DICT8 Plus (new November 2022)

[Whitestar55]

Hi, Here we go again, anyone else set up a new thread yet? Hope to find everyone 🙂

Personally these doctors sound as pissed off as we are at the moment !!!!

Yes I agree. It's the way things are managed, by non-clinical managers that is the problem.

And now the junior Dr's are going on strike as well as nurses. I am not expecting a good outcome with regard to work coming in in March --- I have only secured < £100 for February so far this year due to reduced clinics.

@Pinksville : what drives me crazy is that patients are on hold . clinic cancelled etc. Come March we will be typing letters and the Consultants, others etc, will be paid massive amounts for extra clinics put in place to cope with backlog; whereas we will still be paid at same rate.

P.S> I still not have had a response from Dict8 re. an increase in pay and given the Cost of Living Crisis

@Frazzledbynature - I am surprised that Tpro offered you work at the moment when there is so little to be had, barely 20 letters on the system at any one time today, when there used to be 100s. And it is not just on my hospitals, on the Tpro thread people working for other different hospitals are saying the same so it is not as if my workload is being curtailed for some reason (as I understand DICT8 withholds tasks if your work falls below standard). I have worked for Tpro for quite some time now and never had work levels as low as this, it has always been 100s per day, usually about 400 letters on the system in various specialties.

Well.im absolutely confused! All Tpro ladies? Wheres all the work gone? I had one hospital when I first started and had lots of work. I now have 5 hospitals and with all the different specialities in each hospital I had less than 50 in total of the whole lot today and hardly anything since their bank holiday. Some hospitals had none and two had the most of the 50 and stragglers 1 or 2 letters now and again in the other. Do you think they are sharing it out. I only did one hospital before as it had most of my speciality im familiar with and would concentrate on that as it seemed was always in the red so used to just type away! I have had 3 or 4 letters per day or none at all recently in that hospital and particular speciality. ive also been given 4 more hospitals which I didnt ask for by the way and am struggling with different layouts etc but glad i have now as id be doing zilch otherwise. I remember after xmas someone saying about hardly any work on and they were keeping it fair by giving us all so many so it worked out fair. Perhaps they have decided to do same with the work now and are sharing it amongst us. I suppose with doing other specialties it will eventually get easier to understand and im making a note of the clearer dictaters. Really strange 🤔 I have noticed that there are few in red now so wonder if theyve shared it out so letters arent getting backed up the same. I havent bothered with Dict8 as there is nothing at all on there or rubbish ones that comes in.

@Gally123 I didn't know that Dict8 withholds tasks if your work falls below standard. How did you find out about that?

Remember it’s been half term last week and this so clinics will be cancelled if staff on leave. Reckon it will pick up next week.

The companies should quality check their software for sure. It also comes down to individuals eating the mouthpiece or dictating at a million miles per hour x

I must admit I was surprised to hear back from them with a typing test. My enquiry was just that a request to find out what they expect of transcribers and what their limitations were.
I typed for my first speciality I learned on the test, not the one I type for dict8. I have to say I did enjoy the change even if I got no financial gain. Lol

Like @Whitestar55 I wasn't aware of being "docked work" apart from 3 very bad dictated jobs today, I managed 3 letters which keep me ticking over from the wolves now, so I'm not sitting too long to notice how bad it it. 😒

I wasn’t aware Dict8 withholds task either, have they said that?

@Whitestar55 @Chrissols from a comment made on these pages some years ago where someone was complaining that there had been no work in one of her specialties for some time but that she had seen them advertising for typists doing just that, then other people commented on that speciality some had work, others did not. Later it turned out that there had been complaints about the quality of work for that specialty. So I deduce that if there are complaints about poor standard of work from a doctor/hospital they withhold the work (in the same manner that if you mange to type a dreadful dictator lo and behold you then get inundated with their work from then on).

They do have a scoring system for dictators to rate transcribers, according to the website and what others on here who use Dict8 at the clients' end say, so what @Gally123 says makes sense.

I also work at the other end (receiving work back from Dict8 and uploading onto our hospital system), we definitely do not score transcribers. Don't get me wrong, I not disputing anything, but I do know we do not score transcribers.

@Chrissols I seem to remember watching an instructional video stating that the transcribed tasks can be rated by the client if they wish to. The transcribers aren't identified to them, but they are presumably to Dict8.

@Whitestar55 all I can say is from experience of being on ‘the other end’ and our Trust most definitely does not have the facility to rate transcribers. We have the opportunity to make a comment it the transcription is particularly bad, which in some cases it can be surprisingly, but it is not a rating by any means, and is only used when the transcription is really really bad.

Video - An Introduction to the DICT8 System - at around 02:08 it mentions giving a typed task a rating. It's unclear exactly what is being rated, but I can't see it being the quality of their dictation, so assume it's the quality of the work done by the transcriber???

@ I’m not prepared to get into an argument sorry, all I am saying is that I upload received tasks back from Dict8 onto our hospital system, and we do not rate or score any work whatsoever. I have actually just been doing it so looked for the facility and it is not there……

@Chrissols Please watch the video and you can see on the screen a section for a star rating with five red stars. Maybe it is only the dictator that has access to this and not the secretaries. I'm not arguing by the way, just stating what is on the video and wondering if it is linked to what @Gally123 mentioned about our work being rated and monitored and access to tasks filtered, who knows? Let's face it, we are all monitored whether working in house or for a transcription company now, gone are the good ol' days of trust and autonomy.

@Gally123 As said, I do not dispute what you say, I don't need it proven by watching a video. I am just saying from experience we definitely do not have the option to rate or score transcribers in any shape or form.

On the video there is the option to rate the task, of which Dict8 will be aware of which transcriber has completed it, so although the client is not directly rating the transcriber as they aren't identified to them, they are rating the quality of the transcription, which then is fed back to Dict8, meaning they have inadvertently rated the transcriber. I realise not all tasks are rated, it is optional. I'm not blaming the clients.

@Chrissols - I do not know anything about a video but as I understand it the doctors who dictate can give feedback on the quality of the work submitted to them, which possibly over time includes whether they want that person continuing to submit work for them if they are unhappy with it. Perhaps things have changed if your hospital does not do this, or perhaps your hospital declined the option.

@Chrissols @Whitestar55 if a dictator is unhappy with the work submitted there is nothing to stop them contacting DICT8 to complain regardless of whether there is a system in place to monitor work, in the same way that people are free to complain about any service they are unhappy with - if you go to a restaurant and you are unhappy with the waiter service but like the food you may complain about the waiter but still continue eating there and hope to be served by someone different in future. You do not necessarily rate or leave feedback (via Tripadvisor etc) but may contact the restaurant manager directly and give details about why you were unhappy and request a different server in future.

I'm wondering if they have actually removed the star rating option now, as @Chrissols said, she can't see it. It's definitely there though on the instructional video, but the dates on the examples show the year as 2011.