A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry
hanging in there - old timer
Posted: Mar 07, 2010
Umm. Some of you MTs seem to think you are doctors. Grow up! You aren't the doctor, and neither are you responsible for ANY physician error that ever occurs, even if you did type a mistake.
This is about making a decent living, doing the best job one can, conscientiously, and not losing hope in this profession.
I didn't say WILD guessing. I said EDUCATED guessing.
I already send almost nothing to QA, produce an average of 2000 lines daily, and have never once in over 15 years scored less than 98% accuracy on an audit.
This was friendly advice to encourage you in hope and persistence, not to encourage irresponsibility with medical records.
If you can't make an educated guess, then don't. You are probably one of the MTs they are trying to weed out with this new policy.
Do the best you can, but don't just stand by like an imbecile while they dock your pay, when THERE IS something you can do about it.
Just my 2 cents. If the advice doesn't feel right to you, don't take it. I wish you all well. Some of you probably do have skill levels so low that you are not capable of making a decent living as an MT, and though it might be a painful transition, MQ might be doing you a favor by weeding you out. You likely will be and already are TOTALLY MISERABLE if this applies to you.
I personally am a happy MT. I love my job. I make great money with MedQuist. I always have. How many of you can say that? So, perhaps, just perhaps, I might have a bit of wisdom.
We old timers HAVE suffered in this industry, and many of us have gained quite a bit of wisdom and actually are HAPPY AT MEDQUIST!
I personally am looking forward to seeing what the financial rewards will be, soon to be announced, because I plan to use FIRST TIME RIGHT as an opportunity to increase my income. You should be thinking along the same lines.
Don't always fear the worst, people. The glass can be half empty, or half full. It is up to you.
Again, hang in there if you can. If not, get out as soon as you can and find a job you will not be miserable with.
Are you an MME? If not how did you avoid it? - xyzzz
[ In Reply To ..]Seems like after such a long career you'd be in qa. 2000 lines at 3 cpl is equivalent to minimum wage for me, doing the MME work which is mostly what we have now in South/SA4.
lines/wages - not OP
[ In Reply To ..]When I started editing I pushed myself up to 2200 a day to produce a wage I can live on after paycut, after paycut. My hands gave out, I cannot produce more than the minimum 1200 a day. There is hardly any QA work, I averaged about 2000 and when this new dock in pay program rolled out, I was under 1000 QA work. I'm assuming everyone is too frightened to send their work in anymore. I've decided not to kill my hands anymore and preserve them for school, produce the minimum to get by.
I would like to know how you do that when - anon
[ In Reply To ..]my experience has been consistently that even if I so much leave out a THE or an AND, I get called on it, called a minor error or even a major error. So I try not to miss even the tiniest word, and it would certainly be a CRITICAL ERROR if I guessed and it was wrong, and they will be doing audits, so how does that work for you? I have even been marked MAJOR ERROR on words that were not there, the person checking heard wrong, as I have relistened over and over. Twenty-some years experience and 98.5 or higher accuracy, so I don't know how it is okay to give an educated guess. Worked for YOG before MQ bought them, and was considered great transcriptionist, not new at this, but can't please the Q anymore.
This is true - accuracy
[ In Reply To ..]I wonder about some of these posts and who they are. I had over 98% on my last 4 audits and then this month I got called on leaving a word out and then one time I am told that it was downgraded because whoever looked at the report would know it was a typo but then another time I am called on something that was critical because there is one word omitted. Auditing and transcribing are done at two different speeds so it would be easy to get all the words all of the time if one was auditing.
You must have the same QC as me. - Gotta be.
[ In Reply To ..]I get critical errors for skip markers that have less than 6 words under them.
You can't win for losing at MQ.
In training my group was told put a skip marker - for 5 words and up... NM
[ In Reply To ..]NM
QASAR feedback - old timer
[ In Reply To ..]Listen, the QASAR feedback is all over the place. You MUST IGNORE THE HYPERCRITICAL feedback from MMEs. These are NOT the people who will be auditing you with a score that matters. I have found more often than not that QASAR feedback (when I get it rarely) is just as likely to be wrong as it is correct. I laugh and giggle at it. WHO CARES! IT DOESN'T MATTER. I feel I know more than most MMEs. So what! Doesn't matter. ONLY AUDIT SCORES MATTER, and I have NEVER seen hypcritical audits like you are talking about. CRITICAL ERROR FOR LEAVING OUT AN INDEFINITE ARTICLE. That's ridiculous. If that happens to you, you need to have a calm and polite conversation of protest with your superviser.
REMEMBER, WHAT THE MMEs WHO SCORE YOUR WORK IN QASAR DOES NOT MATTER. YOU MAY WELL KNOW MORE THAN ANY GIVEN MME. LEARN FROM YOU CAN FROM IT, BUT TAKE THAT QASAR FEEDBACK WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. IT AIN'T THE GOSPEL, LADIES!
Learn to laugh at things like this instead of getting worked up about it, as it has no effect on your auditing scores.
The MMEs who do this do NOT represent MedQuist's disapproval of you. Stop thinking like that.
If you are a great MT (as you probably are), and you feel you have been unfairly audited, then you can discuss that with your superviser and show evidence from client profiles and Book of Style to prove your point.
Honestly, MedQuist doesn't want everyone to fail.
Get it? These MMEs who do all this QASAR feedback are at the bottom of the QA totem pole, not the top -- and frankly, what they think just absolutely DOES NOT MATTER!
I SAY GUESS. MTs are so afraid of getting something wrong and being caught in a mistake that they lose confidence and become unwilling to "guess" even about things they KNOW DAMN WELL!
BE BOLD... GUESS. DO YOUR BEST AND LEARN TO TRUST YOURSELF.
Oh, I get it all right, as if anyone will call me back! - anon
[ In Reply To ..]Used to work in a hospital, it was great, we could leave out an and or a the, etc. We did everything, transcription, xerox reports, mail to doctors, charting, speaking to doctors if we had questions, check with pharmacist about medicines and patient if there was a doubt, we did it all and no one looked over our shoulders and criticized us, they were very happy with us. MQ could not care less about us as individuals, its money, money, money, and more money, for them.
QASAR - FTMT
[ In Reply To ..]I beg to differ. I have gotten a critical error for omitting an "a." I have also been given a critical error for not including a "the" at the beginning of a sentence in spite of the fact that the MD had begun the sentence with "patient . . ." How very fortunate for you that you have a auditor who is so understanding.
Hahaha. Sorry. I just got in trouble for - putting THE before patient.
[ In Reply To ..]When clearly the dictator stated Patient before the sentence. Yet I was told for 20 years to ALWAYS put "THE" before the patient whether dictated or not. OH MY GOSH! It surely is going to affect the patient some how, right? HAHAHAHAHA. What a joke!
Most contradicting place to work.
Talked to manager. - About a raise and first time right.
[ In Reply To ..]I agree with you. I also want to take advantage of the first time right, pay increase and benefits.
I had a talk with my manager. She said I was too high on the totem pole to get a raise. The last raise was in 2001 and guess what? The initials TM who signed the fist time right gave me that raise almost 10 years ago and now they say I make too much.
Long story short. Even though I too have 98% accuracy, work my hours, 2% submission rate on my QA, been at this for 25 years, do not call in sick and work every holiday and on a list as one of the best of the best, I will not get a raise nor will I get some of the benefits because they tell me I make to much and one of the highest on the tier.
Well then, all of you must be extremely grossly underpaid. I by all means do not feel I am paid high, but underpaid myself and deserve at least a cost of living raise from 4 years ago, let alone 9.
So, gone back to school and out of this profession. Good Luck to all of you. There will be no pension for me, no health benefits and basically nothing if I stay in this field, just a guarantee of more pay decreases as this is what it has bee like for the last couple of years.
You know - that
[ In Reply To ..]Person who you mentioned her initials? Shame on her. I understand she came up from the ranks. Well if she did, she certainly forgot where she came from.
I was told I was too high in the ranks, too, to be able glean any raise or anything more than what I am busting my butt to do right now.
I am on my way out, too. But I just have to say, shame on her for forgetting where she came from, if I was told correctly. She has a short term memory.
It doesn't even make sense that First Time Right will - doe
[ In Reply To ..]increase our income. Who wants to do it first time wrong anyway? Usually blanks are left and things sent to QA for patient safety because the transcriptionist cares very much about the patient. How can people be talked into believing 1 cent a line is as okay as 4 cents a line? I sure don't buy that. You know what Judge Judy asys, don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining. And this is being done for patient safety? Wanna bet?!
This is a thinly veiled pay cut. - You are absolutely right.
[ In Reply To ..]If anyone thinks they are going to get some kind of decent bonus - they need to think again. Why would MQ suddenly have a change of heart about bonuses? Does anyone really honestly believe that they want to give us MORE money in our pay? Their system of bonuses has been truly a joke anymore.
And yes, you should be able to contact your QC, CCM, QA, MME or SOMEBODY in the system if there is a question in the report concerning patient safety. But no, they can't do that because it will mean PAYING enough people to do that and they want to do their best to cut their expenses which means cutting personnel and our pay. They do need to cut expenses big time. They have a lot on their plate right now with Spheris and their new EMR system.
I am insulted with the title of this whole program, too. "First Time Right?" Are they saying we have been doing it WRONG the first time until now?
BEFORE CBay, BEFORE the national pool, BEFORE the firing/demoting of QATLs, BEFORE the firing of production supervisors -- the clients got their reports, the reports were done correctly because EVERYONE knew their clients and could type them with their eyes shut, and there was SOMEONE to answer the phone or the email when you needed help.
Why did they fix what wasn't broken to begin with?
Oh, that's right -- they got hammered by a couple huge lawsuits and had to pay up -- then a bunch of Indians grabbed up what was left of this shamed company and decided we were not going to make more than our ILP counterparts. Thus, all the ingenious changes we have seen in the past couple of years.
It is not about getting us more money. All of this FTR crap is about keeping more money for themselves and their projects at hand while keeping payroll way down. This new program has effectively eliminated an entire department of employees. Some from QA have stayed on but many have left.
If anyone out there believes different, then they have lived a very sheltered life to say the least and have not been paying attention to the goings on with MQ the past couple of years.
Good luck to anyone out there thinking that they are going to reap some kind of reward from MQ. Don't hold your breath.
Recently terminated from Medquist - laneyg1023
[ In Reply To ..]I am in total agreement with you. I have worked at Medquist for the past 12 years and unfortunately I have been quite sheltered. Over the past few year, my salary has been cut in half. I have only learned through this forum that some MTs have gotten raises. I was told by ***** that the company is not giving any raises for anyone, including management. My husband saw this coming many years ago. This is all about more money in their pockets, and the career of medical transcription is essentially dead as far as I'm concerned.
Good luck to you,
******
terminated after 12 years? - why
[ In Reply To ..]geez.... I have been here just over that. Am I next?
Sorry
perhaps terminated for posting inappropriate info - mt
[ In Reply To ..]on websites like this, such as your supervisor's name. Wow. If you don't have enough sense not to do that, what else were you doing inappropriately over your 12 years with MQ.
ha ha...there are really no "financial rewards" - out there
[ In Reply To ..]Just be happy with your job that you love so much. That should be reward enough for you.
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