Average 3000-4000 minutes and no questions asked!

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        • Average 3000-4000 minutes and no questions asked! - JenniMT
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I am curious to know how many minutes on average does an MT type a day, by either digital or tapes.  And perhaps this is too personal, but how much do you earn weekly with those minutes.  I am also aware it depends on what city or state we live in, which can vary the salary earnings too.

I do enjoy my work as an IC, but feel that I do not make very much.  I cannot complain though, I have plenty of work, I just really wonder if I do not put enough time into typing per day, or perhaps I need to really consider raising my rates.      

Thank you.     

taking the position. I used to take a list I prepared myself of questions to ask on my first day. It usually worked out fine.

##

For once can you ditch the negativity, try having a positive attitude and be a little gracious??

I just recently went back to work in the office at a local hospital. We type in both Meditech and Cerner, depending on what you are typing, i.e. Medical Records reports versus Radiology.  We are currently typing blindly in Meditech, meaning we do not have access to our line counts and must depend on management to give us our totals.  In Cerner, we are able to run a line count report and print out a hard copy of our line counts at the end of the day.

We are finding that 800 lines in Cerner equals about 500 lines in Meditech.  We are not paid per line nor do we have an incentive plan, but we have a new HIM Director who would like to institute an incentive plan and the administrator over our department has laid down the law and decreed that all transcriptionists not making minimum in the department will be written up.  Problem is according to Meditech line totals that we have been given, that would be about half the department.

The transcription supervisor has taken our concerns to the new director who told the MT Supervisor to hold off on writing people and has taken home all the line counts from the last month and she is going over them with a fine tooth comb this weekend.

I am not a very trusting soul by nature, so I am doing a little research on my own.  I've been in this business for about 15 years.  I started out in a hospital and have worked for a few services at home and am now back in the hospital setting.  So I know a few things about line count and I consider myself to be pretty well informed on trends and technology in the industry.   I would like to walk into our next department meeting armed with as much knowledge as possible.  So I have come up with some questions that I would like some fellow MTs to answer, give opinions, and maybe even direct me to websites or individuals who could give me a better understanding of Meditech and Cerner.  Here are my questions:

1. Is it possible for an MT to have access to her line count in Meditech or is strictly a management function?  Any MTs that work in Meditech on this board, do you currently have access to your line counts and if so, how do you check them?  Is it an option on the main menu after you log into Meditech?


2. How is a line defined in Meditech?  (i.e. 65 cpl, with spaces, without spaces)


3. How is a line defined in Cerner?


4. What abbreviation Expanders work with both Meditech and Cerner?


5. Examples of incentive plans (if anyone would like to share that with me that would be great, if not I completely understand).


6. Measuring productivity by minutes of dictation versus typed lines.




1. What would be the minimum minutes required for an 8-hour day?


2. How would one structure an incentive program based on minutes?

I was thinking of presenting the idea that we keep track of productivity using minutes instead of lines since there is such a discrepancy in Meditech.  I also worry that if an incentive plan is put into place and we are still typing blind into Meditech, what's to keep management from shaving off a few lines here and there?

Feel free to email me or post here any responses.  Either is fine.  I really appreciate any input, comments, or just plain old supportive posts would be nice too! 

I've been looking.  I'm working on one now.  I LOVE the touch and it's VERY quiet. I hate clacky. I've worked on ones that I couldn't hear the dictation for the clacking; had to keep stopping and starting, listening while not typing.  ack! anyway, I LOVE the touch and non-sound of this but it isn't split, and I'm having a hard time with that.  I'm gonna keep looking

http://www.microsoft.com/products/info/product.aspx?view=22&pcid=654cc7fe-b882-4444-a505-14d03a5c16c9&crumb=catpage&catid=c250fb0a-1613-4550-983d-ba203f357698

There's a 4000 too, with a hump in the middle.  It's not quite as quiet and the touch isn't quite as easy.

That right there is an incredible feat of fingerin'! 

Meditech didn't work with my particular short cut program and the lag time was absolutely unbearable, not to mention all the demographic screens to wade through before getting to actually type the report.  I absolutely hate using "F" keys, which leads to more finger fatigue, and the Meditech I used was full of them.  Honestly though, I can't remember if it was "Magic" or the other version of Meditech, as it's been at least a couple of years now. 

I do know, however, that I was able to produce 1500/lines per 8-hour day as a matter of course with one word-based program and with Meditech, it dropped down into the 900 range.  It was financially and mentally devastating for me, but again, my experience.

I use the Microsoft 4000 and it is the only keyboard that I don't have pain with.  My wrist pain was so bad that I thought I would have to give this line of work up.  I have tried many many keyboards including Goldtouch, the other microsoft ergonomics (2000 and Elite), Belkin, Typematrix, Logitech split, Kensington comfort type, etc. ergonomic this and ergonomic that.  Wasted a lot of money looking for the right one.  But the the Microsoft 4000 was the one.   No more pain. 

The one thing that I do is use a mouse bridge over the number pad to bring the mouse in closer and I also got an ergonomic mouse.  The investment was well worth it because it increased my comfort.

I got 2 of the MS4000 keyboards on ebay for about 12 bucks with 10 bucks shipping.  It was worth 25 dollars.  If you are willing to buy from there you don't need to pay 50 dollars and can probably get with shipping under 25 or so.  Good luck.