Gross lines and 12 hour days!!! I stand corrected, you weren't stretching the truth, you were...
Posted By: Tinks on 2007-01-07
In Reply to: not stretching. I work about 12 hours a day and make--sm - Anon2
misleading everyone. The majority of MTSOs pay by a 65 character lines. Paying for spaces or not paying for spaces is usually the only variant between companies. You come on here and say that you tyhpe 3000 a line a day and leave it at that. Don't say how many hours your work, how long your lines are, etc. That is misleading!
I probably am typing 3000 gross lines a day in my eight hour day if I were coutning gross lines. For fun, I think on my next work day, I'm going to jot down my gross line count in each document and add it up at the end of the day and compare it to my actual line count. I'll let everyone know what the difference is.
Geez! Really burns me up when people get on here at start spouting out nonsense as if it were fact and we should all be in awe of their skills and expertise! For future reference, the truth lies in the details. You can't just say you do 3000 lines a day and leave it at that. Notice when I posted below how many lines a day I do, I added that I work a strictly 8 hour day and that my lines are 65 characters with spaces.
Give accurate and detailed information people, PLEASE!
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I stand corrected. Sorry, did not mean to say gross. Rather, 65 cpl with spaces, headers, footers.
x
stretching the truth! (got cut off above).
x
I stand corrected........................ think
maybe that's one of the AAMT adjustments?
I stand corrected
I stand corrected.
o
I stand (or sit) corrected! :)
nm
I stand corrected
Thank you, nm, for your reply to my computer question.
I stand corrected!
Copied and pasted your search string. Had no idea you could get Word separately, especially the 2007 version.
Thank you posting that!
Maybe you would know this then:
Is there a reader you can download to Vista to view MS Word documents if you don't have MS Word installed?
I stand rightfully corrected. NM
x
Thanks, stand corrected, I get carried away sometimes.
nm
well, I stand corrected, he's a pretty tough guy to please.
.
Well then I stand corrected:) Learn something new everyday. lol
l
Ok. I stand corrected...may be overly sensitive..sm
I work for two places, one full time as IC and one part time as IC. Full time is small service with approximately 14 MTs. I get paid by the gross line at .067 cpl, typed in courier new 12. I have worked there for three years. Part time IC job is .08 cpl at 55 characters, typed in TNR 12. I consider both of these to be low paying, after reading some of the others, but they pay the bills. I guess.
30 hours divided by four days equals seven-hour days. Most of us have to work pretty much every day
.
Aaahhhh, now I get it. Gross lines vs. Character lines. I guess I've just been conditioned to
think in terms of character lines. One of the perils of working as an IC for somebody who defines what a line is versus owning your own company and defining it yourself. After working for someone else for 15 years, maybe it's time to bust out on my own.
Working 6/hour days, 5 days/week I make
$42,000.00, but the work is there to make more if I want to. I'm in the southeast.
Depends on the pay and account. My lowest average is $15.52 an hour (roughly 182.6 lines an hour) w
;'
1850 lines per 8 hour shift. 15.00 hour - no real requirement
x
At 200 lines a day for 6 cents, you are making $1.20 a day or 0.15 hour for an 8 hour day!!!--cm
Did you mean 2,000? Even then you would only be making $1.50 if you work 8 hours a day.
Gross lines include all lines containing
printable characters, so a full line and a line with one word on it are charged equally. Straight lines are basically the same as gross lines, but with this method of counting the blank lines are counted as well (again, equally). I have only had one company pay this way, and they are a middle man. I would think the charge would be about the same as for gross lines, and that not too many offices will want their lines counted this way (the one I worked on was probably inherited from someone who had counted the lines that way, so just continued).
Not so bad if you can divide it into 7 days. Gross.
I couldn't even think about eating a half of a donut, but even thinking about adding a cheesburger is just insane.
What do these people wash this thing down with, a 2 liter Mountain Dew?
I get heartburn just thinking about it.
Gone are those days of the gross line...
I remember the gross line too (back in 1989) and we were on a 55 character line and one clinic account we had specifically requested a 45 character margin so the printed reports/letters could fit on their special stationary! No ESLS (or very, very rare). I loved getting paid 7.25 cpl then. Type "Sincerely," and it was 7.25 cents. I worked on DOS OS, Multi-Mate and WordStar back then, amber, green or black/white monitor, 640 XT PC with 5.25 and 3.5 inch floppies, a 20 meg HD with X-Tree file manager, PRD word expansion software and had a 1200 baud external modem (but can't remember the modem software name!) Yeah, we were rocking baby!
I was glad to progress to that machine from the typewriter with my 4 carbon copies and 5 "flavors" of white out (white, pink, yellow/buff/canary, goldenrod, green) when I made a mistake...
make $20 an hour plus 4 cents gross line
nm
No....only if you are doing gross lines- nm
xx
gross lines
One can do far better in a day when counting gross lines rather than character counted -- especially if very familiar with the accounts (of course, that helps either way :).
I do gross lines
I go into file, properties, statistics and that gives me my gross count. Very simple and easy as long as you are using Word, no program to buy. I am surprised that the company you are working for did not show this to you. Also gives you characters if you are paid for characters divided by whatever your line is and not gross lines.
Patti
gross lines
Hey everybody, gross lines are TOTALLY different than a 65-character line. I used to have a gross lines account doing operative reports and I did at least 2000 a day in about 5 hours. Now I am on a 65 character line and I struggle to get 2000 in 8 hours. If I had my old account and worked 12 hours, I would be getting AT LEAST 4200 lines a day. You gotta compare apples to apples. :)
Raw gross lines will pay the most sm
If you type in word. You simply highlight the entire document and do a word count using the tools. Once you have your line count, you would times that by cents per line you charge. 65 character with or without spaces will be doing your own math for each document and takes more time. Go mid range in this instance if you use raw line count. Be sure to have a contract agreement or at least a Memorandum of Understanding and provide them with good turnaround as stated in your contract. This makes you look very professional and worth the going rate. Congratulations! NOTE: And to think there have been statements made like "everything is going to voice recognition". Your "new account" says NOT!!! Have fun! 
Is this for gross lines or sm
65 character lines?
I think that would make a big difference.
More than me with gross lines
That is more than me with a gross line count, checked a couple of documents. Except for when I do a lot of consults/letters and I am about to count from date to signature for gross lines. But if you do mostly chart notes, it is good. Just check a couple of your documents and see what it is versus 65cpl at 12 to 13 cpl and then gross line at 12 to 13 cpl and see where you stand. Again, I used to be paid 1 cent per word and did well until it comes to letters. Also, only you know what you make per hour and if it is good for you.
Patti
Gross lines
count lines equally whether there are 65 characters or 2 characters, or any other number. Each new line is a line whether it is full or not.
I know about gross lines however
if you are using an Arial 10 font and margins are .5 and .5 then you are putting about 90 characters on a line which is way too many for 6 cents per line. That is all I was saying about which font you use and what your margins are. I use a smaller font for my accounts but when I do my line count -- I count gross lines -- I change it back to a 12 font and 1" margins at the sides as when I quoted my price it was so much per line and my definitiation of a line is 1" margins and using 12 font. So that is why I was asking about what font and what margins you have.
Question versus gross lines versus 65-character lines....
I have always charged or been paid by 65 or 60 character lines or per letter or space typed, but have never been paid or charged per gross line.
What is the advantage of this? If I were to charge 11 cents per 65-character line including spaces, what does this figure out to for an average line rate and how do you do this calculation?
I'm wondering if it is financially beneficial for me to bill by gross line or to keep it the way I have it. I do know some accounts will only pay per 65-character line, as this was the deal my first own account I recently acquired. They were adamant on a 65-character line, but didn't specify with or without spaces and I personally would never not charge for spaces.
Thanks for explaining this. I appreciate it and hope everyone has a speedy day.
Are your lines 65-character, gross, or
other? Just curious as I do clinic work and in my area the going rate for gross lines is about 12 cpl, but more like 15-17 cpl for 65-character lines. I have heard (don't really know how reliable it is) that hospitals are charged up to the 22 cpl range. (I assumed that was on 65-character lines.)
Gross lines vs. 65-char
A gross line is anything on a line IS a line - usually the standard is Courier 12, 1 inch margins - that way, if a doc wants Arial or Times New Roman or any other font, he will know that it will always be counted in Courier 12 regardless of the font he uses.
65-char means based on a 65-char per line basis, lines are counted, so it is not a "line" unless there are 65 characters on it - the counting programs that count this convert the document to one big long document without returns, etc., linking all the characters in one long line and counting them that way. Clearly you can see how many fewer lines you would get by this method. When this was brought into the business it was touted as a "fairer" way of counting - but the only one it is "fairer" to is the doctor - it cuts the lines vs gross lines an average of over 30% - for example, if you are making 7 cpl for a 65-char line, you are in reality making 4.8 cpl gross lines - quite a difference.
Gross lines - possibly
I have two surgeons and when the do a lot of consults, hernia, breast cysts, etc. I have been able to get 600+ an hour but that is gross lines and I have physical templates set up for each type of problem. I have done 1100 in 90 minutes but again it was gross lines. I have been doing them for almost ten years and I know what they are going to say before they say it. My only Expander though is auto correct and I often think what I could do with another expander but it is hard to teach this old dog new tricks though after the 1st am going to look at a couple of expanders. But I share with my friends on how I count and try to show them how to increase their line counts so ask her. I am always up for sharing my experience and tricks of the trade as long as I have the time and they don't steal my accounts. Good luck.
and I count gross lines
I do not cheat, I count gross lines and from top to bottom but I make sure that it is fair so my price per line is lower and it all equals out in the end. On chart notes, it is the total amount of lines which includes 2 spaces between patients which then helps to pay for the cutting apart, sticky paper and delivery. But my accounts are aware of this and again it shows in my per line charge.
If gross lines average is 1500 nm
nn
Need to count gross lines only w/o spaces, sm
Used Sylcount free download but it expired. Any alternatives. Did not like Practicount. Need to count gross lines only. How do I do that using MS Word?
Gross lines are not counted in characters.
A gross line = any number of characters on a line counts as a complete line. The actual number of characters per line will vary.
Hmm, I use gross lines and Sylcount is always higher
I've compared Sylcount with several different line counting programs and Sylcount was always higher, even if it was only by 10 lines. I did find that PractiCount is the same as Sylcount and I ended up switching to that since you don't have to convert files to rich text format, but other than that, I always found Sylcount to be the best.
8-9 cpl for Gross lines, easy work ....
Where? Where?
Gross lines versus 65-char, etc.
I think the above poster misunderstood me. I was trying to simplify the difference between counting a gross line and counting a line via character - which IS basically blowing out the document to full 65 character lines (with or without spaces)and counting them, versus counting anything on the line as a line.
That is true, though - the best way to compare documents is to look at the gross line count (after changing margins and font to 1" and Courier 12 respectively), then taking the character count and dividing by 65. Many who have never been paid by gross lines or have not really compared the difference would be amazed to see how many less lines you get on a 65-char count.
When it comes to gross lines, font does make--sm
a difference, as well as the margins. I was doing gross lines at 0.675 cpl with courier new 12 font with 1 inch margins side to side and 2 inches at the top. I grossed almost 50k this past year, so to me, gross lines are much better. we recently had a management change and are now doing 65 cpl at 0.09 cpl. I figured that would be about 500 a month less and 6000 a year less. that is a big difference, to me, anyway and I am not happy about it, either. This is just to give you some idea of what gross line pay is like. good luck to you.
Gross line is actual lines. sm
9 cpl if count is by 65 chars is not too much, IMO, for an experienced MT. If counting by gross lines, 7.5 c on a gross line equals about 9 cpl on a 65-char line, so if they use gross lines, it might sound low per line but it equals out in the end. A gross line is any line on the page. In other words, you can use your finger and count each line on the page that has words on it, and that's your line count. Most don't count blank lines. However, a lot depends on what they are including in that line, regardless. Are spaces included if 65-char line? Does the line count software count formatting changes (such as bold, underline, etc) If so, that will increase total line count. If not, it will decrease it. Gross line is usually a better deal unless the company is using a size 9 font or something or decrease the side margins. 11-12 size font with 1" margins is good with gross lines. The only thing that affects gross lines is the side margins or the font size. With 65-char line, font and margins don't affect it, which is why most go with that now. You take total characters (incl spaces if they pay for them, as someone else said) and divide by 65 to get total lines. Another thing to ask, if they use templates or normals, are the lines in those included? If not, that decreases total line count, too.
It's really hard for someone to say "this is the rate you should ask for" though, because there can be so much variability from company to company as far as what they count as a line. Also, is it clinic or acute care work? If clinic, generally easier and same docs all the time, so even at a lower line rate, you might make more in the end if you use expander, normals, templates, etc. Is there a platform or can you use Word and your own expander? If acute care where you have different docs all the time, a lot of ESLs, clunky platform, no Expander program, etc., it might slow you down so even with a higher line rate, you might not make as much in the long run. Therefore, you have to take all of that into consideration to arrive at what line rate you should charge or ask for ... almost have to adjust to each different company or client, really. For clinic work, 8-9 cents per 65-char line can net some good pay. For acute care, you might want more like 10-11 to get the same pay. Hope this all makes sense!
10 cpl for gross lines is pretty good for Rad.
x
If MTs want to work 10+ hour days
...more power to them. Not me - I'm gettin' tired of this. They're lucky if they get 6 hours out of me. I worked 10+ hours a day and weekends when I first started. Now, I could care less. I may not perform 1200+ lines a day, but I have excellent QA.
Duragesic 12 mcg/hour every 3 days (nm)
x
it's got to be gross lines or lots of canned text (nm)
x
Help! Is this a good deal? .09 gross lines with a font of ...sm
Times New Roman 11 and 1-inch margins. It will be op notes, but I have a sample report and there are sure A LOT of characters on those full lines.....
No. I work four 10-hour days. I'm really fast, really
occasions, about every other month, I might do 8-10 hours overtime.
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