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

Need to Interview an MT - 1wickedmind

Posted: Nov 14, 2013

I am looking for a Transcriptionist (whether recently employed or been working as a transcriptionist for years) to interview for my final semester to understand the changes and demands of the transcription filed. I also want to know how you feel about the way things have changed. You can either reply here or through my email Some questions: 1. What education and/or training did you go through to become an MT? 2. Where are you employed (hospital/clinic) and how long have you been working there? 3. How long have you been working as an MT (if different from 2)? 4. What type of activities are avilable for MTs to gain additional knowledge? 5. What types of changes in technology, education, and anything else have you experiences since you began your career as an Mt? 6. Has HIPAA changed the way you perform your jobs? If so how? 7. Are you a member of AHDI? What is your opinion of the site? 8. What is your opinion about credentialing for MTs? (Degrees, certificates). 9. What characteristics (personal and professional) do you feel an MT must possess? 10. Where do you see the future of medical transcription going? 11. Do you agree schools should continue to offer Medical Transcription as a degree? 12. How do you feel for the rate of pay as it is now? 13. On average, how many lines per hour do you think should be the goal for newly certified MTs? 14. If you could give one piece of advice for newly graduated MTs, what would it be? 15. What would your advice be for people thinking of going into the medical transcription field? 16. Have you enjoyed the career and what you have learned thus far in your life? (Is it rewarding?)

Are all the new students are coming from the same school - or this is a standard set of questions SM

[ In Reply To ..]
complete with spelling and grammar errors from some textbook? Given from the same teacher? Seems like this is the same list asked every time when a new student comes on and asks to do an interview. Looks like a standard set of questions that could be applicable to almost any field if you change the name of the field and such.

Experienced MTs answers never seem to change, though.

Too bad more wanna-be's don't ask these questions before wasting their money on any kind of MT course at any school. Or, you'd think word would kind of get around about how badly this field sucks and people would get a hint.

Also, why do students come here? Why not go - to a local hospital or clinic SM

[ In Reply To ..]
to ask their transcriptionists?

Oh yeah, the instructors that direct them to this website know very well there are barely any MTs on site at any facilities and to go search for on site MTs would throw the fact right in the students' faces with the truth.

That's why.

My thoughts exactly. I had to call around hospitals and interview in person when I was in school. - no hiding on this board for me

[ In Reply To ..]
I had to put in the work and call every place I could think to find an MT, and when I finally did, that MT was nice but her supervisor at the hospital was mean and I disrupted their schedule because they had so many reports to get out. They had at least 10 MTs in that department and I interview only 1, for less than an hour. Whatever. But yeah, I had to actually call a place, drive to a place, and speak to an MT in person. Must be nice to do it on here.

Anwers... I learned on the job in the 1980s. I was employed - MT57

[ In Reply To ..]
at a hospital and then by a service before going home. I was one of the first to go home as a trial. I have been an MT for 25 yrs. I learned on a typewriter, then word processor, and now of course Internet. HIPAA just adds more rules and regulations, as does ANY government intrusion. I am not a member of AHDI. I think it's a rip off. I have no credentials, as I do not think in general you can earn more money. I think you need to be able to focus and have good research skills.

I see the future of MT as more tediousness, more technocrats trying to find ways to reduce the need for the MT. I make the same as I did in 1992. I don't want to discourage anyone, as my vantage point is different. I used to be able to make a pretty decent living, but not now.

Good luck.

1wicked mind - I have answers for you

[ In Reply To ..]
1. What education and/or training did you go through to become an MT?
Associate's Degree.

2. Where are you employed (hospital/clinic) and how long have you been working there?
Remote MT for a major hospital in another state for 7+ years. At one time, I had a great office MT job, was paid hourly with great benefits and, get this, respect. Those days appear to be over.

3. How long have you been working as an MT (if different from 2)?
25+ years.

4. What type of activities are avilable for MTs to gain additional knowledge?
My activities "available" these days mainly involve ones that will assist with my exit from MT.

5. What types of changes in technology, education, and anything else have you experiences since you began your career as an Mt?
I have "experienced" many changes in technology. I started with a typewriter years ago. As you probably know, technology has evolved to speech wreck, which is good for the MTSOs, bad for us poor working MTs. Regarding education, I would not spend another penny on MT. However, I am spending what little money I have to spare on a new education to get out of MT.

6. Has HIPAA changed the way you perform your jobs? If so how?
N/A

7. Are you a member of AHDI? What is your opinion of the site?
My opinion of the "site" is that they have contributed to the demise of MT as we once knew it.

8. What is your opinion about credentialing for MTs? (Degrees, certificates).
Please see #7.

9. What characteristics (personal and professional) do you feel an MT must possess?
Ability to work independently, research skills, although please see #5. I plan to use those same skills and more once I graduate and leave MT, which will be very soon.

10. Where do you see the future of medical transcription going? Going, going, gone very soon. I do think there will be still some editing jobs and some straight transcriptions jobs here and there, but the pay is ridiculously low and falling.

11. Do you agree schools should continue to offer Medical Transcription as a degree?
Absolutely not and do you mean a degree or a certificate?

12. How do you feel for the rate of pay as it is now?
I feel "for" the rate of pay disgusted.

13. On average, how many lines per hour do you think should be the goal for newly certified MTs?
I have no idea, but either way, newly "certified" MTs should expect minimum wage or less.

14. If you could give one piece of advice for newly graduated MTs, what would it be?
Please consider going back to school for something else.

15. What would your advice be for people thinking of going into the medical transcription field?
Please see #13 and #14. Other than that, I would not advise anyone to spend their money on an MT course.

16. Have you enjoyed the career and what you have learned thus far in your life? (Is it rewarding?)
I used to enjoy being an MT very much and I do enjoy learning. No, it is no longer rewarding.

I do wish you the best of luck though. :)

You want answers? Here ya go: - from a person who detests MTSOs.

[ In Reply To ..]
1. What education and/or training did you go through to become an MT?

A: A 20 week medical transcription course.

2. Where are you employed (hospital/clinic) and howlong have you been working there?

A: I recently escaped from 6 years of hell as an MT at a national MTSO located in the eastern United States.

3. How long have you been working as an MT (if different from 2)?

A: I've been a full time MT since 1975.

4. What type of activities are avilable for MTs to gain additional knowledge?

A: Not much, as no reputable school offers classes in MT anymore. Those that do are misleading their own students to line their own pockets, as MT is no longer a viable career.

5. What types of changes in technology, education, and anything else have you experiences since you began your career as an Mt?

A: Since 1975, when MT was done on regular typewriters with reel tapes, with the help of Liquid Paper, it progressed to cassette tapes and dictaphones, and then to computers. For a few years, computers seemed to be the answer to an MT's dreams. Then came the internet, and work-at-home MT jobs. Sounds great doesn't it? Yeah, it did to us, too. That's how we got sucked into the scam. "Work at home! No more commuting! Work in your jammies!" Except they left out the fact that they were gonna cut our pay 50% for the "privilege" of telecommuting from the [relative] comfort of our own homes. And then, of course, offshoring and speech recognition came into the picture, and all of us but those with the most intractable cases of denial knew it was the beginning of the end of medical transcription as a respectable middle-class livelihood.

6. Has HIPAA changed the way you perform your jobs? If so how?

A: Yeah, that bloated "HIPPO" has changed how we perform our jobs, alright. Now MTs jump through an endless number of hoops, and deal with a myriad of rules, that are supposed to "protect" the patient, but which more often than not, makes the delivery of proper healthcare, and the creation of an accurate health record, nearly impossible.

7. Are you a member of AHDI? What is your opinion of the site?

A: I would rather have both hands amputated, and my eyes poked out with red QA correction pencils, than ever have anything to do with an organization that has championed and glorified the performance of America medical transcription. By Indians and Filipinos.

8. What is your opinion about credentialing for MTs? (Degrees, certificates).

A: Credentialing of MTs is currently non-existent, except for AHDI's "CMT", which is a joke. The CMT "credential" isn't worth jack to the MT. It's simply a money-making scheme for the unscrupulous old broads that run AHDI.

9. What characteristics (personal and professional) do you feel an MT must possess?

A: In 1975-1985 - an MT needed to be an expert in the English language, medical language, typing/word processing, have a good memory and excellent researching skills.

In 2013 - in addition to the above, an MT has to be able to memorize 50-page job descriptions and formatting for multiple hospital accounts, transcribe with 99.9% to 100% accuracy at 250-300 lines per hour, nonstop with no breaks for 10-15 hours at a stretch, pee in a cup without taking their hands off the keyboard for even a second, do without food or sleep, and be able to increase their speed, accuracy and workload every yearly quarter. For less and less pay per line in a progressively downward spiral. The ultimate pay-per-line goal of the MTSO being 0 cents per line by January 2015.

10. Where do you see the future of medical transcription going?

A: Take your choice:
1) Down the toilet.
2) Out the window.
3) To India, turn left at the Philippines (electricity is a bit of a problem there currently), and straight to China.
4) To hell in a handbasket.
5) All of the above.

11. Do you agree schools should continue to offer Medical Transcription as a degree?

A: Only if they intend to hire them to work at the school afterward, cuz they sure aren't going to have much luck finding a job anywhere else, unless they're planning on pulling up stakes, leaving the U.S., and moving to Bangalore.

12. How do you feel for the rate of pay as it is now?

A: Homeless people holding up hand-scrawled cardboard signs on the street corners make more money.

13. On average, how many lines per hour do you think should be the goal for newly certified MTs?

A: Seriously? Zero. Because ANY lines typed, once you've paid your CMT fees, the bill for your high-end new computer, bought a bunch of over-priced reference books (and don't forget the most bogus, overpriced book of all - the AHDI "Book of Style"!), and your internet and electrical bills, will most likely be for free. And that's if you're lucky. You could end up in the negative figures.

14. If you could give one piece of advice for newly graduated MTs, what would it be?

A: Hire an attorney and look into suing whatever school conned you into taking an MT course.

15. What would your advice be for people thinking of going into the medical transcription field?

A: DON'T DO IT. It's a scam job.

16. Have you enjoyed the career and what you have learned thus far in your life? (Is it rewarding?)

A: I enjoyed it in the 70's and 80's, but by the mid-1990's, the luster had pretty much worn off, because the writing was already on the wall with regards what was going to happen to the field. With the current implementation of the "point-'n'-click" electronic medical record (EMR), medical transcription will be gone in 12-24 months.

And don't let them tell you MT is being "replaced by medical editing". It's not. Medical editing jobs exist only to train the software that will replace you.

You go MT!! Sad but true. Wish I would've known this back then. - So accurate and funny, but yet not funny :-(

[ In Reply To ..]
x

not the answers you're looking for but the truth - brokeMT

[ In Reply To ..]
1. What education and/or training did you go through to become an MT?
worked as a medical/legal secretary at a malpractice insurance company, met a girl who was a transcriptionist and made the move. learned on the job.

2. Where are you employed (hospital/clinic) and how long have you been working there?
employed by greedmonger MTSO, been in current job 1 year, trying to get into something else and can't leave until I find something w/ insurance.

3. How long have you been working as an MT (if different from 2)?
27 years

4. What type of activities are avilable for MTs to gain additional knowledge?
never thought about it since NO AMOUNT OF MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE WILL MAKE ONE BIT OF DIFFERENCE so why bother? who knows? who cares?

5. What types of changes in technology, education, and anything else have you experiences since you began your career as an Mt?
changes in technology are inevitable. it's the changes industrywide that have killed this career. sending the work to India and Philippines and wherever else and cutting our pay to Chinese slave labor wages. there was a day when MTs were hard to find, well-respected and well-paid for their knowledge. now we are rats on a treadmill.

6. Has HIPAA changed the way you perform your jobs? If so how?
have to watch some stupid video and take a quiz on maintaining patient confidentiality. let's just say that if information gets out, it's NOT the transcriptionists who are supplying it.

7. Are you a member of AHDI? What is your opinion of the site?
no. why would I pay a yearly fee to belong to a "club" that does nothing except encourage MTSOs to stick it to us a little bit harder?

8. What is your opinion about credentialing for MTs? (Degrees, certificates).
It's completely unnecessary.

9. What characteristics (personal and professional) do you feel an MT must possess?
A willingness to be treated like a slave, lied to consistently, and all the while be told what a great job you do and how much you are appreciated. yeah, so where's the money?

10. Where do you see the future of medical transcription going?
won't even exist in another couple of years. the experienced people will have moved on and then the MTSOs will "get what they pay for." people who could care less about their reports, about like me right now.

11. Do you agree schools should continue to offer Medical Transcription as a degree?
is this a trick question? but NO. you don't need a degree to make minimum wage.

12. How do you feel for the rate of pay as it is now?
repulsed, appalled, outraged, but mostly OFFENDED

13. On average, how many lines per hour do you think should be the goal for newly certified MTs?
doesn't matter, will be broke anyway, why kill yourself?

14. If you could give one piece of advice for newly graduated MTs, what would it be?
find a way to "edit" your certificate to delete the MT part and insert an actual career

14. If you could give one piece of advice for newly graduated MTs, what would it be?
marry somebody with a boatload of money so you won't have to depend on YOUR income, and preferably somebody you don't really like because when you are stuck in that 2nd or 3rd shift Tu-Sat or Sun-Thurs schedule you won't really mind because it keeps him away from you.

15. What would your advice be for people thinking of going into the medical transcription field?
another trick question.

16. Have you enjoyed the career and what you have learned thus far in your life? (Is it rewarding?)
first off, understand that a CAREER is something you work very hard at for a number of years to be at the top of your game, even sought after since you are so good at what you do, and you are REWARDED for your knowledge/skill. MT is NOT a career. employers still want my knowledge/skill, but they want me to give it to them. this is not a CAREER, this is a low-paying dead-end JOB. so NO, it is the opposite of rewarding. the more you know and the longer you're in it, the worse things get.

hope this helps you out.

question 11, there is no degree - In MT

[ In Reply To ..]
that I am aware of.

Agree - No Such Thing as MT Degree-nm

[ In Reply To ..]
xxx

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