That's Not My Job!

Office staff problems

The weak link between the transcription firm and the physician / medical records supervisor can be the office staff. It can also be the strongest link; it just depends on the quality of that staff.

Here is the bad news, many (I’m not sure it’s not most) of the people we are hiring in America today have one or more of these issues: indolent (read lazy), obtuse (read stupid) or dishonest (read crooked). These people cost companies large amounts of money through theft, loss of customer satisfaction and the need to hire additional staff to do what a smaller staff could in fact do. Let’s consider how these problems and the people that embody them affect our businesses and economy.

1) Indolent: Let’s face it, some people simply don’t like to work. They have jobs because they must earn some kind of income. But they don’t want to do one thing more than what they must in order to actually do that job. You run into these people at retail stores as well as various offices. Their response to criticism of their work ethic is: “ they are not paying me enough to do …(fill in the blank).” The idea of doing above and beyond the call of duty in order to demonstrate to their employer just how valuable they are never crosses their mind.

I can remember talking to a young lady that worked for us; someone I thought was intelligent and capable, about the possibility of moving into management. After expressing my appreciation on how she had preformed so far and suggesting she that it appeared she had a bright future in business, I then went to explain that I would like to consider her for management. That I would give her the opportunity to demonstrate her full capabilities and if she performed as well as I expected she would, she would be brought into management. I then sat back and waited for her response. That response? “How much raise do I get? If I don’t get a good raise, I’m not doing one thing more that I’m doing right now!” It will be no surprise to the reader I’m sure to find out that we decided to look elsewhere in our search for management material.

In addition, we have experienced much frustration when trying to solve a simple problem in a client’s office by a secretary who simply responds “that’s not my job” to any instructions you might be providing to resolve a simply difficulty.

2) Obtuse: Many secretaries do not actually know how to do anything well. Now you are going to think that in this next story I’m kidding you, but I’m not—here goes. I was working with a secretary over the phone trying to help here call up and read the medical transcription on her computer. Now, often the first step to take in dealing with computer problems is simply to reboot and try again. So I tried that, in fact I tried it several times because I simply could not understand why the “picture” I expected on the screen was not showing up. Remember, I was on the phone; the secretary was working on the computer. Then it dawned on me; she was turning off and on the monitor, not the computer. She didn’t know the difference! (I’m not kidding.)

Many feel their lack of knowledge on a given topic is their boss’s fault; it is somehow the companies responsibility to train them; that they themselves have no responsibility to invest in their own lives through increased education or training.

3) Crooked: I know that job place theft is a problem you are probably well aware of, but how would that show up in the medical transcription field? Well one way that we have experienced it is with secretaries that want their “friends” to get the medical transcription account. This is generally not in the interest of the physician, simply in their interest.

But even more disturbing is how they go about pulling this off. They will find fault with everything you can imagine, the great majority of which is false or simply nitpicking and then go to their boss and complain about how that medical transcription company is doing a lousy job. By the way, I know a medical transcriptionists who can do this far better than what we are getting here.

The result is a loss of quality service to the physician as well as a form of theft to that medical practice.