Good answers and becoming a skilled MT takes surprisingly long, but SM
Posted By: MsIndigo on 2008-01-26
In Reply to: How long would you say - Typapaloosa
although 5 years may be about average, there's an old saying about how some people have 20 years' experience and some have one year repeated 20 times. If you want to cut that 5 years down VERY substantially, work full time (a conscientious full time, not just slopping thru the day) and push for new work types and accounts as woon as you've milked the old ones for all you can learn from them. Plus, a reality is that availability of the Web as a resource now helps people function at a much higher level earlier than previously.
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- How long would you say - Typapaloosa
- Good answers and becoming a skilled MT takes surprisingly long, but SM - MsIndigo
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It is a shame that it takes such a skilled..sm
person to be a MT yet the jobs are just pitiful. The companies can't provide enough work. The pay is pitiful. Why isn't this profession looked at with more prestige? I mean it is sad when you have been an MT for years and can't make a living doing this even with 2 jobs.
As long as it takes, to quote good old Dr. Phil!
You're both worth it - go for it!! 
Long-term skilled unit?
ss
Agree with pat..takes too long
I'm a member of NFO and after about three months I have about 970 points, and you need 1,000 points for just $10. I only receive about two invites a week for surveys, don't know how to get anymore than that. I'm also a MyPoints member. I usually just get the 5 points for reading the message and never buy anything, so it takes a long time to get points added up for me. Maybe once a year I do redeem them for about $20 worth of gift cards.
The people who advertise that you can do the surveys in your spare time and make all this extra money make it sound like you can just log on to a site and they are sitting there waiting for you, and you can do as many as you want, all day long, for as much money as you want to make. Wouldn't that be nice!
I have never heard of or seen the car advertising thing except on cabs and public transportation, oh, and of course delivery trucks and cars.
I don't know how long it takes YOU to go to the bathroom...
but 40 minutes sure is enough time in 8 hours...give me a break...
Your settings are definitely wrong if it takes you that long.
Go to File/preferences, and reset the Pause _ msec after ___ Keystrokes to Pause 1 msec after every 25 keystrokes. You will see an amazing difference in the speed of the program.
You don't want to record, takes a long time and unless you
are making big $$ you won't make any money. Also, if you forget to rerecord header info you're out of luck.
You can get an adapter from Radio Shack for about $15 and rerecord to a cassette player, in which case you'll need a transcriber, or record to your computer and I'm not sure how that is done.
As I stated last week when you asked this question, you need to look into digital phone service, something like Vonage, or most high-speed internet services also offer it.
You could also buy prepaid phone cards at Sam's Club, where they are fairly cheap, but you're still talking about $100+/mo. My digital phone is $34.95/month and you can keep your landline or switch it to digital, which is what I did.
It takes a long time to become familiar with
all of the surgical instruments and equipment in operative reports. Most of the time if you do operative reports you usually do all specialties, and each specialty has certain equipment that they use. It just takes time to learn.
I guess, as long as nobody takes a look at the demographics, it's o.k...nm
nm
As long as it takes to post on here, google came up quicker
nm
How long would you say it takes to get a decent grip on them. I do have samples already I have read
over and they arent hard but I havent heard the voices yet.
And have several grills with volunteers to man them. Piggy takes too long to cook! People will show
s
It could be a surprisingly fast decline, though. SM
Health care costs are becoming more and more of a burden on our aging nation, and more and more people want and need the blessings of modern medical technology. Somehow.
As part of trying to trim costs and direct more of the money directly to patient care, all it would take would be the federal government to announce that as of xxx, they would only reimburse for the expense of an EMR, the physician-held punch A, B, or C variety, to make things change very, very quickly indeed.
I'm not saying this will occur, but the technology is here and in use right now. So it could. Developing a Plan B is very wise. And several months' income in a savings account to cover a transition period.
Sure takes any incentive out of trying to do a good job.
That is what happens when you put people in charge that have no experience other than raising a couple of loud mouthed brats that always make sure they scream when supervisor calls you.
Without too much effort?! A good yard sale takes a good deal of effort, IMO.
:+
I do not get when "in a rush" became a good reason to not find your own answers..
better up my meds I guess.
Agree! I hate Daylight Savings Time. It takes me a good two weeks
to get myself and everybody in the household adjusted to the time change every six months. If the farmers need to get up earlier, let 'em! That doesn't mean I should have to, also! DST has definitely outlived its usefulness. I stay up later and get up earlier in the summer, but go to bed earlier and sleep later in the winter. It's like my mind and body are tied to the sun, not the clock. I never got an extra hour of sleep last night anyways because the neighbor's stupid dog barked from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.
I understand what you are saying, but this is a highly skilled sm
field, not "washing dishes" or even "working at Wallyworld." Yes, there is VR and other things out there making this our jobs easier and in very rare cases, null and void, but this industry STILL requires skilled MTs who will pick up what VR and computers just cannot do.
I do VR on a regular basis and there are so many gross errors it isn't even funny. I would say 50% of any given document contains error that would be a detriment to direct patient care.
I received a newsletter recently from my company that stated this industry is growing and that the industry is having a very difficult time finding experienced, good MTs to do all of the work given to any given company. That, to me, was very, very positive in the way of where our jobs will be in 10 years.
I don't see in 10 years VR or foreigners taking our jobs. In 30 to 50, maybe, but not anytime soon.
So, a company offering 7 cpl to an experienced MT is a disgrace (especially if they take it). On new grads, I think 4 cpl is just fine because I also taught MT at a local college and there was no way that any of my students (graduates) could do this from home without a mentor/QA, etc., full-time for at least a year until they could be on their own. They would make way too many mistakes.
Katie, some people are much more skilled than SM
others, some work harder than others, some work faster than others, some work longer than others.
First off, I do not because, I choose not to work a full 40-hour work week, week after week.
But by multiplying my own hourly earnings: It is very possible to make comfortably more than $50, even more than $60K/year as an employee of a national putting out good-quality work (even transcribing lots of ESLs!) IF:
You are fully skilled.
You are working on accounts you are nicely familiar with and have all your templates et cetera set up for.
The accounts do not run out of work (a biggie) so that you can get 8 hours of production within a reasonable workday (should not have to spend 12 hours a day married to the offce to get it).
You are paid somewhere in the upper 20ish percent of the rate range (note I didn't say have to have top pay).
You are either an exceptionally fast typist or use an Expander a great deal and take advantage of computer features.
You work hard.
You work smart and don't waste time where it doesn't count.
You have some talent for the work.
You WORK A FULL 40-HOUR WORK WEEK.
Reasons why some don't even approach that include:
Not fully skilled. Just think, for instance, of those who don't use an expander. And a skilled worker will produce many lines in the time it takes another to look up one term.
Not familiar with accounts.
Account frequently runs out of work--and MT accepts less income instead of walking.
Is a whizbang registered nurse/racecar driverccur et cetera, but lack talent for THIS work.
Doesn't work HARD and push for high productivity. Just working is not the same as working HARD (it is tiring).
Has enough work but doesn't put in a solid 8 hours of production per day (although might think so, maybe forgets to subtract time spent complaining here from the work day).
Katie, although average incomes have gone down significantly, a lot more people are making decent money than posts on this forum give any idea of. Those people don't spend a whole lot of time here, though. Guess why! Best wishes for your own good income.
You're a big girl and a skilled worker. SM
If you haven't resolved this problem already, go ahead and do it this morning. You know, as a high-skilled MT you should be making at least 3 times whatever your local minimum wage is. Best wishes.
If you think $14 is good then you must not have been a QA person for very long
That is not good. I make much more than that per hour doing QA. Be careful too because I hear they also do not pay on time.
It goes both ways. Not all those with positive experiences are skilled or professional.
Some are in it for the referral bonus, some are company recruiters posting anonymously. It's really hard for anyone to tell the motives, but you can usually tell from the way a person posts who is on the up and up from those who are just spewing sour grapes and those bucking for the referral bonus. I tend to believe negative posts that don't personally insult other posters over positive posters that completely rule out any type of problem. If a person is saying that their company is perfect and there are NO problems, that should send up red flags.
FutureNet --- treating me like the highly skilled professional I am.
you can apply on their web site. they sought me out... grape vine told them i was hating MQ --
only downside... no benefits, gotta be SE... it's what MQ was going to do to me anyway, so no big loss..
How long do you give a new job before you decide it's not a good fit for you? sm
(Also posted on Company Board)
My saga follows. Please go to the bottom of post for my question :)
I've been with my current company as a PT emp. for 2 1/2 months. Everything about them seems to be quite fair, not great, but very fair. I'm still on hourly pay of a whopping $8.50 till I get my production up. Therein lies the problem, I cannot EVER see getting my line count up with the inordinately excessive number of ESLs on my acct. It's just ridiculous. All I'm asking is to actually TRANSCRIBE for a living, instead of rewinding and relistening 1000 freakin' times a day.
I've never gotten the feeling that I'm being taken advantage of or given the crap work, I just believe I'm on a very high percentage ESL account. I don't mind doing ESLs, I really don't. I just want more understandable drs thrown into the mix.
This is my first job after graduating and I was lucky enough to be hired for acute care. I'd like to continue in acute care. I just want to be able to PRODUCE, improve and ENJOY my job. I want to be doing MT work for many years to come.
I'd just like some opinions from those of you with more experience about what you might do in my situation.
Also, how long do you give a job before you decide it's not a good fit for you? Am I giving up too quickly?
This keyboard good if you have long nails....sm
I'm a former typing teacher. I used to use an ergonomic keyboard because I had the fake fingernails. It is actually easier to type on this kind of keyboard with longer nails. Now that I am back to biting them down to bits of nothing, I use a regular keyboard again. You can get used to it pretty quickly if you keep at it, though.
I think it is a good rate as long as they offer
health benefits. Sometimes it is best to leave work at work, then you find you have a homelife unless of course you do extra from home. Good luck to you! $15.00 is mid in my area with the average being between 13-17 dollars per hour. 
What future demand is there for higher-skilled MTs? Inquiring mind wants to know. SM
Seriously--with computers taking over the keyboarding and the electronic medical record replacing much (just HOW much?) of the currently dictated verbage, what need will healthcare providers have that we can train to fill at least the same remuneration if not better? What potential is there for remote work? I confess I'm very fond of my current commute down the hall to my office, and googling MT in England, which has had the EMR for some time now, suggests it's high time I figure out how I'm going to keep it. Any thoughtful or knowledgeable answers would be greatly appreciated.
Oh, goodness! Soak him in the tub for a good long time.
Try a little dish soap on it. I wouldn't advise any harsh chemicals because you don't want to risk a rash or anything. Tomorrow's picture day here, too. My kid decided to rub his blue ink hand stamp on the center of his forehead instead of leaving it on his hand. The teacher stamps their hands with an ink picture stamp every day if they're good. A sticker would be better because my son always has ink on his hands and face now. Lots of soap, then maybe cover it with makeup? Oh, goodness. My cheeks hurt from laughing at this one.
Oh, goodness! Soak him in the tub for a good long time.
Try a little dish soap on it. I wouldn't advise any harsh chemicals because you don't want to risk a rash or anything. Tomorrow's picture day here, too. My kid decided to rub his blue ink hand stamp on the center of his forehead instead of leaving it on his hand. The teacher stamps their hands with an ink picture stamp every day if they're good. A sticker would be better because my son always has ink on his hands and face now. Lots of soap, then maybe cover it with makeup? Oh, goodness. My cheeks hurt from laughing at this one.
What's a good unlimited long distance plan?nm
nm
I have been around awhile, and will last making good money as long as this field does.
x
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As Economy Slumps, Firms Line Up to Hire Skilled Foreign Workers
 What the heck is going on around here? It just gets better by the day!
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/19/economy-slumps-firms-line-hire-skilled-foreign-workers/
Lucky. I love long reports. I thought I got a good one, but it was a 1.5 minute
report with 12 minutes of dead air. Sit here and do nothing. For free.
Good of the company? As IC, I am my own company. Not my problem if she has problems as long as I do
:P
I hate Instant Text. It is expensive, long long learning
curve, and too much distraction for me.
How long should I wait after applying for a position before I follow-up. It has been as long as two
without hearing from some. Just wondering if I should send an e-mail to follow-up to see if they received my resume or not. I don't want to offend anyone but feel two weeks should be long enough for someone to at least acknowledge my resume and that I have applied for a position. Right now I would accept anything even a note saying no thanks. Any advice would be appreciated. I haven't had to apply for a job for the past 10 years so I am a bit rusty at this. Thanks again for any advice.
Congrats! How long have you been a MLS and how long did you study for the test!
Please see message. I have three daughters with long, long hair.
I also have long hair down to my waist and my three girls have hair that long too. My daughter brought them home from school last year. I was devestated and grossed out!!!! I have never had to deal with lice. Anyway, we did the treatments and two of my girls broke out in a severe rash with the OTC stuff. Their little heads were so sore!! I thought I was being meticulous with eggs, only to find them hatching again down the road. A nurse at the pediatricians office suggested I try oil to suffocate them since my girls were allergic to the lice solution. I bought a huge bottle of veggie oil and dumped it on all three heads, plus my own. I then wrapped the heads in platic wrap and then a towel. I left this on for 30 minutes. It takes a while to wash out the oil, but we never, ever had the lice or eggs again!!! If you try this, make sure you put on an old shirt and put a towel around your shoulders. Obviously we were desperate, but we all have such long hair and very thick hair so I was willing to try anything. And I figured there was no chemicals involved so that was pretty safe. And it sure did help my littles ones since their scalps were pretty raw from the solution. Hope this helps and Good luck!
It's been a long, long time since I've used a C-phone, sm
but I do think jobs can be paused.
Answers
ESLs -- English second language dictators (foreigners who have difficult accents)
Cherry picker -- Someone who choose only the best reports, best dictators, easiest work and refuses to do other work - therefore, leaving everyone else to do all the difficult dictators and bad reports. NOT FAIR. Cheats, jerks, lots of more names come to mind. LOL
Answers ...
First...to the one who posted that I did not answer...I HAVE BEEN WORKING!!! WORKING. Do you do that? Or do you just sit on these boards and whine?
As to everyone else:
I said I work PT for each of 2 companies. YOU are ASSUMING that what I type is what the PT requirements are. NOT!!!! What I'm typing in production is NOT the minimum requirements. I go WAY beyond. Those are averages. Some payperiods I don't hit those but 4 out of 5 payperiods I do.
I work my 20 hours as an employee with Spheris and usually get my 7000 lines in that time...that is per week.
With MQ, the payperiod is different. It is the 1st through the 15th and the 16th through the end of the month so I have slightly more days to get my work in.
I'm an IC with MQ...I work whatever hours I want. My stipulation is that I produce 6000 lines per payperiod or more. I happen to do more. Great tiered incentive plan so I take advantage.
For all you who are busy doing your math instead of typing, I average around 350-375 lines per hour. All-in-all, I'm typing about 45 hours a week, sometimes 50.
I didn't start out that way with these 2 companies...I was already extremely fast but I had to work up on my accounts and learn my dictators, etc. I use word expanders, AutoCorrect, Shorthand, etc.
YES, I have a life. My youngest son still lives at home (17 years old) and I'm a full-time student at the local university. I have a very full plate. Yes, I do other things as well ... I teach a free music class weekly at a local church (anyone who wants to learn to read music and/or play keyboard) and I teach a small literacy class every other week. I go out of town 1 weekend every month alone to help recouperate and get some extra studying done.
I'm also a very ambitious person, don't like grass growing under my feet, and have a VERY specific goal in mind financially and I'm almost there.
I could not have done this well when my children were small. I tried working at home then and I sacrificed both my children's time with me and my work so I went back inhouse until they grew up. I also got rid of my husband. He was more a child than my 2 boys and since he did not want to grow up and be a responsible adult, I moved him right out.
I know a handful of MTs who are faster and better than I am at this -- they blow me away and I respect them deeply. Amazed by them. HOWEVER, JUST AS MUCH -- I am respectful of those who don't do as well but hang in there; I believe you can earn what you want out of this profession and you can be happy in it if you want to, but it IS up to you to find it. I happen to be very good at this. Believe me, there are plenty of things I couldn't do to save my life.
When I work - I work hard. When I play - I play hard.
Does that answer everyone's curiosity? LOL
Answers
I work for 2 companies, not one, and only one time can I remember running out of work at S; I don't remember running out at MQ. My accounts are very large hospital complexes. I do have secondary accounts and have trained on tertiary accounts though never worked on them. We are always asked, especially every weekend, to do overtime. Always. I just committed to overtime this weekend for both. ???
I hate difficult reports. Mainly, it is a mindset to get through them. I try to think of it as a learning experience and a challenge that I am determined to learn so it won't slow me down as much next time. I look up old reports, I copy text for some really difficult reports as reference (no patient info, just selected text that is difficult). I have a few references, The Surgical Word Book by Tessier, a really nice Dorland's Medical Dictionary. I also have lots of websites I reference. I've done this 25 years though and have learned a great deal. Virtually anytime I leave a blank, it is because I cannot understand the dictator - not because of terminology I could not find.
My quality - yes, I've not had below 99% at either company. Does NOT mean I don't make errors; means that on the reports that are QA'd for me that the errors that were counted were noncritical and were so little in number that I scored 99% or higher.
??
thank you for the answers...
No matter what I do, every national I have worked for, I end up running out of work. As you, when the work is there and there are no difficult dictators (which is rare anymore) I can transcribe probably 1600 lines/minutes a day.
Right now today, which has been the norm the last couple of years, I am lucky to get 1000 lines/minutes in a day, only because of difficult/no work.
Also, I work on up to 5 accounts, and still run out.
Maybe it is a longevity thing, I am new so do not get the work? Have you been long at this company so that you never run out of work?
What am I doing wrong?
Answers
I'm happy to give you any helpful information I can.
Yes, I am a parent...two boys 17 and 20. Oldest is out on his own. I waited until my boys were both in their early and mid teens to go back to school. I could not have done it while they were very young. I know many young parents in school but for me, being a single parent, it was not possible.
I had to make compromises with them. I remember the first semester I went back, I told them I would cook breakfast or dinner but not both-- they chose breakfast so I got up extra early every morning and cooked breakfast. Second semester they changed their minds. Hahaha They wanted DINNER cooked. Hahahaha They were excited for me the first semester; however, their enthusiasm waxed cold the second semester when they realized that if I was bringing home the books and studying and making top grades, they had no excuse not to do the same! Hahaha When they would gripe about social studies, I griped about world civiliation; when they griped about biology, I griped about chemistry, etc. Hahaha
I attended my first semester with just 12 hours (full-time is 12+ hours) and then asked for academic clemency so that everything before my returning semester was wiped clean and I was starting over.
I have attended full-time every semester since and went 2 years in the summer terms but they were tough.
I knew I would eventually need to work from home to make it easier on myself and my boys while going to school. I started with one of my present employers (I work PT for 2 different companies) before starting school and while I was working FT as an inhouse hospital MT. After 6 months on my remote position, I quit the hospital job. I was making so much more money at home anyway that I didn't need to work FT. I signed up for my first semester of classes and have been at it ever since.
Of course, classes were easy at first and it seemed all would be a breeze. After 2 full semesters, looking down the road I realized that I did not want to incur such great expense as my younger counterparts would in medical college. I was already reviewing how to pay for med school. I decided I would apply for a program through the med school in my state that pays for your medical education and in exchange you give your first 4 years to an underserved area in the state. That will pay for my tuition, books, lab fees, miscellaneous expenses educationally. I still have to purchase my insurance and pay for my living expenses. THAT was when I really decided to buckle down on work and save. I do NOT want to be a starving student in my early 40s! Hahaha So, I picked up with a 2nd PT remote MT position and save all of that income. I also increased my pay (production) with my first employer so that a large portion of it is saved as well. I need 4 years of living expenses in cash before starting next year. My parents and sisters are very supportive. After being in school my first year, my middle sister (I am the oldest of 3 girls) quit her job and is living off her savings while she pursues her Ph.D. in psychology!! Though I am going into emergency/trauma, we make jokes about my going into orthopedics and sharing an office with her, the psychologist, and calling our clinic "Head and Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"! HAHAHAHA
I can say I have truly had prayers answered ... my family and their churches have all prayed consistently for me that I would have door of opportunity opened for me and they have been. I can see it in my job opportunities and educational opportunities. I also prayed to have the emotional capacity to handle the challenges I would face and God has seen fit to provide for me in that way. When I had first started praying about this change, I "asked" if this was the direction I was supposed to take. Then, I began praying with the mindset of "okay, I take it this is right", and then ended up being so absolutely positively sure that I said, "Okay, if this is NOT it, You are going to have to stop me because I'm doing this" and I've not found resistance yet! Trials sometimes yes, but always have found a way around it -- letting me know that I am in the right direction.
There are so many advancing opportunities in medicine today; tomorrow will only hold more. Therapists, med techs, APNs, any of those fields are on the rise and will continue to be in high demand.
Get an undergraduate bulletin from your local university. Even if you don't start full-time, like I did, try a course or two. Make a plan...make a study schedule..hahaha. Trust me, the real-life-don't-kid-yourself study schedule will help you more than anything! Fill out a FASFA and see what opportunities your U can offer you for financial aid.
You'll NEVER feel like you wasted your time, energy, intellect, money on an education. Never.
Let me know if I can help you in anyway. You can do this!!
Where is ALS when we need answers
Just wondering where your info comes from (since you seem so confident and say AAMT BOS is incorrect)?!?!
thanks for all your answers
I went with crepitance. I guess if it's not acceptable, they will let me know.
Some answers.
Demographics: It's a field where, if the MD puts in the correct number, is wonderful. Everything autopopulates by itself. You just have to check it to be sure it's correct (correct admission, patient, etc.). Then you just get out of it in one keystroke.
If it does not autopopulate, you have to do a search, either by patient name or number (if dictated). If you have high-speed connection, this just takes a second. BUT, you run into problems if the patient's name is unclear, not spelled, or other things that come up. Also, some patients have multiple admissions and you have to decipher which is correct. Like everything else in MT world, this can slow you down at first, but it gets better later. But I must admit... there are days...
Change: I was a basket case for months before switching over. They kept pushing back my start date, so that made it worse. It was not worth the worry, though. It is pretty easy to learn, but again, takes a little time to become second nature.
I've always used the built-in expander, so I can't really compare it to Smartype. I did use PRD way back, and loved it. But this is just your basic expander. The expander is also where you save your "normals" and no, unfortunately you cannot transfer them into DQS. But IMO, the expander is just fine, but I'm sure that's because it's all I've ever used and probably you'll get some different opinions here. But be sure you can't transfer it. I thought I read somewhere that you can.
The text field is easy to maneuver and has some pretty nifty features.
I am also the sole supporter of my family and I did have to work longer at first to make my personal quota. I'm basically up to what I was doing on the old platform, but I did not exceed my previous production. I'm assuming it's because of the demo field and the fact I used to get paid for those characters.
I think the majority of MTs who switch to this platform like it and find is easy to learn. However, it is also true that we all stress like mad beforehand!!
Good luck! :o)
a few answers
No, you don't need a regular modem/phone line if you have wireless internet and are only going to be working on DQS. No, you don't have to rent their computer. Just tell tell them you don't feel comfortable using or renting their computer and that you will be sending it back. You don't need to explain working for other clients, etc. Tech support will help you get DQS installed on your computer through the internet. DQS looks intimidating by the manual, but the manual is extremely detailed and there mostly to help you in case you forget something later on. DQS is fairly easy to learn and use, so don't worry.
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