Realistic Employment opportunities (Grand Rapids: insurance, job market, transfer)

[Morrigan1310]

My husband is being transferred to Grand Rapids, which is a good thing but I'm concerned about work for me. My background is administration, such as office manager and administrative assistant. I've looked on Indeed.com and Craigslist but there doesn't seem to be a lot of those jobs available unless it's in dental or doctor's offices, which I don't have experience in. What's the job market and pay scale like there? Thank you in advance!

[michigan lizard]

I don't know, it seems like I run across a ton of those types of listings on Indeed. I wouldn't even waste my time on Craigslist. Do you have accounting experience? I know office managers are normally tasked with doing everything (for less money). If you do, expand your search to include the word "accounting", and you'll come across a lot more.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Morrigan1310

My husband is being transferred to Grand Rapids, which is a good thing but I'm concerned about work for me. My background is administration, such as office manager and administrative assistant. I've looked on Indeed.com and Craigslist but there doesn't seem to be a lot of those jobs available unless it's in dental or doctor's offices, which I don't have experience in. What's the job market and pay scale like there? Thank you in advance!

I'd try LinkedIn before I tried craigslist. The local craigslist seems to be a breeding ground for scams. LinkedIn has a "jobs" tab and you can search by jobs and areas.

[RitaTome]

If you have solid administrative experience and half a brain you should be able to get a job at one of the local hospitals even though you have no direct medical office experience. Brush up on the different types of medical insurance (commercial vs medicare/ medicaid.....no need to be an expert) and familiarize yourself with some common medical terminology, both of which are easy to Google. There are 3 decent sized hospitals (and they all own multiple stand alone doctor's offices) in the GR area and all of them are always looking for business office help. The hospital system I work for ( Mercy Health) has 5 or 6 openings for front desk staff right now. Pay is average ( 13 - 18 per hour depending on experience), but paid time off is generous and health benefits are well above average. This particular hospital has a strong Catholic mission but you don't have to be religious to work there as long as you can follow their mission statement to treat all patients and co-workers with kindness and dignity no matter their social standing. It's not just something they say.....they mean it and do their best to enforce it.
The 3 hospital systems here are Mercy Health, Spectrum and Metro Health and they all have a "careers" link on their websites. Plus there are several charity missions (Cherry Health, Pine Rest, Network 180) who might have openings.
Good luck and welcome to GR!

[Morrigan1310]

Originally Posted by michigan lizard

I don't know, it seems like I run across a ton of those types of listings on Indeed. I wouldn't even waste my time on Craigslist. Do you have accounting experience? I know office managers are normally tasked with doing everything (for less money). If you do, expand your search to include the word "accounting", and you'll come across a lot more.

Thank you, I'll do that! I have done "accounting" before as an office manager, just basic AR/AP and reconciling.

[Morrigan1310]

Originally Posted by magellan

I'd try LinkedIn before I tried craigslist. The local craigslist seems to be a breeding ground for scams. LinkedIn has a "jobs" tab and you can search by jobs and areas.

Thank you, I'll check that out as well! I never think about LinkedIn

[Morrigan1310]

Thank you so much! I'll definitely check out the hospitals then. I have a medical transcription diploma, but that was many moons ago, and I haven't worked in that field for almost 20 years. I still remember some of it though!

[walker46]

It seems medical transcription is booming now in Grand Rapids and everywhere. It seems it's an unintended consequence of the demands placed on physicians by the new electronic medical records systems. Old doctors who never learned to type can't enter their notes fast enough into the system. When I go to see my Spectrum Health primary physician, there is always a script writer in the room to key information into the computer as me and the doc converse. It's kind of annoying but apparently it's opened up a lot of job opportunities for script writers. I wonder how many patients aren't as candid with their doctor as they might be if there was not a young woman in the room taking notes.

[Chaofan]

Originally Posted by walker46

It seems medical transcription is booming now in Grand Rapids and everywhere. It seems it's an unintended consequence of the demands placed on physicians by the new electronic medical records systems. Old doctors who never learned to type can't enter their notes fast enough into the system. When I go to see my Spectrum Health primary physician, there is always a script writer in the room to key information into the computer as me and the doc converse. It's kind of annoying but apparently it's opened up a lot of job opportunities for script writers. I wonder how many patients aren't as candid with their doctor as they might be if there was not a young woman in the room taking notes.

What you are describing is a medical scribe, a job that requires training and pays roughly minimum wage. Hospitals in many areas employ medical students as scribes. Medical offices probably seek former medical transcriptionists (because medical transcription is, in fact, a dying field) for their minimum-wage scribe positions.

[walker46]

Originally Posted by Chaofan

What you are describing is a medical scribe, a job that requires training and pays roughly minimum wage. Hospitals in many areas employ medical students as scribes. Medical offices probably seek former medical transcriptionists (because medical transcription is, in fact, a dying field) for their minimum-wage scribe positions.

Thanks for your explanation. As it happens, I do know a little about medical transcription, my mother managed the transcription department at a large hospital many decades ago. While I’ve heard scribe used to describe the person that sits in during my office visits, I assumed it was basically the same job but with different technology. In my mother’s time, it essentially consisted of listening to physician’s voice recordings and transcribing them on to medical records. That’s not a whole lot different than what a scribe in the doctor’s office does today. I would think the requisites for the job are the same; an understanding of medical terms, an ability to type fast and accurately, the ability to understand what foreign-born doctors are saying, and a willingness to work for minimal pay. Of course, what was on those old voice recordings was a summary of what the physician thought was important, not everything said in the room. One thing I wonder about with this new scribe position is how good is the scribe at separating the chaff from the wheat so to speak, since much of the conversation between my doctor and myself is hardly newsworthy in a medical sense. Since I travel a bit, at least compared to him, his first question to me is usually about my recent travels and then we eventually get around to how I’m feeling.

SORRY MORRIGAN1310 for this topic drift.