Oracle Transcription Company Background

Oracle Transcription, Inc. is a well-established medical transcription service organization. There are many transcriptionist, clients, managers, employees, and a thriving culture and community revolving around the company. But it was not always this way. There are only a small handful of individuals associated with the company who were fortunate enough to witness the progression from our modest beginning to our present level of success.

We are frequently asked by clients and employees questions such as, "How did the company get started?", or, "What was it like in the beginning?" Not surprisingly, people want to have an understanding of the history and nature of the company. Toward that end, we have attempted to compile a brief and distilled history of the early years of the company and a description of the individuals whose efforts created and nurtured the company we all know today.

The story of Oracle Transcription begins in the Spring of 1993. Lynn and Iz moved the location of their legal reporting service to the basement office which they created in their new town home. They knew they needed an operations manager, and contacted Gary, an associate from several years prior. Gary had spent his recent years working in management with both legal and medical transcription services.

He accepted the position and the three began an effective association in a comfortable environment. The word which could best be used to describe the atmosphere of the basement office is "casual." The dress code of that time was T-shirts and shorts or sweat pants. No one wore shoes unless absolutely necessary. Huckleberry Finn could probably have been persuaded to work there.

And then there were the cats. No description of that office can be complete without mention of the company's four-legged friends. Despite access to an entire four-story dwelling, they were, of course, not content unless they were under our feet all day in the basement. First, an elderly matron cat named Cupcake, and later a rambunctious set of kitten siblings named Blue and Bear graced us by allowing us to share their presence in the office.

They were a wonderful nuisance and totally amusing. Day in and day out the cats were flying up and down the stairs, sleeping on desks, getting trapped in the supplies closet, sitting on the printer while we were trying to print, and rearranging most of the paperwork in the office. Many legal transcripts were produced and mailed to clients with cat hair bound into the documents; it was unavoidable and no one would have had it any other way.

It was during the Summer of 1993, in this atmosphere, that conversations frequently turned to medical transcription. Prior to the move to the town home, Lynn had begun researching medical transcription and inquired into the SUM Program. She had developed a keen interest in the subject. The fact that their new operations manager had been recently working in the medical transcription field was a bit of welcome serendipity. Iz and Lynn both were interested in Gary's experiences in the medical transcription business and asked many questions. They began discussing the possibility of expanding the legal transcription service to include a medical component.

Everyone knew from the start that a strong business associate and sales force would be essential ingredients for success. There was only one individual to fill that slot. John had, at that time, been a long-standing business associate and friend to both Lynn and Iz and was experienced in commercial real estate sales. He is well known as a "one-man sales army" who can accomplish more in an hour than most people can in a day. He, and his wife Kathy, were approached with the idea of starting a medical transcription service and, after thorough investigation, became included in the theoretical planning sessions revolving around the idea.

The group researched the industry and continued to discuss possibilities for many months. By the Spring of 1994, it had been decided that a new medical transcription service was a viable possibility and the wheels of progress were set in motion. The name "Oracle" was borrowed from the name of the street where the office was located, a logo was designed, a brochure was developed, and we began to create the internal infrastructure which would accommodate both transcriptionist and clients. The local phone company was contacted and the whole neighborhood was literally "unearthed" as a 50-line phone cable was run to the basement. The homeowners association loved that one!

During the Fall of 1994, a quantum leap was made. Oracle Transcription purchased their first digital dictation system. After looking at all the major brands available, it was decided that a VDI system offered the level of functionality and flexibility which a start-up business required. The company then set about learning to use the new computer system, preparing the first medical transcriptionist, and locating the first clients. All the elements came together for the first time in early 1995. Our first account was an OB-GYN office in Southern Florida. A modest beginning indeed, however, in spite of the fact that we had prepared for months, we were all both elated and nervous in the face of actual medical dictations on our VDI system.

Somehow the company survived those first weeks and soon added a small psychiatric hospital and a few more medical transcriptionist We quickly learned a valuable lesson; not all medical transcriptionist are created equal! At that time we had around six medical transcriptionist It became quickly apparent that all but two were unable to consistently produce quality work. So, after transcribing live reports for only a few months, we found ourselves in the position of having to cut back two thirds of our medical transcription staff. We were left with only two transcriptionist, one typing the OB-GYN and the other typing the psychiatric hospital. (As a side note, we are pleased to inform you that while those early accounts have moved on for various reasons of their own, both of our first medical transcriptionist are still with Oracle Transcription and producing work daily!)

Everyone who starts a new business holds their breath for the first year or so and wonders whether, despite everyone's best efforts, the ship will float or sink. As we set about learning the medical transcription business, the remainder of 1995 answered those questions for all concerned. John did, and continues to do, what we all knew he would. He brought new business into the company, usually at a faster rate than the operation could absorb. Many new medical transcriptionist were also added, internal office procedures were implemented and adjusted as needed, and systems were put in place to address both quality assurance and accounting issues. By the end of the year, Oracle Transcription was moving ahead successfully and rolling along with a good head of steam.

As 1995 became 1996, we realized that we all needed help. It was a grueling year. Every department was a "one-person show". As John handled sales alone (and still does!), Gary was "The Operations Department", and Lynn (with some help from Iz) was "The Quality Assurance Department". Each individual was stretched to their workload breaking point. New blood, new skills, and new energies needed to be added to the operation if OTI was going to grow at the rate which it had over the past year.

Kathy, a principal of the company and John's wife, was a natural choice and the first to be added to the small group. Her many years of bookkeeping and accounts receivable and payable experience added a stability to that aspect of the company which we still enjoy today.

The next department addressed was Operations. An ad was placed in a local newspaper for a management assistant with extensive computer experience. The first candidate interviewed was a young man just a few years out of high school. While the interviewers were attired in their usual casual/comfortable wardrobe, the interviewee looked like he had fallen off the cover of Young Republican's Quarterly. He was almost too nervous to speak (this is true, although he seems to remember the moment a little differently). He had, however, all the skills we required, and more. We all liked him from minute one.

One other interview was conducted after that. Disastrously. The gentleman claimed he could do anything with any computer. Further questioning and a simple test revealed, however, that he could, in fact, do almost nothing computer related. He explained that he was, "a little rusty". He then attempted to take complete control of the interview and, although not Japanese himself, tried to teach us to speak Japanese! After several subtle, and eventually a few not-so-subtle, polite good-byes, he was finally persuaded to vacate the premises. Afterward, we all had the same thought, "What was that first boy's name? Get him back in here!" And it came to pass, for better or worse, that Josh was hired.

This addition added a new dimension to the company. By late in 1996, Josh's computer skills had allowed us to put systems and procedures into place which made life easier for everyone. The most dramatic change for the company was the addition of a Novell network. Up to that point, the entire company had been located on only one stand-alone PC. Three or four people were constantly vying for position, each thinking, no doubt, that theirs was the more important work at that moment. Fortunately, no one was injured. The tension was eased once we were able to all work simultaneously in a networked environment.

By early 1997, we had again grown considerably. We had, by that time, enough accounts to warrant a second VDI dictation system. With more accounts, more digital dictation systems, more medical transcriptionist, and many, many more reports moving through the company, the next department to become stressed was Quality Assurance. More personnel, both on-site and off-site, were added to this department in order to maintain the level of quality our clients had come to expect from us.

There was then one final element to add. We had known for a long time that we would need a full-time computer programmer. Someone who could put the computer to work for us and automate some of the manual tasks which were taking up too much valuable time and effort. Josh suggested his longtime friend, "Joe". Joe was not unknown to us. He had helped with some smaller programming side jobs for us and was already somewhat familiar with our system. Oracle Transcription added Joe to the payroll and what we got was a programmer who can write code in "C", database programming language, WordPerfect macro language, Visual Basic (if you put a gun to his head), and pretty much automate anything and everything.

So, what had once been a peaceful and spacious, one-room, legal transcription office housing three workers and their three computer systems, was now an office bulging to the breaking point. Three bodies had become six, or more depending on the day. Three computer systems had become ten. Literally every inch of space was used for something, or several things as need be. Office inhabitants frequently bumped into, and tripped over each other.

The office was also starting to show signs of wear, mainly, but not entirely, due to Josh. He has a tendency to crush office chairs and rip door knobs and stairway banisters right off the walls! Clearly, we needed out...and soon.

Fortunately for Oracle Transcription, we had in our midst someone with a bit of experience in commercial real estate. John was able to relocate the company to a spacious and convenient location. In the Summer of 1997, OTI moved willingly, but not without some regret and more than a few looks backward. The future looked bright and exciting, but the basement office which we left behind held good years of memories and we all had the satisfaction of knowing that we, as a small group of dedicated people, had, in that basement, started and nurtured something bigger than ourselves.

For this, Oracle Transcription owes a debt of gratitude to all the individuals highlighted in this narrative. They are all still with the company, and without their continuing presence, dedication, perseverance, and humor, Oracle Transcription Inc. would not have the personality and strength of character which it enjoys today.