8 years total, longest was 4 yrs for the Q...
Posted By: finally wised up and Quit...nm on 2008-03-14
In Reply to: MT Poll... - mtr
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- MT Poll... - mtr
- 8 years total, longest was 4 yrs for the Q... - finally wised up and Quit...nm
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Only 3 years away from reaching total years for retirement
but if I had to do this and raise a family, would feel exactly like you do. The pay is terrible compared to what I used to make. I work 32 hours a week, hope to be able to continue even after full retirement age. I have worked on VR now and unless places get to where they really do not care about how their reports look, think they will need MTs. I very seldom do a report and it is 100%, just cannot remember 1 like that and most take a lot more editing. Working now because want to, not have to anymore, thank goodness!!
32 years, longest was 28 years at same co. (nm)
*
Very busy - just did my total for the month. This is the best year I've had in my 25 years of MT!
No complaints whatsoever! Hope the rest of my fellow MTs experience a prosperous remainder of the year!
longest dictation.
Mine was probably around an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half. The doc was awesome, best dictator ever and his H&Ps and DS were anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes long. Boy I sure miss him! He was at a local hospital I used to work at.
I was the opposite. I used my old way for the longest time
because I couldn't handle the new program and the new way both at once. Once I was comfortable with IT, then I started using expansion keys and actually increased my production from in almost 20%. It definitely was work making myself learn to use them!
Who has the longest-running account?
I have an account I have been transcribing since August 1997. How bout U?
Longest list of medications
For me personally it was 17 - at that point I changed doctors and finally got some relief for my fibromyalgia. I think I bought this doctor a car, put his kids through private school and probably financed his house. He saw me once a week for two years and very regularly after that. I often wondered why he wanted me to come in so often and how he always found something else wrong with me. Come to find out that I really didn't have all of the problems that he was diagnosing me with and all I really needed was help with my blood pressure and a pain management specialist (which he did not believe in prescribing narcotics). As for work - I can't remember the longest list of medications a patient was prescribed - but in doing acute care and with the elderly patients - it was always a high number.
I think Lanier lasts the longest/best ones..sm
http://www.martelelectronics.com/Lanier%20Transcribers.htm
I also saw (if you Google used Lanier transcribers) ones going on ebay for $225 and that's cheap if they are in good condition. I remember when a Lanier transcriber cost $600. I use one of them but it's a long-term loaner *S*
I went through 2 Sanyo's and would not buy that brand again (one ate tapes from the outset) and I'm leery of Panasonic, had problems with other equipment of theirs that is non-MT-related.
Long-time Lanier lover here.
I thought it was just me for the longest time
About 8 to 10 years ago, it was a piece of cake to make OVER 300 lines per hour after doing a bunch of doctors I'd gotten used to over a few weeks/months (depending on the difficulty of the docs).
For the past 2+ years, no matter where I work (and I've worked for a few), I'm finding that it's been a struggle to reach 200 lines (let along over 300!) an hour ... and I'm noticing that on message boards nowadays, it's considered average to transcribe 150-175 lines an hour (?).... Wow. Just wow. Didn't that used to be considered "newbie" range? Or am I mistaken?
Even when I mention to potential employers/MTSOs that my goal is to reach at least 300 lines per hour, they always sound taken aback or have a hesitancy in their voices as far as that being even a possibility!
I'm making 20% to 30% less than I did as a newbie 15 years ago. Now I know I'm getting older and perhaps slowing down, but I've been noticing line counts diminishing with using these proprietary programs these companies use for quite a while now.
I agree with hayseed and the OP of this thread.
what is the longest you are willing to wait for check? sm
Background - been typing for a Chicagoland MTSO for over seven years now. Invoices are sent 15th and end of month and paid 30 days later. For the most part, invoices are received on a pretty regular basis, but there have been notable delays explained away by the Chicago Post Office is the worst in the nation. Fast forward to today; in the past two months I have received exactly ONE invoice - the rest have been delayed because of the Chicago PO or lost in the mail so stop payment (supposedly) on the oldest check and reissuance. It was supposedly mailed 08/15 and now seven mailing days later I still do not have it. I have sent polite e-mails to the accounting person but I keep being told to wait 10 business days before a new check can be cut. In the meantime, college tuition is due and bank account is dwindling. I am in the process of looking for another MTSO but in the meantime, general consensus on how long you would wait for a check. I have a long history with this MTSO and don't really want to go the labor and wage board route but I am getting kind of fed up...I can't work for free!
Okay, let's do a poll...what's the longest dictation you've done?
I'm talking about a single dictation on one patient. Mine was three hours and around 13 minutes I think (psychology).
Longest ER exam on record! My funny for the day.
"She states she has had right-sided abdominal pain and she points to her right lower quadrant for approximately three days." 
I wonder if her pointy finger got tired!!!
Bullfeathers. Americans work the longest hours.
We average 1960+ hours worked per year. Google "Americans work the longest hours". Nobody else can touch us. Provide us with a link proving your theory that Americans don't want to work. Young people want to work as well. Every young person I know of is working on top of going to school fulltime. Maybe it's just the people you know who don't want to work, because I can tell you that everyone in my family has a good work ethic. Google "American youth don't want to work". Oopsy, no hits. Guess that blows your theory.
What is the longest you have gone without service? Do they return phone calls promptly?
TIA
TOTAL RIP OFF
This is the most outrageous thing I have ever heard - VERY BAD SITUATION!!
I have 4 total - not 5.
nm
Total BS.
What company do you work for? Give me a name!
Total gym, etc. - sm
 I am being very careful. The videos online are very instructional and I am going slow and easy at first. I also have a Tony Little "gazelle" and do 1/2 hour at a time and at a good pace now that I have used it for more than 1 year. Hope to do Pilates once a day and the "gazelle" later in the day, but will pace myself.
Thank you for your concern. I did also consider the Total Gym, but went to our local Play It Again Sports store and found this Pilates for $59 so thought I would start here. If I really, really use it and like it I will possibly invest in a better one, but for now this is where I am.
p.s. Most any exercise equipment is available "used" so you might shop around before investing too much money, see how it works for you, and then think about perhaps spending your money on something either better or new.
Total Burn Out
Well, I've tried everything to change my attitude & outlook & always feel I've succeeded until I log on every morning & encounter the worst of the worst ESL or American Doc on a cell phone dictating 50 feet away from the mouthpiece with every extraneous background noise imaginable! I can handle a few of those in a row, but that seems to be the majority of what I now get, with dictation times varying from 3-4 hrs or more apart to minutes - depending on who the doctor is.
I'm seriously questioning why I'm doing this to myself on a daily basis as I, too, have only seen my income decline, my hours increase, & am mentally wiped out at the end of the day. I'm doing good to fix something for dinner, let alone anything else that needs to be done! I just seem to sit here in a daze and/or stupor every evening - telling myself tomorrow will be better!
And, Whining Wendy, you're not alone. I thought the days of crying out of total frustration & despair ended in the 60s when I was a "Newbie". Wrong!! During the last 2-3 yrs, this has & is being encountered by me almost on a daily basis - & I'm an "Oldie". In years past, once you mastered deciphering an accent, doc, etc., your days of frustration were over. Now, working for a National, I have found that every day is filled with different, new doc's, new accents, etc. Problem arises when after you finally master an "impossible" dictator, you find that in 6 months or more, since you were so "good" - you get all of his horrible, undecipherable dictation again - none of which is consistent nor repetitive of prior dictations. Back to frustration level 1.
I hate to say it, but my love for this profession has totally been annhilated. Really wish I could offer words of encouragement or suggestions but, at the moment, I have none. I'm just really saddened to see how many of us feel this way & what has happened to a once highly regarded, elite, "profession."
Never in my life have I ever pictured myself working at "Bob Evans" (Geez - could just picture it all now - dumping trays of food, etc.); however, went to dinner there the other evening & they had an Ad posted in their window for help wanted. Jokingly, told hubby I thought I'd apply for the job. Sad thing is, his reply was that I'd probably make more money & be less stressed!
I don't know where we're all headed & wish I had answers & a magic wand - but I regretfully don't. I do know I'm seriously looking into what other options are available to me.
Sorry all - just venting after a very, very bad week, on top of my normal very bad weeks, only now with a Bonus offered until the end of the pay period. Just another stark realization that with the dictators in my pool, that is an impossible, unattainable bonus to achieve unless I want to work 24/7 trying to decipher such. My price to pay for being an experienced, good, at-home, Oldie?
total agreement with you - sm
I myself am in favor of trying to find out which hospitals outsource the work to India and then writing letters to the local newspapers as "letter to the editor" kind of thing to let the residents of the area know that their medical records are being sent out to India. But that's just my opinion.
That would be a total ripoff - s/m
Works out to 5,500 characters per $5 - or $0.0009 cpl.
Just say NO.
I have a total of 9 accounts.
x
We had maybe four kids total.
When we used to live in the "suburbia" neighborhood by the schools, we went through hundreds of pieces of candy.
I use Total Assistant Pro
and it works great for me. You can download the trial version and then purchase after 30 days if you like. It does all the work for you. I love it.
total cost
Total cost of $60 for two phone lines, which includes taxes, etc. It also includes call waiting and voice mail. But my C-phone line has nothing on it, no call waiting, etc. by my choice. First month on my residential phone is free because they are just starting up in my area.
Does anyone know what the estimated total # of MTs in the US is? nm
nm
Yes, that's it. Total concentration...
PLEASE let that be it.
I'm in total agreement with you.....sm
Do not kill them....unless poisonous or unless they strike! They can be caught and released or given to someone or some group who specializes in handling snakes.
Killing is the coward's way out...killing something that you are 10 to 100+ times bigger than......unless of course it's about to strike or is poisonous!
I think 6 seasons total.
I too did not watch from the start - but began to watch the reruns on HBO on Demand from the beginning - and have now seen them all, around 3 times each!!! If anyone hasn't seen it - do yourself a favor and watch on Demand or rent the DVDs beginning with Season 1 and enjoy - you're in for a great ride! The most cleverly written women show ever - hysterical AND poignant! It will make you laugh out loud and sometimes cry. I am in love with all four of those women - Samantha, Carrie, Miranda and especially Charlotte - and I'm straight! LOL!
About $125 in PA - total electric, about
Pretty happy here, bill runs about the same in winter and includes heat :)
Agree - Total RIP OFF!!
Curious me wants to know -- which trans co.?
re billing - am I being a total *ash*?
I have plenty of clients, no shortage of work. Recently I started picking up some extra legal transcription from a company who is swamped & always begging for help. It's not something I've had much opportunity to do and it's fun to do something different. But they're totally out of the technological loop. I bill all my clients by an Excel spreadsheet attached to an email, and I have a master spreadsheet set up that keeps track of all my invoices for me. They are the only ones who can't open it. I know they can because someone who used to work there could, but now they have a new person and no one there can open it. Of course they can probably right click and "open with" some kind of viewer, but why is it my problem to teach them that? (here's where the "am I being a total a$$ question comes in!) I'm tired of their clueless clerk emailing me five times every time I send her an invoice asking me to resend it and having to respond "If you can't open it, it's not going to help to resend it." Sure I can mail it, but why should I when I have plenty of other clients? Do you think I'd be an a$$ for unceremoniously dumping them? would you do it in a quieter way and leave the door open for further work?
They are so technologically out of the loop, it's not even funny. I asked them for an electronic copy of one of their style guides for easy searching, and they said they don't do that and they "don't keep" things. They just have one hard copy they are xeroxing over and over. I knew it was somewhere, it had obviously been typed it on a computer. It's a .pdf file on the web! Someone had downloaded it directly from the court's web site. They are supposed to provide me with the names of judges and attorneys on the tapes but they don't and I have to struggle to hear names and spell them phonetically or designate unidentified voices somehow so I can tell them apart and then go back and globally replace them when I hear the name or I'm sure of the spelling. This adds countless time to transcribing their cases AND THEY HAVE THAT INFORMATION. I've asked them for lists or links for judge's/attorney names so I can at least search when they don't give them to me. No dice. I have since found good links on the web, of course.
I'm worried about getting in deeper with them, I'm not overly familiar with legal work and I'm just going to keep coming up against their not being able to provide me with the tools I need. Every time I have to find something for myself it's costing me money, obviously, being paid on production. They annoy me and I seem to have a very low threshold for that. But it's valuable experience and they are desperate, the owner won't be happy. But she's as clueless as her staff.
As a total aside to this thread here...
about dentists in Maine...I haven't been to a dentist since I was a kid, strictly out of fear factor. I tried to find one yesterday because I think it's time I see someone whether I like it or not. Of the 4 I could find, only 1 is accepting new patient's and where I don't have insurance and would be be a self-pay, they don't cut any breaks....just the initial visit and cleaning is going to run $310 buckaroos! I asked if that price included a happy ending and the voice on the other end just went dead. (No sense of humor apparently.)
No wonder why people are losing their teef up heyah!
I am in total agreement with
I also have many, many years of experience and find it hard to believe that the pay is only 7 cpl when in fact you must have a lot of experience and learn new platforms, accounts, etc. Production suffers initially, and then all of a sudden these MTSOs want to switch you to another account, which makes it almost impossible to make a decent living at 7 cpl.
Total fluke
I happened to hear of this endocrinologist who was looking for someone and willing to train. I got the job, was completely hooked and never looked back. This was 16 years ago. I have no formal training but read and researched everything I could get my hands on. I eventually picked up a few more clients over the ensuing years but then 8 years ago decided to try for an acute care position with a national. I passed the test and loved it.
Total frustration
 I'm doing the worst report I have ever run across, it's brain surgery and I've never done one before and I don't know the anatomy, it's cold in Ohio, I killed my back last week on OT and I can't walk and I feel totally unloved and I can't get a break on my line count and I'm miserable. Please don't correct my grammar or spelling, I'm not up to it right now.
I use Total Assistant and like it. nm
xx
I think Tom Cruise is a total whacko- sm
I actually thought it years ago but then he was kind of reclusive and didn't speak out so much. Now that he's opened his mouth again and by his actions, he is showing his stupidity. If you saw him on the Today show with Matt Lauer and the things he said, he was unbelievably pompous and arrogant about things he obviously knows nothing about. Why do these "stars" think we want to hear what their opinions are? Who cares? All they are are paid ACTORS. Tom Cruise only has a high school education and he acts like he is the most brilliant person in the world. Look at Nicole Kidman - she got out while she could. I pity Katie Holmes.
The biggest pro for me is the TOTAL flexibility...
As long as I get the work done, I can do it when I want to without being chained to my computer.
Plus, I don't know why you think ICs net 50% less than if they work on an employee basis. I've worked as both an IC and employee and, although I don't have benefits, I make much more as an IC.
I have total control of my account, and as for set up - sm
they ask you when you want it set up for and they delivered the day I wanted it--I can set up my folders, say who has access to what, delete folders, etc. I do not plan on storing any files there on a long-term basis, I erase after I have transcribed the work. I keep a copy on my computer though just in case for a while. I do not send the work back that way as my client prefers email but if I get any other clients in the future I will send the finished work back that way if they want it that way.
I am in total agreement with what you have written
This job was quite enjoyable in my younger years and while it sounds like pay was low back in the 1980s, the cost of living was low as well.
Another 4-5 years of serious studying and I could have possibly obtained a degree in an area which had better job security, had a future I could count on and didn't require 50-60 hours of week of work to bring home 50G.
Plus, at 48, my hips, hands, hearing, have taken a beating that I am not really being compensated for, most jobs after 20 yrs, land a person into a supervisory position of some sort that allow the worker to teach what they know, and yes, to relax somehat and let the young and spunky ones keep up the grueling schedules.
So, in retrospect, I would have gotten student loans, applied for grants, did what I had to in order to acquire a higher education (I wanted to be a doctor).
That is total bullcrap that Chris got
What a total shock!!!! I can't believe he is going home. Chris rocked the house. I actually predicted him to win!!!! How sad. I guess my vote now turns towards Taylor. 
TAYLOR all the way now for the WIN. He's the TOTAL package.
Spunk, energy, personality, showmanship, and voice. He's got it all going for him.
Kat should never have gotten this far. She's not singing well and had a bad week. There are songs that she can sing, she's just not well-rounded to do any kind of music.
Lots of people will buy Elliott's CD. He's got a great voice.
I wish they'd publish the vote counts. I can't believe that Chris got the boot! Just shows you how sick this can all get. We'll all be angry if Kat goes on to win. Probably more of the sick "vote for the worst" revenge.
I believe the total bill was close to $400.00 sm
but keep in mind that this was about 8 years ago. Also, your pooch may have needed much more care than mine did--and also it could be more depending on what area of the country you are as well. I'm in a small rural community with only 3-4 vets in the area.
1. Me. 2. Me. 3. Me. 4. Me. 5. Me. Total # in household: 5. pathetic, huh? sm
Also, we have a total of 11 acres - 3 of which have to be cut. Our riding lawn mower broke in the spring, so guess who is out there pushing it? Yours truly.
If I don't do it, it doesn't get done....And I need things to be done for my own sanity. Can't stand a messy house.
It is based on lph, not total lines sm
produced. It is based on lines per hour over the total pay period. 200 lph, one bonus, 300 lph, another bonus. Per line bonus based on all line produced.
....and a total doofus! -nucular-
My house is a total BIOHAZARD... - SM
a dust-mite's Shangri-La. (Even my cats are sneezing...) Half-finished chores & other projects all over the house. Ditto for cat-hair, as I have 2 Persians. Dishes - aaagghhh.... I'm tempted to skip washing them, just throw them away and get new ones, but can't afford new ones. Wish I could afford a house-cleaner, but would have to do a week's worth of housecleaning beforehand, so as not to scare her away!
I love Total Assistant Pro. sm
I have to work with text boxes on office letterhead and I found Total Assistant counts the text inside the text boxes while others didn't.
I'm not sure if there is a way to find out total entries for your ESP.
If someone knows how, let me know! I know I have at least 300 if not more and I'm like you, I add to every single day. I use ESP only and the normals function in EXText for anything too big to fit in ESP.
I'm not sure why someone would use both autocorrect and ESP. I think it would just get confusing and heaven knows I doesn't take much to confuse me! I do good to remember all the ESP entries I have. I have a system I've been using back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I used PRD+. I remember when I first started using an expander, the PRD, I was completely lost as far as where to begin. It just took years of trial and error before I found a system that worked for me.
In case any one is interested, here's how organize my expansions:
For headings that are bolded, I put an "x" in front of the abbreviation. Example: xhpi=HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS:
For doctor specific normal blurbs, exams, etc. I put "$" in front of the abbreviation. Example: $smithpe= HEENT: Pupils equal round reactive to light. NECK: Supple. CHEST: Clear. etc. Putting the "$" at the begining of your expansion, puts all your normals at the top of your list if your list is sorted by abbreviation.
Then for generic expansion, I just do it normal. wnl=within normal limits, etc.
Anyway, just thought I'd share.
the grand total is 3 so far from the emails I am receiving....thanks everyone - nm
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