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LPH and blanks - SS

Posted: Apr 12, 2013

I got a complaint from corporate that my lph are not where they should be via my TSM. I have been at MModal 6 weeks and just got off training. I was hired in at tier 3. My lph are gradually going up every day but not to suit corporate. I do straight transcription, no VR, on Futurenet. A lot of ESL bad dictators. I am still getting new dictators every day I work. It's hard to be up to par when you are still learning dictators. I work on 11 accounts. I think I am spending too much time on blanks though. I go through and type the report and if I need to leave a blank I leave it and then go back and slow down dictation and try to decipher what is being said or google, etc. I am spending at least 3 minutes, sometimes more, looking for blanks. Some doctor names are not in the cc list for this account so I have to google them and sometimes it takes a bit to find them. Should I just look up the name in the list we have on Futurenet and if it is not there just leave a blank? The googling is slowing me down a bit. How much time should I spend on research? They seem to be more concerned with speed than quality. My TSM said these accounts are not penalized for blanks to QA over 5% because I guess they are difficult dictators. So I am not going to be penalized for the blanks but I just wanted to put as much effort as possible into filling in the blanks. I guess that is going to have to change though. I have been an MT for 6 years now and have never had an experience quite like this. Nuance stressed quality for a while and when you learned all the dictators your speed would come with it. MModal is not that way though.

Well, I guess coming from Nuance, you jumped from the frying pan into the fire! sm - broke

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That being said, I worked for this evil company a few years back and was happy doing what I was trained to do until last year when I found myself back working for this evil company. Unfortunately, you have to set your good work ethic aside and if after a few seconds of referencing, leave a blank and go on. You are lucky you are not docked for it like some are, which you don't want to get me started on that. I too want to send a perfect report every time and could if I was given time but this company does not allow that. I do make my line count right now but my abbreviation of the week or TSM are they calling them now??..just mentioned to all of us in our whatever stupid BOB that "corporate is watching." What corporate should do is leave us alone to do our jobs and stop making it more difficult for us to produce quality reports. I refuse to work 1 single second over or before my shift because I don't need the added stress of leaving out an "a" or typing "Patient" when it should be "The patient." This company needs to get rid of the layers and layers and layers of incompetent management that they have to give something to do and LET US DO WHAT WE WERE HIRED TO DO!!! Sorry, this is so stupid already what this company is doing to us. My teenager just started working at a local ice cream parlor 2 weeks ago and brought home a paycheck more than mine, and a smile. No stress, just go to work, do a good job, get your paycheck that you expect and live your life. Why can't Mmodal let us just do that????? Sorry for venting but I just missed out on a job opportunity to get out of here and I'm not happy right now. I'm working on it though!!!

You are doing "too good" a job. - dnr

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For doctor names, if it isn't easily found in the database, I rarely look them up on Google - just sometimes at the hospital's web site.

They usually say spend 60 seconds on word research, but I do spend more time, but I don't have to look up much, and, unless I am really bent on finding out what something is, I leave a blank and send it to QA to see if they know the word I didn't find.

This is for Fluency. I don't know if Futurenet is different.

I remember being told to spent no more than 3 minutes (3 whole minutes!!) on (sm) - broke

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referencing, and sending to QA was encouraged if not 100% sure of something. I know I have to get over the good ole days but I am sure the doctors got better quality reports....

Do you get docked that 3 cents for over 5% QA? sm - broke

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I want to learn from QA. I leave a blank, get feedback, make a note, learn and move on. Now it seems as though we are penalized for not knowing something whether it is a valid term we just do not know or if it is a dictator error, audio problem, etc. Honestly, I think this company is just trying to find more ways of not paying us for the good work that we all do. Evil.

Yes. - nm

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.

I asked the TSM and she said no. - SS

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TSM told me no not on these accts. No docking pay and no 5% rule. I guess they are considered difficult

I wouldn't trust your TSM's answer to that. - You never know

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nm

I feel so relieved some of you feel the same as I do! - Kimberly

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I'm sitting here almost sick tonight reading these blogs - because they basically confirm how I feel - we're being duped! I have 25 years of experience and I have basically no paycheck! I feel that I am being pressured into production, production, production - but I just can't make it all the time when there is no work, so they switch me to another region (new accounts) and I am learning all the account specifics and dictators. My quality scores are majorly high, but my production has fallen just a bit. I'm thinking what is the big rush in putting these reports out as fast as I can when I don't have enough work to even finish my SHIFT! I have gotten two corrective actions now for falling a little below my production goal! My Gawd --- you'd think I committed a crime or something! My current full-time job is at a multispecialty clinic in which I am an MT/QA Specialist (for 7 years), so I know I can't be THAT bad of an employee for M-Modal ... I'm very frustrated and do not want to quit. Do I sound as if I'm whining? Honestly, I'm not --- I'm just stating the truth! Eyi-yi-yi --- any out there have any suggestions?

Think quanity is the name of the game - SS

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Sadly, I don't think MModal is as worried about quality as they are quantity. It irks me to not give a report my all, but if speed is what they want, speed is what they shall get, but they can't have it both ways.

Whoops, meant quantity..NM - SS

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NM

Kimberly, if you don't need the MM job since I - sm

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see you have a full-time job I'd dump the MM job. MM will only bring you down and make you feel bad about yourself. Good luck to you.

I'm on similar accounts... - anon

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I'm also on Futurenet, straight typing, with facilities in seven different states. I'm like you - I hate leaving blanks and some days with bad dictators (who say a complete paragraph in five syllables) spend too much time re-listening and trying to figure it out. I wish we had samples to refer to since I don't always get the feedback I request from MMEs. I also spend a lot of time looking up doctors not in the database, names of nursing/skilled care facilities, unfamiliar cities, etc. However, since learning here about layoffs and the fact that "corporate" is "looking" at numbers, I've been working on this. Also, I remind myself that MMEs can look at past reports, and we can't. So they can find something in seconds that you and I are spending 10 minutes on. My priority now is getting that minimum line count in to keep my job, and so far I've been able to do that. I've also been told that we don't have that QA 5% penalty, thank goodness. If it helps, I was told that if the doctor's name is not in the database, and the hospital they work at is not mentioned, just blank it.

Corporate is obviously just going by statistics and numbers printed out by a computer. I think it's unfair that someone who is straight typing, on a new platform, with only six weeks learning accounts and all their specs, has the same minimum line requirement as someone who has been with the company for years with familiar accounts doing VR. Can corporate be that out of touch with how this business works? Maybe you can ask your TSM to address this. It makes no sense.

We must work on the same accounts. - SS

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And no it makes NO SENSE to have the same line requirements across the board. Granted, 120 lines is not a lot to ask but you have to have time to get there with accts like these. I mean the only samples you have are the ones you get feedback on. If they don't send the feedback, you don't have any samples. Not to mention, the dictators are no walk in the park.

I just am gonna have to start sending more to QA and let them fill them in cause I can't sit there and investigate on google which doctors practice which specialty, etc, trying to figure out a name. From now on, if the name is not in the database, it gets a blank.

LPH etc - barbv

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I just left there, same accounts, platform etc. I told my TSM I could not work without the "tools," not even a spellchecker or a dictionary, let alone a phrase expander!

I have been tempted to do the same! - SS

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I HATE having no spellcheck. I don't like Futurenet. They didn't have a problem switching you to another platform?

LPH/Futurenet - barbv

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I didn't ask - I just quit (am going back to my old IC position).

This is how I feel too - see message

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I got a corrective action for my line counts being barely under. I'm still on the old, clunky system we used prior to being bought out and it's nearly impossible to get the required line counts (straight typing, searching for and entering all demographics, lots of formatting). Every time I go to upload a file and watch that little hourglass for 30-50 seconds, I can almost hear money being deducted from my paycheck. There is no way to get into a "zone" with typing 50 seconds, stopping to add a file which includes re-entering demographics, typing 20 seconds, stoppin to repeat as above, typing 20 more seconds, then checking over all three notes, fixing the formatting issues, waiting 30+ seconds to upload, (all for about 20 lines)and then repeating.

I also told my TSM that I can't do my job if I'm not given the proper "tools" to work with. She completely understood but pretty much said that the powers that be didn't care. That line count is the rule and needs to be met.

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