How many lines per week do you transcribe?

• How many lines per week do you transcribe? - sm
  • I do about 5200 a week now, but I am not applying myself as well as I could - sm - Laura E.
  • 10,500 to 11,000 consistently, - SM
  • 12,000 lines per week for me - consistently. nm - GreenEyes
  • I always strive for 2000/day BUT lately the work has not been there - gatrans

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Accounts are SO LOW, especially at the end of pay periods that you can hardly survive with MQ anymore. Used to be a wonderful company to work for a few years ago . . . work is gradually disappearing, and you will be switched from one account to another to get EVEN the REQUIRED lines!!

Just you wait and see . . . .

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.

Now I just wish it didn't take me all day to do it.  I'm not sure how many days I actually worked this week, whether it was four or five, because all the days blend together into one now. 

I only recently started using an expander, so I do spend some time each day adding to it.

There are some companies out there that will let you work at will from a pool, which is really what IC status should be, but so many are taken advantage of by being asked to commit to a schedule.  STay away from those companies; they are crooks.

In saying that, you may want to do ask which companies allow you 24 hour TAT as opposed to a set schedule unless you'd like to be an employee, and then you could accept the shift work. 

Cardioscribes offers 24 hour TAT.  I cannot think of any others off hand, but the other thing you could do is contact an IC position that is advertised and ask if they would be flexible.  I think Zylomed also offers IC status and some flexibility, but I'm not sure.

Good luck to you...  Best wishes to find what you are looking for!

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.

because it is a big vacation week.  Typically things slow dow a bit in the summer too because people are putting off elective surgery, but at the same time lots of people going on vacation so it should balance out.   

Due to my company's payroll (it runs Sun-Sat), I'm able to work a rotating schedule with every other weekend off. Week 1 I work Sunday through Thursday with Fri, Sat, Sun off.  Week 2 I work Monday through Friday with Saturday only off.  Then I'm back to week 1 and get that following weekend off.

I've found that I'm more productive with shorter shifts and I have kids in school anyway, so I work a lot of split shifts during the week.  If possible, you might want to consider cutting back your hours to 30 hours and just work five 6-hour days in split shifts, 3 in the morning and 3 in the evening. 

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.

*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.