MT India Newsletter - http://www.MTIndia.info/

Sep 30, 2006
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RSS Feeds from MTIndia.info

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Dear Friends,

I guess this is a prolonged weekend, spilling over to next week.
Happy festivities!

I did mention about RSS feeds at MTIndia.info, I think I should
elaborate on this just a little:

1) News Feeds: News feeds are aggregated from major search engines,
updated hourly and available for your convenient browsing at this
page:
http://mtindia.info/news/news-feeds/

2) News Syndication: You can subscribe to syndicated news from our
homepage:
http://mtindia.info/

Feeds are available in RSS, ATOM or OPML.

The benefits? You don't have to give your email address, name or
any other personal details. You don't have to confirm your
subscription (double opt-in). You will not be prevented from
receiving your messages by spam filters. You can stop receiving
your messages anytime, permanently, and you don't have to say why
:)

I've just got around to installing IE7 and I'm wondering how many
others have given it a run? RSS has been implemented well. Visit a
site where a feed is available and an icon will indicate the fact.
Click the icon and the feed headlines will be displayed, along with
a link to subscribe. Feeds can be managed in IE along with
traditional bookmarks and it eliminates the need for a special RSS
reader. . All very easy and logical to use.

Seems to me that RSS is about to go mainstream.

Festival greetings to all, once again!

Cheers!

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

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) DTS developments raise concerns, questions

DTS America, a medical transcription company, came to Carlsbad
earlier this year lured by an available work force and promise of
up to $2 million in local incentives. Now, having moved far faster
than anyone expected, and having burned through $1 million in
initial cash incentives, DTS officials have admitted the company is
strapped for cash. They apparently burned through the funds by
experiencing very rapid growth in the number of employees in
training, accompanied by growing payroll expenses.
Their employee headcount recently crested at more than 101. At the
beginning of August, the milestone allowed the company to approach
the city to request $500,000 as a second round of cash incentives,
prescribed by the contract it has with the city.

When DTS hit this second "money mark" so quickly, councilors openly
questioned the rapid pace of the company. "Slow down," Councilor
Louise Tracy told DTS execs Aug. 8 during a discussion where
council and company officials agreed reaching the 101 level in
staffing was "months" ahead of schedule.

The city and DOD approved dispensing the next $500,000, but DTS
apparently couldn't wait for the govern-ment to issue the funds.
So, the DOD board went out on a limb and loaned DTS $200,000 out of
the DOD's operating funds. They took DOD operating capital and lent
it to a newcomer, betting that the DOE would approve release of the
funds - and they'd get paid back. But it turns out that two hundred
grand was not enough.

DTS execs in Tennessee wrote a stern letter to the DOD, demanding
the rest of the money right away - by citing the contractual
obligation the city and DOD are under. In an unprecedented and
stunning move, the DOD voted by phone and e-mail to borrow $300,000
from a local bank. All the more astonishing, Mayor Bob Forrest
personally secured the loan!

Meanwhile, some DTS employees stepped forward this week and
publicly voiced several concerns. Speaking out about the details of
how the promised high-paying jobs within DTS actually work, they
described that the transcription work comes to Carlsbad in the form
of overflow from DTS workers in India - only when they can't get it
done. Employees also stated that fully trained employees often wait
all day for work to come in - and don't make those big bucks if
they are not transcribing.

DTS grew faster than anyone anticipated, and apparently reached the
next contractual payout level, largely because they changed their
own rules of compensation - recruiting new trainees by offering an
hourly wage immediately. (The first class signed on by agreeing to
train for three months for free.) This explosive growth in payroll
expenses almost certainly resulted in DTS' immediate desperation
for the whole $500,000.

The old saying, "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute
an emergency on my part" comes to mind. Between this unseemly
desperation for cash, and bearing witness to a number of employees
who are risking their jobs to express multiple concerns, there is
ample reason for the city council, the DOD board, and the U.S. DOE
to ask some serious questions of the company. Thankfully, the DOE
has already begun that process. Serious questions remain about
their business model, cash flow, customer base, and long-term
viability.

http://www.currentargus.com/ci_4425345

2) Worldtech Acquires Statdata, Inc.

Worldtech USA, a leader in Business Process Outsourcing
specializing in medical transcription services and electronic
medical records, today announced the acquisition of Statdata, Inc.,
a medical transcription company based in Utica, New York. "This
Summer has been full of milestones including the acquisition of
Stat Data located in New York, which is the first of numerous
acquisitions that are set to be completed in the very near future.
Be expecting at least one more purchase at the end of the Summer.",
said Jeremy White, Director of Marketing for Worldtech.

http://www.worldtechusa.com/Blog/2006/08/worldtech-acquires-statdata-inc.html

3) Spheris Ranks Among America's Fastest-Growing Companies

Spheris has been listed among the fastest-growing private companies
in America according to Inc. magazine. The top 500 companies for
growth were listed in the magazine's August issue, and Spheris' #72
ranking makes this the second year in a row Spheris has been in the
top 75.

"The need for clinical documentation technology and services in the
U.S. healthcare market is growing rapidly," said Spheris President
and CEO Steven E. Simpson. "And Spheris has a unique strategy that
combines proven technology with superior service to keep pace with
the evolving industry." With a global network of 5,500 medical
language specialists, Spheris operates in a true 24-hour
environment and is able to keep the transcription process moving
quickly and efficiently all hours of the day and night for its
clients.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060928/clth059.html?.v=65

4) DTS employees dispute company claims

Some DTS America employees say they are upset about how the
company, promised more than a million dollars in incentives through
the Carlsbad Department of Development to locate here, is doing
business.

Tracy Lawler, a DTS employee who said she is speaking out and
putting herself at risk of being fired because she's sharing
information, said she is a member of the second class to take
daytime training. She said she questions why her class and the one
previous were not paid while they were training, yet a second night
class that was in training at the same time her day-class was
conducted was paid.

"Those people, along with some others, were made full-time
employees," she said. "This is only my opinion, but I think DTS
paid them during training in order to meet the criteria for
additional funding. In the last story in the newspaper it was
stated by a DTS official they made the people in training fulltime
employees because there was a lot of work, when in actual fact
there are several employees working on what DTS calls dead files.'
(or practice work). The people who are actually in production have
hardly any work to do."

Lawler confirmed that for the first six months while training,
employees are paid $10 an hour. However, after six months, she
said, they are paid by the line for medical transcription. She said
the workflow at DTS' Carlsbad site comes from the work overflow
from DTS' call center in India. There are many days when people are
sitting around waiting for work to come in, Lawler said. If they
are not transcribing, she said they are not paid at all. She and
other employees to speak out on this issue feel this conflicts with
how DTS was sold to Carlsbad as being a high-wage employer.

http://www.currentargus.com/ci_4408530

5) Britain hospital staff threaten strike

Employees angry over plans of British hospitals to outsource
medical transcription to India have voted to go on strike if the
plans are not shelved. Several hospitals in Britain have outsourced
or are in the process of outsourcing the work of typing up
patients' notes to India to save costs at a time when they are
facing financial deficits. These include hospitals in
Staffordshire, Leeds and Cornwall.

A typical example of the reasons cited to prevent job losses by
sending work to India was the statement of David Prentis, union
general secretary.
He said: "Lives are being put at risk by hospitals desperate to
save money. Trusts are being wooed by companies promising free
trials, pilots and huge financial savings if they allow medical
typing to go abroad. Medical secretaries in the NHS work to 99.8
percent accuracy targets and once phased out' their knowledge and
expertise will be lost for ever."

http://www.24x7updates.com/articles/20060921/britain_hospital_staff_threaten_str\
ike-id-101939.html
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The MTIndia Team
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