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Yes, very serious; however, 700 lph is not the norm every day. It just depends on the dictator. Th

Posted By: MT24 on 2006-04-16
In Reply to: Whoa! Huh? 700 lph at 12 cpl!?!? - Are you serious? nm

Sometimes the reports are 98% accurate and sometimes, depending on the dictator, they are 90% accurate. As you know in this field, it depends on the day and dictator. The daily average, after all is said and done, is about 600 lph, 700 is on the very high end and not a consistent average every day.


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I guess it is now the norm but it did not used to be the norm.

I had a dictator like that once. (sm)

At first, I found it to be very irritating, but then I started to feel sorry for the guy.


Then, a couple months ago, I had a ministroke and now have intermittent difficulty with, not so much stuttering, but stammering/stuttering sometimes when I speak, as if the connection has broken somewhere between my brain and my mouth.


It happened to me recently when I was on the phone with someone from my doctor's office, and I started crying because I was so embarrassed and frustrated.


In something as important as dictating a patient's medical record, I think someone should gently bring this to the doc's attention, though maybe it embarrasses him as much as it embarrasses me.


On the other hand, with some USA companies outsourcing American work to foreign countries, obviously somewhere along the line, somebody stopped caring about accuracy (and confidentiality and HIPAA laws, etc.), IMHO.


ESL - SPANISH DICTATOR
AND UNFORTUNATELY NOT AN 800 NUMBER FOR DIAL IN TO GET THE DICTATIONS. Hospital will not invest the money to make the wave files available either. I just read this posting. I didn't see the others that were posting bad things about me until tonight. Some people just don't accept that you need excellent skills to make top money. Nothing comes easy. Thus my offer to pay more just to get this guy done. Thank you for all of your help. Karen
Not necessarily-if you get a bad dictator -- sm

your production is hurt whether you are experienced or not.  Fast production not only depends on the MT's ability but the quality of the dictator and how fast or slow they speak or how clear the speak.


A person with more experience will leave far less blanks but will still be limited on how fast she/he is.  Thus they deserve to be paid more than 7 cpl.


SR is not the problem, the dictator is
The problem is not with the product (SR) but with the person using it. You can't just install the program, start dictating, and see perfection appear on the screen. There's a lot involved with the training process, which never ends. It's really no different than building up an expansion program. The more time and effort you put into make entries, the better your line count will ultimately be.

I also work with SR every day, but I use the product instead of the keyboard. Previously, with the use of an expansion program, I had to kill myself to hit 1800 lines in a 9-hour day. Now, I can whip out at least 3000 lines in an 8-hour day (6-1/2 to 7 hours of dictating and about an hour of proofing). Any mistakes which I do have are my fault ... I did not articulate/enunciate correctly.

SR was once a product I wanted to use, 'cause I thought it would make this work more enjoyable. Now, it's a necessity. More than 30 years of MT has led to repetitive stress injuries (bilateral CTS and right cubital tunnel syndrome).

Sometimes I wish there were MTs who lived close to me, 'cause I would invite them over so they could see how well SR works, when it's been trained correctly.
But if that is the type of dictator that you will be doing, isn't it best for both of you sm

to know how you will do?  If you can't do whatever kind of awful dictation they have, then they need to know.  AND, most importantly, if that's the kind of dictation you would be facing every day, then YOU need to know so you can say no, thank you.   I know if I tested and had Mr Dream Doc for the test and then started working for the company and had Mr Devil Dictator every day, I'd feel like they did a bait and switch.


Just my opinion.  Good luck! 


Will the dictator change? Could end up being a foreigner (sm)
talking over that incessant sound of running water I always hear in path reports.  I wouldn't do it.
I truly think that if every doctor or dictator had to spend
was forced to listen to themselves for a period of time...say an hour or two, I would almost bet the farm that a lot of mumblemouths, yawners, eaters, and people who dictate in the bathroom while they are flushing would change their habits radically. Or sending their dictation EXACTLY the way they say it...um...uh...uh...ummmm........hmmmm.........dead air....You know the ones.

No one will ever convince me differently. LOL. IN a perfect world maybe. in the MT world??? Not!!!
Thanks for that info! No way am I muddling through a dictator like that
xx
As I said, it is going to depend on the dictator's style.
My doctors dictate a lot of lines like:

MEDICATIONS: None.

ALLERGIES: No known drug allergies.

That is why I was saying it would be good if you have a lot of short lines. It also would depend on the page format. With the page format we use, each line is approximately 65 characters, so if the doctor dictated a lot in paragraph form versus the short lines, then it would indeed be a paycut. All I was suggesting was that you really can't judge the pay rate as there are so many variables that go into it. It ould be decent pay with the right conditions. As I said, with just the one report, I would have made $3 more. Times that by the 20 reports I do a day and that is a huge difference.

I agree though about the software. Not going to take the chance of buying expensive software only to find out that the job isn't going to work out in the end a month or two down the road.
Everytime I start this dictator she has a mouthful
of gum, candy, ?? swishing around in her mouth. How rude can you get? Even if she is not sucking, chewing or whatever she is rolling that crap around in her mouth and then there is this physician who cannot pronounce her medical terms and yet she seems like she needs to snort something back every sentence. Just gross!!
YES! I will get numerous reports from the same ugly dictator

8 times in one night -- these H&P's being 6 plus hours old, and each dictated with plenty of time in between, my knowing that there were other dictators dictating in between his -- so know that they have been holding them for me after the day shift gets off. They don't delay H&P's getting out for this many hours, so it is so very obvious what is taking place. I don't like companies manipulating the system for their favorites.


I absolutely despise this practice by a company.


You're assuming this is a sweetheart dictator ... sm

With a good dictator that knows what he/she wants to say and says it, without all the ...uh....ah....mmmm.....ah.....ugh, ad nauseum... rudely shuffles papers while you're waiting for the next sound ... without the courtesy of shutting the machine off while they steal even more of your time....yes, without all this inconsiderate behavior on the part of dictators...the above equation would probably be correct.


I agree that the dictator on the 1st test file...
is difficult to hear in places.  I'm going to try and re-record it in WavePad to see if I can't boost up the audio a bit.  I could hear the 2nd and 3rd files much better.  I've still got to proof my files and then will send them in.
I find it varies widely by dictator
Caveat up front: I've only been on VR less than 6 months. More experienced MT editors might have a completely different VR experience.

That said, I notice the big factors in how many LPH I can do with it are (1) how long the dictating provider has been using the VR system and how many times s/he's been through readaptation, (2) whether the dictator is ESL. The software so far seems to favor native speakers over ESL's; it 'gets' the native speaker's speech pattern faster.

I am looking for quality, myself. The temptation to 'skim' is there with this kind of work, but I'm too afraid I'll make critical errors that way.

If I have a good dictator who's been readapted a few times, I can get by with little editing and average 400 lph. Most of the editing I do in that capacity is formatting, and a few good ShortHand entries can make a world of difference in speeding that up. I'd say definitely visit the Community page Training tab if you haven't already.

With a new and/or ESL dictator, though, I admit it: It's faster for me to straight-type it. So I do, because I can get between 300 and 350 lph that way. Editing might easily drop me down to that 200 lph ceiling you're struggling with. I don't know if that will always be so, or if, as I get more used to the rhythm of editing, it will become second nature and go faster. But right now, if the report's bad enough I simply transcribe it.

Again, just my experience so far.
We worked out of a pool, and when a report came up from a cruddy dictator (sm)
they would hit "1" and send it back to the pool so the next Transcriptionist would get it.  It was so obvious, as soon as you went on in the morning the first few reports you got would be from the most God-awful ESLs and you can see that they were dictated the previous day, but then all of a sudden you start getting jobs that were dictated just an hour before.   
Yes, if gross line count and easy dictator
to start with.
6 cents a line for surgical reports for an ESL dictator? Are you NUTS??

I'm just absolutely appalled and disgusted...


how do you know i am not the norm?
Based upon just the posts on MTstars? did you do an independent survey? I gave her my experience, which is for several years with 2 different branches/mgmt of the company. p.s. MQ is the largest MT provider in the WORLD. Do you think the MAJORITY of these MTs are so unhappy? I don't. THAT is why is shared my experience. Sorry if you don't like it.
$1.35 seems the norm. nm

the norm if ..
you refuse better conditions.  Since there are companies out there who do pay more for your time and effort I would not say that 1.35 is the norm, I'd say that it is the norm you will settle for.  Keep that in mind when you do your collective thinking everyone.  Frankly, being paid by the page to do heavy MRI and scan work is a total insult to the MT who is transcribing the work. 
Yes, 8 cpl is the norm (nt)
x
This is not the norm.
It is less than honest to make people believe this is the norm only to find out once hired...it's not.  There are VERY few accounts or platforms at ANY company that would allow MTs to get that kind of count daily....unless working lots of OT.  
Did I ever say this was the norm? I think NOT
All I said was that is what I do on my particular ER account with lots of templates and easy docs. There are multiple different types of accounts at KS on multiple different platforms. Did I once come out and say that everyone should be able to get that kind of a line count? No. I did not. Someone asked what ER MTs at KS usually average for line counts, and I simply responded that I type between 2500-3000 a shift with no OT on my account. I did not speak for anyone other than myself. Good god. Get over it!
Actually, the norm for this was
explained to me this way: For every 1 minute of dictation it should take 2 minutes to type it. This is using the old fashion way of transcribing, meaning straight typing, no Expanders and so on. So, if you use expanders, of course, the typing time is cut down further. You also have to keep in mind whether or not the dictator is good or bad, whether it's an ESL dictator, if you are new to the account and so on. All of these things will increase the amount of time it takes to transcribe any report.
something else going on here then, not the norm.nm
nm
I do too - in the 7 - 8 hrs of norm. NM
!
Yes, it's the norm here...
There are a lot of nasty attitudes here.  I admit, occasionally I have one, too.  I think it has something to do with this industry and the abuse so many MTs receive these days.  My suggestion would be, if you enjoy this site for the most part, just take a break and come back on a different day .
I've easily done 600, but it depends on the way a company counts lines and it depends on the
dictators. Obviously, if you have a good share of ESL, there is no way you could ever do 600 or 700. On really difficult ones, I usually run around 400 lines an hour and I have been working on this platform for 3 years.
MQ not the norm...welllllllll
guess I'm not either?  No complaints on my end w/over 11 years
It seems to be the norm now. I am at $1.15 and make sm
over $50k a year, so it is not bad. If you are fast, know the terminology and have a good mix of types of radiology reports, it would be good.
LOL ... well, that is the exception, not the norm. sm
I wasn't trying to brag at all.  I'm older and simply cannot do that on a daily basis (wish I could!).  My only point was that if they were cheating me, it would not be possible.  I agree with the poster above -- if people think they are being cheated, then they should just move on.  This using several line counters and checking and double checking and so on and so forth seems a huge waste of time.
3 years is the norm. nm
nm
Well if this is becoming the NORM there's a problem s/m
There was a big news article today about skyrocketing late/no credit card payments due to the housing market burst and the upcoming recession.  Maybe a little 1984  here, but could this credit check be being done by companies as another reason why they can't find qualified workers in the US, thus villifying further offshoring of jobs??
98% here and I thought that was the norm. nm
x
Two weeks is the norm
Good luck!
It is becoming more of the norm so I adjusted to, not resisted the
.
This is the norm at the companies I have worked for. sm
Don't take it personally. A lot of us go through the same thing. It hurts when a punctation error is pointed out, yet no mention is made of what a great job you did on the medical terminology. Kind of wounds the pride. Take comfort in the fact that the rest of your report was without error. You should learn to follow the style your company wants you to follow. They each have their own rules.
Not ridiculous. It's clearly stated in their ad and the norm for
xx
Hopefully the norm has better voice recognition than
MQ has given me. It honestly takes me longer to edit than it does to transcribe. I pray to God that's not typical of voice recognition.
Your one clinic does that. It's certainly not the norm by any means.
x
less staffing all around the hospitals is the norm...
i have siblings in nursing and radiology departments and it's cut, cut, cut = dangerous patient care.
I have found that high-speed is the norm and if SM
you can use satellite or dialup, they will specifically state so in the ad.
Credit check IS the norm. Employers want to how
x
I guarantee you, you are not the norm. Why lead someone that needs to make a living into a

situation that is getting worse all the time with lost accounts and over hiring and not knowing yet what the pay scale will be.


I've heard that no response from managment is getting to be the norm.. sm..
Why did you leave, if you don't mind my asking....
Paying for experience is NOT the norm out here. I'm finding newbies getting offered my same 8
s
The norm in the 80s was 4 cents per Gross Line, not 65 char with spaces. nm
nm
As an ex-Keystroker, this behavior sounds like the norm. It is convenient to blame the person who
x
Well, it depends on what you need and are looking for - sm
do you want employee status, need benefits, need equipment supplied by company or do you want IC status, your own schedule, no benefits, and a good line rate?

There are many good companies out there, and even Transcend is a good company in some MTs eyes.

What are you looking for?
4.65 to 5.10 cpl. Depends on whether you
get 55% or 60% of your base salary.  You will starve to death only doing 1100 lines a day.  That would be $51.15 to $56.10 a day,.