How long does it take you to transcribe...

• How long does it take you to transcribe... - Using tapes...
  • time - mt
  • One tape about 2 hours. - you should use an expander
  • Two docs I typed for--- 2 hour for - smit
  • If you mean one side of a mini tape - it's always about 500 lines per side...sm
  • depends how fast they talk-try this instead - no name
    • huh? even if you speed up tape you'll - still yield same amt of lines.....sm

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Just wanted to know how long it took some of you out there before you were off of QA? I am talking about when you were fresh out of school, just starting your first job. I know that everyone is different, but I am curious about how the average person does.

I am almost a month into my first job and still on QA. Most dictators I do well on (all clinic/office notes) and I have even got quite a few with 100% accuracy. A couple of them make me feel like I don't know anything.

So what's the consensus?

I used to make $70,000 and up a year and did so for most of the late 80s and 90s (one girl used to make six figures a year working 7 days a week!)  Because we were making more money than the supervisors and Medical Records Directors in hospitals, they began to switch to transcription services which were sprouting up all over the place.  Plus AAMT came into existence and even though in the beginning it claimed it was to fight for transcriptionists (although assured us it was NOT a union), they eventually morphed into an organization that was more management friendly.  They developed the "guidelines" and the 65-char line.  That was the beginning of the end for those high-end wages.  Then all those mickey mouse transcription schools popped up, and now outsourcing overseas.  YES, we're complaining. 

*mask* things once (and ONLY once).  What a crock!  It's like trying to transcribe an auctioneer.  I always wondered how the accuracy couldn't suffer with this method.  (I guess I was right, considering the government is now using it.)  They make less money because there isn't much skill involved in doing it that way.  Legitimate court reporters go to school for quite some time and have to learn what's basically another form of shorthand.  (It's been years, and I might be wrong, but I believe, for example, the letters PB=N (or something like that.  LOL). 

I was around when the court reporters in my area went from straight dictation to *the computer.*  In fact, I did editing/scoping work for one court reporter who bought the new system, way back when the technology first became available.  (She also bought my computer for me to do her work and anything else I wanted to do on it, and part of her *offer* was that after two years, I would own the computer outright!)  It's a whole different world than transcribing.  I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now.  It's easier for the court reporter, who can pull his or her notes right up on the screen when something doesn't make sense and see where the *typo* was and figure out what it actually should have been.  So in order to be an Editor for a court reporter today, you basically not only have to know how to read their notes, but knowing how to read their TYPOS is the important thing.  This particular court reporter had the wisdom to know when her notes weren't that good, and rather than give me a very sloppy transcript to edit, she'd dictate it instead.  She was a great person, and I miss her a lot.

Scoping/editing for a court reporter is a great field to get into if that's your cup of tea.  If you're a typist, it's real difficult to get the "rhythm" that you can get when transcribing, and that's what I don't like about it.  (Very same thing with VR in medical transcription today.)  However, after doing this kind of work for 20 years, I might wake up tomorrow with carpal tunnel and might be forced to pursue it.

One thing about court reporters, from my own personal experience in my area:  They are the most generous, easy-going, NICEST people I've ever encountered, considering the enormous amount of stress they're always exposed to.  Back in the 1980s, I remember reading stats on suicide rates, and court reporters and DENTISTS were right at the top of the list!!

Is there a way to transcribe a church audio lecture from CD?  It is a .cda file.  I have "associated" the .cda with Start/Stop and ExpressScribe, but I still have no control with my foot pedal.  any suggestions? 

Thanks, Debbie

a minimum of 2000 lines per day x5 days a week for 8 hours a day, making 9 cpl which equals out to $180 per day. That comes out to $900 per week or $46,800 per year. That is just at 2000 lines per day. This is w/o shift differential and line differential added in. We get a bonus for going over a certain number of lines per pay period and we get a shift differential for working 2nd and 3rd shifts, which then works out to over 10 cpl. Transcribing 2000 lines per day works out to 250 lines per hour. W/o using an expander, I probably type about 100 words per minute and with my Expander it is a lot more. My pay stub shows how many lines per hour I average each paycheck. This week it was over 300 lph. I use my expander to its fullest. I have macros for everything and anything you can think of. I do radiology, oncology, and ER transcription - lots of phrases said over and over. I do not cherrypick. I cannot see what report or doctor I am going to get, the chart just pops up and I type it. Some days are all good docs, lots of days they are horrible but in this profession you take the good with the bad.

Everybody's work habit is different. Focus on what you can do instead of what person A or person B can do. When I first started I set goals for myself. I wanted to be typing 1000 lines by so and so date in 8 hours. When I reached that goal I made the goal higher by 100, 250 and then 500 lines. To me, it's all in the attitude you have for work. I look forward to work each day because every day there is something new to be learned.

Can someone please tell me the correct way to transcribe 10 to the fifth E. coli.

Thank you very much for your help.

I found great, low-cost software that allows you to convert tapes to digital files (MP3, WAV, WMA, etc.).  Check out www.dak.com !  Your PC needs a sound card and a line-in connection (usually next to your line out to plug in your headset or speakers), as well as a tape player and an actual line that plugs from your PC line-in to your tape player.  Think they call that line a male-to-male or male-to-female or something like that (got my line from www.martelelectronics.com).  Use Dak to convert your music cassettes, too.  Hope this helps!

P.S., I'm an MT, not from DAK

doctors once and may never hear again!!  Every day is like a new day on the job.  Just really sucks!!  Just sayin' that even though you are seemingly having it tough where you are now, it could be a LOT worse.  Whatever you do, for your own sake, do not quit where you are now to take a national job.  There are so many variables that you can't even imagine with these places.  It is more like slavery in your own home than a real job. Worked for one national where I averaged 150 lines an hour for 8 cpl, that's only 12 dollars an hour, before taxes!  Who can live on that? Most of my time was spent on looking crap up, demographics and such!  Had to buy own spell checker and abbreviation Expander and other crap, and it's just a big racket!  Well, as I said before, just my humble opinion, but wish I was in your shoes!  Good luck, but don't do anything with the job you have now....

I truly wish I was in your position than mine  (that's green with envy ;) lol  

community and try to do something about healthcare for these people.  I cannot stand these judgemental attitudes from people like you, who are making a living off of what you claim to despise.

stethoscope type.  Just wondered if anyone else has this or just lucky me?

I thought that was the definition of verbatim account. What is a verbatim account definition, pls?