Looking back on my blog, I realize I haven’t written anything since our vacation in May! It has certainly been quite a busy time work-wise, not to mention stressful for me! As some of you may or may not know, my business as I knew it has finally come to an end. I have had a working relationship for 30 years with St. Joseph’s Health Centre in Toronto and in March they had a meeting with me to say that due to purely “technology” reasons, they would be moving on to Nuance (Accentus) to provide them their dictation as well as transcription services. I just cannot compete with the “big guys” in that I do not offer “dictation systems” and I am purely just straight transcription. So they gave us three months notice that Nuance would be taking over both dictation and transcription services starting mid May. The hardest thing I had to do was to tell all 15 of “my girls” that we were losing our contract with SJHC and if they wanted to continue working on SJHC work, they would have to apply to Nuance. Out of the 15 girls, 8 of us applied to Nuance and the transition took place mid-May. We all had to learn a new software program that Nuance provides called “E-Scription” and although I really do like the program; the biggest change for all of us was the pay. Nuance pay structures for medical transcriptionists or as they call them now “medical language specialists” basically cut our income in half. It just makes me sick to see how they pay only so they have “huge profits” as they would be charging the hospital a lot more than I did as a small company. Anyway, it is what it is, and although I am happy to not have the responsibility of keeping good turnaround times of transcription and not worrying about having to find and hire more transcriptionists; I certainly do miss what I had with SJHC.
Then to my surprise, my good friend and fellow co-worker, Karen Cocca, arranged a surprise party of all ‘my girls’ that could make it. Karen and Breanne made up a story of me coming over to visit with Karen to see her new granddaughter and it didn’t even occur to me that this was just a ruse to get me over there. I was absolutely shocked to walk in and see all the girls that worked for me – some of whom I have never met as when I hired them, we basically just talk on the phone and do the computer set-up through the internet. For them drove all the way to Guelph from Owen Sound! It was absolutely a wonderful day and I was so grateful to all my girls for all their years of service and dedication to me. It was a great ending but a sad time for all of us. Here is a picture of the girls that were able to attend:
From the left at the back, Karen Cocca (host), Jennifer Hodge, Kim Shaw, Gayle Bye, me, Breanne Loaring, Leah Mielhausen and at the counter, Karen Medeiros.
Karen Medeiros and Karen Cocca had been with me the longest – when I first started working for SJHC, it was just me and the two Karen’s doing the work, and 30 years later, I slowly added on 15 girls! We were a great team and I so enjoyed every minute of it!
So since then, it has been a big learning curve working for Nuance and not always the best experience but I have started to come full-circle with it all and settle into a routine and I think I can say that I have come to terms with the lack of pay but thankful that I still can work on SJHC and have something to do. In order to bring in the money I want to, I do have to work a lot more hours than I have been over the last few years but I have even come to terms with that now and have set up a somewhat good routine of when I work.
Poor Brian, he has had to listen to not only me, but also Breanne when we are together, complaining or going on and on about Nuance and how bad the communication is within the company and of course the pay. Breanne is already looking for another job elsewhere as she feels she can’t survive working for this company with the amount of hours she has to put in in order to bring in a good income. She has a few leads and if something comes of it, I will let you all know although she will probably talk about it on her blog as well.
So enough about my “work life”; otherwise, things are going well. We have enjoyed watching our granddaughters in their dance production; we have watched Levi just blossom in the last few months. He is now 16 pounds and loves to smile and laugh and he uses his hands so well. He is even starting to develop fine finger movements. He is sitting up on his own now and plays with anything you put in front of him. The picture below tells it all…..
Selena and Annika in one of their dance outfits!
Annika and Levi – Annika absolutely adores Levi. She is going to be a great babysitter one day!
Happy Father’s Day to Brian!!!
We had a nice visit with my niece, Cathy, this week when she came for a visit from the States and she got to spend some time with both Jenn and Breanne and the kids. It was nice for all of them to catch up on their lives and Cathy finally getting to know Jenn and to finally meet Levi!
Brian just recently had his 6 month oncology visit and all is well. Blood work perfectly normal and he is still in remission! His next follow-up is in January 2016 when they will do further testing with ultrasounds and x-rays and more blood work. So we are truly blessed. Just going to Brian’s appointment and being relieved he is still in remission was enough for me to put things in perspective. Brian’s health is far more important to me than my work issues and I think it was from that time on that I started to settle down in my new routines and feel good that life is very good to me and I shouldn’t take it for granted.
We are off on Tuesday to visit with Eric and Dana at their cottage in Bayfield and it will be nice to have a couple of days away.
I hope this finds all who read my blog, happy and healthy and enjoying our summer weather! Take care all!
