Patti - about audio
Posted By: Amylou on 2007-04-17
In Reply to: Getting paid by audio hour - Amylou
Thanks for your input. I haven't taken the job yet, as I wanted to get some advice from others. Of course, the sample test he had me take was extremely clear! The calm before the storm! He said he would pay me $50 per audio hour. I'm thinking, if it takes me over 2 hours to do an audio hour, it probably isn't worth it. Maybe I'll just have to try it first and tell him up front what my plan is. Do you think $50 sounds fair?
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THANKS PATTI
Oh, thanks Patti for your response!!! I have been a medical Transcriptionist for 27 years. Working in a hospital, I could easily do 300-500 lines per hour. I know that sounds crazy, but I could. But working for a service through this online thing, it doesn't seem possible. I just want to find the best place possible. I have experience in all types of medical fields as well as ESLs, etc. I just don't want to jump from company to company as I am a very loyal person, but I only have little extra time to put into this right now, and I want it to be the right thing.
Thanks and let me know if you have any advice for me. I really appreciate it. Katie
Thanks Patti!!
Patti-thanks for your reply - sm
I just spoke with the MTSO that wants to pay me 0.55 cents per word, which, I think, is ridiculous...wouldn't you say so? I don't think I can do it for that cheap. If it was 1 cent per word, I might consider it. Thanks for your reply and insight.
Lucy
Patti, a lot of companies are asking ICs to have it now.
.
Agree with Patti--sm
There is no law that says a company HAS to send out a 1099, although it is nice if they do, but you should keep your own records, as well, just in case there are any discrepancies. I worked for five years with a company that never sent out a 1099. It is basically just for your information and not something you have to send to government, like a W2.
Patti, I hope you read the other
I work as an IC/QA. I log on to my computer at 7am. There is no work...well I have to keep checking my computer to see if there is work, all day long. If there were only 10 reports that fell into the pool during my shift, I can only bill for an hour or so of work time even though I tied up my entire day waiting on reports to fall into the pool for me to edit.
I was an Executive assistant for many years before becoming an MT. I was an employee of a company who paid me whether I had work to do or not. If you think about it, most companies do this. You don't spend your day clocking in and out because there was no work. It is a cost of operating a business.
I was asking in my post for the name of a company that pays QA to work their shift...a company that realizes that the QA person is sitting at their computer for 8 hours waiting on reports to fall in. If either of the ladies below don't mind emailing me the name of your company who does pay QA in this manner I would greatly appreciate it.
I ususally agree with you Patti, but not this time.
I agree with you Patti! Read on..
I work for a smaller company that pays me 10 cpl while making 13 cpl for the account. But guess what? This company deals with the physician's office. I also print and travel (which is okay by me, it gets me out). I don't have to deal with the $ aspect through the physician's office. She does. And also, she pays me right off of the bat! I don't wait. However, most companies want you glued to the computer for their set schedule. I have so much flexibility. I just say, I don't mind taking the cpl-hit, if I don't have to do all of the extras. We all know how that can be, especially if you deal directly with the office manager to try and get paid! Sometimes, that's not worth my weight in gold! I say take the line hit for all of the other added headaches that come along with our biz! Take care! 
I agree with Patti; I did that for years.
As long as you are an employee, you just file your Schedule C, plus deductions. Worked well for me.
Still looking for Patti who was the former manager of the Las Vegas branch of the
unmentionable company here. Does anyone know the name of the company she is now in charge of or is starting? Thanks.
You go, Patti. Thought Longtime employee was
x
Agree with Patti. MTOS sends 1099 as courtesy,
x
audio
I just left them for the second and final time due to extremely bad audio files. I was assured this second go-round that the problem had been corrected but was not. I spent the biggest part of the first week - lasted about 3 days - trying to hear dictators, mainly ESL. The people I dealt with were terrific; benefits are some of the best; audio extremely poor. I figured no money could be made under those circumstances.
AUDIO HOURS
Can anyone give me any idea what to charge for an audio hour of transcription and how much time this equals out to? I was offered a freelance job of 30 hours of audio hours for TAT of 2 days and have never done this before. It is television production work. Thanks for any help!!!!
There is no way to do 30 audio hours
I can usually transcribe 1 hour of dictation, my easy stuff, in 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Even if you have really easy stuff to do, on the low end it would probably take at least 60 hours to transcribe, and mayve 90! Geez..even if you could transcribe it in real time...taking only 30 hours to transcribe those 30 hours, you'd be putting in 2 15 hour days to do it. Realistically, for 30 hours of dictation you would 60-90 hours of work.
How's the audio quality with TT? nm
x
Everything audio I was sent was horrible..
xx
Really bad audio and account--sm
Was a verbatim account and really bad dictators, lots of heavy ESL. So, yes. Very hard to make good line counts under those working conditions.
medgarde audio
I was wondering if anyone else has ever applied to medgarde and had trouble playing the sound files?! I have been trying to get it to play for a day, and I updated the media player... I'm just curious if anyone else had this problem and what they did to fix it.
the audio is horrible on the new system....
I had my husband listen to a little bit of one of the doctors and even he said it sounded like mush. I bought an expensive pair of noise cancelling headphones and it is still terrible. I can handle the software, but the audio is another thing. I am ready to resign. Grrrrr.
I have had zero problems with ESL/audio quality/whatever. TT is the best so far for me.
nm
Getting paid by audio hour
I have not gotten paid by audio hour before and just wondered if anyone has an idea what good pay per audio hour is? It's straight typing for seminars/speakers. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!
Good luck with audio
I have done seminars/speakers, etc and never again unless I listen to the tapes or whatever first. It all depends on where they put the microphone and their euipment. I got stuck doing a seminar and found out it was all about building a chip in a computer and had all orientals at the seminar - worse nightmare that there was. You would have to see how many lines you would get in an hour worth of the audio to figure out a fair price -- not in an hour of typing for you but the audio and the difficulty. I had 10 tapes from a 2 day seminar -- 60 minute tapes not all were filled on each side and their bill was well over 1200. Had another on the use of animal with sexually abused children for therapy, 8 to 10 hours of audio and that one was also over $1000. But I charged by line. It took about 4 hours to do each hour of audio when it was good recordings and up to 5 to 6 when poor. We did average about $25 per hour when typing but adding in the QA and listening again to make sure we did not miss anything brought it down to under $20. So then it would be a charge of about $80 per audio hour -- rough estimate. Again too many variables and I would not charge or be paid that way.
Posts here say you need about $2 per audio minute to
p
You'd do better to bill by the audio minute; I'd bill $0.75 per minute of audio.
x
I agree on the audio. Not sure what causes their problems with this. nm
:
DocQ audio from keyboard
CTRL + SPACEBAR to toggle on and off for play, CTRL + comma and CTRL + period for rewind and fast forward. Once you've tried it for a half a shift, you'll never want to see your footpedal again!
Unless your audio can speed up more than mine
I would say the person (people) telling you 3x as much as straight are just outright lying. I think I mentioned my speed, high also but never have tripled on VR and I keep my audio at full speed, cannot do more than the audio allows. I am very satisfied in the long run with Escription. I had so many straight reports yesterday, usually do the op notes but mostly discharge summaries on the weekends sometimes and so many ESLs, I could have pulled my hair out. What is strange, sometimes a particular dictator on VR and sometimes not? Don’t get that but wish all were. Good luck!
A wav pedal for the audio transcription part....(sm)
I honestly don't know if you NEED one or not...there may have been manual 'play/pause' buttons you could click on with a mouse, but I cannot remember for sure, so don't quote me on that. Reference books are definitely handy...I had to break open my AAMT rule book for a couple of things I wasn't 100% sure on, and even had to pull out my old dusty Dorland's that I've been using as a foot rest for some obsure thing I couldn't get a definitive answer off the 'net from.
Like I said, I enjoyed taking the test because I've honestly never tested before. I've only been doing transcription for 5 years now, and it was always with the same company, and still have oodles to learn. The part I enjoyed most though was the actual sample transcriptions. Fun to hear other voices and accents and type up material I never got exposed to before.
Just give it a shot! After you finish a 'block' of testing, it asks you if you want to stop and come back to it later or keep going. When you first sign up for the testing, it assigns you a log-in and password, solely for that purpose that if you need to take a break or plain ol' stop, you have that option.
I shoulda asked the interviewer how I did. No part of the test said anything like, 'Sorry, but you stink and you can go away now.' I guess if you pass one part it feels you are good to go onto the next? No idea honestly.
Go on...just do it. 
The two ladies that I talked to, both before and after testing, were very nice and I'm sure it's a great company. I just knew where I really wanted to be is all.
I work for the DSG-2 side. One account has some bad audio sm
some of the time-not all. Otherwise I am happy where I am. I cannot speak for the other side which has different accounts.
Sick and tired of poor audio quality (sm)
that seems to get worse and worse as the days go by? Remember when we were told that switching from tapes to digital would make all the difference in the world with regard to clarity and our production? Remember when we were paid more and had plenty of work? Remember when there was no working on Sundays or holidays?
Why is EVERYTHING MT going to the dumpster?
Why do these MTSOs accept reports dictated on cell phones? Can't they write in their contracts that cell phone dictation is not clear and it can also be intercepted by others and therefore unacceptable? Why don't the QA personnel who read our flagged comments about awful audio pass this information on to the client so that it can be fixed? It's getting worse and worse.
Back in the days when I had my own accounts, one of my dictators asked me to please tell him as soon as his equipment malfunctioned (in those days, it was batteries running low or a tape that needed to be tossed and replaced). He said there was no need for the MT to suffer with poor audio reports when there is a simple fix. So, what's the difference here when the idiots dictate on cell phones? Or there is a hospital phone with a short in it? Why can't these things be fixed?
My plea: If you are a QA person or MTSO getting repeated complaints about specific dictators' dictations being garbled or unclear, won't you please notify, and keep notifying the client until they are brought up to par. How about sticking up for the MTs for a change rather than protecting the client all the time!? In the end you are protecting everyone, including the poor patients whose reports are being dictated and transcribed.
I'm tired of MTs taking all the blame for this industry's downfall. If MTSOs and clients demand 2-hour turn-around time, how about improving the technology to make your unending demands more attainable? It's 2006. There is no excuse for the garbage I have to listen to day after day. No excuse at all.
Wasn't just fast, the audio quality (re-recording)
2
DocQ, hmmm, how to play audio from keyboard??
Can you share. Didn't know, worked on platform twice and nobody ever said this.??? Can you share?
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