Medical Transcription Discussion Forums:

• Main Board
• Job Seekers Board
• Company Board
• Word Help Board
• Classifieds
• Medquist
• New MTs / Students

General Discussion Forums:

• Gab Board
• Politics Board

OK, so I'm 15% lbs or so above my ideal weight, BUT I have given myself PERMISSION to gain about 5 lbs due to all this stress about MTSO's offshoring, especially MQ, because I NOT going to take up smoking again.

Went to Home Town Buffet today with my family (I had a coupon for lunch).  Yes, and so I had 2 of everything, 2 salads, 2 main courses (barbecue chicken and steam fish), yup, and 2 deserts.  Anyway, if I were on Nutri-System, even they have weekends off.

IM I SOUNDING GUILTY?

Well, my main point is, keeping MT in America and working on a Patient Privacy Bill of Rights is going to take time, so lets PACE OURSELVES.

Don't forget to eat, bathe or take your vitamins and meds OK.

Everyone:

((((((((((((((((((((((BIG HUG))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

I need to get a new router (not wireless).  Does anyone know of a good one?  I don't want to spend any more than I need to but would rather spend a bit more if it makes a big difference in the quality.

Thanks! 

Hi,

Can someone who works for MQ and is on speech recognition give the rest of us some info as to what it is like, what the pay is, and whether or not a person would want to do it? It would be helpful info to have in case our office called and asked us if we wanted to be on that or not.  I don't know if they have various speech recognition platforms, but I am on DQS and high speed internet.

Thanks

I use it with a Sony micro dictator/transcriber but I'm finally jumping into the 21st century.  Anyone know if I can find a USB adaptor for such a foot pedal or will I need to invest in a new foot pedal?  If so, where should I get one?  I'd like to buy one locally, or do I need to but it online?

Thanks!

One of the doctors that I work for gives a lot of details about his patient but this one really seemed a bit much. 

The patient is seeing him due to snoring. 

The patient states that she snores very loudly.  Her husband complains of her snoring.  She also has a dog that sleeps in her bedroom and the dog snores as well. 

Very important info LOL!

many posts asking for help with words or phrases that are clearly in reference books that most MTs should have.  Don't MTs buy their own reference material anymore or do they rely strictly on the internet.  Most the words and phrases asked about on the Word Board could be found just by buying the medical phrase index or the Surgical Word Book or some of these other word books and building up a reference library. 

What happened to building up the library and searching and learning?  I just looked at some of the Word Help stuff tonight and a lot of it is ridiculous stuff that an MT could very easily find.

Any opinions?  Im not talking about blanks where you just can't understand what they are saying.  I am talking about specific instruments and phrases.  Seems like it happens an awful lot and MTs don't want to search or maybe don't know where to search or don't know what reference material is out there to buy?

Lots of this stuff could be found in just the two books I mentioned above.  Just curious

Is it still the rule with AAMT to spell out WHOLE numbers zero through nine, use numerals for 10 and above or did they change this with the 2nd ed.

Also what is the standard font and size used nationally.

Thanks - Sandra

both hands and the entire lower half of his face are now bright, royal blue.. Will this wash off by morning???

I have a fellow Transcriptionist who told me of going to the doctor and while there was talking to the nurse.  This nurse told her " I sure feel sorry for you transcriptionists for losing your jobs by 2012 due to that bill that President Bush signed regarding all medical practice having to go to EHR and voice recognition". 

My question is - does anyone know if this is true?  It sounded like the nurse was just trying to throw her weight around ( I know her personally and she likes to think in "dark cloud" terms), but then again I really am wondering on this...

Thanks..

Also, all the capitalizations I built in for headers get reversed to lower case when I follow them with a colon and I have resigned myself to having to re-enter all of those. Any Bayscribe experts who can shed some light?

find this especially annoying at the end of the sentence when I have to backspace to put in a period.  Do you just constantly backspace or do you know how to avoid this without typing in that command {@nospace}for each shortcut?  Sure would appreciate any help.  I am so tired of backspacing. 

I work in my finished basement and in the winter it is normally a little chilly, but not horrible.  But, for the past few weeks, my right hand has been freezing cold.  I got some gloves and cut the tips off, but that doesn't even help much...my fingertips remain freezing cold.  I am starting to wonder if there may be some other sort of problem, especially because this does not happen to my left hand.

Any suggestions as to what might be causing this? TIA.

Can any of you that have been at this for a long period of time answer me this question?  When you first started out...did you feel overwhelmed?  How long does it take a person to really see if this is something they'll be good at?  I find myself getting headaches really easy and only after a few hours of typing.  I feel fatigued.  Is it normal to feel this way in the beginning and what suggestions do you have to help?  When do you feel that things are finally settling down and you start to move along at a normal pace? I'll give it a few months I guess...I'd think at that point I would have a pretty good idea if this is something I'm going to be productive at or not.

Sorry for all the questions.....I guess I am feeling uneasy and was hoping for some reassurance or words of wisdom from none other than another MT. 

Is that just a euphemism for the successful candidate will be placed on MULTIPLE accounts?

That's like saying a tiny little house is a cozy cottage .   .   .  

It just seems like I can't make good money anymore (or at least not what I'm used to).  I work for a pretty nice company doing clinical dictations with 24-hour TAT, but I just don't seem to be getting anywhere.  Maybe it's just the way of the economy right now.  I've been doing this for 10 years and feel like I shouldn't be struggling at this point.  I'm just frustrated!!!!

Okay let me see if I get it from the answers below

.10 cpl minimum for transcriptionist, higher for specialities; 0.2 to 0.4 cpl for benefits; 0.2 to 0.4 for QA, 0.3 - 0.4 for owner; 0.2 minimum for investor and yes I know a lot of companies/hospitals that will pay 19 to 24 cpl for transcription services.  Like you said, dream not  realistic. Oh yea and then have enough work force on hand to do the work in a 24 hour TAT,  less if there are QA problems and it goes there.   Then not many ESL's  --.  Also balanced work force for enough on hand to do the job in your contracted time frame or you will be docked severely but not to many so everyone has their work they want and those on stand by that will do work when someone calls in sick or has a personal problems or do not want to work.  Then there is the time that doctors take vacations and work flow is down and everyone is yelling at you.  Like you said it is a dream job.   It could be possible but it is a very hard business to run smoothly and profitable for everyone.  I only have two I/C's and 6 accounts and I am ready to chuck it in and just do what I can do for myself as it is very hard to balance and keep everyone happy and the 20 to 25% you make off those accounts is very well earned.  I do wish you success and it all sounds good but there is lot more there that does not meet the eye when you become an MTSO.   I also had my dream of being larger and providing a very decent job to home based MT's but after a few years I saw the writing on the wall and kept it as 2 - 3 I/C's and that is very hard to balance all out.   They are I/C's and have the right to work and not work.    And if you pay any benefits, they do become employees and then you have more expenses with benefits, insurance, workman's comp, etc., etc.  But hey you might be able to do it and I wish you the best.    Give MQ a run for their money.

Patti

And we are not now being paid for what we have in our little heads, along with the common sense decisions we have to make on a daily basis. 

On the other hand, I am so ANNOYED with these people in so called Govt positions, insurance positions, etc. that we have to deal with, no matter where or what situation in my life,  I feel they are being paid more than myself and are really not intelligent.  I have to constantly correct, especially situations after I have gone to a doctor and my insurance company or billing screws up, and we know how long that takes getting tied up in the voice recognition of the insurance companies, etc.  

Anyhow today, called a Govt office that asked for donations over the holiday of unused cell phones to send in to recieve $5 a piece for recycling. Once she finally answered her phone at 9:22 a.m., yes they are still collecting. I was asking exactly where she was located.  She told me. Then I asked on the north or south side of street, and she said it depends on which way you are coming from.  NOT, I said, excuse me, but north and south do not change. She was dumbfounded.  Just a moment of silence, and changed her answer to right or left. In her position in this company if can bet she is probably being paid somewhere bettween 40K and 50K. Go figure.  This is just one example of many unintelligent people making more than myself and that burns my big butt. 

I swear for some jobs you have to take a stupid test and pass to be hired.

Not looking forward to job hunting. 

I am a Transcriptionist at a local hospital.  For the last 6 years, the boss has been promising at-home transcription.  I think we are getting a little closer.  I received an e-mail asking me to participate on the committee for at-home transcription.  Whew!  But, let me fill you in on some background - we have a service that is doing our wound notes, psych notes, and occasionally some backlog.   I have read numerous times about going home and then slowly a service takes over.   We have recently gotten speech recognition and are currently training on that.  Of course, the service we have also has speech recognition, but our account is not - as of yet anyway!  So that makes me a little nervous!

I would like some input on guidelines that some of you may have working for a hospital at home -- if there are "red flags" that I should be aware of, what we are entitled to working at home (if any), and any other little thing that any of you have experienced.  I would like to be "educated" on this matter before I attend the meeting next week.  I don't really know what to ask. Is it a good idea to go home?  Would the hospital require us to work different shifts? All this for the "privilege" of working at home?  I do know she had mentioned that we need a specific line count per day for the ones working at home.  My question, of course, is why just us when we don't have a specific line count now.

Any suggestions and experiences would greatly be appreciated.  Thanks a bunch!!

Opinions on this please:   Most of my physicians dictate where they would like new paragraphs to start in their letters to other docs.  However, I'm just starting with a new person and she didn't specify.  She told where she would like periods, quotations, etc. but she never even once dictated that there should be a new paragraph. 

I'm tempted to just put the breaks where they seem correct, but I'm not sure if that's the right thing to do.

Any suggestions?

Gas is $2.99 here and going up 15 centstomorrow as the state is putting the gas tax back into place that they lifted temporarily after Katrina. 

I've been trying to cut down  the driving I do as much as possible.  I'm sure glad I work from home!   I was planning to go to Florida to visit relatives in October but am delaying that until the prices come down.  I'm not interested in paying $100 in gas to make that trip! 

I look forward to a working relationship with you all. Its been years since i did MT but my current job may be eliminated to outsourcing so here i have returned and look forward to learning the ropes, new ropes again. Any advice is appreciated. Looks like i should steer from Heartland. At any rate I'll keep in type, i mean touch !!

I am trying to test (not medical) and they had me download something called DSS Lite, so I could transcribe what they e-mailed me.  Does anyone have any experience with this?  I cannot get my foot pedal to work with it.  Thank you in advance.

Has anyone done this?  It looks good....but I need to know before I spend the money. 

Thanks.

I've decided to get my motorcycle license, already passed my permit test and am starting to learn to ride.  I don't know yet if I'm going to learn on a 350 or a 650, but am starting to get excited.  My state offers a weekend course where you go both days for instruction and training and give your license all in one weekend.  My dad loved motorcycles, my sons both have motorcycles, and now it's my turn.  So, satisfy my curiosity, anyone else have this interest?