Meet Your QA Team

 

Ashley Mull

 

Hi  - My name is Ashlie Mull.  I live in Upstate New York.  My husband, Todd, and I have 4 children; 3 girls ages 11, 7 and 5 and 1 boy who is 10.  There is never a dull moment in this house. 

 

I have been a medical transcriptionist for 13 years.  I am actually “returning home” to TRS and am very excited to once again be part of such a great team.  I have worked in several capacities, as an MT, editor and speech recognition editor.  I love the medical transcription field as a whole; it is never stagnant – we never “know it all” – we are perpetual students, constantly learning new things in this ever growing/ever changing field. 

 

 

Kelly Bauer

 

Hello!  I began my career 20 years ago in July 1987.  My boys were 7 and almost 1 at the time, and I wanted to be able to stay home and raise them.  After formulating a business plan, I left a position as Administrative Assistant to the President of an ad agency in L.A. to start my own secretarial service.  While purchasing equipment for my business (computers built in garages and laser jet technology so new that my HP printer cost over $2,000), I ran into a salesperson for court reporting equipment who had a friend that owned a medical transcription company and desperately needed help.  I tested for the job and got it.  I did contract work for them for a year before taking on my first account, an orthopedic account.  My earliest memory of being "QA'd" is that ortho doc saying, "It's DIFFUSE knee pain, not DEFUSE… we're not taking apart a bomb here."  The rest, as they say, is history!  I tired of owning my own company and working 24/7 after 15 years, and eventually found my way to TRS.  I've called TRS 'home' for past 2-1/2 years.  I love my job in QA, and enjoy in"FUSE"ing a little humor with my feedback to our awesome MTs.

 

Dianna Barnett

 

 

My name is Dianna Barnett, and I am thrilled to call TRS "home."  I came to be a part of the transcription field as a result of 9/11.  At the time, my husband and I were both working in the conference center industry, which was hit very hard post 9/11.  We decided that one of us needed to get out of the conference center industry and into a different field so we didn't have all our proverbial eggs in one basket.  I got the local contact name of a nationwide transcription company and asked them if I could test with them, even though I only had OB/GYN experience.  They agreed, and I ended up with a score 12 points below their cutoff.  However, the person who would end up being my manager told me "Based on your test results, I think you have a lot of promise.  If you really want to pursue this, I would recommend you take a course from a company where I have had more success hiring graduates than any other."  So I looked into the MT course.  My husband and I did not have the funds to do the course, but I saw a section on the web site about a scholarship and applied for it.  Long story short, I won the scholarship, took the course, passed the course, and got hired as a new graduate at this nationwide transcription company as a QA editor!  When I felt it was time to leave that company and pursue other options, I saw the "welcome home" on the TRS ad, said I was interested in QA, and after a conversation with Kathy Rockel and then QA supervisor Kim Watts, was hired as a QA specialist!  That was in May 2005, and I am as committed as ever to doing whatever I can do to try and help our MTs grow in their positions, and will continue to do my best to add to the overall quality of the best transcription company there is! 

 

Janet Perkins

 

Janet is a member of the E-Team, and is very quick to adapt to any of our platforms.

"After having worked as a legal assistant for a real estate attorney for 20 years, I decided it was time for a change. I completed the medical transcription course offered by Career Step and began my first job as a medical transcriptionist in January 2004. A couple of years down the road, I had the opportunity to work with Debbie Nolan at another employer, and as things turned out, I followed her to TRS. I started working for TRS on the E-Team in December 2007, which has been a great experience. I really enjoy being part of TRS and appreciate the opportunities that have been provided to me. I recently passed the CMT exam and look forward to a long career with TRS. I also very much appreciate the honor of being named employee of the month after working for TRS for such a short time.

"On a personal note, I grew up on a farm in northwestern Missouri, 1 of 11 children with 6 brothers and 4 sisters. I decided to leave the cold Missouri winters after graduating from high school and moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where I have lived now for more than 20 years. I eloped to Las Vegas 10 years ago with the man of my dreams, and we're still happily married. We have 2 dogs (Ginger and Sunny) and 2 kitties (Rose and Tiger). I love the warm weather in Arizona and working at home as an MT (now CMT) for TRS is just the icing on the cake."

 

Tiffany DiMaio

 

Hello, my name is Tiffany.  I live right outside of Phoenix, AZ.  I have been with TRS since December 2006, and really enjoy being a part of our QA Team.  TRS is an excellent company.  I am currently working on getting my CMT, and I am really excited about going forward with my editing career.  I mostly work with ChartScript platforms and just became the team leader for ChartScript in QA.  My email is always open for questions.  :)

I have two beautiful children ages 3 and 6, a boy and a girl respectively.  My 6-year-old is in school, and my 3-year-old stays home with me during the day.   My hobbies include anything having to do with natural healing, alternative medicine, complementary medicine, massage, spiritual healing, etc.  I love to read and spend a lot of my extra time reading, spending time in the coffee shop and listening to speakers at the local coffee shop; music; and hanging out with my family.   

 

Carrie Boatman, CMT, FAAMT

 

I came into transcription by the back door and learned on the job. It was quite challenging! Since then I returned to school and took anatomy and physiology classes. I became a certified medical transcriptionist in 1981, and that has helped me a lot over the years to learn new things and keep up with trends in the industry. I served as president of AAMT (now AHDI) in 1990 and loved it. I have been a transcription service owner, worked in hospitals for a number of years, and now work for TRS. I recently completed my training as a pharmacy technician and received my registration from the California State Board of Pharmacy last week. When I entered the profession it was new and still trying to define itself. Now we are at another crossroads and this time we have a professional association already in place to help us sort out the options and choose the best course. It should be an exciting ride!

 

Gloria Dunn

 

I'm Gloria and I have been with TRS for 3-1/2 years now.  I started transcription in 1973, working at a Children’s Services Board.  After about 5 years of transcribing nothing but abuse and neglect, I decided to go into the medical field and have been doing this ever since.   I have been married to my husband, Danny, for 26 years and we have 2 boys, ages 19 and 9.  Had to have that 2nd one to get us through the 1st one's teenage years, lol!  When the little one is a teenager, we are going to send him to live with his big brother!  Kidding!  Anyway, I was born in Ohio and have lived here all my life.  Anyone who knows me will tell you I don't like to work especially, I just like to shop!  So, I work so that I can shop!  Working at TRS does make it a little easier, though.  :)

 

Deborah Nolan, CMT

 

Hi! I’ve been a medical transcriptionist since 1989. After burning out on a nursing career, transcription seemed a natural fit. I started working from home immediately out of school and earned my CMT a couple of years later. I’ve worked as an educator, had my own transcription business, and have worked for large and small MTSOs. I decided to call TRS “home” in February 2007 and have loved every minute. My home is in Happy Valley, Oregon (about 15 minutes from Portland). My husband and I have 4 children—26, 20, 12, and a 7-year-old Boxer named Lulu. In our “spare” time, we love to ride our motorcycles, but mostly work on house projects and gardening. I’m also a wrestling and baseball mom!

 

Sean Higgins

 My name is Sean Higgins and I live in Seminole, Florida, which is in the Tampa Bay area.  I grew up in N. Massapequa, New York, but have been here now since 1991.  I miss autumn more than I could ever put into words!  Unless you have the opportunity to see my birth certificate, I'm 29 and will magically remain that age for at least a decade.  I've been in the medical transcription field now for close to seven years and before that worked in medical insurance billing, as well as at a physician's answering service after many years in customer service for the local utilities.  I entered the editing side of things in 2004, and have dabbled quite a bit in training and mentoring, as well, which is my favorite part of the field.  I feel truly blessed to be able to have a part in the development of my fellow MTs, and am terribly excited to be a part of the TRS QA team!  I am currently studying for my CMT certification and am looking forward to completing that goal this summer!

When I'm not working, I am an avid fiber artist (avid meaning obsessed.)  I am a knitter first and foremost, socks being my favorite thing to work on since I can actually wear them in Florida, but I also crochet, spin, and dye and just as I love working with others professionally, I am known as the "guru" of my knitting groups and I teach classes at my local fiber store and I love it!  I also have my very first original designs being published in an upcoming book, which I am really, really, really excited about!  (Did I mention really?  ;-))  The only thing I let interfere with my knitting time are my beloved pets, Whisper, an 11-year-old Australian Shepherd who was born deaf, and 3-year-old Kitty, my... yeah, cat, and a hamster Amelie.  I am a big animal health and wellness advocate with a focus on nutrition, and also pet-sit throughout the year, so I am especially happy to have a work-at-home career to afford me that opportunity!  I'm looking forward to a long career at TRS and am thrilled to be working with all of you!

 

 Sandy Smedley

 

 Hi, my name is Sandy Smedley.  I live a few miles north of Seattle, where we have 290 days of rain per year, and where I first learned the term "sunbreaks"...those glorious but oh so rare peeks at the sun we get a for a few minutes at a time every several days.  I've been in medical transcription for about 17 years, having come to the field with a social work background.  I've held various positions during that time, editing, mentoring, training, etc., and I love this industry.  I like being able to help new transcriptionists develop their skills, and at the same time learning from them every bit as much..new words, terms, techniques, etc.

In my "spare time," I play guitar, banjo, autoharp, recorder and keyboards, knit and I'm an avid reader.  I have 3 kids and 8 grandchildren, and was foster mom to an assortment of humans, dogs, cats, gerbils, hamsters, bunnies, birds, etc., and one very unfortunate earthworm farm (long story, cared for it while my son was away at camp during one very long, hot summer, 'nuf said)...the last of the dynasty (now 20), still lives at home and sometimes the silence is deafening, but my little Bichon, Bernard, seems to be very able to fill the void adequately....he's sort of the "court jester" of the family.

I had heard a lot of nice things about TRS, and I'm very excited at the opportunity of working with a company with such a great reputation.

 

Monica Crocker

 

Hi everyone!  My name is Monica Crocker and I am thrilled to be here at TRS!  I am 47 years old, married to my best friend, Ron, have 2 great kids and an adorable grandson!  We are originally from St. Louis, Missouri, but the army brought us to Ft. Hood, Texas, 15 years ago, and after my husband retired from the army, we made Texas our home!

My journey as an MT began 15 years ago, at Scott & White, in Temple, Texas, where I received on-the-job training in the Surgery Department.  I worked at Scott & White for almost 4 years and found my way around a couple of the larger national companies.  Then, for some crazy reason, I decided to take the Postal Letter Carrier Exam with my husband.  I took the test for "fun," to see if I could score higher than him (which I did, by the way), but I had no idea they would actually offer us both a job!  I decided to give it a try, but after 6 months of running from dogs on walking routes and fighting the Texas heat, I decided that I desperately missed medical transcription!   My husband loves being a letter carrier, but it just wasn't for me!  Some people ask if I was going through a mid-life crisis when I changed careers for that brief period of time and I tell them no, my mid-life crisis was when my husband and I each bought a Harley and took off riding almost every weekend! We rode for 4 years, site-seeing in this beautiful state of Texas, as well as Arkansas.  We sold our bikes last year but definitely enjoyed the experience and built many fond memories! 

I am happy to be in this wonderful and fascinating career of medical transcription and look forward to passing the CMT test very soon and pursuing my career further here at TRS!

 

Connie DeCoe-Munier

I am so glad to be part of TRS.  What a company.  My name is Connie DeCoe-Munier. I hyphenated because my husband is of French ancestry also and though it sounded kind of flowing together.  I became a police dispatcher and one of my duties was to transcribe police reports.  Believe me when I say, you will be called to court on your transcriptions.  I then became a police officer and was medically retired after 22 years total from the Sacramento City Police Department when a knee injury ended my career (a drunk driver took me and my squad car out - do you think he was arrested??).  I then majored in biological sciences at Sacramento City College, followed by attending California State University, Sacramento.  I wanted to be a forensic pathologist but being a police officer kept me so busy, I got too old to pay back the loans needed for medical school figuring I would only break even.  So, since I really did have my "fill of the public" I decided to put my transcription experience together with my biological science background and out came a medical transcriptionist.  I started my own company 17 years ago with a total of 11 doctors, doing chart notes, picking up and delivering recorded tapes and finished typed chart notes, and yes, carrying a lot of charts back and forth.  We have come a long way.  I have worked for several transcription companies since then, but none better than TRS.  I do feel at home. 

My husband of 21 years, Sonny, is a retired race horse trainer, and at one time we had 40 head (not all ours, he trained for people).  He won the Whinny Award in 1991 for top trainer of the year, and was trainer of the year in 1978.  Sonny and I spend our "extra time" in the mountains of Idaho.  We live in Bonners Ferry, ID, which is about 16 miles south of the Canadian border.  We trap and skeet shoot; I competition pistol shoot.  We like to hunt, fish, and hike with our 2 dog,s an Airedale (Sammy) and Bluetick Coonhound (Cricket).  We take our ATVs and explore this beautiful country up here.  We have 26 hens and 1 rooster, 5 cats.  Oh yeah - kids too.  We have a yours & mine collection of 3 daughters and 2 sons, all of whom are grown and we trust are raising our grandchildren correctly (so far 3 grandsons).  They are all the light of our hearts. We forget whose are whose : they're all ours.  That's why I saved the best achievements for last, all 5 of them, Angel, Michelle, John, Michi and Cordell - grandsons Dakota, Jacob and Russell.

This is the finishing point of my amazing journey in medical transcription (which if I live to be 100 you could get very tired of me) and I am looking forward to working with all of you that are here now and our new TRS employees in the future.

 

Cathy Cotton, CMT

 

Hi!!  My name is Cathy Cotton and I live in Haskell, Oklahoma.  Haskell is located between Tulsa and Muskogee.  I have worked in the transcription field since 1988. I first starting in a VERY small (20-bed) hospital in Arkansas.  We then moved to Oklahoma and I worked for 15 years at Muskogee Regional Medical Center.  For 12 years of that, I worked as the Transcription Supervisor.  Due to a transition at MRMC, I found TRS in June 2008.  I received my CMT in October 2008.  I cannot tell you how happy I am to have a found a job I can call ‘home.’   This is my first experience working ‘at home’ and I am thrilled.

 

I am married to the love of my life, Glen, and we have 4 beautiful children (all grown), 4 grandchildren, including a brand new New Year’s granddaughter!  I am currently working with the Transition Program with our ‘newbie graduates’ and feel I have found my niche!  I love helping people grow in their career and in turn this is helping me grow in mine. Thank you TRS!