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

Miss the good old days of medical transcription - mr

Posted: Mar 27, 2014

I miss the lively atmosphere of a transcription room filled with other transcriptionists, with doctors strolling in and out, joking, grabbing from the tray of homemade goodies someone had brought in to share. I miss the laughing and sharing of stories or the mutual griping about the doctors' dictations. I miss the holiday pot luck dinners and decorations and bonuses. I miss the formal dictating style that doctors used to go by. I miss having a job that was in demand and respected and paid well. When I think back to those times, my heart is saddened as if my best friend died.

same here. remember when we really were a team - and the doctors actually cared...

[ In Reply To ..]
It's a poorly run circus now. The dictations have gotten worse, and we are now considered nothing more than a necessary evil. I never had such self-esteem problems until the mighty MTSO came along. The weekly shame emails about poor team performance sure aren't helping anyone. I want to email back and tell them to consider the source of these errors....vr gets worse everyday and the dictators dictate like they could care less about patient care.

exactly - 16TRANSCRIBER

[ In Reply To ..]
Those are nice thoughts. My first 8 years (a total of 16 for my hospital so far) we worked in-house then they let us go home..but anyway, the doctors used to stick their heads in the door, say hello, give us a hug. They brought reports to us and kindly asked for us to change something. If we had a problem with dictation, we would go find the doctor in the hospital and ask what he/she wanted. Way back then we would periodically chart the reports on the floor and get to make our rounds talking to employees like the janitors, maintenance, doctors, nurses and others. They would say, here comes the closet children. I worked/still work with a wonderful group of ladies. Back, then we were all in our 20s. It was nice. We were indeed appreciated. If one of us had a blank we would all listen to it until it was solved. Don't get me wrong, I like working from home but I am glad I started out like that. I used to have a bet with some of the other ladies in the department that if this one particularly grouchy doctor said hello to any of us we would buy lunch for that lucky person. Nobody ever had to buy lunch...lol, he was a grouch. I would make sure to tell him Good Morning! every time I passed him on the stairwell. Oh, he hated that. Yep, fond memories.

I'm jealous...we were sent home/sold out to mtso - after less than one year in house.

[ In Reply To ..]
That was back in 1999. Seems like a lifetime ago, but it was fun while it lasted.

The good old days - Nature

[ In Reply To ..]
Yep, I remember those days. We took turns charting each week. I loved going on the floor and seeing the nurses. Yes, doctors sometimes brought us pizza. Sometimes after each of us put in our order, one of us would go over to Braums and pick it up. I had a doctor come up to me one day and say "I want to dictate a new procedure," and he did just that while standing right in front of my desk, and me typing it, and having to tell him to slow down. I told him "I know you think I am good, but no one can type that fast with the doctor standing right in front of them." I miss those days too.

Miss the good old days of medical transcription - Vera

[ In Reply To ..]
You described just exactly my old office. I agree with you totally. We were a family and had great times and laughs together. Miss those Christmas parties too and the potluck lunches we had. Doctors would send us such great cookies and such at Christmas. Our office was located next to surgery, so we saw lots of doctors and believe it or not most of them would carry on a conversation with us. I miss my pay per hour and great benefits like insurance at a decent rate that I could afford to cover my whole family for about $250 a month and they also had a daycare too. I used that like crazy for my 2 girls. It will never be like that ever again for most of us. Too much greed now.

I was there too.... - TrampledUnderfoot

[ In Reply To ..]
We were in the basement of the hospital with no windows, which I wasn't thrilled with, but I loved the women I worked with who were patient enough to help a young transcriptionist (I was 17 when I started!). We too listened to each others blanks and helped each other with the difficult doctors. The homemade goodies weren't always a good thing (it was too easy to snack our way through the day), but transcriptionists were a valued commodity and we were appreciated and well-paid. Ah well.

You are making me NOSTALGIC! - chillywinter

[ In Reply To ..]
I, too, remember starting out with the Selectric typewriters and working with a great group when I started in a hospital at age 19. Would not have survived in this field if I hadn't been able to throw my headset over the partition and ask for help from one of my great co-workers. One lady (who I thought was so "old" at the time (she was just in her 40s), just sent me pictures of her at her 82nd Birthday Party! She had been working up until recently in a doctor's office and got hysterical when one of her (much younger) co-workers asked her what "carbon paper" was!!! The doctors really were nice (for the most part) and we even had the monthly "Golden Throat Award" for the best dictator. This is making me cry...

good ole days - mtinmi

[ In Reply To ..]
Yes, those were the days, people cared about each other, did a good job because they had pride in their jobs. Loyalty reigned high in those days too. It is heartbreaking to see what has it become not only for MTs but for all. Has patient care improved? I don't think so, things I hear it is worse, but I guess if profits are good that is all that matters anymore. So sad, I think we all crave being treated with human respect and caring, not just worrying about reaching our lines, being "perfect".

I worked with a residency program - at a university med ctr

[ In Reply To ..]
Those were the days! We actually had a class with the first yr residents to teach them how to dictate! In the 3 yrs they were there, we got to be real friends with some of them. Also, once a year the attending docs held a luncheon in our honor, lots of good food & desserts. Back then, the docs would say,"oh, you fix my dictation, you know what I'm trying to say. Make it sound good." Sad, sad, sad to see us now.

New residents - 16TRANSCRIBER

[ In Reply To ..]
Oh, yes, the new residents that would come through in July at our hospital were so sweet and young. But thinking back on it now, I guess I was the same age they were back then. I'm only 39 now, so I'm not writing this with too much gray in my hair. But anyway, they were so pleasant. They would all take a learning tour of our hospital and make their way up to medical records and introduce themselves. HR would tell them we would help them with any concerns, and we did. They respected us, and we respected them. Got to know them as friends and hated to see them move on. We would teach them to use the equipment and techniques on dictating. When they got in trouble with their attending for not putting in enough info into their reports they would come running up to us asking us to pull up the report to edit it and then they were so thankful that we made it "all better" for them. We got them out of the doghouse many a times! Yes, many good times. Our door was always open to anyone needing us. Come to think of it, we all used to have the biggest smiles on our faces back then. After 16 years of working for the same hospital I see the same patients all the time on my transcription. It is like I literally know them. I can spout off their history and medications if the dictation is garbled. Oh well, nothing stays the same but change. I'm just getting nostalgic. Hopefully, my job will indeed last through the end of the year. God knows what he wants for me so when I am feeling low I just give my thoughts to him and I feel so much better.

good memories.... - MT Long Gone

[ In Reply To ..]
I came in on the end of a good thing, I guess. I became an MT in 2000, never worked in a hospital setting, but got to know many of my co-workers through Email. Then the first company was bought by another company, and we became Spheris. Wasn't bad, but not like what you veterans are describing. Then that fateful day of being sold out to MedQ. It was all downhill from there. I left for another job out of the medical field. I miss my home office lots of days and the Emails from my teammates. My life isn't terrible, but I miss the early years of my MT job. So sad to see what it has become, and what is happening to those I'm still in touch with. It's heartbreaking to see the way a profession has been ruined by greed.

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