FINALLY got it - Guess you can teach an old dog new tricks! THANKS!!

• Help creating letterhead templates - libby
  • Scan it in. - Save it as a pic document.
  • if it is only at the top - mg
    • How are you able to type in it? - libby
      • Open up a word document to use as a - :o)
        • Very helpful, thank you all very much....but..... - libby
          • FINALLY got it - Guess you can teach an old dog new tricks! THANKS!! - libby

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Thanks for the walk down memory lane! I once knew a senior MT who originally worked off of WAX CYLINDERS ("by 1902 the brown wax cylinder was eclipsed by the molded black wax cylinder. A typical recording on a black wax cylinder was about 2 minutes.") At the end of her shift, part of her job was to scrape the cylinders clean for the next day's recording! I started out on noncorrecting IBM Selectrics and reel-to-reel tapes...then correcting Selectrics, but we had to make multiple copies with carbon paper and blue, pink, yellow, goldenrod, and white correction fluids...then the 1-line display Olivetti...then the Wang, Raytheon and Xerox behemoths. Also, I still have my original 1973 Sloane's Medical Word Book  Now I use a highspeed internet home-based LAN with VOIP and a KVM switch...guess the only thing that hasn't evolved is the quality of dictation! Kudos to all of you MTs out there from this 30+ year veteran. We've come a long way baby! 

I have seen a LOT of posts on here for people asking how to get their lines.  Some are having trouble even hitting lower numbers like 1000-1400.  I have been working for a long time on a little book of tips, "Maximizing Line Counts:  30 Tips in 30 Days."  I started this at the request of my boss who wanted to give it to all existing employees as well as new hires.  I am interested to know if there are any transcriptionists who would like to have something like this.

First of all, if you go into advanced search in Google, it gives you tons of "criteria" you can work with.

The asterisk "*" is the wildcard.  If you were looking for a medication that was 20 mg, you could put * 20 mg into Google and it would start listing all meds that were 20 mg.  If you put:  No wheezes, rales, or *, Google would give suggestions on what would fit here. 

If you are looking for an either or, the OR (capitalized) searches for both.  Like "side effects, aspirin OR tylenol"  This entry would bring up both.

If you type in "define:  words" (two spaces after define) it will list all dictionaries the word is in.   Google also has a calculator, does conversions, all kinds of things, just have to look on the Google site.

Hope this helps answer some questions--

Rebekah

I'm not an expert but this has worked for me.

Since I am the primary breadwinner of the household, I made the whole family a part of the budget process.  We have two kids left at home (2 grown and gone) and I still manage to pay them their allowance (10.00 per week each). 

How about we start there.   I have a Chore Chart on a dry erase board on the fridge (so they see it every single time they hit the fridge) with the name of the chore written in permanent marker so they can't erase it, then put the initial of the one responsible for that chore that day.   If, at the end of the day, those chores are NOT done?  They get a black X in the box next to the chore.   Only their initials are written in dry erase so I can change that around from time to time.

If they miss doing their chores 2 days out of the week, they get NO allowance.  If they argue or procrastinate, that gets 1 check. If they get 2 checks by the chore, then that is the same as not doing the chore and they don't get the credit for it. Even if they eventually get it done, they still don't get credit that day because they procrastinated OR argued about it.  Pay day is Friday.  

Time is money people and I don't have the time to clean as I should, they are old enough, and they want money too.   I don't give money for movies, candy, or trips to the dollar store.  They now have their own and are learning to budget.

Sometimes I give them bonuses too for doing an inventory of the freezer, pantry, organizing the cupboards, etc... Helps us keep track of the things we have for the next step.

MENUS ~ If you get Woman's Day Magazine or First, or anything like them that have the monthly menu calendars in them?  PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THEM.   They can save you BIG $$ on your food bills.

My kids are horribly picky eaters and meal planning has saved me a lot of money.  I now have them sit down with me, look over these meal planning calendars and see if it is something they would like.  If they put it on OUR calendar, they initial it, and we make our grocery list.  If the time comes for a particular meal and they turn their nose up at it, I send them to the calendar to see if they initialed that day.  If they did.... Eat it! PERIOD.  (by the way, I never put anything on the calendar that they don't agree with so, after a few months of doing this, there is never any more turning the nose up at dinner time - HA  fixed their wagon!)

We also do a mass cook and freeze fest now and then.  The kids get into it too.  Very easy for them. THey are 12 and 13 so I have the meal calendar taped to the inside door of the pantry.  When I'm working, they can go look and see what's on the calendar for that day, pull it out of the freezer, and put it in the oven.  I have written the temp and time for each one next to the item on the calendar.  Works out fine.

Power bills... Yikes - LIGHTS OUT.  When I go to bed, every light in the house is OFF except the porch light, the little light above the stove, and the nightlight in the hall across from the kids rooms. 

GAS- Holy Smokes.   Up to 2.79/gal here now.   No extra drives to here and there for anything.  If you just want a cold pop to drink cuz it's hot?  Make iced tea instead.  Not worth that kinda money for a wasted trip to the mini mart.  Just plan better the next time.  The kids want to go to the pool or their friend's house... pump up the bike tire kids and grab the walkies.   I make my kids take walkie talkies (Cobra brand 5-mile radius at WalMart for 80.00 and WELL worth it.)

One last little tidbit....  SAVE your receipts for EVERYTHING for at least 2 months then compare them after the end of that 2 months when you have learned to tighten up the wallet a bit and see the difference for yourself.  Makes it really worth your while.

I have cut enough fat out of excess spending in the past year to put away 400.00 or more every month into a savings account that I can use for emergencies, vacations, whatever.

By the way... Would be a good idea to have a forum JUST for Budgeting and Money Saving ideas here wouldn't it.  Administrators????  How about it?

Gladly 

There is  a HUGE difference between reading what someone else has already deciphered versus being the one who is deciphering it at 140 words per minute.  The bottom line is that we all make mistakes because we are paid on production - not because we are ignorant or guessing or whatever unprofessional nonsense they choose to call it.  As for the comment about not spelling physician names correctly (cities, schools, etc.), we do not get paid by the hour to search for these things - QA people do or they are getting paid for lines they do not type to compensate their time.  There is no cause for unprofessionalism or personal attacks.  I do not appreciate commentary.  I don't appreciate remarks about punctuation, grammar etc. particulary when it comes from someone who doesn't understand what an independent clause is, a complete sentence and so on.  Passing on their infinite wisdom because it is what they "were taught" isn't valid - back it up and I don't mean with the BOS, which basically boils down to someone else's opinion.    I find the QA people contradict themselves left and right, contradict each other, contradict the account manager and most importantly contradict account specifics, and some contradict the doctors themselves.   Very few have come across my path that were friendly, helpful or even knowledgeable.  They just often have misplaced confidence in "understanding" the word no else can...I find it better to err on the side of caution if it is a word of substance; if it is not, move on.  Perhaps, QA should respectfully mentor the newbies, give feedback to MTs who make repeated mistakes and otherwise take a supporting role in helping MTs to produce quality documents, instead of getting into a p1ssing contest. 

Hey guys:

Does anyone have any ideas or tricks to make work more pleasant??  Been doing this a long (too long) time, and the isolation is getting to me.  Any ideas?

Thanks all.

I recently started working on the Emdate Inscribe platform. It is a little more cumbersome to maneuver than what I am used to, and I was wondering if any of you seasoned Emdat MTs might share any tips or tricks you've found to speed yourself up using this system?  I've had a couple "glitches" with the function to look up/paste doctor names, for example, and not being able to close out the "prior transcriptions" box because there's no X! Not too much help from the MT company so thought I'd try here - any tips will be greatly appreciated, or if you know of any websites or other resources.  You can respond here or to my email and thank you in advance!

We do let our kids trick or treat, as stated before.  However, it is all just for fun (and candy) for them.  I think it is all about what you teach your kids.  I see what you are saying about Christmas, I actually can't stand it when people celebrate Christmas who don't believe in God and Jesus.  But I guess someone could say the same thing about me (for "celebrating"Halloween without "believing" in what it stands for).  I think I am confusing myself!!!  All I think that matters is what YOU believe and what you are teaching your children. 

However, now that this subject has come up, I am going to do some more research on Halloween and possibly consider the idea of a "fall harvest party" or something like that.  I do like that idea, so thanks for letting me explore other ideas!!!  I never thought that deeply about getting free candy from the neighbors!!

how in the heck does one become a doctor and pronounce things like:

ex-zeffer (that is, Effexor)

cla-mit-tra-zol (rather clotrimazole)

tur-bun-ins (how about turbinates!!)

makes me crazy...er.