Medical Transcription Discussion Forums:
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Recently Viewed Messages: (An archive of over 1 million messages related to medical transcription industry) OUTSOURCING PLAN... -
Posted By: old grandma
Okay, here is the plan. For all of these hospitals with heavy ESL dictation loads, outsource these yourselves to India, Pakistan, Trinidad or where ever they speak that English as an unknown language. It won't matter if it is correct as typing those documents is just a best guess scenario anyway. Leave all of the English as a First Language (EFL) here in the US for those of us to type as we have been working long and hard to gain our experience and deserve to have decent work. If a hospital has a lot of ESLs that they have brought stateside to staff their hospitals as hospitalists as they work cheaper then it should be their responsibility to give them English classes and monitor their progress until they can speak English clearly, concisely, and accurately. The solution to this problem with ESLs is in our HANDS and we know it. The large companies and hospital clients need to take note before it is too late and we are all retired. You need us more than we need you.
RE: Meditech -
Posted By: klownmom
Is there anyone that is using Meditech on Windows Vista? I got into it, but it minimizes everytime I get in. It won't open up when I maximize it.
He is already in trouble. -
Posted By: Jodi
He just had his sister call me which is a direct violation of his Stay Away Order. Tee hee. The police officer last night told me that no matter what he tells him that he WILL do at least one of the three things to violate the order. Ta Da, he obviously hasn't improved his listening skills in 24 hours. He will never ever change. He doesn't hear God knocking like I did. I pity him in his blindness, but not very much....
word help -
Posted By: kim
Is meniseal a word? Thanks
Compensation for Medical Transcriptionists -
Posted By: Barry Wattss
I just came across this on the AHDI site, what used to be AAMT, in an article with the above title: "It is a concern of AHDI that medical transcription professionals are often viewed by their employers and the clients they serve as keyboard specialists who have a familiarity with medical terminology which enables them to transcribe dictated reports for an originator's signature. In contrast, it is the view of AHDI that keyboarding and transcription should not be confused. Medical transcription involves translation from oral to written in order to generate a record of a patient's healthcare documentation. AHDI views medical transcription as a medical language specialty which requires medical knowledge and understanding, sound judgment, deductive reasoning, and the ability to detect inconsistencies in medical dictation." You can read the rest here:
http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/rjobcomp.cfm
Are they actually going to fight for better wages, or is this just a ploy to get people to join?
Are there really any jobs that don't have 85% OR BETTER ESL? -
Posted By: hillbillymt
Really hard to make a living this way.
word help, about to scream -
Posted By: romey
I am so sick of the numbers in word doing weird and crazy things, not indenting right or bolding on their own and now to top it all off they are bolding on their own and are very little, so I start with a normal 1 and then the 2 is tiny compared to the 1 and it is bolded, can someone please help me.
Suggestion/Abbreviations -
Posted By: Trish O'Neil
I'd like to make a suggestion to MTStars. There are so many abbreviations used on this web site and I often am unsure what they refer to. I'd like to suggest that you create a board with the definitions of these abbreviations that we can refer to as we are reading. I've been in this business for 18+ years and still many of the abbreviations are unfamiliar to me. I am sometimes able to figure them out, but sometimes I'm just not sure. I find your newsletter very interesting and helpful and a help tool like this would only add to it. Thanks for taking the time to consider this.
Any MQers heard of 'new pay scale'? -
Posted By: WA
There has been some rumors about this on this board. Some say they have recently received communication (har, har, har...sorry) about this. Anyone know any specifics? Any other changes?
Makes me want to cry! -
Posted By: just me
You know, people........ it just makes me want to cry out loud! I am getting more angry as we speak.. you have all heard from me before about this business, but I'm going to be VERY frank and spill my guts right here in front of you and the whole MT world, hoping that someone who is in the right position will read it and HAVE THE GUTS to make a stance. (Can you say "hospital board of directors?") This is something that AAMT (or whatever the daylights they are now) should be doing for us. It's about time these "high and mighty" doctors listen up!
We are a family of hard-working people who practically have to become doctors just to transcribe these stinking reports. I don't know about all of you, but I DON'T MAKE A DOCTORS' SALARY! I truly believe that all of you as well as myself try every day like the devil to do the very best we can to participate in patient care and earn a decent living, but as I have said a million times if not more, it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE and at this time, there ARE NO ANSWERS TO ALL THIS CHAOS....
Actually, I take that back... there are a couple answers..We are all reprimanded for the incompetence of the doctors. THEY ARE NOT GODS as they would like to believe they are. They put on and take off their pants just like we do and when the he _ _ are they going to take some responsibility? I, for one, am NOT afraid of them and if I had the chance to do it over again working "in-house", I would have the guts to tell them how bad they are right down to their burping, farting, yawning, chewing, mumbling, whispering, non-English speaking two-sided faces. Let us not forget the 50 second operative note that should have been dictated clearly in 10 minutes. Yes, they're busy, but the bottom line on this issue is that they don't want to do a surgery and BE TOLD to go and tell someone about it, so they dictate like their hair is on FIRE. IT JUST MAKES ME SICK. It's part of THEIR JOB. If they don't do a good job, how the sh _ _ do they expect us to do a good job!
Let us not forget QA.... We are punished and yelled at for leaving blanks........DUH! and I just hate the thought of a QA person (whose quality of work I don't even know), making corrections to my work - and don't tell me that at times, they are guessing... AND WHOSE NAME IS ON THE REPORT - OURS !!!!!!!!!! In the end, if there was a lawsuit, we'd most likely be the ones to have to answer to THEIR blunders. I would rather make my own mistakes and have to answer for them than have one or two opinionated QA people telling me what I did wrong... one telling you one way to do something and another telling you a different way. I say, "leave the stinking blanks and let these JERKS" remember whose country they are living in.
BOTTOM LINE.......... Make the doctors more responsible... after all, they want to get paid and couldn't without us. I say, "stand up and be heard", tell them to get with the program and most of all, SPEAK DISTINCT AND PROPER ENGLISH!! THIS IS AMERICA, NOT PAKISTAN.
Please don't get me wrong. I love what I do and for the right dictating physician (s), it is a gratifying experience. Something has GOT to change. Thanks for listening... we're all in it together. We need some mercy... it's a thankless job and !
If you are complaining of low pay, why?? -
Posted By: Pattie
do you stay in this business?? I have just read loads of posts below and I lady talking about just paying the bills and housing and to me that is sad because sounds like basically just surviving. Tell me, if so many are fed up with the low pay (and I would like to make more myself) but what are the reasons you continue to work at MTing? I would probably be truthful in saying most of your fast food places and maybe some of your box stores now pay what a Transcriptionist makes. Why complain if you continue to work for these wages- I really would like to know.
selling snake oil? -
Posted By: stilltyping
So for the second time this year, "At Home Professions" has come calling to town to give their big seminar. The flood of calls to my house start coming in from people I barely know or hardly know about all the fame and fortune of being an MT. They are telling people they could start at 15 cpl and make 50K per year. Are they even a real school? I want that job!
Nevertheless, I get the calls about how wonderful and terrific working at home is (not that it isn't, but it is hard work!), how "I listened to what they had to say and I can do that" (like it is no big deal), and basically how "easy" it is. Sigh.... I feel like I am explaining the science of building a rocket to my 5 year old who just wants to jump in and take a ride!
What is a good line rate for radiology? -
Posted By: RadGuy
Currently being paid by report, 10 years experience. TIA
Is company board down? No posts from today. nm -
Posted By: wassup?
.
Formula for calculating lines? -
Posted By: Julie
Can anyone give me the formula for calculating lines rates? I need to know how much (money) is made if I transcribe 15,000 lines at 8 or 9 cents per line. Also, about how many pages is 15,000 lines (I know that each page will be different in lines for live transcription, but I'm looking for a ball park figure.) It's been a while since I have been on this payment format.
Chc- that uses Vonage- do you use 800# or long distance? nm -
Posted By: sk
nm
Anyone have any good proofing tips? -
Posted By: sm
Does anyone have any proofing tips/ideas that they use when going over their own reports?
I always, always go over my reports at least once after typing them. Sometimes, though, I will read the sentence like it should be, instead of noticing that I left a simple small word out or something simple like that. I type a lot (and I mean A LOT) of 20-30 second reports a day lol..and towards the end of the day is when I notice it happening.
I do this on VERY rare occasion and but am just looking for some suggestions.
Thanks! 
Florida Universities -
Posted By: MTFORU
Happen to know of a University in Florida that sounds like Wetger's or Wetcur? I cannot find anything remotely close. 
Love at first sight? -
Posted By: Lisa
Hey - I know this is the wrong board for this but if anyone would switch over to emotion/depression and/or chit chat I'd like your opinion. Thanks
Another C-phone question -
Posted By: Melda McCann
Maybe this will be a simpler question to ask. My first email was rather "wordy". Can C-phone work with only a cable internet phone line. I don't have a land line and I'm having problems getting the C-phone to work with the VOIX. Any thoughts? Thanks so much!
Got any weekend plans? -
Posted By: Work?
It's so hot, I may just work instead.
Medical Dictation Services Inc -
Posted By: MSH
Does anyone here work for this company that is based in Gathersburg, MD? If so, I would like to talk to you. I have been away from transcription for a couple years but want to get back into it and am hoping to hear from this company. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks! MSH
Shorthand and Autocorrect question -
Posted By: Stumped MT
I'm trying to set up a shortcut so that I can transcribe pack-per-year history to immediately follow the number, but I'm doing something wrong because I get a space between the hyphen beginning this phrase and the number. It looks like this: 50 -pack-per-year history instead of 50-pack-per-year history. I have Shorthand, but I've also tried doing this in Autocorrect, and it doesn't seem to work correctly no matter which one I try. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? My age shortcut works just fine, which is a hyphenated phrase too.
I am newbie with some Acute experience... -
Posted By: Tests
and I was sent a from a company in quicktime so I cannot use my foot pedal the sound quality is horrible (you need good sound for ESL, at least I do) so if someone is going to send you such a bad test what makes them think I would even want to work for them????? Is it just me???
Windows Vista and DocQscribe. -
Posted By: penny
I am thinking about getting a laptop for travel purposes. Can anyone tell me if Windows Vista is compatible with DocQscribe? Appreciate any input.
Working? Where did you train? -
Posted By: also posted on WAHM forum
I'll be training with CS through EvCC. Just wondered where everyone trained and if your working.
Thanks so much!
Christy
My boyfriend who is a school bus driver now makes more than me... -
Posted By: MTheaded
by $1.00 an hour. Only because they have a union, I guess, because the trend now would be to make them slave labor, as well....but their union holds on by a thread...
I have been an MT for over 14 years, started in the hospitals making what I make now, and am now working for a company (top of the line in the business) who says to stay competitive the MT pay has been cut. I was told to work more hours to make up the difference.
This is no longer a profession, and I think if we are suddenly required to be certified (which the AAMT is pushing very hard), I would highly contest this as I no longer consider myself a professional. We get paid only per line, lose our health benefits, if we do not work a required amount of hours, and are treated as laborers, not professionals.
Does anyone know, if any other 'professions' require certification for nonhourly positions, no guaranteed work, and no real long-term job security...
For myself, I can barely pay my rent now, there is no way I could afford a certification.
In other words, I would be expected to act as a professional, but would never ever be treated as one. I mean, what would WE get out of it?
Does anyone care anymore about people. When I first started working at 14, every job I ever had employees were always treated like they mattered...and were the heart of the job, the old 'we are nothing without the employees' - that is all thrown out like trash now and the mantra is we are nothing, we do not matter, we can be replaced, shut up and just do your work, your paycheck is your reward. What a bunch of crap and what a way to keep people down.
I was in shock when I saw my paycheck, and my boyfriend is making a whole dollar more an hour than I am...and that was a good, full 2 weeks of work for me, with the most lines I have typed since being with this company.
Can you imagine...
Am I dreaming this year? sm -
Posted By: Laurel Hardy
Now Taunton, Mass is expecting a dam to break. There is a new hurricane. They are running out of alphabet to name the storms. This is like the plague in Egypt. I'm going to sleep now. Hope this year is just a nightmare.
Question for everyone. Do you take annual vacations. If so, where? We take 3 or 4. nm -
Posted By: MQer
nm
anyone else ever have this problem? -
Posted By: Advice Please
You know you want to do this for a living but your stuck... I went to a poor school and did work for awhile until I got the boot due to poor work.. and the company offered me an internship with Meditech or should I just go to Andrews???? The problem (go to the internship for FREE or pay for school).. I'm stuck in a dead end job but I make a good living (hate it)... or sign up for the internship that is FREE but I would lose my job because it takes 20 hours a week (daytime). Life is not fair !!!!!    
Finally leaving MQ -
Posted By: Nervous MT
Finally leaving MQ. Will miss the nice people but not the new changes. Thanks everyong on this board for your help. It's kind of scary to make a change, but what the heck. It won't matter in 10 years.
PC Dart file -
Posted By: turbotypist
Can anyone tell me how to play PC Dart voice file in express scribe or any other player. File got extension of OFC. Please help!
Help! I have Word Perfect 10 with Windows XP. -
Posted By: nm
I've been away from transcription for just over a year (15 years experience though) and need to come back to work. The last company I worked for had their own software (Medware). Now I notice that most companies (especially for IC) want Word 2000. Is it necessary for me to buy Word (EXPENSIVE!!!) or is there any way I can adapt my WP for less money? Any suggestions or advice would be so, so appreciated!! Thanks in advance.
Win Zip -
Posted By: sam
My PC recently crashed... I had it serviced and it's working better than ever, except for one thing. I use to be able to right click on my desk top and create and save a compressed zip folder. Now when I attempt to name it I get the message "If you change a file name extension the file may become unusable. Are you sure you want to change it? If I click yes it turns into an icon. WTH? Anybody have any suggestions?
Anyone know a site for IRS guidelines for IC nm -
Posted By: ntk
x
LOL -
Posted By: struck me funny
"The patient was seen in my office once to establish a doctor-patient relationship and he has never been back since." What does that tell you???
All things being equal, do you prefer to work with a C-phone or use WAV files over the internet? sm -
Posted By: anon
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of each. I have only ever used a c-phone but think I may bet getting ready to use WAV files and foot pedal for an account and am a little anxious! TIA
C-phone program code -
Posted By: nsmith47
Does anyone know if there is a code used that will allow you to save your already programmed keys whereas you do not have to re-program the keys every time you unplug your Dictaphone
oklahoma girl -
Posted By: texan
Anyone see the story about the little 10 year old girl in Oklahoma killed by the neighbor? It is so disgusting!
Meditech radiology MT question...please help. -
Posted By: tia
For several years now, I have had my own account with a small hospital. I do most if not all their transcription including radiology. Radiology usually takes me anywhere from 2-3 hours to do a day, depending on the radiologist (which consists of 2-3 with alternating weeks). I also work for a national part time doing ops which I love doing. The radiology reports for this hospital has increased over the years which I thought was good but when I compared it to what I was making in those 2-3 hours to what I was making with the national part time there was a huge difference. (I get paid per minute by the hospital). I was thinking about asking the hospital to pay me differently for the rad reports since it does take me quiet a bit longer for these reports with all the different screens and lookups that I am doing because the rad doctors will not provide the info. What I want to know is what MTs who work rad Meditech charges so I can have some idea what to ask for. TIA
Admin -breaking news says see new nursing forums - how do I get there? nm -
Posted By: MT2RN
x
Foot pedals -
Posted By: Siren
I have a question about foot pedals. Up until now, I have always transcribed from tapes, and I loved the foot pedals on the transcribers because they were easy to use. I am now transcribing with a 9-pin foot pedal, and I find it very dificult to use because it appears to be tight. I feel as if I have to stomp on it to make it play, rewind, etc. Any suggestions on foot pedals?
Hospital Job -
Posted By: Happy MT
Would 9 cpl be considered good pay for an in-house employee hospital position? No hourly pay, just pay on production. Benefits available such as PTO, paid training, health/dental insurance. Have option of working from home. Is it worth considering?
Humdrum -
Posted By: SM
Okay I give up. How do ya'll do it, those doing this for 30 and 40 years. I'm going on 15 and so bored out of my mind I am now looking into other fields. I have done every report type that exists and every accent around and even have had many different positions. I don't find it the least bit challening anymore but extremely boring. So is there a secret to keeping an interest in this humdrum and monotonous line of work? Maybe it is just me?

Newbie to C-phone, have questions! help! -
Posted By: MTwa
I have been offered a job which will require a C-phone. I have dial-up and broadband, I understand it will use dial-up? and ULD?
Will I have to be online (via phone) the entire time I am working?
or do the files download onto my computer?
and if so, can anybody give me an idea with dial-up how long it takes to get maybe 140 minutes downloaded?
I have used proprietary software to download via dial-up (before I was blessed with broadband) and it took forever for me to get my work downloaded, so I'm a bit concerned about that.
Any C-phone basics you care to share would be so appreciated! The job sounds great but am trying to figure out how much it will cost me to go to this C-phone set up, time and money both....
What do I need? -
Posted By: Wondering..
I just got asked to help out on some physical therapy work for a guy that I know. I have been doing this all digital, and he is not digital. He wants me to come and pick up the dictation so I can transcribe it. What would I need to do this if I am use to the digital way? Where is a good place to buy this?
Thanks so much for your help!!
Vascular surgery help needed on word board--TX--NM -
Posted By: als
x
What to do, what to do??? -
Posted By: lil old me
The doctor is dictating along about the patient's blood pressure problems in a very quiet room, when all of the sudden she says, "Don't put your hands on my food." So, don't ya think I should give her everything she says!!!!
Does Word 2003 do cumulative line counting or does it go back to 0 with each report. nm -
Posted By: PAMT
:
I am afraid the medical profession is in real -
Posted By: Wannie
trouble if doctors take as much time caring for their patients as they do with the dictation concerning their patients. I realize they are busy, but, my goodness, some of the dictations are almost unitelligible. They either talk so fast that nobody could possibly understand them or they speak so quietly, put the dictaphone on speaker and pick up all the background noise, etc, etc, that the transcription is next to impossible to do. It is no wonder there are so many medical malpractice suits these days. Sorry, just had to vent a little.
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