I don't know if this can be asked or not, but how does Keystrokes handle templates? (sm)
Posted By: SP on 2007-06-18
In Reply to: It depends on the account - Anony Mouse
Are they prefilled by the platform and if so are they paid to the MT as having been typed by the MT or does the system subtract for the template?
I have no problem not being paid for template characters; however, I have found (with a couple of services that I have worked for) that the platform (or client or maybe even the service) will fill in absolutely every heading that MIGHT possibly be dictated by the doctor. We, as the MT, have then had to bounce up and down the template looking for the heading that is being dictated and in some cases, having to modify the template by extracting words to fit how the doctor is dictating that heading. In both cases, the line counter was set up to deduct the characters from the ORIGINAL template (which we were not paid for). If the doctor dictates a shorter heading than was prefilled by the system, we are essentially losing lines. (I hope that wasn't too confusing.)
It's just so much easier to type as the doctor is dictating and use my expansion program rather than jumping up and down a template. I'm wondering how Keystrokes handles their templates. TIA
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Keystrokes and templates question (sm)
I see Keystrokes has an ad up on the job board. I presently work for a company who fills in every possible heading that the doctor MAY dictate throughout the report and calls it their template for each work type. They do not pay for any of these lines. In some cases we are expected to delete headings if not dictated. These deleted headings are now subtracted from the total line counts because they take the total number of lines in the template and subtract that number off the top of the line count. Any missing lines would actually be subtracted from lines that the MT typed. It would be so much easier for all involved to just let the MT type what the doctor says, headings and all. I'm wondering how Keystrokes handles headings and templates? Do they include them as part of the template or do they just let the MT type as the doctor dictates them? If they are part of the template already, how are they counted or not counted?
Also, what platform do they use and is it MT friendly?
TIA
Here, here, I agree. At one time, I was even accussed of holding MY templates hostage. Templates
L
I asked Keystrokes Rad MTs - current (sm)
Not to sound blunt, but if you're not a current Keystrokes Radiology MT, then why did you respond to my post?
To the woman who asked me about Keystrokes... sm
Your email addy didn't work. I keep getting an error message when I try to reply. I can't locate the original post the question was generated from. If you'd like to try and email me again that'd be great.
I asked my lead. She said that Keystrokes is 1/2 radiology, sm
The other half is split evenly between basic four/acute care, clinic and orthopedics. They also have cardiology and pathology, but very few accounts in those right now.
You'll see this poster every time something is said or asked about Keystrokes. sm
He/she has a bitter attitude about them but never provides specifics. I think everyone just ignores this person. I know I did, and I am glad as I love my job at Keystrokes. It did take a few weeks to get started but they were waiting on my ID from the hospital. It was worth the wait. I have been there 4 months now.
Here's how I handle it....sm
1. First off, if you don't stand up for yourself, others will continue to rely on you.
2. When someone knocks on the door to visit you have to tell them that it's your work time and they need to come after ___ o'clock. Some people think that if you work at home you have lots of flexible hours and if you don't set the rules then they don't know. You may also want to consider posting a note by your front door that says my work hours are 9a-5p - please do not interrupt during this time or something like that.
3. When people call wanting you to take someone to the doctor, get horses rounded up, etc. remind them that you have a job to do and that they need to take care of their own problems. If you were driving into a hospital or doctors office to work they wouldn't pull this stuff on you so why take it now?
4. Use caller ID and if you end up answering the phone politely tell the other person that you're working and they need to call back after such and such a time.
5. If you will stand up for yourself and do the above things you'll find yourself not being as stressed out and having actual free time again. You will also gain respect from family/friends that currently call on you once they realize that you're serious about not being the bail out person anymore.
Good luck!
How would you handle this?
As I said, I do like the company, like the work, and have been with them now for 6 years (do I look dumb yet). I don't like being taken advantage of, but am not sure how to approach it. The software we have to rent is their work platform, just like all companies have. I don't want to make anyone angry, but also don't know what to say. All the MTs have to do this at the company, not just me. How would you approach this? Any suggestions?
omg..that is just too much for me to handle...
thanks much for that info!
It's the same old act, different handle
I think I can remember three different incarnations of this person...I think in one of them she claimed to be Eastern European royalty or something. She sticks a finger into the wind to determine which way the wind is blowing and then intentionally goes against it or whichever will put her in what she perceives is the best light. Then, of course, in the postings where opinion is split roughly down the middle, she's flipping faster than the grill boy at McDonald's at lunch hour.
Sadly, if she pops up and agrees with anything I wrote, I feel chastised and develop the sudden urge to go back and disavow whatever it was I had written.
If you can't handle it, don't apply for it.
If you can't handle the daily volume of work then don't apply for the job. You risk getting the job, having more than you can handle and doing either a poor job just to get it all done or not meeting your deadline. In either case, you risk damage to your reputation when the doctor is unimpressed with your work.
Is there another Transcriptionist you can share the workload with?
If the problem is more a lack of experience with transcription as opposed to too high a volume of work then my suggestion is to try to get transcription experience before venturing out on your own.
Of course you can't. You Can't Handle the Truth!
zx
How about you just don't handle it and ignore it.
sometimes, less is best!
How to handle nonpayers
Contact the attorney general of your state and the attorney general of the state where the company is located. If there is a department of business regulation in either state, copy them as well. Then inform the nonpayers that you will proceed on to small claims court. Then do it.
How do most companies handle this?
I recently started with a new company, so all of my work is going through QA right now. So, last night I typed a note for a doctor that was 250 lines and at the VERY end, he said I'm sorry, just delete this dictation, I have changed my mind. Well, I didn't delete it, I had been typing a while with all of those lines. QA picked it up and she deleted it and sent me a note telling me that the dictator requested it to be deleted and please make sure I pay attention to that next time and I no longer have those 250 lines!!! So, is this how all companies work, because I am not sure I remember having that situation before, but it seems quite unfair that I would type that many lines and then be told nevermind ???
How do most companies handle this?
I recently started with a new company, so all of my work is going through QA right now. So, last night I typed a note for a doctor that was 250 lines and at the VERY end, he said I'm sorry, just delete this dictation, I have changed my mind. Well, I didn't delete it, I had been typing a while with all of those lines. QA picked it up and she deleted it and sent me a note telling me that the dictator requested it to be deleted and please make sure I pay attention to that next time and I no longer have those 250 lines!!! So, is this how all companies work, because I am not sure I remember having that situation before, but it seems quite unfair that I would type that many lines and then be told nevermind ???
can you handle a 12-hour window?
Our company is offering a bonus right now, as they are taking on a couple of new accounts. It depends on so much, because where I find them great to work for, others have not.
I have been here about six months, and have never had one issue about scheduling; however, I do work the days I have committed to, just that they have a 12-hour window in which to do it. My supervisor has also never bothered me for the occasional flexibility, and one of the administrators even told me to go ahead and work however I want on the weekend, whether it is Saturday or Sunday.
You do punch a timeclock, but after I got used to it, it only has helped me as you actually make a bonus for lines/hour, which if you clock in an out say an hour at a time, you get can that pretty high.
There is a lot of ESL, but plenty of help and information to help you...
Please feel free to E if you need to...
Thanks.
I had been posting as anon. This is my new handle.
nm
Company found way to handle TAT. SM
After 5 pm, they are dumping out whatever reports are in editors ques and sending them out to MTs, but just certain MTs who have high ratings and are not allowed to leave any blanks. Sounds like a great idea, except if one is the MT who gets stuck with all the junk, one right after the other.
This isn't VR either. 
Templates
The way I handle it is I try to figure out lines I type per an actual document minus the template part. Then I would adjust my line rate downward to compensate, e.g., if my normal rate is 15 cpl, I would charge them 13-14 cpl OR instead of my usual count including spaces, tabs, etc., I would would try to figure it without counting them. I make clear to the client that there is no way to segregate the pre-printed lines and the lower than usual rate is a way of compensating them for it. Another way to do it is how some hospitals and other MT companies are doing it - if you're using digital, charge by the dictated minute rather than the line.
When they called me and I asked them if they offshored, they asked me why that was my business!
xx
But the newbies can handle being team leads?
Give me a &%$) break!!!
Good question! How to handle the stress.
Would be a good thing, but what does a person do?
Does anyone what national company has been hired to handle...
ProHealth Care of Wisconsin hospitals. I heard that they have now changed to a national company to do all of their work for all their facilities.
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Spaces or Templates/Pay or No Pay
Interested in learning what companies out there do not pay for spaces and/or what companies charge per report regardless of line length for use/nonuse of their crappy template? For those of you who have worked for a company that charges for templates, was that information disclosed to you by the recruiter and/or contained in your contract? Any info (and opinions) in this regard would be appreciated. Thanks.
Normals/templates
I let my IC's use them especially in my psych accounts. However there was a time that one of the gals forgot to change the name on the header and I was gone and it went to the doctor directly with the incorrect name on the Header and big, big HIPAA violation and the doctor almost pulled the account since he did not catch it either. So I understand where your MTSO is coming from but again, I would not keep the help that made these mistakes rather than make the other MT's pay for the incompetent ones and be unable to use their autorcorrect, ShortHand or whatever normals/expanders that they use. The account stayed with me but we do watch the names closely now. Why make all suffer for the mistakes of a few.
Yes, we are paid for templates.
NM
We can make templates
In Meditech you use the F keys for every little other thing, including their canned text which you have to hit, I think, F4, to pull it up. All the F keys have some laborious function but you can get used to it. As for templates, we do indeed create our own templates for the different dictators. The downside is that once you create one and it's there, you can't go back and edit it or change it, like when the doctor changes some wording and you want to edit it.
Mainly what I'm saying is, ask IT about the MT's creating their own canned text entries for templates. Use ShortHand or whatever Expander for everything else.
Our system used to crash a lot, too, but you could do a Recover and get it back. However, they've fixed that. Meditech doesn't have to be a pain, you can work it.
Good Luck...
You get paid for the templates too
NM
With the use of expander and templates sm
basically all the prep work it's definitely possible.
Reports with a lot of templates...
and very fast dictators. Also, the MTSO counts lines in an honest manner, i.e., caps, bold, underline, headers, footers, templates, etc.
Read this about VR, templates, etc.
Ok, our profession has been threatened and outright replaced by voice recognition and/or templates which is fill in the blank type forms. Here's what I have found upon interviewing the people at these various places.
Bottom line is by going with VR, you can get rid of the MTs but they are replaced with approximately 1.5 FTE in IT help. So fire 5 MTs, hire 7 ITs. They need people to babysit the computer generated reports with which they have chose to replace us. Same for templates. So if there is any medical provider out there reading this, just beware. You will spend more money by going with VR or templates than you ever dreamed you could save. I hope this does some good but please don't be fooled by these slick salesmen who sell you this VR or templatesoftware and charge a fortune for it. Not only does it take up more time from your physicians, but you will spend more money babysitting the computers and software than ever before.
Especially if you use a lot of expanders and templates.
Then, VR is definitely NOT WORTH YOUR TIME. If you type 5 lines an hour or something, yeah, I could see it working out for you. However, if you are a good MT, not so much.
How about 0.03 per line for templates?
what templates, ones I make or their's. BS
Ok. I could handle once as a mistake if explained promptly and fixed. Twice? I would run sm
as fast as I could. Twice in two months? What if you never get paid at all? You would be better going with a national while getting your own so that you have benefits and a steady paycheck. Start your own accounts slowly so that you start right.
You do get paid for things in templates...sm
Please e-mail me who told you otherwise. Thank you.
And no pay for headers you type or templates they add
/
Templates and word expanders
Figure out which abbreviations trigger an easy memory response. For instance, I've seen people put pn for pneumonia, but that just seemed to trip up my brain and so I put pne. Do you have doctors that use the same phrase over and over? For instance, nothing to indicate; that's nti. intrinsically and extrinsically is iae. no acute disease noted is nadn. You get more lines by typing (in the above example) 4 letters and getting paid for 22 (with spaces). I organized my templates by first 4 letters of last name and first 2 letters of first name - i.e., John Brown is browjo. (This habit started when I had a large hospital with 2000 doctors and this was the only way to keep them straight.) Then, if it's an H&P, it's browjohp; or discharge is browjods, etc. Seems complicated and you may find an easier way to catogorize, but once it's set in your brain, huge masses of data can easily be sorted through, accessed, appear on your screen, and half your typing is done for you.
companies that have lots of templates
Are there any companies that provide lots of templates and normals and a good rate per line? This is my dream job, to find this company!
Templates are created by the IT people or
The MT usually does not have access to these things. In my day, we had to put in a request and hope to heck they got it right. Plus, we had to wait a while. I think they're called dictionaries (templates) believe it or not. It has been about a year, and I don't miss that system at all. Clunky, slow, and lost many of reports due to it going down in the middle of typing. Grrrr.....
MT SHOULD be paid for templates. Horrible MDI
x
The built-in templates for the ones you create
nm
lower pay rate for templates
Hi folks, Has anyone heard of getting a lower pay rate for templates? The company I work for is lowering their pay rates for what comes up as templates to 2 cents per line and say they will continue to pay the 8 cents per line for what we actually type? I have not heard of this before and was wondering if this was a common practice? Thanks for any feedback you might have.
Elizabeth MT since 2001
I worked for one company that did not pay for any templates.
The client had many templates. When I started I received pages of templates with the codes. It was after my first paycheck that I was informed that the company did not pay for any templates. You know they were charging the client full price and guess who was pocketing the profit?? 
You probably aren't paid for templates.
Ask your supervisor. And I hope you aren't using your real name. Good luck. I hope you find your answer :)
That is terrible. You know, those women have no idea how to handle all these big university accounts
that are moving up there. They are very very wrong about some of the things they do and it seems like they really dont know as much as they would like you to think they do. That is absolutely disgusting that they did that. I hope that MT reported them to anyone in New Jersey they could find. I would have taken that as far as I could have if I would have been her to the CEO. That is just horrendous. My goodness, why does MQ continue with them. I believe firmly if you make enough calls you will find someone that is willing to listen and take the info where it needs to go I believe that.
The key is working multiple accounts. Three months is hardly long enough to get a handle sm
on the job. Maybe better to keep a parttime job until you are up to speed on the new job. I haven't run out of work in almost a year (and that was only for a few minutes), but I do multiple accounts. Great company, great people. Nice bennies.
Plain and simple, you have to be able to handle the difficult dictators in this profession if..
you want steady, appreciated work by a national company. There are so many hoppers out there who bounce from company to company, and then come here to complain about it. Trust me, we have all had our share of tough dictation over the years. When I started MT over 20 years ago, I cried daily trying to get through those many mumblers, ESLs, etc. to make mere pennies an hour. The experience and skills that I gained by hanging in there made me a successful Transcriptionist over the years. I started out in-house, and then obtained a few local accounts, and built from there. I ran a small MT service with several subcontractors helping me. I am now with a small national, the name of which I don't want to mention. I make a good line count of .11/65 characters with spaces and have absolutley no overhead. If you are an experienced and skilled transcriptionist, there are companies out there who will pay you what you are worth. Don't settle for less. However, if you are new and inexperienced in this profession, do not expect to make a good living until you have built the skills necessary to succeed. If all that was involved in MT was getting the easy dictators or accounts, it would not take much to be good in this profession. A company needs to see that you can tackle whatever comes your way. No one ever said it was going to be easy!
I can handle micromanage and cherries, but its the bill collectors I want to stay away
You see, to me it is more than worrying about micromanaging and cherry picking. I have been in the biz long enough to develop a rough skin. It is when I do not have enough money to pay the rent or car which bothers me. So, I take the shift least wanted b/c there will be work there, I allow micromanaging and say I will do better next time, and I learn all the toughest ESLs without complaint. You see, no one can control another person, and one should know no job is perfect out there. The only thing a person can and should do is mature-up, quit whining, and get to work so the roof stays overhead, the pantry has milk and bread and the car is still outside. Of course, that is my 2.5 cents.
Anyone know of a company that uses a very easy platform with templates...
and lots of fill in the blanks? I am trying to find part-time work that doesn't require a whole lot of typing because I have pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel syndrome. I still have several months of pregnancy left and I still need to work, so my only option is to find work that requires a lot less typing! I am just happy that this CTS is usually only temporary! I do wear wrist splints and take frequent breaks during my shift but this provides little relief. If you know of companies that use easy platforms with templates, fill in the blanks, cut and paste, etc - please let me know! Thanks in Advance!
Line count involving templates
I need advice!! I am typing in a template that consists of 205 gross lines before any typing is done in it. The client isn't questioning the body of the template where we add the meds, past history, etc., but there is an area of a preprinted form that is added that consists of about 85 lines. The client doesn't want to be charged for this, as this is not part of the typing. How can I bill for this exclulding this preprinted form? I would have to get the total number of characters for the entire document including the form and divide by 65? Help!!
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