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I have found that this greatly motivates me to keep my speed up.  I set one of those metal change counters that you wear on your waist next to my screen. Everytime I complete a line I press the nickel lever and a nickel falls out. Just the sound of that makes me want to type faster.  For those of you who make 7 to 8 cpl, it is a few more presses per line, but definitely will keep you going as fast as you can.

I am an IC for a small MTSO.  I have a deduction taken from my invoice every pay period for renting Transnet equipment.  My foot pedal broke and I asked urgently Monday morning for a replacement foot pedal to be Fed Exed to me - work was on the system and needed to get done.  Well, after many many phone calls and e-mails I got the replacement foot pedal via Fed Ex (they shipped on Friday) on Saturday morning.  So I worked all weekend to get caught up on a whole week's worth of work.  Got my invoice yesterday (late - the MTSO has rescheduled their payment schedule as they are not getting promptly paid by their clients - the ICs had to accept the new payment schedule or quit).  There was a deduction for $40.13 for delivery fee for the foot pedal.  The Accounts manager says that "many memos" have been sent out that ICs are responsible for delivery fees.  Huh?  I looked over the memo I received about Transnet rentals and it said our invoice deduction covers maintenance costs for faulty equipment, etc. (the MTSO had originally said I would be billed for a new foot pedal - then I brought up the memo on rentals that covers faulty equipment and that got dropped pretty quickly).  I told the Accts manager that postage is the MTSOs expense, just like it is my IC expense to return the faulty equipment to the MTSO.  I also mentioned that the MTSO pays for phone charges to fax stuff to ICs; likewise the ICs pay for their phone charges for faxing to the MTSO.

What would you do?  I am so fed up with this MTSO...I don't make that much money on Transnet anyway (most of my lines are from microtapes) that I am tempted to just tell her to take all of my doctors on Transnet and quit doing these willy nilly deductions without my approval or knowledge.  This is the third time the Accts manager has taken "deductions" from my invoice without telling me - the last time was for Chicago taxes on rental equipment (totally illegal according to Cook County govn't) - that took 2 weeks to get straightened out!  Arrggghhh!!!

Wait, I think it was from the barefoot contessa show, I saw her do that but not in a crockpot. 

(We are looking for a place to buy chickens locally as I still believe no animal has to suffer for me, smile!)

Just because I am lazy, is that recipe already posted here, can I do a search to find it? 

Thank you everyone!

I like the keys on my keyboard to be easy to touch, not feeling like you have to bang them down to get a letter to appear.  I've been reading about the ergonomic keyboards.  What do you find comfortable?  I looked on Amazon.com about the Microsoft 4000 Ergonomic keyboard and there were a lot of reviews, some of them saying that the keys were hard to press, especially the spacebar.

thanks  

I found one in my pile of old computer stuff that I'm sorting through.  It sams NMB The Right Touch and it is a heavy keyboard with a big round plug-in, not USB or PS2.

I left e-mail address, if you want it let me know and you can have it for postage. 

I have a couple questions for you all...

First, I am trying to expand my little IC business and designed my own website yesterday. I'd love it if you would check it out and give me ideas or constructive criticism on it.

Second, my husband works for a large, local urology group. The manager said that they are happy with the company they have, but if they change in the future they will keep my information. He also said that he pays 9 cpl and they do $100,000 per year of business. I currently am a subcontractor for most of my work and make 8 cpl and 9 cpl. I am wondering how it would be doable for a company to charge only 9 cpl and then pay subs and expenses, unless he is doing business with a company that outsources overseas. Do the large nationals charge this low or do you think it might be some IC trying to undercut norms to get the business or overseas? I do have my prices on my website and debated with myself if I should put them on there, but thought it would be helpful. I also believe I am charging fair prices. What do you think?

http://www.consideritdonetranscription.com

how in the heck does one become a doctor and pronounce things like:

ex-zeffer (that is, Effexor)

cla-mit-tra-zol (rather clotrimazole)

tur-bun-ins (how about turbinates!!)

makes me crazy...er.

Hello all:

I was wondering if maybe some of you might have some pointers for me.  I have been doing transcription for almost 3 years, and I have days where I have "fumble fingers."  This really gets on my nerves as on the days I have fumble fingers it seems it takes me forever with my documents.  I was just wondering if anyone else has days like these? Any ideas on what to do?  I can typically type 80-85 words per minute, but when I have finger fumble days, of course it makes me type slower because I am having to continually backspace!!

Thank you :)

I haven't worked actively since June of 2007.  At that time I used the AAMT Book of Style 2nd Edition.  Is that what is being used now or is there another book I need to invest in? 

THANKS!

  They whine about everything they're sent.   I think we should all boycott QA for a week, send them nothing, and put them out of a job.

 Ok people... I probably just need to vent, but PLEASE tell me this isn't the norm these days.....

I just tested for Terra Nova.  First dictation, not a problem.  Not a walk in the park, but not a problem.  Second dictation was a nightmare!!  Southern accent, okay.... but....Mandibular vestibuloplasty?????!!!!!!!!!!!  And a really bad dictator!!!

I never told this company I had any experience in this specialty.  Are they kidding me?  How often does a person even get that kind of OR???

Now is it just me... or how do they expect anyone to pass this type of test.  Ya know, if they don't want you, why not just say so instead of turning my hair white in 2 hours attempting, and failing to pass that freaking test.

Anyone else had this kind of experience?  Who with???

PS Now I see why nobody responded to the old posts about TN...

Anyone know of companies that will give newbies with schooling a chance?

I received the following email today and I am not sure what to do with it.  Should I report this to someone?  I would give my work to someone in the US before someone overseas!  gesh!

Here is the email below:

"Hi, i am monank from india, i have 6years of expirence i can help you to increase the line count, you can send me little bit of workevery day i will do that for you,you can pay me 5 cents per line & rest of the moeny will be your profit, in this way you can make more money."

I'm told it would give me a tax break. I'm currently working as an IC.   Is this expensive to do?  Do you need a business name to do this?  Can this be done online? 

Any info would be greatly appreciated. 

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 can only say be careful what you wish for.  I would say the story is on a scale of 1-10 a 5 for us.  It is just like the supervisors that have never transcribed, a reporter who doesn't have a clue...well let's just say the picture doesn't come across like we would like it to.  That being said, I guess I should not look a gift horse in the mouth.  There is one bright side, there is a COMMENTS SECTION that you can add to.  Will someone please go on and explain we do much more than doctors notes and please, please mention the confidentialy aspect and the information that the general public does not know about going overseas?  Cuz this guy missed the boat on that whole aspect of the story.  ,  ,

Hi all,

I have been offered a MT job with another company that requires me to call into the hospital's Meditech system.  I have never worked on Meditech so I don't have the slightest idea how to use it.  I am used to signing onto my computer and getting right into the system, not having to dial in anywhere.  I'm sure I would get used to it but my phone may be the problem.  I have my phone bundled in with my cable/high speed internet through Time Warner and the MTSO thinks this won't work, that I need something like Fair Point as a dedicated phone line.  Does anyone out there in MT land know anything about this?  The MTSO is anxious to hire and I'm anxious to start a job where I can finally make $ again and I don't want to miss out on this all because of the wrong phone!