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The company I recently began working for asked me to purchase the Quick Look Drug Book as a reference tool, as they use it.  So, I got one...bought it used online so it wasn't that expensive, and I was needing a new drug reference book anyway.

I am just not impressed with this book.  While it does have very useful information in it, I find it is not laid out in the most convenient manner.  The drugs are listed alphabetically by the generic name.  So, what if the doc says the brand name of a drug?  How am I to use this book to look up the spelling, etc. of a brand name drug if I don't know the generic name of the drug so I can find it???  I have hardly used this book at all since I got it....I still go online to look up meds.  I feel like I wasted my money.

Maybe I'm just missing something here.  If anyone has any insight please let me know.  Or if any of you have a better suggestion for a drug guide that is laid out in a better format for MTs, I am open to suggestions.

TIA!!

Can anyone calm my fears?  My PCP just called and said that my Pap smear came back abnormal and he is going to refer me to see a gynecologist for further examination.  He told me that this does NOT mean I have cancer but I am still worried.  Although I can't think of anyone in my family with cervical cancer, cancer is strongly positive in my family.

My PCP told me that his nurse would call and get me an appointment and then call and let me know when it would be.

Does anybody have trouble with a sore left thumb from doing speech recognition in ExText? I have been doing it now for 5 months and have constant pain in my thumb. Just wondered if there was a better way of doing it.

I need to plug my C-phone into a phone jack.  My Vonage setup is completely wireless set up by my local cable company.

I've got an analog telephone line, but the local phone company in this area is incredibly incompetent and I am at the end of my rope and am desparate to figure something else out.  I have called this company of Keystone Cops four times trying to order their unlimited long distance plan.  Each time they have apologized for the inconvience and said "somebody dropped the ball" and they are just so sorry.  This morning I called them for the 5th time because I got a letter in the mail yesterday thanking me for signing up for the 5 cents a minute long distance plan!  Now I'm told that they are making "notations" on my account and when I get my bill at the end of the month I will need to call their "investigations department" to get the long distance charges reversed.

So as you can see, my frustration meter is maxing out with these people!  Help me figure out a way I can use my Vonage with my C-phone and tell these people to hang themselves with their telephone line!

I've often thought that it takes a "certain" personality to do MT.  I'm an INFP, and I think that MTing is a perfect fit for me.  What type are you?

You can take the test here:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

My apologies if posting on wrong forum, but I am beginning to get paranoid and am wondering if I'm not doing something correctly.  When I respond to an ad on MT Stars, I click on the "Apply now" button, fill out the boxes appropriately with MY email address, etc., and then click "Submit."  It tells me it has sent the message to the "Desired recipient" (employer).  Am I doing this correctly?  I have applied for so many positions, am an experienced radiology MT with 30 years' experience, and am having a hard time accepting the fact that absolutely no one is responding to my applications. I've tried Keystrokes (needed 15 MTs for rad) and others.  I check every hour to see what new ads are posted and respond within that time frame.  I know it can take a couple of weeks or longer to hear anything, but when I hear that others hear back the next day I have to wonder if I'm just not performing the application process correctly.  Any feedback would be appreciated.  I'm getting worried and cannot find work.  Thanks.

I have downloaded the Abacus SE program and cannot figure out how this program works.  If anyone is willing to walk me through the steps of this process I would appreciate it.  Information would be 9 cpl at 65 character line.

Thank you, JNGI

Thinking about you & hoping you are safe & feeling a little less sore.  Please e-mail me if you can or call (if you get voicemail, I will call you back if it is safe). 

Remember what I said yesterday...YOU ARE NOT ALONE

JoAnn

The beta testing for MPLite has been going well.  Phase 3 of the beta testing will begin on Wed or Thurs of this week.

We are soliciting 2 or 3 additional volunteers for this final phase of beta testing, and anticipate this phase to last no longer than a week.  Volunteers should be experienced working transcriptionists, but not so busy that they don't have time to read the help file, and set things up in MPLite.  We need the testers to actually work in the program, and not just look at it.

Testers will receive MPLite free of charge, and all subsequent releases of MPLite free of charge.  If you have the interest and the time to assist us, please send an email to support@mpword.com

Most likely, MPLite will be a the most popular program we have ever produced.  For a preview of it, see our website:

http://www.mpword.com/7mplite.htm

Best wishes,

Vann Joe

Please do not copy/paste information from another website.  If you want to refer to that website, please include the link.

Information posted on any website is copyrighted to that domain.  Copy/pasting from MTStars to another website or from another website to ours is a copyright infringement and, despite what most people "think" is true, this can have serious legal repercussions.

If you have questions about this, please write the Administrator or myself and we will be glad to answer you.

Goldbird

In response to a previous post on newbies finding a job - I've been typing for almost 15 years and was lucky enough to "learn the right way" from a great mentor, learning all specialties.  Editing speech rec jobs is relatively easy when you have the background in all specialties like "us old folks".

At least for right now, I believe speech rec is only as good as the experienced Editor behind it to eyeball and correct any errors.  I hate to admit it, but speech rec has made dramatic improvements in its accuracy over the last few years.  It's here to stay, it's improving - and surprisingly, the people I work with really enjoy editing.

My concern though is when the old folks like me in the field retire, and many of us are getting close.  Newbies need the opportunity to get in the door and gain their experience in all specialties to take over as the older folks leave the field.  There needs to be mentors to continue to be available to these newbies to guide them along the way.  There are good schools out there, but to "learn it all" you really need to be actively working in the field on a job that gives the opportunity to learn all specialties.

This is my concern as speech recognition becomes more and more successful.  We will continue to need quality, seasoned transcriptionists to become quality, well rounded editors in the future. 

I've taught completely green people transcription, and I've taken newbies in and guided them along the way.  It is satisfying for me because someone took me green 15 years ago and gave me this opportunity, and for that I am eternally grateful.  Putting 3 kids through college was a lot easier thanks to my full time job and another part time job I had. 

Best of luck to all you newbies out there - if you can get your foot in the door at a local hospital, even working in house to start, its a good place to begin.  Gain all the experience you can.  I'm not sure working for these big shlock houses, the nationwide transcription companies, is the best place to start - it can be frustrating when you're given all the ESL docs and junk work and try to plug through it. 

Good luck newbies - keep on pluggin.  

I have been working at home as an independent contractor for Scribes Data out of Ontario, Canada for the past three years and have loved working for them. I have worked my way to the top of the pay scale and am currently earning between $38-$40/hour. Recently I have been contacted twice by management asking me to consider becoming a full-time employee with benefits rather than an independent contractor. This would mean a dramatic decrease in pay... a $17,000/year base salary plus 60-70 cents/minute of dictation. For the last year I had been paid $1.60/minute of dictation, but just this past month they decreased that to $1.50/minute, stating that was more in line with their pay structure and that I would only be earing $1.60/minute on the radiology dictation I typed. And then a couple of weeks later they contacted me again statingn that I was no longer going to type any radiology dictation unless I was needed and then I would still only be paid the $1.50/minute.

This decrease in pay of 10 cents/minute does not really concern me, it just means I may have to work a littel longer than my normal 5 1/2 hours per day and I do not have a problem with that. My concern is that they are really going to push me to become an employee and just keep taking accounts away from me until I do just that.

Just wondering if there is anybody else out there who may be worried about the same thing.

Good morning everyone ... I'm starting at-home work this week for a new hospital, out of my area.  How long should I expect of a learning curve?  It's been a while since Ive done NEW accounts !

How long does it take you guys to get up to par - and that money starts really pouring in?  I did a few reports this weekend - and between the strange names, accents, procedures - it's going to take me a while before I'm lucrative. 

What's your experience w/ new accounts ?

Thanks everyone!

JoJo

I am an at-home MT and I have been using an Olympus Pearlcorder T1000 for the last several years. I am on my second one - the first one the hinge doesn't work correctly to insert/remove the microcassette tape but the machine still works (but I have to use something to flip/pry the lid open-lol) ! In fact, I am using it now because about a year or more ago I purchased another one (exact same model) as I felt it would be wise to have an extra machine). Anyway, the new one started pulling out the tape out of the microcassettes and won't backup/rewind like it should. It did this a couple months ago and I did the alcohol cleaning with a q-tip and that didn't work, so tried some silicone spray and finally it started working properly again but now I have run into the same problem. I tried all the above mentioned tactics but it didn't work this time. :( I hardly feel it is worth taking it in to have it repaired since they are not a costly machine, and BTW, I have an older Sony business quality transcription machine (around $500 over 10 years ago!) that I had so many problems with and had it in/out of the business machine repair shop several times (so additional $ spent) and still ended up with problems, so that is why I lean now more toward the cheaper models and if I get a couple years use out of them I am happy.

I am just wondering if there are any other machines that you might recommend around the $200 price range that you have had good luck with or should I just buy another Pearlcorder.

TIA. 

I am searching for possibilities to streamline getting reports back to my client.  Is there a HIPAA-compliant way to send medical reports securely via email so that they could be printed on site?

I am a new graduate from a transcription course. I just received an email from a company wanting to know what I charge per hour. I never did anything like outsourcing. Any help would be appreciated.