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

Starting at Nuance - Lynn

Posted: Mar 07, 2015

Hi to all. After 18 years as an IC for a large hospital, my hospital will be going with a Dragon product and my contract will be ending soon.

I start with Nuance in a couple weeks. I've read a lot of negative reviews but I'm looking for some positive news too. I've got to make this work and I will but just wondering how it is working for them. I've done over 600,000+ lines a year and hope they're going to have that volume for me. Anyone? Thanks in advance

As far as volume, they might have it -sm - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
The trend seems to be that a lot of us are running out of work, frequently. There are some people on my account that stated they have not had a full 40 hour week since the summer. They may switch you around accounts to get you enough work or give you several back ups.

My experience with work level:
1. The account I was on with Transcend for several years, the work was drying up. The supervisor had no idea where the work was and I believed her. She had the unfortunate task of calling my teammates to tell us that account was being completely off-shored and we would be assigned to new accounts.

2. New account, I was on this one for about 6-9 months. It went solely to EPIC, contract terminated, etc. Moved to another account. The work dried up rather quickly.

3. New account, I was on this one for 6 months, OOW off and on. That supervisor contacted me to tell me I was on a list of people who was being transferred to new accounts to help even out the work loads/keep us busy. Turned out I would be on a new platform as well.

4. New account, supposedly a large one. There are often times I run out of work. Every other Saturday it seems to happen. The mornings of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are also bad. I work a split shift and Tuesday evening is not uncommon for me to run into an OOW situation.

My opinion is that Nuance is a very large company and they may be able to give you the volume you hope for but it will likely not be on the same account. However, more and more hospitals are using Dragon products, either as a hybrid with some work going to places like Nuance or as a means of meeting their documentation needs exclusively. You could make Nuance work for a while, but I would strongly consider exploring other long-term options that do not include medical transcription as we currently know it.

Good luck. Most accounts are off-shored within weeks of arriving at - Nuance.

[ In Reply To ..]
...so, while you may luck out and get a "steady," it is much more likely you will change regularly to stay in work at all. The specs for these facilities are 25 or more pages, the platforms are slow and VERY labor intensive, many times, and help for issues that arise is NOT to be found.

Recruiters promise the moon and Nuance delivers mud.

Please do NOT come on board without at least finishing EACH post on at LEAST this page to the very bottom. If any of those posts refer you to go to another post on another date, go there too.

We aren't making this stuff up, and the occasional person with something positive to say doesn't hang out here alot. They are FAR too heavily outnumbered or just haven't really gotten hip to the routine quite yet. Romance wears off QUICK, like 6 days, maybe, for most folks. AND, that nice sign on bonus they're promising?

You're much more likely to be taking out a loan for at least that much by the end of your first 6 weeks on FIESA. If you don't know what that is, then they really have blown some smoke your way...

Telling people to run never seems to work so I won't bother you with that.

Starting at Nuance - Tired

[ In Reply To ..]
I doubt if you'll get that volume of work on a consistent basis and it will be on more than one account, probably more like 5 or 6, for which you will have to learn the account specs on all of them which will take time.

The wages are low. You will be lucky to make 4, maybe 4.5 cents a line; maybe 5, but not right away. The above account specs will make your already low pay suffer tremendously.

QA goes through FIESA to scrutinize your work. You will be watched and marked down like never before....and they do make mistakes. Your pay will be cut further to 3.5 cents per line if you do not meet above a 99% accuracy rate, send more than 10% of your reports to QA (ones that are not your fault also count against you) and/or make the slightest mistake. 3.5 cents per line is the floor. You have to get above all of the three criteria to get more. They cut you no slack for ESL's or that you are doing dictators you have never done before and are not used to. In other words, you make a mistake and your pay gets cut.

Nuance has basically "Wal-Marted" the transcription industry by gobbling up most of the competition, getting the hospitals to outsource to them, probably by saying "we can do it cheaper," and then the hospitals get rid of their transcriptionists for the cheap rate, and the transcriptionists wind up either at Nuance or somewhere else. The somewhere elses also have to cut their pay to a non-living wage to compete with Nuance for any work.

You're basically going to have to get out of the field if you expect to be paid what I think you are making now. There is no way to do that now. I, too, made over $60,000 ten years ago and now less than half. I am basically working for less money than I did 25 years ago. There are never any pay raises and the benefits are either too much money (the medical insurance), or puny, like the vacation (5 days for everything -- holidays, sick and vacation for the first year and 10 days for everything for the next several years after that).

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Your best bet will be to just find something else. Even Wal-Mart. At least they are going to be getting raises.

NoWayJose - Nope

[ In Reply To ..]
After reading ongoing posts about Nuance, I am SO HAPPY I do not work for them!

Starting at Nuance - run

[ In Reply To ..]
There is not one positive thing to say about Nuance. Back in Webmedx days, I made over 70,000 a year, now making less than half, and that is for perfection, 100% QA. I can't buy food when my pay is cut by 150 bucks for one bullshit "error."

You state your line count which you believe to be large - MT

[ In Reply To ..]
Impressed by your 600,000 or more lines per year. Double check what you earned at the hospital. At Nuance you will be making (at that amount) just over 400.00 a week or just over 20K a year. Compare that to your hospital pay. Cut more than half. Don't be shocked. In addition expect to have to have every comma in place, no blanks, and no pend to QA including difficult dictators you will not understand. Add to the poverty and the high stress the fact that you will have to keep this up with few days off paid, you will have to work holidays that fall on your regular shift and you will run out of work decreasing pay and benefits. Sorry to say you are in for a difficult time. Look elsewhere.

Nuance - Lynn

[ In Reply To ..]
I don't have a problem with the QA, ESL dictators, holidays, etc. As an independent vs an employee, I've never had benefits, paid time off, holidays or weekends off. I've worked 7 days a week for many years chasing the money. It's been a long time since I've had to look for something else and this is where I ended up. Thanks for your input.

Your current line count will not translate to Nuance sm - acuteMLS

[ In Reply To ..]
At the hospital, you're getting paid for characters and spaces, blank lines, HEADERS AND FOOTERS. Not so here. You are typing for 1 facility now--not so here. Your "rules" are probably common sense and few. Not so here. You will likely end up on an endless treadmill of changing accounts, worktypes, dictators (perhaps never having the same dictator in 2 weeks), with wildly different account specifics, daily changes to the rules, QA wanting to quibble about your punctuation. Oh I could go on all day.

Since you're only looking for "positive news" I have nothing to offer. I'd suggest you try it out and see what a huge downgrade in your lifestyle you'll have with Nuance.

Oh! One suggestion I can make is if you can possibly find another job within your hospital, not necessarily clerical, I mean even working in dietary or housekeeping, take it.

QA nightmare - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
After you have worked for Nuance, please let us know what you think of Nuance's QA. I honestly don't know of a single MT who is okay with how QA operates at this company.

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