RP medical transcription execs forge ties with US group

[OhioChick]

Source: INQUIRER.net

05/25/2008


MANILA, Philippines--Medical transcription executives based here met personally with the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) in the US and discussed current industry concerns such as data privacy and certification.

MTIAPI (Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines Inc.) officials met with their US counterparts during the recent MTIA convention in Long Beach, California.

MTIAPI president Myla Rose Mundo-Reyes joined industry leaders from India and the Caribbean in a panel discussion during the said convention.

According to Reyes, the discussion corrected some negative perceptions about offshoring and provided potential clients with enough information on "where to go, who to talk to, and what to consider" when exploring outsourcing opportunities abroad.

Specific to the Philippines, she said concerns over quality, data privacy, public holidays and government support in policy making were openly raised.




Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20080525-138735/RP-medical-transcription-execs-forge-ties-with-US-group

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Wonder if they'll comply with US HIPAA laws? :sarcasm:

[bitchkitty]

1. Huh. Glad I didn't buy that course...n/t

[Warpy]

2. I used to listen to those guys dictate their notes

and good luck to people whose first language isn't English. Add to that the fact that we have a lot of foreign doctors, and those poor transcriptionists will be pulling their hair out.

I'd always thought of doing transcription when my back wouldn't let me do bedside nursing any more. Alas, our hospitals shipped it all offshore long ago and docs are now starting to do the same thing.

And no, no matter what they sign, they don't do HIPAA.

That's why India is losing business. There have been extortion cases by some of their transcribers.

[silverweb]

9. It's not all offshore.

Not by a long shot. Transcription has become a high-tech corporate job, but excellent English spelling and grammar are a must -- as important as medical terminology. I'll bet you'd do just fine in transcription if you tried it.

[Warpy]

11. Fortunately for me, I inherited two years ago

and should make it to social security just fine if Stupid doesn't blow up the world, first.

I'm leaving the jobs to my brothers and sisters in the profession who need them since I don't right now.

[silverweb]

12. Lucky you!

Sometimes I dream that an unknown rich relative kicks off and leaves me a fortune. Then I wake up. LOL

I'll be working at least part time until I keel over. Good thing I enjoy the work. :D

[silverweb]

3. I am a medical transcriptionist.

Outsourcing of transcription work to foreign countries has been a concern, but I have my doubts about how successful it will be.

Even with voice recognition software, the language is so specialized and doctors are often so hard to understand that a very strong English language background PLUS a very strong medical terminology background are necessary to make any sense of it.

A lot more doctors are being encouraged to work with voice-recognition software to customize it to their speech patterns so that the ultimate corporate goal of "more! better! faster! cheaper!" can be achieved. Foreign-born doctors in particular are finding this task very frustrating and from what I've heard, there's a good deal of resistance.

The bottom line in this profession is that HIPAA laws and ACCURACY must always be the paramount concerns.

I could be wrong, but I just don't see how foreign firms using ESL transcriptionists will meet necessary standards for U.S. doctors. Some may toy with offshoring, but I suspect that transcription for American facilities and doctors will continue to be based primarily in the United States.

[Sacajawea]

4. Me, too. Lost my job to voice recognition software.

There are absolutely no jobs -- repeat, NO JOBS -- for medical transcriptionists on Long Island. Most recently I worked in the Radiology Department of a hospital where I edited what the MDs dictated to the voice recognition system. The system works, to a degree, but an editor is unquestionably necessary.

Then the hospital brought in a new radiology group and these geniuses think that they can do their own editing.

I had occasion to bring my friend to this hospital's ER a while ago and I eventually obtained copies of his radiology reports. They ALL contained mistakes, ranging from misheard words to words completely left out. The geniuses just signed the reports off, with no apparent editing (i.e., correcting). And these reports all are LEGAL DOCUMENTS!

But....they're saving a buck.

silverweb....you make excellent points and I completely agree with what you wrote.

[silverweb]

5. I'm so sorry about your job.

Have you found another job in the meantime? Do you want to stay in the field or have you moved on to something else?

[InkAddict]

7. Have you found this site?

http://www.getmedicaltranscriptionjobs.com

[InkAddict]

6. I am also a medical transcriptionist by choice

but educated in health info mgmt. I attended an accredited program through a community college. Just before I graduated, all the follow-on programs leading to a BS degree in this field pulled out of the state. Although I was once certified as an ART, I quickly learned that the good jobs went to ex-nurses leaving ARTs to check signatures on charts and file loose sheets. Several years back, even more specialized certifications for coders were created. I also learned that I had wasted by hard-earned money. The State was training welfare recipients for free and giving employers perks for hiring them over those of us who paid our tuition from our own pockets. My college credits toward this field are now virtually useless because the two-year academic courses do not transfer to a four-year degree program and I'd need to start all over to re-acquire the new coding certificate to even quality for a BS program.

I love the language of medicine, and I feel pride in having my initials at the bottom of thousand's of patient reports. I do believe our doctors appreciate our expertise in regurgitating the words of their important documents as they chomp away at potato chips, dictate in moving cars with the windows down, and while watching Dancing With the Stars. As for editing their own documents, many of the best physicians wrote out their college papers in cursive and have never mastered MS Word, WordPerfect, or Notepad; some know all about computers but can't speak English, which has become the International language for medicine, overtaking French and German.

I once transcribed Pathology reports for an English-speaking Irishman, but the Syrian was much easier to understand. BTW, I am convinced not one of them has good penmanship. That's no lie.

Patient records are never absolutely safe, but I'd rather trust a trained human with fast fingers, good ears, and tight lips before I'd trust the trans-oceanic electronic robotic glitches that are usurping American jobs.

[silverweb]

8. It's always nice to meet another MT.

Do you work from home, in a medical office, or in a hospital?

[Autumn Colors]

10. Hi from another MT here....

Started working in the field in 1999 and have worked from home all but the first six months. I worked for a small regional service that got sold to a national. I was a team lead at that point. Because they cut our pay by about 30%, I quit and have been on my own since 2003. I've now got 3 MTs working from home for me in other states (one's in Iowa so I hope she's ok with all the tornadoes out there tonight).

It's been extremely tough to find new accounts, but our present ones have been growing. I've lost 2 previous accounts to technology - not voice recognition, but those automated terminals the doctors have in the examining room where they push a few buttons and it spits out a generic office note, faxes the insurance company AND the pharmacy .... pretty much eliminates us for all, but the complex letters that have to be written to referring doctors.

I've also lost one account to outsourcing. However, I will say that many of the people I've spoken to -- while they don't have any need to use our services at present -- haven't had much good to say about their experiences with the Indian companies. They tend to go away and use them for 6 months to a year and then swear off them. It seems like the Indian companies will have their cream of the crop do the work at the beginning and many of them have native English speakers doing editing (they HAVE been hiring American proofreaders), but after they actually sign a contract, the quality tends to go downhill fast.

My accounts wants us to correct grammar -- and not just for the ESL doctors. I can just imagine an Indian trying to fix one of my East European doctors' letters to make him sound like a native English speaker (and not like he's reading book English).

As for HIPAA ... any uproar would have to come from the public, the patients. You don't think that will come from those who only care about the bottom line, do you?

Not more than 4 years ago, I was able to charge 25% more per line than I do now and it was easy to pick up new accounts. Now, we have to work so many more hours just to earn what we were a few short years ago.

Sorry. I just needed to blow off a little steam.

EDIT: Sacajawea, I'm going to PM you my fax number. If you want to fax your resume, I'm going to start looking for a new account again after Labor Day. I know from past experience that trying between Memorial Day and Labor Day is a waste of time and money.