The Medical Transcriptionist In Philippines

Medical transcription is one of the toughest jobs I ever went through. It requires speed and accuracy. Better find another job if you are always faint. Spelling and medical errors are excusable but not to the extent of abuse. I am going one month on this job and I don't even got to know why I keep making same mistakes over and over again.

I went over the payroll today and its barely a 1/4 compared to my earnings as an Office Clerk in the other company. It's not to bad. *Sob* I guess I'm really slow with the medical terms, too much drug names, too much garbled dictations, too much deciphering what the American doctors are trying to say.

Let me share how routine my life can be in a medical transcription. You should rise and shine as 5:00 early in the morning. Cook the rice, while you take a bath. If it's not too late, I prefer to eat instant noodles (can be cooked in 3 minutes or you munch it raw!). Before it ticks 6:30, you should be fully geared up and ready to go. When you get to the office, you got to punch your time in with the computer ID scanner. (Or just write a fake time on the logbook if you're really late). Just kiddin! Like a typical information savvy office, we sit in a long row and my computer is at the far end of the row where lots of MTs ALWAYS see me get in late every morning. Bad habit, huh?

Turning on the unit and putting on the headphones is way eazzzy, but nothing compares to how garbled American doctor's voice is. No, I'm not making bad remarks about the way they dictate their diagnosis and stuff, BUT FOR MOST OF THEM, it's just the way they speak. They're from Kansas, Florida, South Dakota, Massachussetts, Wisconsin, etc.

I have to strain my ears to hear and understand what they are saying. Doing so, I can literally hear my own heart beat. No kidding! A cup of hot coffee usually helps, but if it is really HARD, I could down a least 3 cups before my brain really breaks the hard code of garbled medical language!

Err.. there's another voicefile on the line. Gotta work!

Trapped In Fun!

It's 7:00 in the evening. Guess what? It's raining for 4 hours already. This is way too far from 5:00, the time to go home from the office. It's dinner time and I have to cook when I get home. Yeah, I cook by myself. I was really pissed off when it rained. This early morning, I did my laundry. Hand-washed them all and neatly hung each one on the clothesline in the backyard before I left for work.

Rain came in a sudden! The wind blows like there's no tomorrow. My poor clothes! How I wish some fairy godmother came to my rescue and saved them from the torrential rain. This is soooo unreal! I have nothing to wear tomorrow except these soaked clothes! Damn! Even my uniform was among them.

Right now, I am stranded in the office with my fellow MTs. Yeaps, we're killing our time playing games on the Internet. No more American medical reports to transcribe and tomorrow will be another work day. I found consolation in being stranded in the office. My fellow MTs and I are having fun with the computers. Yvon found her time posting articles on myLot, Dissa and TJ are killing each other virtually, with Beta in the side ring, virtually killing them well! Maam Clang got overly indulged on the online chats while I found it very cozy hanging out on the blogsites with my interests. I get to write new emails too!

Then it hit me. Being trapped in an office is not really bad after all. Not in every storm in life, must you feel depressed. There are usually good things in our life that we should really appreciate if bad things come our way. Odd, isn't it? Enjoy every wreaked day in your life and make the best out of it! Don't take things for granted!

First Day At Work!

It's 4:00 in the afternoon. Another cold rainy day.The loyal aircon made the office like a fridge. I was literally freezing. What can I say? I'm just a newbie MT. Just like I told you, today is my very first day to work as a real MT. For a change, I woke up 5:00 in the morning, had a cold shower, no breakfast and was on the road in minutes. Yeah, work starts on 6am in the morning until 2pm. I was assigned to this computer that seem to hate me. Anyway, it didn't ruin my day. For warm-up, I was assigned to transcribed a dozen medical reports within 8 hours' time. That's not much coz you can actually go over the reports after 20 minutes or so. When I did, I had a free hand on the computer coz these are ALWAYS online.

The American doctors from which these files came are from South Dakota, Florida and Massachussetts. Nahhh, it was like typing the lyrics of your favorate song while listening on the radio. Oh? The odd greek-latin sounding medical words with french accent? I didn't bother to recheck them much. Hey, we got an MT Editor on board! Why give your best when they can do so much better. On the jagged edge reality, its the MT editor who proof-reads the reports and have them sent back to the doctors.

I got a fellow MT beside me who somehow dozes off when she's sort of bored. Don't ask me, maybe listening to these doctors is really a boring thing. She fusses over the words she can't seem to understand and type down (though it doesn't seem to be BIG deal coz we make mistakes all the time). I hope she brings a pillow next time to kill time with.It's a bit ironic that she got Von for a name, it's means "GOOD" in french! Sleepy Von!

Nothing really unusual really happened, except...argh! Please shoot me coz I signed a employment contract without reading the terms are! Never mind, at least I have two paydays now! Are you turning green with envy?!?! Hope not!

Yes! I'm Hired! I Got The Job!

6 months of rigid Medical Trancription training, 1 month of evaluation tests, and loads and loads of school work have finally paid off! I finally reached my dreams of becoming a full-pledge Medical Transcriptionist! Oh well, this is one of the most beautiful rainy days in my life!

This afternoon, Ma'am Gultiano sent a SMS message that I should come to the office. Deeply puzzled, off I went. When I got there, she presented me the offer of working as an MT for Transcode One! Well, life is full of surprises that come in small packages! I hope they gonna place me in TOSC Academy Marketing Staff department as well.

Tomorrow is gonna be my very first day to work as a real MT. No more games, no more tricks. Welcome to the real life! I got 2 jobs now. First, an Office Clerk and now a Medical Transcriptionist. If anybody out there don't seem to understand, or has a problems with that, please consult the psychologist.

Tribute To Yaman Gensan! Mabuhay!

This is my 3rd day in celebration of Yaman Gensan. This will last until the fourth week of July. Photos will be uploaded later when we have gathered enough shots from the digital cams. It's quite definite that this city will turn in a mega-industrial city in 5 years time with what it has to boast for today. No wonder, it can outgrowth Davao City, another industrial giant in 5 years time or so, in term of gross product.

Yaman Gensan celebrates the economic sector of the city and its capability to contribute to the financial security of the region. It has the monicker of "Tuna Capital of the Philippines." Right now it has more than it has to offer. General Santos City has kept its entrepreneurial revolution going so quickly, that the Philippine Government adjudged it as the Most Competitive Mid-Sized City of the Philippines in 2007.

The events hosted in Gaisano Atrium flairs the best of the business sector. It does so by showcasing their best products and skills. From small business entrepreneurs where you can start with $10.00 capital only (or roughly 500 pesos), and earn residual income, and get up close to the latest and hottest jobs available. These are Call Center Agencies and Medical Transcription Services. Yups, my school is one of them, the BEST and CREME of the top, Transcode One Medical Transcription Academy (under Transcode One Solutions Corporation). We have MTC for rivals but they are just an MT school, NOT a MT company! They can just can train but not direct work their students into acid-test conditions. They can't beat us anyhow.

The activities also showcase, Filipino native products, culinary arts, cake making, herbal medicine, mountaneering skills, business franchising, soap-making business and lots and lots of others. I actually spent the last 3 days giving out flyers about the Yaman Gensan activities, (schedules included) with coupons of TOSC medical transcription services and I get to hang out in the Mall!

Watch out for the pictures to be upload this week. There are lots and lots of 'em. I think I gonna join for SBAOC, coz they're are mountaineers. If you had ever watched Sylvester Stallone on Cliffhanger (The movie), I wanna be like him. (Even if I'll break my leg learning to do so!). Enjoy life and be an adventurer! They have all the cool gears and ropes of mountain climbing and caving. Philippines is hell full of cool spots to exlore with. Most of its verdant beauty is untouched and the best way to take advantage of these scenic beaty and natural sites is to walk the path of these rugged mountaineers. Get close to nature! Mabuhay Yaman Gensan!

I'm Obsessed With This Girl!

I Have watched it at least a dozen times and I never went bored. This might be a definition for OBSESSION. Have you watched Kill Bill? If not, where have you been?! If you havent, try going to movie stores and rent. No, I don't like the blond bride. I like the villain: Gogo Yubari. She's a born killer. I don't know about you, but whenever she covers her mouth and giggles like a little kid, she's SO CUTE that I wanna hug her! She wears a school girl uniform and can knock out any guy with her metal ball. EXTREMELY GOOD with martial arts that you don't know what hit you! Poor thing, I almost cried when the Bride (Uma) killed her with a piece of wood covered with protuding nails. She's only 17! She's too young to die! This is insanity!

Aside from that, it's one of the best fight scenes I ever watched. The Japanese actress real name is Miss Chiaki Kuriyama. She was also cute villain at Azumi 2: Death or Love (where she was also killed!) I don't know why, but dangerous Asian babes like these makes me crazy! For more info about this born-killer babe do a search on Youtube.com for Gogo Yubari! For the guys out there, don't be fooled by a girl's face coz one single mistake could make your end so short! Damn! She is awefully cute! Someday, I'll go to Japan! Hmmm.... how many paydays that will take? Lemme sort it out first!

What I Dread Most and The Best Day of the Month!

Not a very good day. I almost run over by a truck. I didn't notice it was going my way. My fault anyway. You see, drivers nowadays don't pay a lot of attention to traffic rules when they are in a hurry. They just rush down the narrow roads without minding hapless pedestrians like me.

Anyway, if you got a violent reaction on my slight stupidity, today is my PAYDAY! Yes! I'm not going to tell you how much (coz I don't want to brag) but I don't care. It's PAYDAY PAYDAY PAYDAY! The BEST day of the month! My boss is an Indonesian businessman. We run a business that "fixes" traveling documents and permits. Nope. It's not really illegal, mind you. It actually makes things smooth for both countries.

In general, I work for a fishing industry here in the southern Philippines. It does not sound much, but it makes a lot of money. Our main concern are the fishing boats that fish on the Philippine waters, International waters and the Indonesian territorial waters. The crews in each boat are a mixture of nationalities. The real magic of my work to make the necessary documents that will make the fishing industry LEGAL and LEGITIMATE in regards to the maritime laws of both countries. Even so, for all the facts I have blogged about work, I only report 2 hours a day in the office doing those documents.

Nope, its not forgery of any sort. It's a "fixer" thing. We do all the paper work for both countries and we find the officials that are designated to SIGN them as an approval. No hassles, no delays, no nothing! There you go! Any questions? Hahaha. I'm an Office Clerk! Gotta enjoy my PAYDAY! See yah!