Hours/lines

• A silly question, but - I've not worked for company at home before
  • Every company is different -- I worked FT for one as an employee but worked a split shift - sm - XXX
  • NO. Don't listen to the OP below. Go to - www.dol.gov and see for yourself.
  • If you are FT employee, must take two 15 min breaks and 30 min lunch - is what they tell you.
    • breaks and lunch - mtathome
      • nope. www.dol.gov -- they don't have to do that. - no legal requirement for it
  • Hours/lines - Diane

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Just want to get some feedback on how long it takes to do 1200 lines.  I did clinic notes and was an IC for four years and work on and off throughout the day, so I really never had to work straight through the day to produce.  I am now going to do acute care-hospital work minus lab and radiology reports.  I have about four years experience.

Thanks,

I work on the same account every day, same dictators, lots of templated reports I did myself and put them into auto correct.  I get up early, start at 7 am and today I was done by 10 am.  Cleaning the house now.  Also, the line pay is slightly higher than most, so 1500 lines is fine for me today. 

On harder days when the account is really behind,  I get up and vacuum the house after 3 hours of transcribing then come back for 1 hour.  If things are caught up, I stop for the day.  If not, I will go back in the evening. 

I can't sit for 6-8 hours straight.  Making $160 bucks in 3 hours is good for me and enough.   Tomorrow is another day!

Use templates and short cuts - that will help!  I have whole reports in my auto correct, but you have to listen through and change and correct things as each patient is a different case. 

I do have to tell you, I do not get this many lines every day in such short a time.  It just happened that today was a good day.

Hope this helps.

On my slowest day, I will not allow myself to get less than 200 lines an hour.  Depending on the worktype, I can type up to 400 lines an hour.  It is hard for me to consistently stay at that speed as I have orthopedic issues!!!  I also can type extremely fast, (120 wpm).  I also use a lot of Expanders and shortcuts. 

I am a seasoned MT who back in the day 2000 lines was nothing to achieve.  I sat for 8 straight hours, barring potty breaks and 30-minute lunch.  But now that I am pushing 50, I can hardly stay in the chair 2 hours at a time.  I have set my goal at 1600 lines per day as that is what my employer pays 9.5 cpl for.  If I drop below that, my cpl drops also.   In addition, I have a backup up IC position with another company (to compensate when I run out of work on my FT job)  that pays 10 cpl.  I type 2 hours  on that account  (usually at night) and get 600 lines per day.  Fabulous account, fabulous "internet software" everything is right at your fingertips, and they count spaces, headers and footers.   Actually both jobs count spaces.

My advice to anyone wanting to get more lines- first and foremost priorty is check out the software the company uses.  If it is not user-friendly... forget it.  There was this one company who paid 10 cpl, and I could hardly get 500 lines in a 2-hour period.  They said they counted spaces, but it was hard to tell, and they surely did not count footers or headers.

you slice it, both companies will still get 8 hours worth of work out of you.

That is the problem I've been having lately being an MT.  Companies want to pay us on production and they set minimum productivity standards, but want us timed in for 8 hours a day.  My thinking is, if they want 8 hours of work out of me, pay me hourly with production incentive.  If they want to pay me on production and tell how much I have to produce in an 8 hour period, then when I hit that mark, I should be able to call it a day even if I've only worked 4 hours.

Seems these companies want it both ways and it is simply not fair to us MTs.  JMO, tho.

a day when I switched from clinic (through an MTSO)  to hospital work. Not only was the clinic work easier with more macros (and less providers to learn, 12 vs 300+), but I was typing in straight Word (as opposed to Softmed/Chart Script).  So you see, it really varies depending upon the type of work as well as the platform used. That said, I am so much happier typing the 1800 lines per day (I make over $15 per hour plus an incentive for any lines in excess of 1200 per day) plus a great health package/benefits, AND approximately 5 weeks of paid time off per year.  In my opinion, hospitals really are the best employers WHEN they appreciate the work we do.

My advice for you is not to judge a job by any one criterion but rather the entire picture. The 'extra's can really add up.

Good luck in your job!

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.