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18 Dec 2004
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ADVERTISEMENT:
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Worldtech, a major player in Medical Trancription in India is on the lookout
for people to strengthen their operations in Hyderabad, Cochin, Bangalore,
Guntur, Kolkata, Vizag and Coimbatore. We need quality MTs and QAs with
good background. Remuneration package linked to skill and productivity.
Initial interviews and screeening will be done in your city itself. Home
based option after initial onsite placement. Relocation assistance will be
provided.

Send your resume or speak to:

Venkat Nimmagadda, GM- HR
Worldtech MGR Estates
Saibaba Temple Road, Punjagutta
Hyderabad -500 082
Email: Contactus@...
Phones: 040-2335-2697/2698/2700

Click here for details:
http://www.mtindia.org/worldtech.html

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ADVERTISEMENT:
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Focus Infosys is opening a branch office in Chandigarh. We are a
5-1/2-year-old, 500-people company with headquarters in Woburn, USA,
executing 3.5 lakh lines/day and outsourcing work to 15 companies across the
nation.

Highest rates of Rs. 1.50 per line offered for home-based work. Option to
work both from home and office for the same company. Compare your present
salary with what we have got to offer.

We invite you to join our start-up team of general manager, production
manager, team manager, QC/QA, PRs, Executive MTs, and MTs for our upcoming
unit in Chandigarh.

Eligible candidates are requested to attend the walk-in interviews conducted
in Chandigarh on 18-Dec-04 (Saturday), 19-Dec-04 (Sunday), and 20-Dec-04
(Monday) between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the following venue:

President Hotel
#22, Madhya Marg,
Sector 26, Chandigarh 160 019,
Phone: 0172-279-1731/4
Mobile: 98450-99797 (T.N. Raju - In Charge Operations)

If you cannot attend the interview, please send your resume to
chandigarh@...

To work from home, you need NOT attend the interview but send e-mail to
home@... or visit www.focusmt.com

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MTs sue MedQuist...

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Dear Friends,

MTIAPI (Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Phils., Inc.), an
alliance of Filipino MT service organizations, envisions the Philippines as
an offshore destination of choice for medical transcription services. Evelyn
Abat, President of MTIAPI, said this is why their short-term and immediate
goals are focused on fortifying the labor pool with qualified MTs so that
the Philippines will be well-equipped to accommodate big-time and
high-paying transcription contracts.

Myla Rose Mundo Reyes, Vice President, MTIAPI, states that presently the
Education Committee of MTIAPI is "completing its calendar of activities that
would promote awareness on medical transcription as well as guide the
training centers in appropriately implementing the training programs in
order to bridge the knowledge and skills gaps between the graduates and the
actual industry demands."
.
"The market is too big to become an issue of competition," Abat said.
"However, established players were hurt as a result of this development,
losing some of their senior MT staff to a number of aggressive startup
companies without the capability to train their own staff."

Reyes added, "Furthermore, other IT industries such as call centers compete
for the services of the MT workers. The emigration of skilled professionals
(nurses, medical technologists and physical therapists) to other countries
further worsened the already scarce labor pool. This development not only
diluted the industry of quality people, but also drove the production costs
up by 150% to 200% over the last 5 years in an effort to keep or attract
instantly trained professionals."

Many MT training centers have also proliferated over the past years;
however, common concerns among the industry players remain the poor quality
of most of their graduates who barely meet the minimum skills required to
reach the entry-level standards, she said.

MTIAPI Education Committee is closely working with TESDA to accomplish the
following goals, she outlined:

1. Finalize the Training Regulations to define the standard competencies
needed in Medical Transcription with the end view of coming up with quality
outputs.

2. Complete the Curriculum Exemplar to serve as basis for registering
training programs of different training centers.

3. Outline the competency assessment and certification system for staff
career path and development.

4. Outline continuing education programs to ensure an up-to-date and
competent MT pool.

5. Promote Medical Transcription as an alternative career for the
English-proficient Filipinos through road shows and seminars in partnership
with different universities.

Moreover, she said, the mindset that one can train for 3 to 6 months and
become a full-fledged MT, earning between R40,000 to R75,000 while working
at home, needs to be seriously qualified. It usually takes at least 4 to 5
years of experience and strict self-discipline to reach a productivity and
accuracy level that would support such earnings.

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To participate in the Coffee Break XVIII, click here now:
http://www.mtindia.org/jobs/
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Ciao!

Dr Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) University of Michigan shops overseas for transcription services

Thousands of times a day, doctors working for the University of Michigan
Health System dictate notes about their patients for transcription into
medical records, a laborious process that cost the health system more than
$9 million last year. The task has grown so big in the last decade that the
health system, since 1995, has sought help by hiring outside companies to
supplement the work of its in-house transcribers.

The outside companies have always sent a portion of the work overseas,
saving money for the health system. But to further clamp down on costs, the
health system, in the latest contracts, increased the percentage of work
that can be done overseas, so that now about 60 percent of all medical
transcriptions are performed by workers in India.

The two private companies used by U-M now handle 80 percent of the work. Six
months ago, the health system signed new contracts, estimated to cost $5.5
million this year, raising the percentage of work the companies can send
overseas from 50 percent to 75 percent. The two new contracts were
competitively bid, and awarded to U.S.-based CBay Transcription Services of
Pennsylvania, and HealthScribe, Inc. of Virginia, which renamed its business
as Avicis in October. The move is expected to save U-M about $1.1 million
this year. But it also means that the health system is wading deeper into
the politically sensitive debate about overseas outsourcing.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed executive orders earlier this year requiring
bidders for state contracts to disclose where the work will be done. That
information can be used as a factor in awarding contracts. Because the
health system runs autonomously from state government, however, it is exempt
from the orders, said Liz Boyd, the governor's spokeswoman.

The health system says it has to control costs, and wants to do it in areas,
like medical transcription, that don't directly affect patient care. With
expenses rising, the health system says it's being squeezed as Medicare, the
government health care program for the elderly, falls short of covering the
costs.

Robert Kennedy, a professor at U-M's Stephen M. Ross School of Business,
acknowledged that some people are hurt when jobs are sent overseas, but said
the move ends up benefiting many more consumers by making the economy more
efficient and lowering costs. "Efficiency is good for everybody who lives in
the country," Kennedy said. "Everybody who uses hospital services in
Michigan is better off."

"Medical transcriptionists are difficult to find," said Jefferson Howe,
president of the American Association for Medical Transcription, "and
there's a national shortage of qualified transcriptionists." Rose Bledsoe, a
transcriptionist who has enjoyed working at U-M for about 20 years, said
outsourcing has practical benefits. "There's more work than we can handle,"
she said. And an advantage of using workers in India is the time difference.
Workers in India can transcribe while the health system's operations slow
down at night in Ann Arbor, Bledsoe said.

http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1102849823145900.xml

2) HCA Midwest hospitals to outsource to Heartland Information Services Inc.

Independence Regional Health Center and Medical Center of Independence are
outsourcing 18 medical transcription jobs to Heartland Information Services
Inc., effective Jan. 10. Heartland is based in Toledo, Ohio.

"With this transition, we're going to experience quicker turnaround times
and increased weekend and holiday coverage," said Sunny Drenik, a
spokeswoman for the two HCA Midwest hospitals. "We see this as one more step
toward improving patient safety."

Medical transcriptionists primarily transcribe tapes of patient data made by
health providers. Drenik said Heartland transcriptionists in Toledo would
receive information from tapes through a secure electronic transmission.

The local transcriptionists who lose their jobs because of the change will
have the opportunity to apply for other jobs at the two Independence
hospitals and at other HCA Midwest hospitals, Drenik said.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/10409895.htm

3) Medquist Inc. Announces resignation of Chief Operating Officer

MedQuist Inc. announced that John W. Quaintance, the company's Executive
Vice President & Chief Operating Officer has decided to resign from the
company. In order to assist with the transition of his responsibilities, Mr.
Quaintance has agreed that the effective date of his resignation will be
January 31, 2005. Mr. Quaintance has had a distinguished career at MedQuist
and the company wishes him well as he pursues new opportunities outside of
MedQuist.

http://www.itnews.it/risorse/EuroNews,Zj0xMTUzMDQ1

4) Recognising the potential of unorganised sector

The recent growth of IT- enabled service businesses in India-call centres,
medical transcription, technical support and back office processing,
engineering and design, geographic information services, payroll and other
human resource services, insurance claim processing, legal databases-is
powerful evidence that the potential of IT technology and knowledge based
industries extends far beyond the development of software and hardware. The
US experience shows that, as the application of information technology
spreads and encompasses traditional industries, it can generate new
employment opportunities ten times greater in number than those directly
involved in core IT industries.

The management of all types of information is emerging as a major growth
industry worldwide and India is well poised to become a global leader in
this field. Increasing demand for education within the country and worldwide
will create tremendous demand for qualified teachers with adequate language
skills. An estimated two million additional teachers will be needed in India
to support 100 per cent primary school enrolment and to reduce the
teacher-student ratio for improved quality of teaching. Another two million
or more will be required to support higher rates of upper primary and
secondary school education and to reduce teacher-student ratios at those
levels. Teaching staff for vocational training and higher education need to
be expanded as well.

http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=2097

5) Coworker's holiday gift: A kidney

Christmas is a sensitive subject this year for Watkins, director of health
information management at Redmond Regional Medical Center, as well as for
Cooper, a medical transcription supervisor who works under Watkins.

Although the two have not been more than friendly colleagues for the past 16
years, an act of love and a chance tissue match will allow them to forge a
powerful connection this holiday season.

On Dec. 20, Watkins will give one of her kidneys to Cooper. "It'll be a
special Christmas. What better present could I give?" Watkins said, looking
over at Cooper. "And what better present could I receive?" Cooper replied
with a smile. "It'll be a happy new year."

http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/680/public/news596149.html
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The MTIndia Team
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