves--a trailer, though, settling in various places for a few weeks.

Instead, I'm taking courses so I can move on to a job with at least the income I used to have, but we have a tiny vacation place on the coast and I can't work both places if I'm tied on-site. My real hope is that eventually more work will go home as energy and other costs rise, etc.

You'll have to come post to the stayathomes about your adventures working in blizzards in the Rockies and the people you meet in Walmart parking lots. :)

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