Have all the good dictators left the building?
Posted By: Grrrrrrrrrr on 2009-04-07
In Reply to:
I am so ticked. I work on VR and everything is nothing but a bunch of words that fit nothing, dictators cannot speak properly and VR throws in whatever. I am sick, I tell you, of dictators who don’t care. I am on my soapbox because I am so angry with having to listen to all this ______ (put in your own words here).
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The gross line has left the building..nm
x
same experience here: crappiest dictators are left
on straight transcription.
If the VR document is bad, it might have 2 reasons:
bad dictator
or
bad audio.
Same with straight, lol !
Is the dictation quality good, are the dictators good, are you
a newbie and you still have to look up lots of words .... The very first day I typed, with absolutely no education way back when, when you didn't have to have a degree/certificate or previous experience, I typed 665 lines. This was without an expander and I was not a fast typist. I can do 1000 lines in about 4 hours now on average.
Good workload, bad dictators! nm
Good dictators only on that account . . .
I get plenty of the stinkers, just like we all do. The accounts I don't share, and sometimes dread, are often short reports filled with lots of dead air in the sound file. They are also 90% ESLs. So don't think I skim off the cream. I don't.
I'm just saying it is impossible to cherry pick an account of all good dictators.
I work my butt off to make it. I'm not sitting here taking only the "good stuff" and leaving the crud for other MTs.
Ever come to like a specialty you used to hate, just because the dictators are so good?
In my case, it's cardiology. Used to CRINGE when I saw a cardiology report come up. But on my account, almost ALL the cardiology docs are great to transcribe. Now I actually enjoy these reports and have learned a lot about a specialty I used to hate!
Now, physical therapy will always and forever be my most detested specialty. I get really bored with all the stupid exercises and the patient saying his/her back hurts. Whose back DOESN'T hurt? The fact that PT on this account has some of the worst dictators certainly doesn't help any.
I find myself willing to research more for good dictators...SM
if I get a lazy, mushmouth speedtalker, I don't bother much. I mean, I definitely strive for accuracy with what I *can* hear, but if there are unintelligible parts, I leave a blank rather than playing it over and over and over and trying to get it. If they obviously don't give a rip, why should I?
Maybe a bad attitude, but why should I gyp myself out of $$ because some a$$ can't be bothered to E-NUN-CI-ATE!!
All I ask is for clearly speaking dictators and good sound quality and I would be a
nm
Even with multiple GOOD dictators, I still find it hard - sm
to do '8 hours' worth of transcription in less than 11-12 hours, mainly due to the lack of ability to make templates, as each doc does his H&P entirely differently. Also they want extraordinary accuracy, grammar clean-up, and proofreading done on each report. So a longish H&P can sometimes take an hour.
Are there any good MTs left??
What has happened to the MT who is committed to working hard? My experience with hiring in this field has left me very frustrated. Yes, an MT will test well, and their resume brags of experience, and they blah-blah-blah with all that you want to hear about hours and availability and knowledge, but once hired, that all goes "poof!" You find that they don't have the knowlege they boasted of, they only want to work a few hours a day, if that, (after promising full-time hours), and they don't answer your e-mails and calls after a while. Please tell me there are still people who want to work, who want to work hard, who take pride in their work, and who actually stick around for more than 2 weeks! Be honest on your resume, be honest during the hiring process, and please don't waste everyone's time. Let's keep MT jobs in the US by practicing what we preach - Quality, hard work, dependability, and love of the job!
Any good MTs left
I can be honest with you....I just recently graduated a Transcriptionist training program....
I am a hard worker who is looking for a transcriptionist job and am not going to be full of hype with you...completely honest.
Thanks
I agree. It's an impossibility for me even with years of experience AND good dictators. nm
m
The way I see it. Competing with national rates. If stable acct, good dictators. Bid low, get job
dd
For this account, I charge 0.12 cpl. It is very easy clinic stuff with good dictators, but ...
I also do tapes which are horrible so I'm considering upping my line rate especially if all this aggravation keeps up. When I first took the work, I thought I was being fair because the work was so easy, but then they asked me to do tapes and then work specific hours, print and deliver work three times a week. I wish I would have addressed more than TAT and line rate in the original contract. I do charge them a $5 per delivery fee because of gas prices, but still I think I'm getting the shaft.
Oh well, live and learn. I am negotiating for a local doctor's office here in my hometown, small one doctor office, and I'm here to tell you I will be negotiated every little detail right down to paper and toner charges!
Good point. If she left then she is taking the
younger child away from HER father and there is much less chance of finding a third man who is going to love and raise both children the way they should be raised.
I think it's best to try to work through it, maybe try some counseling and try to make DH realize that he has to fill the role of "dad" for both children. If he is basically a good man, then this is not the end of the world.
Also, OP states she's not making much money. She would be putting both her children in a situation of financial disaster, plus no father for them. Bad idea.
Good for you--I left the field in January
after 16 years. I now work as an Editor outside of the medical field. I'm still home-based, and my journalism degrees are put to good use. I hate to see what has happened in this profession, and follow the developments. However, I did not feel encouraged about my future in transcription, and felt that it was best to get out ASAP. I'm relieved to be out of it, and encourage anyone considering a career change to follow their intuition and explore their options.
Your transcription experience will put you ahead of the game in nursing school. Best wishes to you, and congratulations for taking action.
Those are all very good reasons why I left the office, - sm
but at least I could leave at the end of the day, and afford to buy things at the supermarket on the way home. Money worries have become the big glaring issue that is always there, and won't go away no matter how hard or how many hours I work. And then, all that gets sabotaged when you run out of work. (Which is happening to me as I write this. I intended to work all afternoon and evening today to make little extra, and now that's not gonna happen.)
So everything is a trade-off, I guess. And as much as I hate to think about having to have a "work wardrobe" again, or deal with all the issues you mentioned, I hate it even more that I haven't funded my 401K in about 3 years, nor my savings account, which has been dwindling because I keep siphoning funds out of it to get by each month. I'm hoping to land an onsite job before my savings are depleted.
Help-Building macros!!!
Can anyone tell me where to find a good resource for learning to build macros or Expander abbreviations.
We must live in the same building!!!
My DSL went out Thurs @ 7:30 and it took till Saturday around 5pm for them to finally fix it. Neighbors cable was frozen, Sat morning I had my internet but it was worse than dial up. 1 tech came out, then 2 more showed up, next an outside engineer, then another..to find the signal was "flapping" from their end to my computer! When all got fixed I still had to do a system restore!
Important thing when building your...sm
expander, I have found, is to use abbreviations that you will easily remember while you are transcribing. It isn't that important what specific abbr. you use, but you don't want to have to look up an abbr. while you're transcribing. You want it stuck in your memory so that it is automatic. I found it is easiest to keep adding abbrs. to my Expander during the course of typing as a phrase might come up, I'll put it in the expander... takes a few seconds. Also, I have a list of my new Expanders that I've recently added... and might refer to them while I'm learning & memorizing them, once I learn them & use them a few times I'll discard the list.
Building a list of shortcuts
Building an Expander list is a time-consuming undertaking, and as mentioned in your various posts there are different methods to do it. The question is what is the best method and is there a way to save time building a list of words and phrases.
If you do your list manually and assign dedicated short forms to each and every entry you definitely need a system, your system. Learning another person's system is like learning a new language unless it is based on basic rules.
To get more lines done in a day it is important to expand phrases rather than words as the keystroke savings are much greater.
As you point out, Cara, the problem is that the dictators have all their variations of phrases. To get all these variations into your list, Instant Text offers what is called glossary compilation where IT reads through your transcription and adds all these variations into your list automatically. It takes seconds.
For more about this you can visit instanttext.com
I know an expander program is a very personal choice. However, there are things Instant Text does that other Expanders don't do, and IT might be the answer to some of your concerns expressed in this thread. I just wanted to let you know.
Marianne Kleen
Textware Solutions
Thanks. I know for a fact from building computers you are correct. SM
Thank you for reminding me.
Actually, I merely RESEARCHED building computers, and on the IT technical sites of REPUTABLE tech persons, I did get quite a lot of information INCLUDING the fact that you must have the CD and it is sometimes necessary to call Microsoft if you rebuild with a new hard drive, etc. So, your post is entirely
legitimate to me. Don't know what the person below had about it, but they are wrong. There are of course people who pirate, but that would be above my pay grade, for sure! I'm just limping along with Microsoft Windows and Word, and the day I get an employer who uses a MAC and there is an alternative to Microsoft Word, I'm out of there.
Not always. Tongue stumblers. New dictators. Speedy and lazy dictators.
D
?? Bad dictators are bad dictators regardless of their mother language.
wonder when people will just get over it and do what they can and move on.
Just hit Alt+Shift+left arrow on line 1 and it will go to the left margin. Otherwise,
you need to use a numbered list style to do it every time. Each version is different, but you may already have a numbered list style in yours that stays at the left margin. Just assign a keyboard shortcut to that style.
how are they going to get used to all the dictators
if your source says they cherry pick and only do American dictators? Sounds like never. But you knew that.
PS: Are you absolutely sure your source has your best interest in mind with this detailed ratting on another person regarding Indian cherry picking doing non-Indian work?
Dictators who keep....
  
I'm having a bad day with dictators and got this in my
email. It cracked me up. It's a typo in a medical brief that a lawyer filed for a continuance. The typo is on the 2nd page.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0916051disk1.html
I have had dictators like that!
when most dictators were from the USA. nm
x
bad dictators sm
I can take an ESL more than I can take an American who speaks fast just to show off to his buddies or because he has a hot date and is dictating from his car or worse yet, if you can't understand him, he has an excuse why his report is incorrect, he can blame you for it. They do it, believe me, and they are the ones who should be shot down. Give me an ESL any day who says thank you very much and is trying hard to learn the language. Some of these fast-talking big shots could care less about us. I had one guy who could fit 15 discharge summaries on one side of a 15 minute tape and everyone would send him to me because I was the outside service. When he was spoken to, he just threw his head back and laughed. Ignorant!
dictators
don't you just love it when you have to turn up the volume to hear what the doctor is saying and then in the middle of the dictation he finally puts his mouth to the mic/phone, blasting your ears; so you turn it down then by the end of the report you have to turn it back up.......no wonder I have ringing in my ears sometime 
Bad dictators
Chewing gum very loudly, blowing bubbles while dictating, drinking something and then chewing on the ice....all in the average day lately. Don't these people stop to think that someone has to listen to this? That they are chomping incessantly into someone's ears. No common sense. Maybe once, someone in authority should remind them that these are legal documents and need to be transcribed as accurately as possible, so no chewing, drinking, talking while yawning, etc.
Bad dictators
I have got to one-up y'all... there is a woman doctor in our group who actually takes her dictaphone INTO THE BATHROOM with her and, yes, that's right, uses the potty right while she's dictating...
ESL dictators
Maybe the ESL docs, knowing that the Transcriptionist must be having a difficult time with the language barrier, should hire an English speaking person to do their dictations. It would free up their time for being a doctor and seeing patient's, give a more accurate transcription, and a better quality report. Wha'cha think???
ESL dictators
Seems many MTs have this complaint. We should be told the correct percentage of ESL dictators BEFORE accepting a job. Imagine all the money a company would save by going over details with each new applicant honestly and thoroughly in the beginning instead of making the job sound good and then have a disappointed new employee, who will quit and the company will have to advertise and hire again. Advertising and training on a computer system is costly, including the time involved etc. The more a company can do to retain its employees, the more money it will save in the long run. Also, pay based on production, not quality of work, is counter productive. Imagine if each Transcriptionist was paid a salary and did quality work and no QA people were needed, except to pull random reports of new employees during the first 30-60 days or so. I feel there is too much QA and not enough emphasis put on quality reports from the beginning. Many transcriptionists feel, the QA people will fill in my blanks, yet they may be able to find the word/words themselves if production was not such a huge factor. But too many employees are trying to meet a line count. With a salary, you can establish a budget and know what to expect in your paycheck. I've transcribed for 25 years. I love my work. Since outsourcing and pay by production have been instituted, I feel pride in transcribing has suffered. Give an employee a job they can feel great about, benefits, and treat them with honesty, fairness, and respect and they will be glad to work for that kind of company. Hopefully, there are companies out there like this It's up to us to find the good companies.
Of note, 10 years ago transcriptionists were being paid around 10-11 cpl and $3.50-$4.00 a page. What happened, outsourcing!! We used to get a higher salary than coders, but not now. We need to keep our work in the USA.
Bad Dictators
I had my share of bad dictators this afternoon too! Is it full moon? I am sure I had your doctor's wife. LOL Can we band together and chart a bus to deliver them to the firing squad?? LOL At least maybe would could let the air out of the tires on their golf carts! Do these people listen to how bad they are???????
Dictators
OH PULEEEEZE spare me the whispering, breathy female docs who sound like they could talk all night on a phone sex line. I don't care what you sound like on the phone. Just TALK lady - spit it out. Am I mad or what? Gads I'm sick of these bimbos.
bad dictators
You ever wonder that when the powers that be become aware that you are making lines on low volume work days, they somehow sneak all the worse dictators your way? I have had bad dictators, none of them in sequential order, and am no where close to my lph this morning.
Dictators
 I could send you a lighter! Seriously, I have considered sending a voice copy to them to play after the fact, a day or two later, so they could see what they could understand of what they said!
BAD Dictators
Oh, you're not alone. They all must have spring fever or something. I have had more dead air than dictation on reports lately. If this keeps up the pay should not be by the line, but by the minutes listened to.
To all the dictators out there
SLOW DOWN! This is not a race. I cannot stand it when these dictators talk so fast that you cannot understand them. You know who you are, especially the cardiac dictators!!!!
Thanks for letting me vent. I get frustrated when my production goes in the toilet!
bad dictators
My huge pet peeve when it comes to dictators is them stopping to flip through the chart and not pushing the pause button. I mean I am just sitting there listening to dead air, wasting money while they find what they are looking for before they start talking again. How RUDE. I think all doctors should take Dictation 101 as part of their medical training before they get licensed. Speak clearly in complete sentences, speak at a fairly fast pace, and for heaven's sake.......hit the pause button if you have to stop dictating.
Bad dictators
IMHO, these are all due to the HIM department folks not training the docs properly. I worked at one hospital long enough to find out that the HIM department heads have total control over what type of dictation behavior is accepted, including the reports that are outsourced. It seems that, if the HIM departments for the various hospitals that outsource to us, or the office managers for the various doctors, would just care about what type of dictation we are getting, they would go out of their way to do something about it. I know they have plenty of time, cause these are the very ones who have no problem picking apart reports and complaining about missing commas!!
Bad dictators
Now my pet peeve.......dictators who say "go back and change" or "forget that last paragraph". You are essentially typing 2 reports and being compensated for only 1. Had 1 report today where CRNP did that 16 times.
Any suggestions welcome!
dictators
If MTs did the kind of job some dictators do they would be fired.
When dictators take a long time shuffling papers I just hold down my foot pedal down while awaiting the next words and check my email or read a paragraph in a book or do some upper body stretching exercises.
Recently I had a doc dictating over the barking of a dog. I wonder where he was? Or where the dog was?
What is it with these dictators..sm
They'll ...um and ...uh and ...er all through the patient history..wasting more and more of the MT's time than necessary .. with the occasional 30-45 second pause between each item to paper-shuffle (on OUR time). But when it comes to the MEDS and LABS, which are the mainstay of an H&P or consult, as other doctors will base patient care on the meds the patient is already taking or present lab results, they'll race through them at 78 rpm so as not to be understood or able to be transcribed without rewinding 4 or 5 times. Just because they can race-read medications or labs doesn't mean we can type them just as fast... I guess accuracy in these areas takes back seat. (Who cares where the patient moved here from or went to school?)
bad dictators
I think the shoe should be on the other foot. The doctors have absolutely no respect for what we do - we should be the ones giving THEM feedback - They will be the first ones to speak up if there is an error on the report when in fact, it is entirely their fault. We are intelligent, professional MTs, not magicians !!!!
The dictators that....
Have a pager sitting right beside the microphone and it continuously goes off, a shrill BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP right in my ear and they don't bother silencing it, turning it off, merely MOVING it away from the mic so that my ears are still intact, they just let it beep and keep on talking away.
What are your favorite dictators?
I like the ones who right when they begin dictating, turn around and speak directly into their armpit. Or how about the ones who carry on a complete conversation in English to the nurse next to them, then when they start dictating they sound like one of those auction guys who have had a few drinks?
Favorite dictators
I have one guy, who really seems nice, thank's you each time at the end of the report, apologises if he has to correct something he said, long reports, BUT, he usually dictates at home, while cooking,bathing the kids and NOW, we must have a new dog because we are deciding to train it while dictating .
It's a verbat account so I really should have put in all the "sits, stays, good dog..would have made a fortune.
BUT (again), if it were'nt for the fact that the ER he works in is over 140 miles away, I'd have been in the ER, requesting him, to treat me for my ruptured ear drum, when he must have forgot the doggie treats and this dog started barking, loud, blew my eardrums out, had to crank the volume wayyyyyyyyy down, could NOT hear him, except for the good dog's and sit, I'll play later
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