First Job

Second Job / Bios

4/2/97, from Donna, RadMT@juno.com

I lucked into medical transcription. I had never even heard of it until a friend of mine who worked as a secretary with me told me I was too smart to stay "just" a secretary and that medical transcription paid a lot better. This was ten years ago. She worked part-time at a teaching hospital affiliated with a university and told me that they had been looking for a transcriptionist for four months with no luck. That's how I got the job. I started out in radiology transcription working nights and weekends while I worked full-time as a secretary at an agricultural station. After working part-time for four months as a radiology transcriptionist, I lucked out again and got a full-time job at the university orthopedic clinic as the only MT working for 17 doctors. I basically taught myself transcription. I have to tell you though, if the woman who hired me had known anything at all about transcription, she never would have hired an inexperienced MT, and if I have known what I was getting myself into, I would have been scared to death to take job. But she didn't know what she was doing, and neither did I, and it really did work out fine. I had the desire to learn, loved anything to do with the medical field, I had excellent English skills, and I was a crackerjack keyboardist (sounds better than typist, doesn't it?) Also, since I had already quit my job as a secretary, there was no turning back. There was never a question of quitting. The only references I had were the Fordney and Diehl book about Transcription Do's and Don'ts (don't have the book in front of me right now), a Dorland's dictionary, and a word book that was about three years old that one of the department secretaries loaned me. When I moved 2+ years later, I received glowing letters of recommendation from the doctors on staff and from the chief resident. The head of the department wrote in my letter of recommendation that, in the 30 years he had been a doctor, I was the best medical transcriptionist he had known. I had a very special rapport with all the doctors and was encouraged to ask any questions I wanted.

However, when I moved, all I had was orthopedic and radiology experience, not medical records. I was lucky to find another radiology job and worked there for almost three years before moving again. When I moved to Colorado, the local hospital didn't have radiology transcriptionists. Their transcription was done in house, and they didn't need any help. I had to find a job, though, and I went to work for some local eye doctors as their file clerk.

Six months later, there was an opening in the hospital medical records department, and I interviewed for and got the job based on my orthopedic and radiology experience and my English skills, even though I didn't have medical records experience. I had a wonderful mentor who taught me and I soaked up everything I could. Fourteen months later, I got my first job working at home for a national service. Now, two years later, I'm again doing radiology transcription, at home, for a national service. Radiology transcription is my first love, I guess you could say. I prefer it to regular medical records transcription.

So, that's my story. If I could give you any advice, it would be to always present yourself professionally on paper as you would in a personal meeting. Proofread, spell check, proofread some more, and then spell check again before you send out anything like resumes or cover letters. One way to check for typos is to read your letters from the bottom of the page to the top and from right to left. When you go backwards, you have to concentrate on the words instead of the meanings and how the sentences are made up. Make sure you know the difference between words such as your and you're, their and there, advice and advise, etc. If the person who is reading your resume sees mistakes like that, your resume will be tossed into the File 13 basket.

Mention to everyone you know that you are looking for a medical transcription job. Do you have children? Ask their doctors. Do you go to the chiropractor? Ask him/her. Ask your family doctor. What about your pet's vet? Tell your pharmacist. They may not need you, but they may know someone who needs a transcriptionist. Is there a federal or state prison in the area where you live? Call their personnel department and ask if they outsource their medical transcription. You might be able to bid on the position the next time it comes open. Is there a military base where you live? Check into the requirements to work as a civil service medical secretary (I think they are still called medical secretaries in civil service). When I first got out of high school and had no experience but could type 100 wpm and take shorthand at 120 wpm, no one wanted to hire me without experience, so I took the civil service test and had a job within four months. The government doesn't care whether or not you have experience. They are really good about giving you a chance. Work for them three years, and you will have your career-conditional appointment, which means you could quit and go back any time in future without having to take the civil service test again.

Hope these ideas help. Please excuse any typos...it has been a long day. Also, for some strange reason, while I was going through the spell check on this document, all of the "the's" in the document were taken out, and I had to go back and try to insert them all again. So, if you read a sentence that needs a "the" in it, that's one I didn't catch...

Someone asked whether it was advantageous to join the Chamber of Commerce. I had not really thought about it before, but yesterday I went to a new member/informational meeting, saw someone from my old neighborhood, met the mom of someone my son got in trouble with at school (well, that I could live without - but at least I only got a call from the teacher; SHE got a call from the PRINCIPAL!), and met someone else who asked me for my business card because she has a friend who has a big account and desperately needs someone to do overflow. Plus, free coffee, donuts and dessert breads (I had the coffee only ), and I got a chance to dress in something other than jammies (home) or jeans (QA) and practice my "corporate" look for the first time since my pretranscription days.

I'm seriously considering going totally independent; tough decision after being with my HMO for 20+ years and working into a pretty good position, but I need to fit family into my life better, and I don't want really want to give up my own business. Maybe subcontracting?

Most hospitals, like most hospital MT Services, require experience too. It seems we really do have this river between those who study and train and can't find a starting position, and those who have experience and work.

There are some few bridges being built across this river:

1. A few individual MTs mentor new MTs and proofread for them as they start their first job, or a job that requires more experience than they have.

2. MTs find local accounts for doctors and rare starting-position office jobs where they can get experience and learn.

3. NET home-study course, Jennifer Martin's ROS course, Silvercreek and DataKey and a few other study courses provide internships and work-study programs.

4. A few local companies provide training positions...we need to get a list of these.

5. A few local hospitals provide training positions...need a list of these too.

6. MTs students in India (about 300, mostly MDs, RNs, scientists) are being paid while they are being trained, by both American and Indian MT companies. If international relations and communications get complicated, this idea of on-the-job training may come home.

I went to a local AAMT meeting and put out the word that I was looking for work. It ended up that through that meeting, I got a job with another transcription company that would allow me to work from home. Since I am employed by them, they also give me health insurance which is great. This company set me up at home with a digital Lanier system and I connect directly with a rehabilitation hospital and get my dictation through the phone line. When I am done, I send it back via modem.

Also, through contacts that I have made through AOL, another service owner contacted me about subcontracting for her helping her do overflow work on an account of eight orthopedists. I jumped on this! The more experience you can get, the better. Keep in mind though, I did have some experience because of the hospital. So now I keep pretty busy even though I still don't have any accounts of my own which is my ultimate goal. For now, I will keep getting all of the experience that I can get. When you work at home, you don't have anyone else to help you with words and dictation that you can't understand. It really helps if you have someone to call or be your "mentor." Also the transcription list that we get is very helpful.

The only problem that I have seen (in my view) is that many students feel they can work out of their homes immediately. We expect them to stay in-house for a year. Of course there are exceptions to every rule.

Helping the students become well-trained transcriptionists is a lot of fun. In that one year they cannot believe how far they have come. And they do!! In fact, I was just talking to a transcriptionist that Judy hired after she did her internship with us two years ago, and she was saying how easy she found a foreign dictator compared to one of the English dictators. I laughed and asked her if she remembered how frustrated she was with this foreign dictator when she first started. She then remembered how she wanted to cry and find a different job. She suggested that "he dictates better" which then I suggested: SHE got better!!

For our employees, they are hired around the schedule they desire. We ask for 2 weeks' notice if they need a change, but recognize the problems real life can bring them for last-minute changes. (We have paid time off, medical, dental, disability, and life insurance.) We have people working both in-house and at-home and they are all treated the same in this regard. If we have more work than we know what to do with, we REQUEST additional hours. We have purposely built our business around part time people whenever possible, since they seem most able to expand and contract with the work load. We also have a pool of people who have other jobs and just love to transcribe every so often, so we can call on them when no one else can give us extra hours.

This approach, along with honesty to the customer about realistic turnaround times, keeps the pressure on me, the boss, where it belongs, and off the fabulous staff who get the work done. We do work with schools and their internship programs with great success, and have extended "mentorships" to bring neophytes up to speed. They have not turned on us, but have become valuable members of the team. We have a total staff of 30 people, and soon to be 50. This approach does work if you analyze correctly, plan well, are honest with yourself and others, charge an appropriate price, and pray a lot!

TQ requires that an unexperienced applicant pass 2 tests, a typing test and a spelling/grammar test. They want an applicant to be able to type 50 WPM, and the spelling/grammar test is just standard grammar and basic medical terms that aren't too difficult. Once an applicant passes these 2 tests, they get an interview a short while later and type a sample chart, at which time they will either be hired or not hired. Once hired, the applicant, now actually a trainee, begins a 6-week training course on the premises of TQ where they get a crash course in medical terminology, macro usage, etc. This training is even paid at a rate of I believe $5.00/hr or $6.00/hr.

If the trainee passes the training, and tests include both written tests and transcription tests, they pick a shift (either evening shift or night shift for new hires) and then start work on that shift right away. BTW, the percentage of people who pass training is fairly high as far as I know. Once on shift, the new MT is basically on their own very quickly, although we have paid "group leaders", folks whose job it is to help the MTs figure out what the doctors are saying when they are stumped and to answer general questions about terminology, among other duties.

I believe the new MT's pay is frozen at $6.00/hr for a short time. By frozen I actually mean that they can go up in pay, but they can't go down during this time. After this short period of frozen pay (maybe a month), they make what they earn, but never less than $6.00/hr.

From this point it's just a matter of getting better at the job and making more $$$ as the MT gets faster and more experienced, which tends to happen rather quickly. I could go on and on and on, but basically TQ invests a lot of resources into their employees, which is why they like to keep them, which they usually do. The reasons for this being that the work isn't too, too difficult (we do mostly ER's with fast turnaround being our niche), the pay is fair, including quality bonuses, and the benefits package is superb, including a 401k. Also, TQ puts a considerable amount of effort into developing ways for the MTs to work faster and smarter, making us probably one of the most productive companies in this market per MT.

Maybe these are some of the reasons TQ won the AAMT Employer of the Year award this year. Also, about 25% of the work force currently work at home, and moving more MTs to working at home is one of the top priorities being pursued at this time.

The above is based on my knowlege of TQ, having worked there for over 4 years now, and since I work at home and am somewhat more out of touch than I used to be a couple of years ago when I worked in the office, I may have some of the specifics wrong, but I think my facts are all correct. If anyone needs more specific information, they can contact Ricky Mann or Cindy Bunch at TQ's main number, 770-991-2220.

With so much more "consolidation" going on, it seems as though (at least in metropolitan areas) there really isn't a "big four" anymore; we have about a big 14 or 15, with about 5,000 MD's on staff (and only do radiology for one entity)! Budding transcriptionists need a really solid background in physiology and anatomy. In my oh so humble opinion, spell check has a tendency to make us lazy. A problem I have seen with new transcriptionists is not having an understanding of basic physiology or the meaning and context of what they are typing. (I had one transcriptionist who asked that I take an "English" word out of the main speller, because when she made a typo, spellcheck wouldn't catch whatever she was typing wrong)! Of course, being the obtuse person I am, I think you have to be a little bit aware of and responsible for what you put on the page (okay, I'm sorry...but I'm not taking it out!).

Students and new transcriptionists can be our salvation. I believe that one of the areas we have to continue to hammer home to administrators and MDs is that WE ARE NOT TYPISTS. WE ARE NOT DATA PROCESSORS. If you want garbage in/garbage out, with that category of employee, that is what you are going to get. A transcriptionist gets paid the "big bucks" she does for a specific skill--which involves way more than just typing words on a page.

From Mary: Sharon, It really is a tough thing, I'm calling it the "river of no experience." It is hard to cross, and there's a reason why: Experienced MTs make such good money they don't want to turn and help others across the river. People who can make money on offering correspondence courses or classes can't make money giving MTs first jobs. The only program I know that does it is the NET program on http://angelfire.com/net and I'm not well acquainted with their program, but I'm hoping and watching to see how it works out for people. They have a work-study transition program. I'm hoping to focus on this and encourage all MTs to pick up and help new ones, and to get their companies to hire a few new MTs.

In the meantime, the only hope for finding that first job or for learning on the job is to find a place that is desperate enough to hire you! That's what I found, and I was very fortunate, but I had to really be aggressive: I told them I could learn fast, would really commit to the learning, and I had the advantage of a very fast typing speed and a smidgen of exposure to medical records. It was a real ordeal those first few weeks, and the MTs that sat near me and answered my questions gave me minimum attention, and I tried to make my questions quick.

It really is a job that takes learning for months, no matter what courses you've had or medical exposure, BUT it's possible to learn it on the job and make decent money in three months or so. My suggestions in your situation are to look for a local MT, doctor or clinic who are willing to let you learn on the job, and even to offer to do some training time or free time or whatever kind of transition offer would help you get your foot in the door. Meanwhile, there is the terrible load of work for experienced MTs on this side of the river, and we really need the help of new MTs, but MTs don't want the shortage to end, I'm afraid, because it keeps our pay good. My concern is for the bigger picture, the noble purpose: If we want to help doctors and patients, wouldn't we want to help new MTs get over that river, even if it took sacrifice on our part? Doctors who make as much as some of us donate some of their time... I make enough money to afford to be generous with a part of my time.

Meanwhile, let me assure you this field is worth the struggle, because it has tremendous opportunity for growth and increase, unlike an hourly job. So your persistence will pay off. Keep knocking on every door! I think I'll post a copy of this on the "first job" page on MT Daily II, since there are so many new MTs in your situation. Be sure to read the marketing page on MT Daily I for more ideas. I wish you well! If you have any more thoughts or ideas, write me.

8/96, from Sue Stein, Second Job!
I got another job in addition to the radiology per diem job at the hospital. During the last two weeks of school, our teacher asked all of us to find someone already working in the field to interview. I chose a local MT who had her own business. We hit it off really well and I told her that if she ever needed someone to do overflow for her, to remember my name. Well, she called me Friday night and asked if I would like to work for her. Guess what I said! When she asked what reference books I had, I told her about my books. I also mentioned that I have an online service and that I could leave a message on the Internet and that an experienced MT would usually get back to me with an answer to my question by the next day. She was familiar with the Internet and was impressed!

None of this, however, doesn't mean that a new MT fresh out of a good school doesn't deserve a chance to prove herself and certainly doesn't mean they are not a good MT, or even that they aren't an MT just because they haven't gotten that first job yet. Of course, a mentor is the perfect solution, but finding an experienced MT willing to take the time to mentor is VERY difficult. A good MT is a busy person and the time it takes he/she to mentor you they are losing money by not transcribing. And, no offense intended for anyone out there who takes the time to mentor, there is a pervasive attitude out there about new MTs: "So you took a course and now you want to jump right in, is that it?" a lot. I actually had one gentleman who works for a national service send me a test and laugh as he said, "I'll send it but we'll just have to see how you do, won't we?"

I think it's that attitude that upsets new MTs the most. A brand new surgeon realizes he is not going to be chief of surgery....he will have to prove himself, he knows it will take years, and he knows he will never stop learning new things during the course of his career in medicine. Likewise for the new MT. Many of us may be new but we ARE good at what we do. Yes, we have more to learn but so does the experienced MT and at sometime somebody gave her a chance, too. I thank my instructor everyday. She warned us that as experienced as we would be out of school we had a long road ahead to get established exactly because of the fact that a new MT is considered a long shot. I was prepared for the struggle to prove myself.

I have since, in my short MT career of 18 months helped anyone that I could with whatever knowledge that I have that they needed. I hope that I will always remember my own struggle and keep on doing so. Not helping new MTs establish themselves is one of the chief complaints that I hear about, and agree with, about the AAMT, too. "NEW" does NOT equal NO GOOD.

The other 50% of my business comes mostly from resume writing, and that's where I might be able to offer you some guidance. I'm sure that working for an insurance company you ran across reports and what-not that involved some medical terminology. Granted, that's not full-fledged medical transcription, but it IS something that can be emphasized in a resume. That, in combination with your training from ICS and a well-written resume, should give you the edge you need to get someone to take a chance on you. I know from past job hunting experiences that employers will usually hire someone that they like, even though that person may not be totally qualified for the position, if that individual shows the potential to learn the skills s/he is lacking. The problem is, you've got to get an interview before you can convince anyone that you are capable of performing the work, and that's where a good resume can help you. I'm not saying they'll be beating down your door to hire you, but with a little bit of patience and perseverence, you could probably find someone willing to take that chance.

Another thing to keep in mind... just because the ad says "2 to 3 years experience" doesn't mean you shouldn't apply. Lots of times employers will receive a ton of applications from mostly unqualified applicants. Even though you don't have that experience, you may be the "next best thing". You never know... the worst they can do is not call you!

From the little bit you posted about your past experience, it is hard to say just how strong of a "medical transcriptionist" resume someone could write for you, but I suspect your qualifications are more impressive than would seem on the surface. If you'll let me know what city/state you're in, I'll be glad to try to find a certified professional resume writer in your area to refer you to.

At first I was opposed to this but after thinking about it I got her point. And with everyone else out there requiring 2-3 yrs experience it was a great way to break into the business. No one wants to hire anyone w/out experience and this woman was willing to give us a break but she just wasn't willing to lose her shirt over it. This didn't go on forever, mind you. After about 4 wks she either hired you because she had reviewed enough of your work to see that you knew your stuff or offered more detailed mentoring. Also, if it turned out you didn't want to work for her - no hard feelings- and she would give you a reference. She got several MT's out of this arrangement that handled her overflow work and took the load off so that she could take time off now and then and they got their first job and their first reference.

Any newbie should go to AAMT meetings and network. Ask for overflow work. Offer to do sample tapes and pay the service owner their going rate to review them a couple of times.....if you're good enough they'll see it and hire you. Finding and getting a mentor is a big help in this business. Look to actively recruit one; just remember that hardly anyone wants to do anything for nothing. I think a lot of MTs would like to mentor but it is difficult to take the time out of their day because when you're not transcribing you're not making money...or they have so much work they can barely stop to eat, let alone mentor.