Unless your audio can speed up more than mine
Posted By: VR person on 2009-08-02
In Reply to: Yes, told double to triple possibly - Potential Escriptioner
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!
Complete Discussion Below:  marks the location of current message within thread
The messages you are viewing
are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select
the boards given in left menu
Other related messages found in our database
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
Patti - about audio
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?
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!
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?
I bet you 1 million $$ you won't find one on mine. Mine is
2 years old and it does not have a 9-pin serial port, nor does it have a game port. I have used both ports on other computers so I know what both ports look like. I also have a company provided computer and it does have the ports on it.
TA Speed sm
I don't use TA Speed, I use Instant Text, so I can't answer your question about imports into it. However, I do use AutoCorrect for correcting my typos, and I have no problem with it. Your original AutoCorrect file will still be there, even after you install your software. I don't see why you couldn't just continue to just use your AutoCorrect if you wanted. During my initial training, I told the techie-type critter that I wanted to use my Instant Text (and not the TA Speed), and I *think* he went into the system and did some kind of techie voodoo, so keep that in mind (and mention it to the tech if/when you do work for them). =)
It took me a while to get up to speed
I do acute care only. I know when I was hired, I was told I would not be paid for any carbon copy information, but I don't remember about demographics...Demo information would only be a line or so, anyway at most.
I do know the computer strips out any hanging spaces at the end of paragraphs, but a lot of companies can do that with their platforms as well.
If your headers and footers are embedded in the template, I don't see how you could be paid for that as it would not be something you produced as part of the report.
As far as lines per pay period, I print out a copy of my schedule, jot down my line cout for the day and total it out at the end of the pay period. When I get my check, it always matches what I have calculated.
If you are limited in what type of work you can produce, you probably will have a hard time making lines. The more diversified you are, the more likely you can be cross trained and placed on backup accounts.
ASR Speed
Had to give you a pat on the back, ndmt. Excellent, excellent point. Why doesn't someone stop the madness?
Speed
Reading this board, I am being disabused of the notion that I am any good at MT at all. Been at it about 15 years and I'm a part-timer; always have been. I came to it when I was over 45, as a retirement job.
I don't get to use a lot of templates or normals, so this is not a factor. On a good day, with really 'clean' dictations (good sound quality, clear dictator who is not constantly correcting himself) not having to spend a lot of time looking stuff up and with the wind at my back, I can produce maybe 250 lph for 2-3 hours. I always thought this was pretty good. Then I get fatigued and drop to 200 or so. With really bad dictators/sound/subject matter, I get as low as 150. I believe my knowledge and accuracy are good, but obviously my speed sucks.
On this board I am seeing claims of sustained speeds of 300-400 lph or more. So I'm thinking that maybe VR could actually IMPROVE my production. And as my company seems to be phasing this in ,account by account, I will soon have the opportunity to see for myself.
I would like to take an informal survey of speeds and VR vs straight transcription. Anybody willing to weigh in on this subject?
Speed
Been on VR for a year, been an MT for 25, have also been a book editor/manuscript proofreader. None of that matters one bit. And, no, VR does not learn and improve--at least not the platform I use. My top VR so far is 350 lph, average about 200-250. Main problem is reports with no punctuation, SR guessing at words, having to insert numbering, but my absolute favorite is docs taking personal calls while microphone is still on. I've heard everything from 2 docs discussing whether to seduce a woman with wine, candy, flowers, a skiing trip, etc, and then one of them calling in midst of same report to ask some chick if she'd sleep with him that night, that he was having dinner catered, also docs talking to their stockbrokers and car dealers, wondering whether to buy the green or the black Jag, and docs screaming at their kids and/or spouses--all this goes into SR and the old SR gremlin tries to turn it into part of the report, just as it does when the doc says--Go back and insert so and so under the diagnoses and take out so and so from the med list and add 3 more cc's, ad nauseum. All that stuff and more will slow you down terribly. You can never count on getting good clean SR reports for a whole shift. I think I need to get a job selling SR/VR systems but I couldn't stomach that kind of dishonesty to promise that MTs would be doing 600 lph in no time.
actually, the typing speed...
is not as important as learning to use an expander to do the work for you. This is the REAL key. I type perhaps 300+ words a minute using mine.
How long did it take you to get up to speed (sm)
As to the 300 lph? I'm pretty excited as I've been offered a position with them. Thanks for the info.
Why is it so hard to get speed
with that company, are they on a slow system or something?
Speed vs. Accuracy
Medical transcription in the 21st century emphasizes production and speed. While your medical background is a big help, you will need to crank out the lines if you have any hope of making money, especially as a newbie. Please keep in mind the time, effort and energy expenditure versus the financial return. Finally, I would keep my options open, and not limit them to medical transcription. Good luck.
Voice speed
I can't help with that as when I fix the voice through Express Scribe it stays that way.
speed rate
to the person that e-mailed me, my e-mail has not been working correctly but no to your question if it is working. good luck!
Speed is a big issue
10 cpl is more than I make, but I'm pretty fast. My base rate is 7.5 to 8 cpl depending on which of my 2 accounts I'm on, but since I do enough lines daily to qualify for bonus, I acutally make 9 to 9.5 cpl per line. I average about 1500 lines per day. Production is what drives pay, so that's why I'm making what I do. I think it's unfortunate that years of experience isn't really compensated in this business, but years of experience doesn't always equal what the employer wants, which is speed and low error rate. Everyone brings a different set of skills to the job. In the end it's what you produce and not how many years you have behind you that the employer cares about. Fair or not, that's the nature of this business.
changing speed
go to the transnet player, click more at the bottom right, and it gives you options you can change.
adjust speed
tech dept could even help. They gave me another phone number to address this problem and never even got a call back. that did it for me.
adjust speed
I did this and it did not work for me. it would not budge. I'm not there any longer.
Speech speed?
You are so right. If you have lousy dictators it is easier to type them from scratch than to correct the system errors made because of them. I had to go to speech and my checks are down 40%. What system were you using? The one I am on is awful. It types every grunt and entire phrases the dictator did not say. For me it is easier to do ESLs than speech, at least with the system and dictators I have. Is there a better system out there?
LPH and increase speed
As I mentioned before, I am struggling with speed.
I am curious what most people start out typing (LPH) and how quickly you increased to your max (many mentioned they are 200-300+) lph. Anyone who will share on this?
I appreciate it!
Speed tips on VR
MG - WOW! can you tell me how you achieve such a great line count with VR? That is incredible. I have worked on eScription before and am now on Dolbey which is similar. I am starting to get used to using the function keys and not the mouse but I wonder if you could share some speed building tips? Thanks!
speed tips
I speed up the audio enough to still hear it but to be able to get through it faster. If i run into something I am not sure of, i just slow it down. I use ALL of the shortcut keys I can as well and run the spellcheck! :)
dictaphone speed
Does Dictaphone itself increase the speed of dictations in ExText? My dictators are suddenly speaking much faster than before. I have them turned down to the minimum speed, and they're still too fast. I've heard of Dictaphone increasing the speed so that we have to type faster. Do you think this is true?
emdat speed
I have version 4.91.308. The option to slow it down or speed it up is there, it says playback rate, but it breaks up horribly when you slow it down. Is there another way?
Speed Typist
Well, with the Chartnet platform it is possible to get good line counts. The problem is there isn't any work at this company. They have lost a lot of accounts! There is so little work and so many MTs that you will barely get the minimum line count!!!
And if your facility is outsourcing to them or you think (or have been told) that you will have a primary account that nobody else will be typing THEY LIE!!!
There are so many MTs that need work that they will be given access to your account!!!! You will slowly watch your work go away!!!
After leaving this company because of no work I wish you much luck...You are going to need it!!!
Talking about the speed with VR
You are 100%, could not be more right about this. I am an extremely fast MTer, do VR, have the speed up as fast as it will go and you cannot do any more than the speed allows. I am not able to do, say 600, 700 or above on a consistent basis. I can keep up with the speed fast forward but it just does not work to allow a Transcriptionist to be able to do an enormous amount of lines. If that were the case, I probably could hit $40 an hour or better.
In doing VR my speed per line
has been clocked at 130-140 but I just do not understand why you did not make more. I think it is like taking candy from a baby.
I can only say that when I go over a typing speed
of 90 wpm, the keys start overlapping, even on my computer keyboard.
For example, I type 'the' and the keyboard types 'teh',
I type 'that' and the keyboard types, 'taht', etc... I could mention a lot of examples and these are not typos.
I have noticed this also with other posters.
Another one is 'becsaue' instead of 'because', etc....
I think the fastest I could type on an electric typewriter without my keys overlapping.
typing speed
I worked for the federal government where we were monitored on our typing speed...I clocked at 150 wpm...my 19 year-old son types 110...it is VERY possible.
Hopefully the speed will pick-up
a part-time job to cover that lull. Crying here and not to be unkind is really not going to help your situation. We can give you a big ole awwwww, but that's not going to help. Get a part-time job.
Anywhere from 3 to 10 hours, depending on speed,
experience, ESLs, interruptions, platform, etc.
DVI or high speed internet?
Well, this kind of depends on other factors as well. Our hospital has used SoftMed for a long time. Those living within the phone line area were fine with the DVI system. However, now they are upgrading and it requires a high speed internet. So if you cannot get that where you live, or the direct phone line service, it could be a problem. Hope for the best for you. I am not so lucky. I cannot get DSL where I live. :(
|
