We go through many life-changing events throughout our
lives. It does not matter if you live in
the same family home your entire life or move over and over again. Up until my husband, Joe, and I moved to
Idaho in 1994, I had lived in only 2 homes.
Well, 3 if you count the apartment we lived in when I was a baby and
apparently sat in the backyard in a lawn chair in the middle of winter with
nothing on but my boots, with my sister and brother arguing over who should go
and get me, but since I don’t remember that incident, it does not count! I did
move into the house that Joe grew up in when we got married, so that was the
only home for him. Then in 1994, all of
that changed. He accepted a job with a
large ENT clinic in Twin Falls, Idaho. I
think it took our families about 2 years to figure out where we lived—Utah?
Iowa? Oregon? Finally, Joe just told them we were just left of Montana.
Joe left for Idaho in June of that year. I stayed behind to sell our house. I continued with my service, since I would
have nothing else to do while waiting for the sale. I got up every morning and dusted the house,
made sure the dogs did nothing in the basement, then would head off to pick up
my work. Around the beginning of July,
we got an offer. He was a single guy in
his 50s and wanted to buy the house for his fiancee because he traveled a lot,
and I believe they were tired of apartment living. During this time, I also had to get estimates
from 3 different moving companies, get the house inspected, and take care of a
sick puppy who wound up having cancer and had to be put down (she was 13 and
would not have tolerated major surgery).
I was very happy to have my service still up and running, because it
definitely helped me to take my mind off of all the difficulties of this move
across the country, especially losing Barley.
Once the house passed the inspection, and I received the
good faith money from the buyer, I decided it was time to close down my
service. I wanted my 2 full-time clients
to have plenty of time to find a replacement, so I gave them about a month’s
notice.
The day before closing, I got a call from my realtor. He said this had never happened to him
before, but the buyer had dropped dead of a heart attack. I think I almost did the same! There
was nothing that could be done except to start all over again. So, I started all over again. My business officially ceased operation at
the end of July. By sometime in August,
I did get a second offer on the house, and this time everything went
smoothly. Joe came back to get me the
end of September, and on October 1, 1994, I started my new life with Joe in
Idaho. He actually bought me a house
that I did not see until we drove into the driveway and walked into that
house. He probably looked at 100 houses
over the summer, and I had absolutely no doubt I would love this house that
would be our home for the next 18 years, and I did. Even our dog, Buckwheat, loved the place,
although I think she liked it best when there was no furniture in it.
So I had decided I was going to take about 6 months off before
I started looking for clients. I wanted
to get to know my new surroundings, the people, the stores, and mostly just
adjust to living so far away from home and try to change my home concept from
Ohio to just left of Montana. I had no
car, no TV, and no phone for 2 weeks, so I took that time to unpack and figure out
where to put things. I love, love, love
to organize, so those 2 weeks were really a blast. Just about the time I got everything put away
in their proper place, Joe comes home and tells me his office is in desperate
need of MT help. They had one MT, 5
physicians who also did surgery at the same facility, and on top of that, they
had satellite clinics. It was way more
than one MT could handle, and since they knew I was an MT (thanks a lot, Joe!),
how could I say no? So my 6-month hiatus
turned into 2 weeks.
The fun began when the physician I had to deal with wanted
to pay me $6 an hour and felt that was very fair compensation. I can tell you there are 2 things I can’t
stand—oysters and confrontations! To
make matters even more complicated, this was Joe’s boss, and even though
anything I said or did would not affect Joe’s position there, obviously it
could make things a tad awkward if I did not handle this in the most professional
manner I could muster up! I explained as
an IC (independent contractor) I charge a certain fee, and I went on to explain
what that fee included, that mostly being my expertise.
I don’t want to go into long details here, but I did explain
to him about my CMT status and what I had to do to maintain my credential. I
told him about my AHDI activities. I let
him know about my extensive medical reference library and what I typically
spend to keep all of my references up-to-date.
It took some time to convince him what a medical transcriptionist truly
is, but I knew my persistence paid off when he gave me the “I’m not worthy” bow
when I showed him an article I had written and published in an MT journal. That
was one of my most proudest moments of my MT career.
If you are tired of reading at this point, let me share with
you why this story is important. I have
read more times than I can count, “No one ever asked me if I was certified.” That is very often the reason I hear why an
MT chooses not to become credentialed. I
can make that same statement. There is
no client, no physician, no office manager who ever asked me if I was a
CMT. I TOLD them about my certification
and what I have to do to maintain it. I did not wait for them to ask. If you have been reading my story, you know I
have had my difficulties with being certified.
Working in a profession that is not particularly well known to other
healthcare professionals, there is no question it can be hard to make others
understand how vital we are to patient healthcare documentation. You won’t win every battle. You won’t get
paid a higher wage with every job. That saying that anything worth having is
worth fighting for holds very true for our field of work. I could have so easily accepted $6 an hour
and never said a word to Joe’s boss, but I decided to stand up for myself and
my profession. No, there won’t be a
positive outcome every time, but if you do nothing, there will never be
progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment