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I am bored, and trying to get aquanited to the boards, so I am posting a little spree here. 

What platform do you use?  I use Extext by Dictaphone.  Like it so far.

Wave hands wildly at invisible flies buzzing around your head.

Crack open your briefcase or purse, and while peering inside ask: "Got enough air in there?"

Stand silent and motionless in the corner, facing the wall, without getting off.

Greet everyone getting on the elevator with a warm handshake and ask them to call you "Admiral".

Stare, grinning, at another passenger for a while, and then announce: "I've got new socks on!"

Frown and mutter "gotta go, gotta go" then sigh and say "oops!"

Walk on with a cooler that says "human head" on the side.

Stare at another passenger for a while, then announce "You're one of THEM!" and move to the far corner of the elevator.

Draw a little square on the floor with chalk and announce to the other passengers that this is your personal space.

I just had to lighten up this board a bit today!!!!

After being out of MT for 4.5 years I have recently returned.  I'm having a hard time finding the right fit.  The biggest problem I'm seeing is everybody seems to be requiring headers for reports and then each report put in a separate document, due to the new electronic record.  I find that this slows me way, way down.  Maybe I'll eventually get used to it, but I sure do miss the days of one document for doctor's day's work.  There are so many procedural details that I can't just sit and transcribe.  I've also run into very poor voice file sound quality.  

I worked in the field for 14 years and never had major problems adjusting to new accounts.  Maybe my time is just over for this type of work. 

I know technology has definitely made MT easier in some ways, but in others, it seems like such hassle.  Does anyone else have problems with headers and all these separate documents?  Does the field seem to be worse now than 5 years ago? 

Some of you probably know me but I am small MTSO, 2 part-time IC's.  One of mine does Psych Eval and I pick up tapes once a week usually, 2-3 tapes on Thurs or Friday.  I deliver to her.   Do not need the last one back until Weds a.m.  I usually ask that if there are two, one back on Monday and one on Tues p.m.  So the doc does get them all at once.  They have to be out in the mail by Thurs from him, I send them to him and he prints and mails.   Well this gal has been doing this account for over a year.  She is always rushed and trying to get them done "faster" all the time to make that much more per hour.  (I pay 0.8 per gross line with headers and footers counted).   So there is usually 350 to 400 lines per account which she does in about an hour since I have set up so many templates.  Good money I think.  But she rushes so much that there are minor mistakes being made -- wit instead of with, or instead of on, bear essentials instead of bare essentials,  not big ones but little. I feel that because he gives us so much time tht these reports should be 100% accurate with the typing and grammer -- am I wrong.  I make very little on this account, 25% of the take at maximum.  So I told her that if the reports came back PERFECT I would pay her 0.85 cents per line and she really got upset.  Said that humans make mistakes, etc.  Am I out of line?  She really gets defensive on the corrections I send her and so I stopped sending them to her.  Yea she used to be a friend.   So how to you like to be told that you have errors?   I try not to be too stern but when she attaches the incorrect letter to a psych eval that got me the other night.  Give me some advice. I mainly just E-mail her back the corrections I have made but evidently I am too "harsh" and demanding too much perfection.    Thanks.  Patti

I look forward to a working relationship with you all. Its been years since i did MT but my current job may be eliminated to outsourcing so here i have returned and look forward to learning the ropes, new ropes again. Any advice is appreciated. Looks like i should steer from Heartland. At any rate I'll keep in type, i mean touch !!

I started with a company about three weeks ago, and here is the situation.  This is my first transcription job, so I think I was a little too eager to jump at the job offer when it was given to me.  They charge a "set up fee" of 100.00 that is taken out of the first paycheck.  I am only getting paid 5 cents/line, so I did not make that much more than the 100.00 (I think about 40.00).  The pay period ends on the last day of the month and checks are issued on the first of every month.  They do not offer direct deposit, so I have been waiting for the last nine days for my measly 40.00 check.  I really just want it to have documentation that I have paid the stupid set up fee (which I am embarrassed that I even agreed to).  I have emailed them 5 or 6 times with no response whatsoever.  They continue to send me work, and will (usually) answer questions regarding work, but NOTHING about my requests to see where my check is. 

I have since found a much better and higher paying position with another (wonderful) company, but I do not really want to put in my 2 weeks' notice until I have that check.  Any ideas??

Here is how the story goes.  Have been married for 5-1/2 years to a great man.  We are young, in lower 30s, have one child who is almost 4.  My husband is disabled due to mental illness which is somewhat controlled with medication.  We get disability for him.  I work from home as a MT.  We were doing great but then became careless with our money a bit.  That was fine.  I could make extra money, but then my work became VERY LOW for about 2 months straight. Bills got behind, we almost lost our house in foreclosure, etc.  We have no help.  Then I became surprisingly pregnant, which we were both HAPPY with but only to end in miscarriage days after we found out I was pregnant.  My doctor, probably since I have no medical insurance, said "let nature take its course" by letting the miscarriage happen and remove itself on its own.  This was grueling - took almost one solid month which I had to get blood test every 6 days to see how low the count was going.  We recovered from that and my work began to pick back up - thank God.  I have been working a lot, almost getting out of our crunch - would be out of this mess by mid-July.  The problem:  During this time period we had gotten into some fights, he left and went to his parents (who always - and I mean ALWAYS - interferes with our business), they went and switched (the same day of our fight) his mom to be representative payee for his monthly check.  So when we made up the next day he told me this.  I was irrate! First of all, I would NEVER EVER try to steal his money or what have you - he should know that by now.  I am not like that.  Well during the course of the next few months we had always missed the date to switch it back to my name and they said to wait until next month.  Well, we have been fighting for a few days lately, but I thought everything was okay - just a fight.  His mom tells us how she is going to spend his money for July - which I disagreed on because I have a set schedule of certain bills automatically withdrawn - so I get a little upset and tell him as soon as the beginning of next month happens, we will switch me back to being his rep. payee for his check ---he tells me "NO, my mom is staying my rep. payee!"  I LOSE IT!!!  I tell him I am not working my tail off for his parents to decide how OUR money is going to be spent.  He thinks all of the hardship is my fault, which honest to God I haven't bought any clothes, shoes, got my hair fixed, bought makeup or ANYTHING for just about this whole year.....He was gambling heavily awhile back - not hundreds but money that we could have used for something important, he wasted on that.  So I talk civilized to him and say, "Maybe we should separate a bit and you can pay your bills (credit cards, car) and I will pay for the house, utilities, my credit cards, and care for my son....this is AFTER he said he is going to have his mom take his money and pay off HIS bills since I was so horrible at it. 

Sorry this is so long....

The thing is what else can I do?  There is nothing that I want to do.  I feel like I have gotten the shaft here horribly.  But he thinks he is totally right.  His parents come first - what they say he believes even if he said the sky was purple and he was looking at and saw it blue he would still believe it was purple because they said so....I think a lot of his mental issues are from his parents and upbringing.  How do I handle this the adult way?  I offered to help pay on 2 of his credit cards because I helped with them - but total for both is only like 800.00.  I am sticking to my guns of him NOT coming back as long as his mom is rep. payee.  I just don't see how a marriage can work like that. 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  I guess I just wanted to vent and see where did I go wrong.  I know I have been grouchy lately at times due to stress but I don't cuss or anything so he was never cussed out or anything....I take care of ALL bills, do ALL cooking, do ALL laundry.  He sleeps until 1-2p every day while I get up early, try to work and watch my son.  He has gotten lazy since he has been disabled.  Before he worked MANY HOURS and was NEVER EVER LIKE THIS....Help.

Help!

I was up too late one evening and saw a commercial for finally fast, a program to help speed up my computer----turned out to be a clever ad but very misleading.

Now I cannot get it uninstalled. I have tried everything.

Any suggesions from you knowledgable MT techies out there?

Thanks!

I am an IC with 18 years of experience being paid 8 cpl based on a 60 character line (yes 60).  I get paid for everything but headers and footers, which really isn't fair considering I'm working in Word and have to insert them all.  However, my line rate IS based on 60 characters, so I'll call that fair...for now.

The lady I work for always pawns this one doctor off on me.  This guy has never heard of a short story.  I typed a 21 minute dictation of his the other day and it didn't even come to 2 full pages and came out to 101 lines!

I just finished typing 75:55 minutes of dictation in 3 hours, which is a little more than 25 minutes of spoken dictation transcribed per hour.  It only came to 340 lines!  I am very experienced, had no interruptions, and use Expanders (Instant Text) out the wazoo.  Doing the math, 340 lines in 3 hours equals $9.06 per hour.

This particular dictator is notorious for dictating one to three sentences at a time and then saying, "Oh go back" or "scratch that."  My supervisor told me that I could copy, cut and past all of these wasted sentences into a separate word document to be tallied by the end of the pay period, but this takes so much extra time.

Have any of you ever requested to not be given a particular dictator?  I've been transcribing this doctor for 4 months now and I don't see it getting any more lucrative. 

I have been debating on requesting more $ per line to transcribe this particular doctor's dictation.  To make it fair, I won't keep a running tally of wasted sentences in a separate document.

I've been working from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. because I wanted to be finished since my daughter is off today.  I would appreciate any suggestions from some of you experienced IC MTs.

Yes, I realize I probably sound dramatic and admit that I'm whining.  I'm very tired and am not making squat, so if you don't agree with me, please either don't respond or at least be gentle in doing so.  I'm very open to "constructive criticism" as long as it is presented in a somewhat civil tone.

Thanks for listening. 

I work at-home for a fairly small community hospital.  We have maybe four ESLs on staff at this hospital.  We all have the capability of looking up what reports are on the system and we are allowed to self assign provided we do not abuse it.  The powers that be decided to allow us to have this capability because on second shift and weekends there may be occasion where a report is needed stat and there is no one in the department to assign it and so the person needing the report can simply check to see what MT's are on the system typing and email one of us and we can self assign and do the report.

I usually work first shift, but this week I am filling in for another girl and working second shift.  It is me and one other MT on second.  I plugging along and I get rather lengthy consult by an ESL doctor we all kind of dislike doing because A) He is an ESL dictator and B) All his reports are looooooooong!  So, I get an 8 min consult and I type it, takes me about 20 minutes.  Then, a couple of reports later I get another consult, same dictator, 10 minutes long.  Now, I'm thinking okay what's the other girl doing.  So check on her and she is sitting on the same report she was on when I got the first 8 minute consult.  Her report is a 4 minute H&P by a very American, very good dictator.  So I type the second, 10 minute consult, with just a little irritation nagging me.  A few reports later I get yet another 15 minute consult by the same ESL dictator.  Now I'm steamed.  I look at the job list again and find that she is STILL on the same 4 minute report she has been on for the last hour and a half!  Presumably she has been waiting for me to clear out all the offending dictations so she doesn't get stuck with one!

So now I'm considering letting the supervisor know because it just burns me up when someone treats their co-workers so unfairly.  If she's doing it do me, she's done it to everyone.  But I'm afraid if I gripe about her to management, they will simply take away our self-assign capability and take away our ability to see what is on the system and I hate to penalize everyone because of one person's self-serving and unfair attitude.

What would you all do?

I have seen the many postings (I should say mostly slams) on this board about recruiters and what not, but I need to vent this - and maybe some of you could kindly answer this ...

why, oh why oh why when people send resumes, do they ever check for spelling errors!  I have looked at three resumes today out of eight (so far) that have gross errors in them.  What cracks me up is the arrogant attitudes/responses that have been on this board about how perfect this Transcriptionist or that transcriptionist is, etc. (And I'm sure there are quite a few perfect transcriptionists out there), but why is it that out of eight resumes so far, I have three that have these kinds of errors.  What surprises me the most is that these are NOT newbies as one might think, but rather transcriptionists that have in the range of 8+ years of transcription, working for national companies, small MTSOs, hospitals, and get this ... even privately owned services. 

This is not the first time I have come across this - oh no, not at all, but all day long there are posts on this board about losing jobs to other countries, losing jobs to national companies, losing accounts to other services, and most people think it's because of $$, but I'm kind of wondering if it's not because of spelling errors - errors that could potentially harm a patient - errors that people expect to be paid top dollar for making. In fact, one of the resumes had "transcriptionist" spelled wrong, along with "experience." 

Makes me think.  Does it make you think? 

Thanks for letting me vent.

What started our argument today is his mom and dad have been living in this house, if that is what you can call it, for about 20 years...they never cleaned it or anything (his mom said because "why bother when it is hopeless).  Well I don't care how small of a house it is it can still be clean.  Well, they come into some money, a few hundred thousand dollars, and they go out and buy this 150k house.  They say since we are having a hard time with our payment, being 2 payments behind, then we can "have" their old house.  The house is on lease land and the floors are rotted.  Well I felt like it would take a load of our shoulders and actually I felt like that was the only way we were going to get out of this mess..  We go down there, begin to clean one day....over 3 HUGE Flex bags by Glad of trash just from their bathroom - filled to the rim!!!! Flexed to the max....

I get back thinking of how bad it would hurt to walk out my door at my house for the last time and go live there.  So I said, "NO, I will fight for my house. I will work what hours needs to be worked, etc.  I am saving my house."  He gets mad, because his parents say we are going to lose it anyhow.  But hey - they had all of that money...we only needed $1,000.00 - could they not have lent it to us?????  But he thought I was wrong for asking after I told him I WOULD WORK TO GET US CAUGHT UP....I said, "well, if my son EVER needs anything like that, especially something to save his home, I will do what it takes to help him...And surely if I had came into hundreds of thousands of dollars, I think I could spare or lend 1,000. 

Sorry...I am hurt.

I'm hoping someone will be able to advise me about some good questions to ask of the HR person of a hospital in my hometown; it's really hard for me to be objective about this decision because I want so much to leave the city where I'm living right now.  I go back and forth trying to decide if I should even try this. First of all, this job was advertised as "per diem" -- forgive my ignorance, but would that be the same as a contract position?  I had trouble once before making a living doing at-home MTing as an IC and paying my own health and life insurance, as I'm 100% supporting myself.  It was certainly a shock after employee status--but I was so burned out at that inhouse job--transcription force cut in half, pay reduced, phasing out dictation in favor of computer templates! I took a chance even though I had an unrealistic belief in my own abilities, I'm afraid, and tried IC for a national company.  I'm not working at all right now and am currently living on my savings. 

I feel like something, anything would be better than nothing.  Some foot/ankle problems also, related to standing at the last clerical job I tried, so a lot of even part-time jobs are out of the question at the present.

I do have some family at home and this hospital has a very good reputation as a good place to work, good (happy) employees...but, of course, don't want to move and still risk getting in an impossible position again!  Please let me know of some good questions to ask during the "assessment" and interview Friday AM (tomorrow)!  Sorry; realize this is rambling--many thanks--

in word 2003 but I have a question.

When you put things in Auto Text like a w hole page document or something......is there a quick way using keyboard commands to bring it up into your document.  Kind of like when you use auto correct (word expander), can you use a couple Keystrokes to bring auto tex up for bringing up bigger documents.

Never have done this before.

Thanks

I noticed that several companies are charging their employees rental fees for equipment/software. If one was in-house, they would not have to pay a rental fee. How are these companies getting away with this? Why would you, an employee, agree to pay for their equipment? The only time you should pay a rental fee is if you are an independent contractor. As an employee, you do not pay to work for the employer, they pay you!

I am just amazed that companies are actually charging their employees to work for them!

anyone familiar with the word that sounds like "lap disk"?  need help asap..thanks a lot

I have one client I am faxing to that just recently started having problems with the faxes coming out "squished" at her end.  Mostly from two-page documents, but one was also just one page.

Is this a problem I cause and therefore can fix somehow and if so....HOW...

or is this something at their end and how do I tell them how to fix it. 

Sending and resending or then emailing is getting old....

thank you for any wise people out there that have a clue, cuz I sure do not

Tiffin 

Have a dictaphone system at home but it is now causing some problems and the doctors are having hissy fits.

We want to go "digital" (there are 3 of us) and we each have high-speed internet service.

Am looking for guidlines, suggestions, etc. as to what is the best program and any tips you may have. This is new for us so will really, really appreciate any help.  Thank you. Barb

Is a Transcriptionist still needed if doctor goes EMR?? I work for an oncologist and is going EMR. He is telling me he wants me to type straight to EMR. I am not sure if this is true or not?  ');> I am so afraid of losing my job because of this new system.  

I've been using ShortHand for over a month now and was forced to go back to using AutoCorrect, which is what I used before having the money to buy Shorthand. Anyway...

Shorthand's been messing up for me lately. I've checked the settings and played around with them like the site suggests, but it's a no-go. I type in "tpw" for "the patient was," and it comes up with "the patint was" or "the patent was" or some variation of wrong spelling. Then, when I type "ae" for "anesthesia," it pops out "anesthesiaesia" or "an esthesia." It's very frustrating and time consuming. Those are just 2 examples; it's been doing it quite frequently on random words/shortcuts.

I thought it might have been where my trial was expiring, but it's been doing all that crazy stuff after purchasing it, too.

I think I'm going to go ahead and get InstantText, but wanted to see if anyone had similar problems and if they tweaked it successfully.

Thanks

I work at home full-time as an Editor making $15 an hour.  I've been offered a position as a pathology Transcriptionist working in the office for a local pathology group.  They've offered me $16 per hour with a review in 90 days and a raise to $17 at that time.  It's about a 30 minute commute one way to the office.

Which would you choose?

Cannot even believe that Bucky went home before Ace, Katherine, or Paris.  Ace cannot sing at all!  Bucky was not great, but it was definitely not his time to go! 

send you email to us (our email is on here).  We have two different choices for the spa basket and want to ask your preference and we also need your phone number for the UPS label. 

Thank you!

How much do you think you would need to make a good living.  Meaning enough to cover all bills, enough to put some away for a rainy day, and enough to play, like dinners, hobbies, maybe a weekend getaway twice a year.  Be realistic.  I'm thinking for me, since i'm single, 50k a year. 

Second question.  If you hadnt gotten trapped in MT, what profession do you see yourself in maybe even earning way more than you can imagine, doing what you love?  For me, it would be psychotherapist. 

anyone???  ANYONE ???

Hi - What type of abbreviation program is good?  I used to have Abbreviate, but no longer have it.  Is Foxfire a good program?  Does anyone just use their Word autocorrect strictly?  If you use Word autocorrect - do you know how to copy it and put it on another computer? 

Thanks for any help!!

i am doing a presentation at out transcription meeting and i am doing it on deleting cookies from the computer and reference websites to access for at home transcription

any other ideas....having a brain freeze

hello everyone,

I am new to MT and just want to see what magazines or publications do you read?  Any publications that have to do with MT or Medical and Pharm would seem the most logical.

Anything to keep me up to date is appreciated.

thanks all 

I took their QA test, passed, was offered a position.  I accepted and have been waiting to train and get going for a week now.  My understanding is that their trainer only trains 2 days/wk and now her PC is in the shop. I understand things happen so this is not too big a deal to me.  I'm still working with another company so it's not as if I have no $$$ coming in.  Now here's where I'm starting to get second thoughts...

Apparently, the admin has already added me to her email list because I'm getting daily account information, status of out of TAT files, etc. No biggie. BUT along with those emails I also recieved an email going to everyone stating that she is sorry for the delay in paychecks because she is JUST now getting paid and has JUST sent out 1099s. FYI, they pay monthly.  I'm concerned because if I'm only getting paid once a month, I definitely can't afford to be waiting even longer for a paycheck. I really wanted to get started on this job, been wanting to do QA again for a while but I'm starting to wonder if "delay in pay" is a regular thing with them. I could ask her directly but I doubt anyone would honestly say "yeah, sure, we're always getting paid late" to a new IC.

I was going to quit my current MT company and go fulltime QA'ing but now I'm thinking I should stick with the MT work (even though I really wanted to get away from it) and do the QA PT instead.

Funny...as I'm writing this, it kinda seems like a "duh" question.