MedQuist Reviews

Pros

If you have a strong manager you will be well compensated and protected from CONSTANT company changes, which often include layoffs. This can make for fast promotions.

Cons

Constant changes. Long hours. Current company culture is terrible with low company moral.

Pros

Working from home is a definite pro. Pay and benefits were much better in the past before the merger. Tech Support is excellent, available 24/7, and will send you whatever you need...even overnight if needed. Some of the local managers are good, but most are stretched too thin to be effective.

Cons

The biggest downside of Medquist/Spheris is the pay. They don't give raises...ever. I asked for a raise once, and they told me my "raise" is getting faster and doing more work. That would even be fine with me, if it were possible. They took away all bonuses and incentives based on production and gave everyone a "flat rate" pay per line. A couple months later, they gave everyone a pay cut (YES...they lowered our pay). Think they took a cut in their salary? HA! See Spheris' Financial Statement and executive salaries/benefits.

Put together the low line rate and the constant lack of work, MTs are just not making ends meet. "Bare minimum" benefits (major medical, etc.) sure do not help.

I feel bad for the customers. It has not always been this way. We have always been all about the customer, keeping them happy and making sure we submit quality work...no matter what. With the low pay/lack of work, MTs have to submit work I would never consider unacceptable. Quality and pride are just NOT priorities anymore...and that is sad. :-(

Advice to Senior Management

Management does not need (or want) my advice. Most of the experienced MTs have already left... and they know that. The rest are waiting for the economy to get better to find something else. If management doesn't start appreciating their employees (yes...I mean with money, and FAST), the first company who does will scoop up thousands of MTs for one heck of a customer quality-based service. I see this happening within the next 6 months...and I know I'm in.

Pros

Work from home. Flexible environment.

Cons

No opportunity to advance. No growth. Horrible employee relations.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn how to recognize and keep talent.

Pros

The biggest advantage this job offers is working from home. This company also provides a decent PC with fairly reliable support/help desk.

Cons

No raises - ever. If you want to make more money, just work harder and faster. Quality is compromised (dismal) due to offshore employees butchering reports. Benefits are pitiful. Scheduling is not flexible. Once you get proficient on a particular account, i.e., making money, you get switched to an unfamiliar and/or very difficult account so that you can't make money. No consistency. Rare positive feedback.

Advice to Senior Management

Try treating your transcriptionists with a little dignity and respect. Focus is too client-centered. MedQuist has lost sight of the face that transcriptionists make the company tick. Give bonuses and/or raises for a job well done.

Pros

Work from home, flexible hours, multiple resources provided for accurate workmanship, quality assurance a high asset to the company, feedback between management and personnel.

Cons

Speech recognition is on most of the accounts and greatly reduces your pay and speed. Speed is affected most at the beginning of your work.

Pros

Working independently from home.
Quality equipment provided.
Excellent 24/7 tech support.
Great technology that stays abreast with changes in industry.
Excellent training provided and tutorials are always available at the click of a mouse.
Flexible work schedule within reasonable limits.
With changes in management following purchase of Spheris, communication with direct supervisor is now superior -- personal, fast, considerate, helpful.
Pay is consistent with industry standards.

Cons

Not for the undisciplined or inexperienced.
Whiners are not going to like the work.
You can only get out of this sort of job what you put into it.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep moving in direction of last 7 months. The immense course correction in how MT's are "quality controlled" is amazing. Better the carrot than the stick which was routinely used under prior adversarial feedback structure. You seem to be listening to the worker bees. Astonishing!

Pros

There is a very small amount of flexibility in your schedule, give or take a few minutes. Saves money on wardrobe and gas. Equipment provided and reliable, available tech support. Relatively low stress.

Cons

Required to commit to a schedule, minimum 24 hours a week, which makes it difficult to synchronize your schedule with your spouse's so you don't have to use day care (which you can't afford anyway with what they pay). No raises, just an occasional opportunity to work longer hours to get an incentive. Long hours of sitting in one place. No notice of change in accounts so proficiency is difficult to attain. Dictators allowed to dictate on the system have poor dictation habits so sometimes editing takes longer than it would to transcribe the report and they only pay 60% of your regular line rate for transcription. Docks in pay for submissions to QA greater than 10% of lines produced. Never a positive remark about quality. You only hear about mistakes you make and are given warnings about "performance management."

Advice to Senior Management

Appreciate and respect your work force by showing them the money once in a while. How difficult would it be to do quality reviews and give raises in accordance with consistent performance? The opportunities to work extra to earn incentives are not motivating for those of us who have a family to take care of and need time to be with them.

Pros

Telecommuting options.
Company pays for equipment.
Education reimbursement (under certain conditions).
Working for them provides good resume fodder, as they are currently the largest company in their industry.

Cons

No raises.
Poor benefits, including no employer matching on 401K.
No screening for competency on upper management and director level positions.
Outsources to an excessive degree - this is not a company that supports the American worker.
Downsizes during the holiday season.
Board members get bonuses regardless of company performance.
Does not consult product experts within the company when making technology purchases, resulting in faulting equipment and money wasted on frivilous expenditures.

Advice to Senior Management

Staffing levels in IT support are at about a tenth of what is needed. You will continue to experience issues with customer retention until this is correct. Given that you cannot adequately compete in the transcription industry on price, you MUST offer better service to stay viable. Morale also needs to be a much bigger priority as almost all of your employees are so miserable that they will leave the moment the job market recovers.

Pros

Employee status, benefits offered but not necessary, ability to work from home, good quality equipment provided and great tech support.

Cons

Usually have to work less than desirable hours, penalized in pay per line for sending more than 10% of work for quality assurance instead of directly to client, which makes for low, low pay. Rare feedback, unless negative.

Advice to Senior Management

Throwing out an occasional, unexpected "good job" comment to the unsuspecting but deserving worker can really go a long way for morale.

Pros

Getting to work at home is about the only good thing about this job. They do pay on time and offer reasonable benefits.

Cons

The pay is awful. In six years, I never once got a raise and in fact when I left, was making less than when I started. Most of the work is going to India, but yet we were expected to cover their overload when there were Indian holidays. Management does not care the least bit about its employees, who are just robots who earn money for the big bosses who I'm sure get salary increases and bonuses every year. I hope this company goes under.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your employees a decent salary and stop padding your own pockets. Stop sending work to India.