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How do minutes dictated equate to lines typed?

Posted By: sm on 2006-11-04
In Reply to:

In other words, if I commit to type 30 minutes of dictation, how many lines would that equate to (for 150 lines per hour for example)??  Or put another way - how long would an average Transcriptionist take to type 30 minutes of dictation (from an "average" dicatator)??


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dictated / typed
Doctor says "jiddo, jiddo, jiddo" - what does this mean"  Why.... 0-0-0 - OMG. The things we put up with for no money.
Yes, that's why it's funny. If we only typed exactly what they dictated....
-
I typed 600 lines more this week than I usually do
(working extra hours) and my pay for the week is still 50 dollars short because of the VR pay. I don't know if we should say something to our companies about this or what or if it would even help but it really ticks me off!
Lines typed an hour or a week?

I know this has been talked about a lot, but I was offered a chance to test for an IC job, and I'm required to type between 2,500-5,000 lines per week.  Since I'm an employee and haven't been paid by the line for about five years, approximately how many hours does it usually take for some of you to type 2,500 lines per week?   


TIA.


About how many lines are expected to be typed each day, minimum, on average? NM

Here is the best way...open any document you have typed for anything and count the lines both ways.

I have pretty much always been paid by the gross line...occasionally I will take a job with a company that pays by characters and I never make as money.  Remember...with gross lines, a line is a line is a line....that means anything on the lines be it one character or 65 is a line.  For instance....today I type a normal file for a client I have worked on for years...if I counted the lines at 65-cpl I got 398 lines, but counting gross lines I got 641 lines.  This is a 38% difference in pay between the two, so you would be making approximately 5 cents a line less on the character count.  Hope this helps :)


minutes vs. lines
In my experience, as I get paid per minute, depending on what you get paid per line, let's say anywhere 10-13 cents per line then by the line is the way to go especially if you have a lot of normal reports. I have a speedy radiologist and sometimes get paid nothing for a report because I barely get the name recorded and study recorded.
130 lines in 15 minutes?
Wow!  You are fast.  That would be 530 lines an hour!  I thought I was doing good at 250.  At that rate you can make a lot of money, but I think it would burn me out typing that much every day. 
Minutes vs. lines

Can anyone please tell me what 75 minutes of dictation should yield in lines (65 char).


TIA


minutes to lines
I recently started a new job and was told the formula is 100 minutes of dictation equals 1000 lines a day, approximately. Hope that helps.
probably about 100 minutes/1000 lines
15 years ago, I worked for a company that paid by the minute.  we got 87 cents for 1 minute.  I did 200 minutes a day and it was in the ballpark of 2000 lines.  it varies depending on your dictators but that's a good average.
OH! ER notes - that is where you can rack up minutes/lines!
Just fly 'em out the window, dude!!
Info on minutes converted to lines
Hi everyone.   I have a potential job offer and two of us are going to split the minutes.  Does anyone know what 100 minute's worth of dictation would equal in lines per day.   I know there is probably a formula for converting this, but I cannot find my information that I used to have.   Thanks
On average 1000 minutes equals how many lines?
nm
Wow, 600 lines from 30 minutes of clinic/chart notes - sm
The most I would squeeze out of that would be 350 probably. You must have one fast talking doctor. You are also very fast if you can do 600 lines in one hour, or else you have it macroed/expanded to death and there is very little actual typing so that is why you can do so much in such a small amount of time.
approximately how many minutes dict. equals 1000 lines?sm
When I worked in-house, I pure typed all day (8 hrs) 1/2hr lunch..2 10-min breaks and we were applauded for 70-100 minutes (we weren't paid by line but by hour). We didn't have Expanders and such..no normals..just typed. I don't know how many lines I produced, but 100 minutes dictation was a lot of work. Now it seems everybody looks at 1000 lpd as low normal.
One of my employers told me to just add a 0, i.e. 30 minutes would roughly equal 300 lines. sm

Of course, if someone talks fast, you'd get more lines, and if you get one of those guys who stops and turns pages and/or talks slow, the lines would be less.  Seems to be a pretty good rule of thumb for me.


As for the length taken, when I started doing MT work 30-some years ago (back in the days of the vinyl belts and carbon paper -- eek!), the quota was that you should be able to 15 minutes of dictation in 1 hour.  However, I think anyone with experience would probably do it in much less time. 


Hope this helps.  


They equate to about the same amount of $$. nm
x
Why does not driving equate to staying home? (nm)

so this doesn't equate to .09 straight typing like...
they promise? i'm trying to see how i can make a living at that pay; it sounds like minimum wage or less (my poor hands :(
I used to say he nursed for 30 minutes every 30 minutes. I was trying to figure
out a way to strap him across my chest so he could help himself while I went about whatever it was I had to do.    I really miss those days too.  
ATT- I was paying $320 for 7000 minutes, I am now paying $175 for 5000 minutes in CA. nm
nm
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.
and think, the Dr. may have dictated that
At least you ARE concerned about it. Many wouldn't be. Hang in there!
Has she ever actually dictated a sm
report in the format that she is required to do.  I do forms for a cardiologist in this manner, but when I first started working for him, he actually dictated the letters.  I think all physicians need to include certain things for a new patient, and then can do follow-up letters without including past medical history, allergies, etc.  I wonder if she has any colleagues that would be willing to share samples of their reports, but that specialize in the same field.
ROFL at what this MD just dictated...sm
NEUROLOGIC:  He does have diminished memory.  I did start him on Aricept for this last year, but he has forgotten to take it. 
They pay per minute dictated. Sux.
Especially when they assign the work. It's not fun when all your work is less than 1 minute, two line reports, ESL docs, etc.
dictated, not read
I'd take it as a compliment.
If the docs dictated like that, they would never get anything done, lol
nn
H&Ps dictated by a very thorough dictator. nm

Doesn't have to be dictated...but he does
xx
Exams Dictated But Not Done
I transcribe for a local multispecialty clinic and have seen many of my own reports. It just gripes my butt when the doctor dictates a standard physical exam and I know for a fact that he/she hasn't even touched me. Did not check my heart, lungs, abdomen, neuro, extremities, etc. The only things that are legit are the vital signs. It's like if I come in for a sore throat he looks at my throat but nothing else. My fibromyalgia clinic NP only talks to me - no exam at all - yet she dictates an exam, review of systems (that we didn't even talk about). She will say conjunctivae and lids are clear; PERLA, etc., and she hasn't even gotten within 6 feet of my eyes. This just doesn't seem right. And when you have labs or other tests, they NEVER call you back with the results. My PCP never suggests any preventive testing - I have to ask for it myself. I know they're not all like that but my eyes are opened much wider than they used to be. It's all about getting it done in under 15 minutes and on to the patient in the next room. 
I always leave these as dictated.

Let's say you're Asian and have a doc who seems to possibily have a bit of an ''attitude'' about your ethnicity.  In perusing your own medical records, you see that this doc uses the term Oriental instead of Asian.  There's some confirmation that your suspicions were correct, allowing you to make a more informed decision about your medical care and who you want providing it.  Especially true with the word Negro, IMO, which I haven't heard in quite some time but have actually had dictated and left as is, even if I had the leeway to change it.


IOW, I think it's a patient's right to know if a doc is using words like that, so I don't change them.


Doctor who dictated during the PE sm
I had a doc I used to do who treated a lot of brain injuries and strokes. He always dictated during the interview and PE. He would say, in front of the patient...the pt is completely obtunded...the pt is befuddled...the pt is extremely obese, just enormous...the pt's mom is once again out of touch with the pt's needs...and so it went.

The noise was sometimes out of hand, he was a grumbling gravely dictator and that IS all part of the job. It is the thought of being his patient and having him be so brutally honest, well it smacked of unprofessional behavior.

I had a podiatrist who was "too busy" to dictate the day of service, so he would dictate on Sundays. One weekend, he dictated 8 reports...from the bathroom...in the span of about 20 minutes. I got to hear the toilet flush no fewer than 6 times in 5 dictated reports. He kept pausing to concentrate and it wasn't on the report he was dictating!

If the noise is too bad, it gets a blank. I don't care what they say and I don't care where they are when the dictate, but please don't make me know that you have the crap$ while you are on the phone with me. Plainly, I don't want to know.
I would type it as dictated. nm
nm
type as dictated

The word lesbian, unless used in a derrogatory manner, is simply stating the patient's sexual orientation, which could be quite relevant in a psych report.  It's the same as describing a patient as a heterosexual female.  Not intended to "label" someone, simply stating a fact.  I see no problem with typing it as dictated. 


I transcribe just what is dictated.
x
I do think, if the doctor dictated this
you should put it in the report.
transcribe as dictated...(sm)
Transcribe as dictated: "Patent shotty veins." This is perfectly acceptable as is and does not require rewording.
Dictated Minute
There is/was a transcription service called Alert and Oriented that pays by the dictated/recorded minute.  You might try doing a search on that company to see if any MTs posted their experiences being paid by time using this method.
$2 per dictated minute would be around
$40 per hour. Very nice....
But they are not dictated when the IC has to work.
They are alerting the potential contractor to when the work is available. If the contractor does not wish to work when the contractee requires the work done, the the contractor should not seek that position.

Now if the contractor accepted the position and signed a contract committing to working those hours, and the company attempted to force a change in the agreed upon hours to make the contractor work a different schedule, that would be a violation.
My dictated funny for the day
Dictated: He lives with his third wife. First wife was a widow, second wife divorced.
He just dictated she has lots of poop in the
GI tract.  Would you type that or change to feces????
One more question - why then are they dictated as MS4 and not MD? Enlighten me please sm
Maybe I have been misinformed all of these years by physicians themselves.
Need help asap - Doctor dictated the following:
a sixteen one-thousandth split-thickness skin graft.  How do you type it?  Is it  0.0016-inch or 16/1000-inch or something else?  HELP
Can I play files dictated in DVI on my PC?

I was recently approached by a local doctor and asked if I would like to type for them.  The doctor's office uses a DVI system but they did not know anything else including what equipment I would need to play the files.  I was wondering if I could purchase software that would alow me to dial into their DVI system with my computer instead of using a separate DVI machine.


Thanks,
Mariah


Paid by the dictated minute? sm
Is anyone paid by the dictated minute and if so what is a fair rate?  I was offered what I think is a great rate, however, this is my first experience and I would like to compare.  Thanks!
You can't transcribe what hasn't been dictated. I don't see
p
And so you would spell it incorrectly as dictated?
Just wondering.
Usually dictated in the same fashion, but sometimes the SOAP
s