Ten years ago, you could find Lee Tkachuk diligently at work at the table in her dining room. No, she wasnt polishing her silver she was operating her own business, providing medical transcription services to area hospitals, large clinics and radiology facilities in the Chicago area. Today, Lee is CEO of Keystrokes Transcription Service in Yorkville, Illinois and not only does she has a real office, she has numerous other offices throughout the country as well. “We have 78 facilities in 19 states,” she says.
Ask Lee what led her to begin her company and she will chuckle, saying: “I am one of those people who always knew I would have my own company. I was the lemonade stand queen and I used to sell baby-sitting jobs when I was a teenager.” After she graduated from Bradley University, with a major in business management and a minor in marketing, she began working in the communications industry before gravitating to the transcription business. “I saw the opportunity for marketing and growth in this industry in my area. But other companies were just not noticing them or taking advantage of them so I decided to go for it myself,” says the 41-year-old entrepreneur. Marketing an Idea Lees journey has been resolute and steady. Two years after her jump into entrepreneurship she traded her dining room table for a real office. Her next-door neighbor was her first employee. “I trained her myself and she is still with the company today,” she says. “The company just continued to grow from there and by the end of the first year in business, we had 10 transcriptionists. At the end of the second year, we had 25.” Today the company boasts 200 transcriptionists nationwide. Keystrokes was chosen an Inc. 500 company twice. Its largest annual growth one year was a whopping 740 percent. Last September, the company built a brand-new office building and it will build another one next spring. “We get most of our business through referrals, and we also get a lot of business through attending trade shows and advertising in trade publications,” Lee says. Getting started and keeping up with the numerous changes in the medical field could be daunting. “When we first started, I had strong legal advice with my attorney, who went the extra mile for us,” explains Lee. “I also asked a lot of questions. I visited lots of hospitals to find out what they were looking for in their transcription providers. I asked them how they could improve on what they already had. What I discovered was there was a huge need for a solid service that could provide turnaround and quality simultaneously and not sacrifice one for the other.” Lee reports she has a great management team that keeps her up to date on industry news. “They do all the research and give me the summaries, so I am always current on whats happening,” she says. “We were all ready for HIPPA when it went into effect.” Lee does all the sales and marketing for the company. In fact, as she was being interviewed, she was on the job, driving from the Chicago area to Springfield, Missouri. The companys HR department handles all the hiring for the company. Qualifications for transcriptionists include five years worth of full-time experience working in an acute care facility. “We also accept individuals with three years of experience as long as they have a community college associates degree in medical transcription,” she explains. Candidates must pass an oral and written test before they can move along to the interview process. As the company experienced continued growth, its reputation in the industry grew to the point where it has no trouble finding qualified candidates. “We get a very good caliber of transcriptionists applying; but its still as situation of for every 100 resumes we receive, we get about seven or eight really good candidates,” Lee says. Marketing Quality Turnaround time can be as speedy as two hours. The maximum turnaround time is just 24 hours. The service is all-digital none of those old-fashioned cassettes. “Its all Internet-based,” explains Lee. “We usually use the dictation system of the facility and our transcriptionists call into a facilitys dictation system to pull the work off. We dont have to worry about an interface or trying to match our dictation system or transcription system to theirs. We are able to work directly in their system for both transcription and dictation and this process really tightens up the turnaround for our clients.” One thing not many people are aware of is that quite a number of transcription services use offshore transcription service companies with foreign labor. Most of these companies are located in India and the Philippines. “They claim they are following HIPPA, but we actually have no way to prove or enforce that its literally going on the word of someone we have no jurisdiction over,” reports Lee. Keystrokes has a strong policy against this practice. “Everything we handle stays right here in the US and we only hire employees we dont use any sub-contractors,” Lee says. In her own experience, when she learned her doctor was using these offshore services, she changed doctors. “Its a very serious issue.” Four of the largest companies in the US send out a large portion of their work to India, reports Lee. “The reason they cite is the so-called shortage of transcriptionists available in the US,” she says. But some plans at the federal level are in the works now that will change that. “We are now considered an apprenticeship occupation by the US Department of Labor, so we will be, in effect, home-growing our own transcriptionists in the country. I really have a problem believing there is a shortage of transcriptionists because whenever we place an ad, we get over 500 resumes just from that one ad.” Average salaries for a good, solid, experienced transcriptionist is about $40,000 annually. “We have some who make a few hundred thousand dollars,” Lee says. “The biggest factor is their speed, which comes with experience and the ability to work independently at home.” Ask Lee what is the best thing about her job and she will say she is still having fun. “Its still a challenge because we are not in every state yet,” she says. “Our strongest base is definitely Chicago so about 50 percent of our work is focused in this area. We went national two years ago and that means I am traveling to different parts of the country to develop business. I am learning how things differ in different parts of the country. For instance, some clients are looking strictly at price, others want a complete solution and others want a combination of everything.” Currently, about 25 of these transcription service companies operate in the US. “There is a big jump from the level where the five biggest companies are to the next level, where we are currently,” Lee explains. “Our goal is to jump to that size to be at the $25 million level annually. That is our goal for 2008 as we want to be one of the top players in terms of size. Right now, we have the reputation for quality.” This is a realistic goal, considering last years revenues were at $4.6 million, and this year is projected to reach the $10 million mark.