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Just ended the mandatory conference SA5 - Kiki

Posted: Mar 03, 2010

I realize I may become very unpopular here after saying what I have to say, but so be it. And I'm NOT management, so no accusations, please.....

I definitely have not agreed with a lot of MQ's new "plans," and I'm still going to remain open to change my mind with this current one, but I don't think it's going to be as bad as we think. I mean, haven't we all been griping about SOME MMEs either not being able to fill in our blanks, filling them incorrectly, etc? Well this eliminates that. We do still have QA available but only if absolutely necessary, and we will, starting April 14, have access to previously dictated reports (supposed NOT the useless repository) but a separate thing.

As for the ones who say, "well, I have 90% unintelligible dictators and this is not fair to me"....well, that's not correct. If you have to send EVERY SINGLE report with blanks straight through (and your CCM can later verify that the audio was crap) you CAN do that.

I'm not thrilled about the docking of pay over 5% starting May 1, but I really don't think that it will end up being very much, if anything. Remember, if you have to send a report through because of poor audio, cell-phone dictators, munching on food dictators, then these will not count in that 5% so long as you do not specifically send it through to QA, and you WOULD NOT in this case. So, my suggestion to everyone would be to keep track of the reports you send thru with multiple blanks and the REASON in case you are called on it later.

I do like the idea of getting free Benchmark. Haven't used it but is sounds great. Not so excited about the free ADHI membership, but I'll probably sniff around the site and see if there's anything of use, nothing to lose.

My 2 cents for now...subject to change........

Calgal and I were discussing this below - mt

[ In Reply To ..]
You must have been in the 1st call with her.

The second group I was in didn't even talk pay or percentages or docking and sup had to leave early for a higher-up management conference call.

Very few questions, mainly involving how markers get turned into blanks. Thought it was a rather odd choice of conversation myself, considering pay is on the line.

the free ahdi membership is a good thing. - if you are a CMT you

[ In Reply To ..]
have access to free tests on line covering articles in their magazine to earn your CE credits. (that's quicker than writing an article summary). there are also webinars and such you can attend for a reduced fee when you are an adhi member. i am looking at needing to renew my CMT in the next year so I am really happy about this because i could not afford the ahdi membership on my own this year.

Wow. Can I pay my rent with that AHDI membership. - Great!

[ In Reply To ..]
I am so excited. This will be great for the old bank account. How many bills do you think the AHDI membership will pay?

Just wondering since my pay has been cut in half over the past year. I was hoping I would get a pay increase, so I guess this is it!!!

But what if you know AHDI is a ripoff, and you dont - want to belong to it? nm

[ In Reply To ..]

AHDI sold us out to the Indians. Not many of us want - anything to do with them

[ In Reply To ..]
and certainly don't want them making even more money off of us. Now that so many of us are struggling to make minimum wage, I think that money would have been better to go to the MTs & this is just another slap in the face.

Personally, I'm still VERY leery about it all. - CA-MT

[ In Reply To ..]
MQ is the king of double-talking. There are just too many shades of gray for this new change to benefit us in any way. I've been with the Q for 10 years. I left my last job with EDiX for the sole reason that they docked me for every blank I left. Sometimes you just need an extra set of ears to hear what I can't, and reversely mine can hear what others' can't. But to demand that we all try to think exactly like the supervisor or whoever will be judging our reports is just impossible to ask. Again, there are just too many variables in deciphering vague dictation. The suits obviously don't get it.

Yes, I definitely don't agree with the pay docking, - Kiki

[ In Reply To ..]
even though I think (hope) that for most of us it won't even be an issue given the leeway they will give us to leave blanks. However, you do make a point, sometimes you will just NOT hear something that will be perfectly clear to new ears (or even your own when you relisten) but that just should not be penalized, and this is what seems to be going to happen. I think the way we are going to have to deal with it is to use our "good judgment" as the CCMs say and actually are expecting us to do, and leave a BLANK once we've honestly tried our best to get it. There is going to be a problem here as to WHO decides if we tried our best, but I have to think that so long as it doesn't happen too often, we won't get flack for it. I think they think that this 5% is their way of allowing for this type of blank, but setting a specific percentage is unreasonable and unfair.

I have to say I am going to get a sorta sick pleasure when I get a really horrible dictator and being able to leave his report looking like a piece of cheese and sending it back. Nope, Mr. Mushmouth, you do NOT get to have someone else help figure out maybe 1 or 2 more of your blanks!

Just how MQ is going to decide who is abusing this system and who isn't will be interesting. I mean, are they going to call us on a blank that we thought that QA couldn't get so we blanked instead of sending to QA---and say, "you should have been able to get this one." Who is to say who can get what? Interesting, indeed.......

These new changes do not take away the fact that most of our salaries - have been seriously cut over the past few years.

[ In Reply To ..]
AHDI, Benchmark, none of it takes away that fact that, hey people, we are STILL at square one. With the promise of even more of a pay cut if we ask for help.

If you all are thinking of just guessing -- don't. The client will catch it and that will give MQ a reason to fire you.

If you are just going to push blanks through to the client -- don't. They will ding on that in an audit.

We are in a catch 22 here.

They can RAM AHDI and BENCHMARK where the sun don't shine. Because neither will pay my bills and neither do me a bit of good out in the real world.

Why can't we get raises instead of AHDI and Benchmark? Many of us have not seen raises in years, but have steadily watched our salaries decline.

This all is a thinly veiled paycut by MQ to bring us all down to minimum wage and eliminate the QA department.

I hope the CCMs who are rah rahing this to the masses remember all this when they get fired, too. Because some of them are going too, for sure. The CCMs and the QCs are the only hourly-rate employees left. You better believe MQ is looking at all those positions. They need money for their new EPIC system.

Nothing has changed for us. My world isn't better because I know if I need help I will be punished for it. We are not getting pay raises here. We are getting memberships to an organization which has done nothing for us as a group. Big deal. It don't pay my bills.

And yippe, we can bypass QA. Well can you guarantee who will not need to send a report to them ever? I am an MME. I get to do that anyway -- but this whole deal scares the hades out of me.

Just wait until we all get our first paychecks with pacycuts in them. Then I guess it will sink in. They are telling us to keep tabs while we work to keep an eye on what percentage we are sending. Who has time for all that crap while we are working?

At any rate I thought the bottom line was ALWAYS patient safety? No matter what it took to get that report done correctly keep patient safety in mind always.

Stay tuned. You will see MTs coming on here that are going to be fired for either "guessing" -- which the clients will catch, or sending too many blanks to the clients which was caught in an audit. MQ is gonna weed us out one way or another. Again we are in a catch 22 no matter how you look at it.

I am an excellent employee. Work my agreed up hours, never late, never change my schedule, never take days off until at the end of the year when they tell me I better. I never take the holidays. I never have had anything returned by a client. I work hard and I am proud of my work but something about this all just does not sit right with me. Not at all. It will affect EVERYONE in a bad way.

So how does any of this take away the NJA screens? How does any of this improve the quality of the audio of many of the clients? How does any of this eliminate the very poor dictators that we have to spend so much time on?

We are in the middle of a slow agonizing reduction of the workforce of MQ. The former CBay employees could probably draw us the map.

What a scam. I am not getting excited about AHDI or benchmark because:
1. They don't put the money back in my paycheck that I have lost over the past few years. They won't pay any bills or buy food.
2. What good is Benchmark if the audio is so poor and the dictator is so rude or foreign-speaking that you can't make out any words anyway?

Everyone needs to get out of MQ. It will fall. Cbay will see to it. Whatever will be left will not be much. What a bunch of lying fools.

Not so bad - Euro sepsis

[ In Reply To ..]
I wasn't in the conference call but I tend to agree. Most of the blanks I put in are either problems with audio (dictating on cell phones with the car windows open), discrepancies, medication names that the doctor just spells and can't be verified and other things that I know QA would not get either even before I sent them. There is a very rare equipment name or half-medication that I sometimes cannot get but those can now be verified either through Benchmark or other reports on the patient that we can now access. Those rare few left over will still go to QA and be added to my percentage, but I can't imagine it being nearly 10%, much less 5% of my total lines for the week.

They also mentioned possibilities for compensation for those who exceed the requirements, something everyone has been wanting.

I still don't agree with the percentages being based on lines rather than number of reports but I will have to see how that pans out. I don't think that will be a big deal for me but I can see where it can be unjustly for some.

I'm just going to wait and see.

Sending blanks through - oops

[ In Reply To ..]
Sounds like the CCM is going to have a lot of power. I still think it is a very gray area as to what we believe should be sent straight through and what needs to be directed through QA. Big gray area. Was that discussed much?What I think is unintelligible, CCM may not. Pretty much everything I send to QA now I believe is unintelligible. But if the client complains, you know who will take the fall.

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