Ocean Of Perspectives

Medical Transcriptionists’ are people who, while listening to what a doctor dictated regarding his patients, types it out as a file for it to be put into the patients medical records. Because of this, confidentiality and accuracy are essential.

I had returned to school for retraining after my divorce and entered the Medical Transcription program at a local college. All the information I was able to find, including the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook, stated that Medical Transcriptionists’ were in demand and would be in higher demand in the future. Two and a half years later and within six months of my graduation, my classmates and I were informed that the U.S. government had approved outsourcing of Medical Transcription jobs. After graduation, my classmates and I were unable to find employment in this profession. Six months after graduation, I went to India in an attempt to work in the Medical Transcription field. I arrived in India December 2003.

It took me a little time to get settled into my new surroundings and get acquainted with the people. One day, a friend told me about an ad in the local paper’s classifieds and I made a call to the company. The company director answered and as soon as he realized I was American, he was eager for me to come in for an interview. When I arrived at the appointed time, they were excited and I was hired immediately after I completed the testing. I explained to them that I would have to wait until my tourist visa expired before being able apply for a work visa. They agreed to wait. Though a few weeks later they suggested that I could work as a consultant until my visa expired, I knew it wasn’t legal to work on a tourist visa and told them I did not wish to break the immigration laws. Again, they agreed to wait.

When it was time, I went to Sri Lanka, got a work visa and returned to India where I worked with this company for almost five years. During this time I was promoted from transcriber to proofreader, but I still became very frustrated. My frustration stemmed from the quality of the files from the transcribers and editors. It was my responsibility to proof read the files and make corrections before they were sent back to the U.S. Unfortunately, I was the only proof reader and the company had three shifts. As it was, I was working nine hours a day, six days a week. For me to be able to work on all the files, I would have to work 24 hours a day, six days a week. That’s not very realistic. Therefore, quality was high for the files I corrected, but was below standards for the files I never saw. I was given full authority from the U.S. to make whatever changes I felt were necessary to bring the quality up to standard. But, no matter what I tried to initiate, I was repeatedly met with resistance and my suggestions and instructions were ignored. Basically, they didn’t want to make an effort to change the way things were being done, even though there were constant complaints from the U.S. Unlike in the U.S., terminating employees who produce low quality work was not done. I heard this complaint from other foreigners who worked for International companies as well. One told me that his company was leaving India to relocate in either Bangkok or China because even after training, their local employees insisted on doing the work their way instead of according to quality standards. This company from the U.K. made hearing aids and the man was transferred to Bangkok before I left India.

I did receive offers from other Medical Transcription companies. Though the majority of the Transcription companies were in newer buildings, had air conditioning and offered higher wages, they had a reputation of not paying their employees. So I stayed with the company who first hired me.

My frustration is the double standards that American doctors and Medical transcription companies have regarding education and skill requirements for applicants in the U.S., but who then outsource this work to countries whose employees have lower requirements of education, skills and quality. If they’re willing to lower education and experience requirements for offshore outsourcing, then hiring an American at slightly lower requirements and wages can be more economical than paying for poor quality work that’s being done from offshore outsourcing and then paying overtime to people in the U.S., who are overwhelmed with editing this work because of the severity of inaccuracies from overseas.