You need to use them for production & to presvent repetative stress injuries. nm
Posted By: How ridiculous! on 2006-04-30
In Reply to: Does your MTSO allow you to use your own - normals/standards? see message
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Totally. Stress of less and less money. Stress
My health is starting to slip because I never have time for exercise anymore. I can't afford healthy, fresh foods (they spoil too fast), and I can only go to the market once every 2 weeks. I'm depressed. I'm over-snacking. I have headaches. MT work makes me feel completely hopeless. I work for this invisible, omnipotent being that affects my life so adversely, and I can't even confront them in person, because the MTSO's all exist in that netherworld of the internet. They're nothing but evil electronic impulses that chain us to our computers and ruin our lives.
Stressed? Oh, yea - you better believe it. And an entire nation of people feeling exactly like I do? That's pretty da***d scary.
nothing but repetative phrases, piece of cake. just be easy lines.
and tons of just use my normal templates.
Ever think of that?
You don't need that stress..
or stick with the radiology. Who needs that? You must feel so degraded! What a poor ethic that company has... I feel sorry for their clients!
Does this job stress you out?
I do love so many things about being an MT, but does it stress anyone else out knowing that you HAVE to type a certain amount to get the bills paid? I try to explain that to my husband. I seem overly stresseed a lot because like I tell him, if you have a NORMAL job and one day you just aren't feeling that great, you can still get your paycheck because you are clocked in. A foggy head or drained feeling doesn't affect your work. Being an MT, you are pushed to type or you don't get a check. You have a slow day and your paycheck is affected. It's staring to REALLY stress me out!!!
Stress at Amphion!
I left Amphion for TT, too, and I can sure relate to the stress there. Sheesh. I was on the big university account, which I really liked, but I stressed over the QA reveiws every single month, and I absolutely hated the mandatory overtime. Granted, Amphion is the ONLY MT company I know of that pays true overtime for working over 40 hours--and doesn't quibble about it--real overtime as in time and a half per hour over 40--plus your lines, which is why I will not work over 40 hours for anyone else, not as an employee, unless I get true OT. I also miss the no major holidays on that university account and I HATE the 2 weekend days per month at TT--because on those 2 weekend days all I get is crap, BUT my stress level is a lot lower now--that's a good thing. If I were on a better account, I would have absolutely nothing to complain about. HAHA.
Fortunately, we have insurance through my husband's work and it is great. I don't get these exorbitant MTSO insurance prices either. My husband's company has about 200 employees and they have BCBS and the family rate, including dental is $250, a month!
No matter where you go it is always something.
You got it!! Not to mention that the stress of
have to use our PTO for sickness rather than fun. I also never got anything of substance approved as far as days off, so my PTO time was useless, just part of the games of no work and getting sick over no work. I feel so sorry for those who stay in that situation, thinking they are going to lose out on PTO by starting over. Its your LIFE at stake, right? We are so worth more than PTO at MQ. 
Still Stress-Free...
Some of us still enjoy stress-free living w/o a care in the world.
We never had kids! (LOL)
More money + more peace and quiet = Stress-free living forever!
Does it stress me, nope but tell you what I would do if it did
I would not sit here complaining about the lack of work, no decent salary, not enough to pay bills on and so forth. I am sure most on here lot younger than me and I can almost assure you this profession is not getting better, in fact seems to be headed the other way. Why wait on some job that stresses you, not enough money to live, cannot make it, why not find something else to do? Is it that important just to stay home and not be able to live on this pay now? There are jobs out in the world. Why not train for something that maybe would not be outsourced and make a decent living. Lots here sound like the passengers on the Titanic. Someone fill me in on just why everyone is stressing just waiting around.
Not worth the stress...move on...I did.sm
I went with a co. started on 10/25 and turned out the platform really sucked..too much stress. I quit..got hired two days later..move on. Your home is your life..you don't need to be stressed out over your work when your work is at home.
Not enough for the stress they're putting me through . See msg
From what I've read in the past, and my experience, they pay anywhere from 7 cpl to 10 CPL (I personally make 8 CPL with 10 years experience, no raises since I started there despite numerous requests for one). THIS IS FOR STRAIGHT TRANSCRIPTION. Most of us work on ASR now (voice recognition) which pays 70% of your pay (example, I make 0.56 CPL for ASR). I have lost a LOT of money since ASR began. I average around 150 lines per hour for ASR. I averaged around 250 lines per hour with straight transcription. In other words, I made around $20/hr before ASR, now I make $8.40/hr, just above minimum wage in my state.
I only work flex-part time now for MQ and work full time somewhere else that pays fairly with NO ASR and NO outsourcing outside of the U.S.
It is my strong belief, after 10 years of working for MQ, that we will all lose our jobs soon now that the board of directors is Indian based. Believe it or not, they can pay Indian workers even less than they pay us.
Yes, they pay shift differential, 0.5 CPL more for evening shift, 1 CPL more for night shift.
A slew of workers have left since the news so it is my belief that's why they're hiring now. If you're interested in a short-term job, fine. Good luck though.
THIS IS MY OPINION ONLY.
Don't stress. Tell her you are nervous, and she will be very nice about it. sm
You can't ask for a nicer group of people. They worked with me through my husband's long illness, house problems due to his illness, followed by a few health problems of my own that I still think are the after-shock of dealing with his illness. He is fine now, I am fine now, and I will never again look for another job because Keystrokes treated me like family, not just a number.
I had been at the Q for 17 years in some form (company I worked for was gobbled up by them) and was very nervous but they were very gracious about and put me at ease. That was 3 years ago and I am grateful that I took the plunge.
Does anyone else feel the stress mounting?
I don't know if it's just me, a bad year so far, or what, but it just seems as though this job is becoming too stressful for me. I've been doing this for almost 18 years and I have never felt as stressed as I do now. I can't even begin how many companies I've switched after a 2-4 year period because they keep changing the terms of employment that were originally agreed upon. It just seems that they expect more and more and more and give less and less. At the job I work now I have a primary account and 4 backup accounts, yet I have to sit and wait for work on all of them.
They changed platforms that doesn't pay for what was agreed upon when I took the jobs. Used to pay for everything, including spaces. Now, it doesn't pay for patient information, which I have no objection to if the information is automatically entered, but it seems like we have to enter more and more information all the time. It doesn't pay for headings in a report any more.
Every new secondary account that they give me is more time intensive than the last one. I normally work on acute care accounts, but as a secondary they gave me a clinic. I thought to myself, at least now maybe I can get some better lines because it is clinic. On this account, we have to look at an email they send every week that lists all patients seen that week. We have to search for the physician dictating, find the patient he is referring to, take all the data from the email, and then enter it into the patient information fields (none of which is paid for) and it can't be copied and pasted because it is all in different fields.
I've been so afraid to look for another job because I'm being paid a good line rate, until we go to VR rate (within the next 2 weeks) at more than 65% less than my current line rate on accounts that haven't even been trained on the system. This is just getting so frustrating. I've sent my resume out and get replies offering me 8 cpl employee or 9 cpl IC.
I'm really sorry this is so long. I just needed to vent and try to network here. If anyone knows of a good company that will appreciate having an MT with skill and experience, and will pay a fair line rate for it, can you please email me? I promise I'll keep it confidential. Thanks for letting me vent!
Did not mean to stress you out! After all we need health insurance
have not met line requirement for insurance and pharmacy... did not mean to stir a kettle, just wanted a reality check... you sure gave it to me!!!
Don't stress over gifts at Christmas -
that is NOT what the holiday is about - haven't been able to afford gifts for MANY years now - and when I can again I will be VERY conservative about it.
We have been brainwashed to think we HAVE to exchange gifts.
The best year was when I cooked a really good meal for all and placed one small gift at each place setting.
Repetitve Neck Stress Injury
 Repetitive Strain Injury Advice: Bad Neck Pain-I have a lumbar support chair but I am still getting repeat shooting pain in my neck. Is there anything I can do to ease this? Better support while I am working etc.? Any advice is appreciated before I run to the doctor.
Good question! How to handle the stress.
Would be a good thing, but what does a person do?
Left end of July for a company paying more and I set my own hours. Much less stress too. (nm)
x
TYPO -- wow I am upset. It is causing illness due to stress !!! Does TT care? NO n/m
and inability to meet my payments that I have normally had no problem paying. It is so disgusting.
Don't send me a Happy Friday email. Send me some of your paycheck, mgmt. Nor do I want to hear you guys ROCK! If you mgmt people had no paychecks, you wouldn't be saying that, would you?
Your paychecks come from MT's -- NO ONE ELSE !!! And YOU want to pay us 1/3 or 1/4 of our line rate for your crummy VR dictation. What a disgrace !!!
Go for production
I currently get 8 cents a line and I certainly make more than $15/hour. I guess it would depend on your speed now. Good luck!
production !
Typing only 167 lines an hour would get you $15.00 - I would definitely go production.
it's better than production
$12/hr is better than 2-4 cents per line!!!
Production QA
Companies perhaps choose to pay per line for editing because when some editors work hoursly perhaps they do not do their work? Maybe run errands to often, don't stick to their schedules. As an editor, I would make more money per line. I've had experience with quite a few other QA who don't do their 8 hours a day but they bill for it.
VR production
To NM - VR lover: You responded to my question about increased production expection when going from transcription to VR. You inquired to as which platform. We use Editscript.
Will not do QA on production. I have been
paid anywhere from $14-$16.50 per hour. With present company making $16.50.
You will get along great with the MTs if you give them feedback in a positive constructive way and not come off as you are better than them. No need to be arrogant and snotty when giving feedback. When doing QA you also need to be willing to mentor.
MQ does, but it is on production.
sadddd
...production. nm
b
The new ones are production only, believe me. nm
vvv
Can I ask what your production is like?
As in how many lines you can do per hour etc or what the requirements are for Transcend on these accounts that use Beyond Text. I know with Escription I averaged 400 lph. Is this similar?
production
I can easily do 400+, which is what I was able to do with Editscript but not so much with EXText.
production
I use SR and I'm averaging 550 to 600 lph, with 99% accuracy.
Production pay...
...took the career out of the MT's hands and put it into the hands of greedy, money-hungry owners and managers who have quite capably learned out to use and abuse those who CAN actually perform quality medical transcription to make them hordes of money. If they had to work in the trenches they'd likely drown.
Sad, sad, sad.
Production
I have had a terrible time with production ~ same amount of experience as you. I have tried saving some things said repeatedly, but my accounts don't really do that either and I'm always getting new people. On one account I have to go in and change the voice speed each time I get one of theirs. I have a folder I've tried to make some macros with, but they change all the time. I am now a part timer, as I could not keep my line count where it needed to be. So, I have no solution, just verification that I have problems too. We also don't get paid for headers or footers any longer, it seems, in this business. I feel if we have to check information and verify the patient, as much as we do, we should be credited for that, as the doctors certainly don't make the greatest efforts (not on my accounts anyway). Hang in there ... lol.
I just put my production up, I am sm
ashamed to do it, but I really want people to see what lies they have told.
I am paid production only. Believe me, SM
I am not taking my time with these documents. The problem is that even when the system is trained, you have to read EVERY LITTLE WORD and fix really stupid things like the dictator said "are" but the VR typed "were"---that kind of stuff. It's horrible with things like that.
Production benefits? What are those?
Raises? What are those? Thank you? What does that mean? An answer? The only one you will get is "I don't know". Training? Forget it.
Well I did that kind of production too.....
Until going on the VA account. It's a whole other ball game and a totally different story.
Are you hourly or production?
I have a lot of questions and I'd really rather ask an employee than a recruiter because recruiters sometimes don't give a complete answer. Are the hourly jobs only with certain accounts. If you work hourly do you still have to produce a certain amount to qualify for benefits? Please email me if you don't feel comfortable posting here.
JLG shift/production
Not sure what you mean by work by the shift versus production. JLG has several different software platforms and some c-phone accounts as well and pay scale and other account requirements vary. As for the accts I have, we are paid by production, 65-character line NO SPACES. I noticed that recently they posted an ad where they were offering to pay spaces for whatever account they were trying to staff, so even that is not uniform.
They say they pay a shift differential. I can tell you that when I hired I had to negotiate that with them specifically...otherwise they were not voluntarily forthcoming in specifying exactly what the shift differential is. Also, about four months later, they adjusted my pay rate DOWN, claiming that everyone in the company was taking the same hit...no way to know for sure. I still make a decent line rate, but it seems to me that my shift differential dried up when the reduction was made and the reduction has never been restored.
With regard to shift, when I hired, there was no universal requirement to work weekends (I hired as an IC). I was told I could work as much or as little as I wanted to. However, later on they did REQUIRE that we all work at least one weekend day (including ICs). Of course, again, I have no way of knowing if that has been enforced across the board.
Beyond that, at least in my case, they have been very flexible with my hours and days, just as long as I put in eight hours on the weekend. That eight hours does not necessarily have to be on the same day...can be split between Saturday and Sunday if you like. I don't work 5 days straight (Tuesday through Saturday or Sunday through Thursday). I like 2 days on, 1 day off, 3 days on, 1 day off...and that has been no problem. From time to time, I switch my day off and that has also never been a problem.
I am not sure how this works for fulltime employees and keep in mind, this may not apply to other accounts.
They don't pay production incentive?
The hospital I used to work for did. We had one gal who could type double what the rest of us could, so she got more pay. She used to work part-time for a national, too, because she could never find a national with benefits comparable to the hospital. I don't think you're going to find a national with decent benefits. You also run into their lousy platforms affecting production, low pay, demo screens, ESLs, poor sound quality, etc. I wish I had stayed at my hospital. I thought I could make more working for a national but I haven't been able to yet. Chalk that up to another stupid career decision on my part.
SInce production can vary
depending on the dictator, available work, your energy level, etc., I would take the $15.00/hour. Good luck to you.
Webmedx production
Let me start by saying that I love working for Webmedx. I feel like I have a great supervisor and I generally like the work. However, lately I am on multiple accounts and my production is really going down. Is anybody else experiencing this?
I work there also and my production is low but.. sm...
I've always thought it was due to the high ESLs on my account. Seems like 80% of them are ESL.
Same here -- my production is low, too, because of that very reason!
What also makes me almost ill is the careless/thoughtless dictators who are dictating in the ICU and all those bells going off, banging their pipe on the table, their cells phones ringing right in my ear, the overhead paging system louder than the dictator, and on and on. I will be so very intense on hearing/interpreting what this horrible dictator is saying and those MONSTROUS NOISES hit me in the ear so loud that it literally gives me a headache. It seems that every night I am working with a terrible headache caused from the dictators. I am totally in a stress wad during my entire shift. When working inhouse, the supervisors will go to the dictator and call them on the carpet, but not these nationals. They are SO afraid of losing an account or irritating someone at the hospital, that we MT's catch all the flack.
I know, I know, I am obviously in the wrong profession now. BUT when I started in this field, the profession was not like this -- and I have been in the field for many years now! Other suggestions welcome.
there are no raises in production, you
negotiate your rate on the way in and that is it. Need more money? do more work.
your way of thinking is hourly employee. That will hurt you. You are now a professional - big difference.
Pay is based on production.
They have a few different levels. Maximum pay rate is for 225 lph minimum. That schedule is in the process of being revised and s/b finished within the next few weeks, most likely upward to our advantage and to include shift differential. For more details on the current pay rates, you may want to speak to a recruiter since I don't want to give incorrect details. I'm at the top pay level, and I make good money there, but there are other programs as well (like Star team). There is also weekend differential. Pay on holidays is time and a half if you work plus straight holiday time, which is why I almost always volunteer to work holidays if my daughter is with her dad.
I have also doubled my production
since working on the Extext platform where session statistics are available. Other places where Extext platforms where these stats were disabled --- I could not make lines worth a crap!
Could someone tell me how the TT production bonus...sm
works? Where are the breaks and how much per level? Thanks. 
Yes production will take a dive, at least
temporarily. You might be lucky to get docs whose ROS and PE you can create as a normal, which will help, but with these other work types there are more headings, more hard returns, the dreaded labs.
I find that the terminology is different too. Where we don't get lots of meds in Ops, we do in the other work types and we may have to look some up, and there may be other terminology that isn't used in Ops that may be unfamiliar.
I have done pretty much all Ops for years too and an occasional DS or ER note is okay, but I despise consults.
Of yea, with other work types lots of times they are dictated by a PA or NP, so you will have dictators that are new to you. I have had accounts where the PA/NP had their own dictating number and other accounts where they dictated under their sponsoring physician, so you see Dr. Joe Smith come up and he is a wonderful dictator, but it is his fat-headed, *od's gift to women, speedy PA dictating.
Many at home will be on production...
which may be harder to compare. It would really depend on your production in those cases. I average around 300 lph, but that is pretty high production. Of course, if you start on a new account or get accounts you're not familiar with..that number really drops. I think $17 an hour is fairly reasonable and seems to be along the lines of QA pay at MQ.
Hourly vs production
It's always been true for me too. I personally wouldn't ever go back to per hour pay. When I started OTJ training back in 1965, I was paid $1.00 per hour!! Was a happy camper in the 70's when we went to production pay. At the time I quit the hospital and went to work for an MT service, I jumped from, if memory serves me correctly, about $3.35 per hour to $10.00. My biggest year ever was close to $100,000.00 in the 80s. Yes, I intended all those zeros to be there. I think that was 6 or 7 cents per GROSS line with very generous incentive tiers and not using a computer but I believe it was an IBM selectric TYPEWRITER. Unfortunately those days are gone forever <sigh>. I credit AAMT (or whatever they're called these days) for selling us out to the 65 cpl deal. Still, I think most of us make more working on production than we could ever hope to be paid hourly.
Production Rate QA pay
Does anyone know the average per line rate for QA pay? Thanks!
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