Thursday, January 11, 2024

My Misadventures with Medical Transcription

 This is an unusual post for me, but I'm doing it because I believe that Medical Transcription A to Z, run by Deborah Burns, isn't a good training program for those who are interested in going into medical transcription. I've come to believe that the program is mostly a hoax, but not enough of one to get shut down, with enough validity to it to stay in business. 

I've wasted enough time over the last two years on medical transcription so I'm not going to go into all the details, but I do want there to be more out there on the internet about this company because suspiciously, there isn't much, except for glowing reviews from the website itself, and some BBB complaints, which I now believe are entirely valid. So this post may not even show up in people's searches depending on what kind of internet clean-up crew the company employs, but at least it will be out there somewhere. And this isn't libel or defamation because it's my valid personal experience with and honest opinion of this company, which freedom of speech guarantees that I have the right to share. 

Goodbye forever, medical transcription; don't let the door hit you on the way out! 😒 I was meant for better things, and I'm doing them! 😀
This is the email that I sent to Deborah (the owner) today:

Hello,

I just wanted to officially close the loop on my medical transcription journey. I've decided not to continue with your program. As a professional editor, I believe the standards regarding near-perfection for proofreading are ridiculously high, and that the transcription training itself isn't sufficient. I wouldn't enjoy working for this company with the stressful and unreasonable level of expectation that I've seen evident throughout my training. Also, your manner of communication has been discouraging. You don't say what people do right; instead, you emphasize what they do wrong, and while I never wanted to be babied, I did expect more respectful treatment than that.

I suspect that this company gets a lot of people to buy the training materials because of the promise of employment upon successful completion of the program. What is never said is how difficult it is to achieve that success because of the sky-high standards that are very difficult to meet, even by diligent and intelligent hard workers like myself. I suspect that few people make it all the way, but just enough do so that you can get by with saying that you do hire graduates. It seems that you let very few people pass while making good money off all of the ~$2K individual investments in your program.

For these reasons, I feel that the way you run this business is wrong and unethical. It preys upon people who are going through difficult life circumstances. I signed on to this when I was going through a terrible divorce and wasn't sure how I was going to continue to care for my kids full-time and support myself financially. This program felt like the answer to my problems in the vulnerable state that I was in. Even though I have an Ivy League degree and could get much higher-paying and better work, I wanted something that would be flexible and relatively low-stress that I could do from home. But unfortunately what seemed too good to be true did indeed turn out to be too good to be true. 

I will be sharing my experience with others as well as online because people should know before they make this decision what the experience of others has been. It's suspicious to me that in doing searches on your company, hardly anything turns up except for glowing reviews from your own website, and a few BBB complaints, which I now believe are entirely valid. 

I know that I don't have close to the full picture of your business, but my experience with it has been very disappointing indeed, and I hope that you'll reconsider your ways of doing business, or at least how you treat others who are trying their best. I've found other wonderful and meaningful work that I'm able to do at home, and my bosses are supportive and helpful and want me to thrive. I get positive feedback that is always respectful, and whenever there is any room for improvement, they encourage me instead of threaten me. This is the way that good people who work hard and do their best deserve to be treated.

I do wish you the best. There is no need to respond because I won't be reading or responding to anything else from this company. I'm ready to be done with this and move on!

Thank you,
Donna Carlson

(Tags that will hopefully help searchers find this post): #medical transcriptionatozreview #medtranscriptionatozreview #medicaltranscriptionatoz #medtranscriptionatoz #deborahstouchinc #deborahburns