How to Learn Radiology Fast
Posted By: Terry on 2007-06-25
In Reply to:
Hi. I'm wanting to move into radiology transcription. I've done other easier specialities for 7 years. Any quick tips on how to do this w/o spending a fortune and being able to do this at home when I'm off work in my down time? Anyone who has done this or has any ideas on how to quickly self train I'd appreciate it. There have been several job postings in my area for decent pay and consistent work but I don't want to go in as a rookie not knowing MR, PET terms.
Thanks
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How long did it take you to get fast with your ESLs and learn them well. nm
:
How hard is it to learn radiology if I can do
nm
How hard is it to learn radiology IF...
How hard is to to learn radiology if I have 10 years experience in orthopaedics?
Prob is then you may get all fast fast fast talkers...not a fair way nm
x
depends how fast the MT is......No one would want to pay me by the hour because I'm fast.
nm
how fast you can type, has little to do with how fast you can transcribe
Let's face it, we can only type as fast as the doctors dictate... worse, we can only type as fast as we can *understand* the doctors. Given someone who slurs or has a heavy accent, someone who clears his throat constantly or shuffles through the paper, given an unfamiliar account or work type, or an area we don't have much experience in and have to look up words, etc., any and all of these things combine to make typing speed not really relative at all. I personally type 110, but not when I'm transcribing. I tell most folks who ask, if you type 65-75 wpm, you're solidly in the ballpark for doing medical transcription.
Radiology transcription, what type of reports are considered radiology
I have lot of experience with everything and I would like to know what exactly is considered radiology so I know if I qualify for that type of work? I've had many types that I think qualify for radiology.
learn something new every day - thanks
See - learn something new every day. Thanks. I just knew about some laws passed locally last year on a city/county basis.
Did you learn
on the job, or were you taught by a friend, or self-taught?
Most of those tests nowadays are geared toward grads of official MT programs.
Learn something new every day don't
you. A consult is similar in format to an H&P, but 2 different things - for example, an elderly patient with diabetes breaks a hip and needs surgery. Most likely they are admitted to ortho, but need an endocrine of internal medicine consult to determine if diabetes is stable enough for surgery and no other medical problems that might be a contraindication to surgery, or need treatment prior to surgery.
You will never learn to do them...
unless you tackle them head on. You do what you can with the report, and you do what you can with the next report. You cannot avoid difficult dictations. If you don't learn to do them, you will never make any money and will probably get into trouble for abandoning too many reports.
Why would anyone want to learn it???
nm
Learn something new every day...sm
Outlook and outlook express are two different things I guess. I never knew this, but that's what I am being told. Outlook has a calendar option but outlook express does not. Very interesting indeed. Let me know if you all hear anything different from this.
Thanks for all your help. I have decided to try the yahoo calendar for free and see how that works. So far, it's perfect! Thanks for the info everyone! 
thats it! You have to learn the sm
hard way to understand. For my own personal experience, I have gone through a horrible illness and I know more than ever the importance of medical records that are perfect. I have seen some really bad stuff out there in medical records, my own included that not only is a disgrace but downright dangerous! I have always done my job with the idea that there is a patient behind all of this and they deserve the best we can give them. With all the ruckus about the state of our health care system these days, why would any MT not understand that this is not about us and lines typed and cpl etc. ITS ABOUT THE PATIENTS!!!!!!!!! you are right, the money comes later. Its a career long learning experience, one that I hope never ends on the learning part. Sounds to me like you have also been through enough life to understand all of this. The younger ones won't get it until they have been at this for many years. The only problem is, with some of the attitudes of "I won't do this and I won't do that" they won't be in the business years from now!
RUN, RUN, RUN, as fast
You do not want to work for SS. They lie, steal lines, and will work you 7 days a week for as many hours as you are willing and you won't get paid accurately. Their line counter is always "down" and you can't track lines accurately.
run very fast
I too am an ex-IC for eTranz and this company is not professional at all. I consistently received paychecks 2 weeks late. Deb Garrison, the owner, if very unprofessional, hollering on the phone, hanging up on you. There is no communication in this company whatsoever. There are some very good companies out there. Please do not work for this company.
Get out fast!!
Well you definitely need to get out fast. Easier said than done I know I lived it. He sounds like my exhusband except throw in some cheating as well. He called me every name in the book and never wanted to do anything around the house but griped about it constantly. He stayed out and drank and everything else under the sun. He was also violent and would throw things and hit things. I feel your pain. It took me one night just finally getting my fill. No crying occurred like before. No yelling. Just me calming saying that was it I would be leaving and wanted a divorce and by two weeks I was gone along with our son, not quite 3 at the time. It is hard to leave financially and emotionally but sometimes you reach that point. Get out as best you can if you can!
Run as fast as you can
from AIM platform. It is more like typing in fields such as data entry.
I need help, fast!
I'm losing my job at the hospital in two weeks due to outsourcing and have decided to go it on my own. I have $800.00 in my budget to spend on a digital dictation system. Do you suggest I buy a phone-in system or an Internet software system and what brand names of each/or do you recommend? How much does the average one cost?
Thanks very much for your help. I have to move fast because my money is fast dwindling down and I want to make sure I make a wise and good investment so I can get moving in trying to find clinic accounts.
Anne in Clearwater, Florida
Need help fast
Before you jump into unchartered waters, I suggest that you start as an IC with a small national. You said you are a newbie. You still have much to learn. It takes a few years to hone your craft and be able to work independently without assistance. I would be afraid you would be biting off a little more than you can chew right now. Not trying to insult you. I have been around for a long time and would hate to see you make an investment like that and have to struggle. Find a position with a small national doing multispecialties for a couple to three years.
I'd go for a min. of $18 - now the fast MTs - sm
and the production guru's won't like this as I am sure they make more than that. But I only make $13-$15 now on production; some days down to $9/hour, depends on the dictator. But I think $18 is a fair wage, though I am sure many would disagree.
How fast can you run?
I would definitely not go that route. It would not be my choice of transcription platform!
They want to seem as fast as possible?
Maybe because the more lines their editors do, the more they (the company) get paid by the hospitals? I dunno ...
fast fox
Fast Fox by NCH, the Expander by the people that gave you Express Scribe. It has been good for me, it is easy and CHEAP. Go to NCH.com to download a free trial.
No I don't work for NCH but I tried it because I always like express scribe.
Learn from history
and think very carefully about this person and his sob story. Boo hoo!
His child is cruel toward animals, chances are this child is being mistreated in some way by someone. This is a red flag that something in not right in this child's life regarding the adults. Children are NOT naturally violent--it is learned behavior.
Be friendly, but takes things very, very slow and think of the safety of yourself, your children, and your pet (s). Better safe than sorry.
newbie trying to learn
I have recently finished an online medical transcription course. I have been reading the posting on this website and I'm very intrigued by some of the information. Not to sound stupid, but what are word expanders, auto correct, and shorthand? I have macros on my computer, but I never used them. I am trying to find my first medical transcription job, but it is very difficult as a newbie. I would love to be a productive, accurate medical transcriptionist, but it seems that no one wants to give the newbies a chance. Any thoughts of how to get started? thanks!
It is your job to learn the ESLs and if you can't/won't then you need to
find a new job because you are in the wrong one.
However, once you learn it, it's great!
I averaged $21-23 an hour doing radiology, about $15-17 doing acute care. If I were to go back into transcription, it would be doing radiology.
Thanks, i'd be interested to learn more
welcome; love IT and sure you will too when you learn it. nm
;
It depends on what you need to learn. Sm
Right now I have a gal starting Sep. 1 who has absolutely no med. training whatsoever so we are starting from scratch. She is paying for textbooks, cd's, materials, etc. I am having her pay as she goes along. I am not making any profit on any materials, but when she gets to the transcription part, I will have to start charging minimally for my time. Not sure yet how to go about that.
The second gal has some formal training and needs dictation practice and I am actually in the process of working with a company getting copies of microcasette tapes with approximately 800 minutes of dictation on them and will give those to my students.
I have a few accts. myself so when my students show that they are ready to tackle digital dictation, I may consider "hiring" them in the future. Right now, our goal is to get them trained and ready with my help, and to be able to pass a co. test.
I don't know where that box is to place my email address is and I don't want to post it in this spot. I will try to get my email available for anyone seriously considering getting into the field and being trained with an experienced MT who is willing to mentor them along the way to meeting their career goals.
It was very frustrating to learn but
after 3 months, I have grown to like it.... well maybe I have grown not to dislike it so much. I would still rather work in MS Word. It is NOT the best platform out there to be certain. The spell check is awful and I copy everything into a Word document to double check. You cannot copy back into Emdat though. If there are any changes to make you must type them. For some reason if you copy from Word, although it looks okay to you, on the physician's end it is wrong.
It is nice not to have to worry about the line count. It is VERY nice not to have to save each patient separately. It is nice to have the patients name available (although that is not always the case). Overall, I give it a C.
Hope this helped.
I had to learn the same program sm
Whether it is worth it - is only a question you can answer.
Personally, the platform is so easy; however, I do not get the high line counts I am used to even with their expander. I am so used to working in a Word-based platform with over 5000 auto-correct entries. For me, the transition was not worth it. I could only average 240 lines per hour compared to my usual 350 - 400 lph.
You have to realize, every one is different with different needs and wants.
The packet of policies you mention really is no big deal. Just print them out and read them over and within a week you won't even look at them again. Starting any job is overwhelming at first, but then it becomes routine.
I would suggest you give it a shot. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
As for the ESL account, I have no idea which one that would be - mine is a good mix of all.
Thank you! Learn something new everyday!
.
I like it. Once you learn it, it is easy.
x
Is this so you dont have to LEARN which is which?
If so, no, theres no way.
If you need a shortcut, just put the nongenerics in your Expander as capped. Put your others in like ddiphenhydramine and it will catch on spellcheck and you will know it is generic.
Yes. Use MT while you learn something else. It's never too late. nm
x
Was very difficult to learn and there are
still some things I cannot get the hang of. But, it is the only Expander I am permitted to use so had to bite the bullet after resisting for a few months. Takes about three months go use it effectively. Try using it for a few hours every day. When you get frustrated, close it and type everything out. On short-fuse days, skip it altogether. Over a few months, with this method, you will begin to develop speed and each new problem will be solved one by one so your line count will not get suffer greatly. Using IT requires doing a massive amount of reading initially. But, I have to say, I love it now (and am still learning how to use it six months into using it).
That rate is better than most. You do learn
the ESLs. You just have to "train" your ears. I remember my first day on my current account. I had all ESLs and I had so many blanks and was so stressed, but now I would rather do these ESLs than some of my American docs. I still have times when I will have a blank with these docs but it is rare. When you get corrections back print them and keep a file for future reference and if you can relisten to the report once you get corrections and see if you can hear what they are saying this time.
Took me about a week to learn it. I sm
forced myself to do it the IT way (using their marker keys), and started out using it 1 hour a day. I purchased mine at fitaly.com for full price. I have seen it used on ebay & here on the equipment board.
because in med school they learn to be even
cockier and they also learn how to dictate even faster. They also learn to pretend that everyone's physical exam is exactly the same no matter what their problem really is and, by the way, the Transcriptionist should know what that physical exam entails from the very first report. So, they all decided to save their money and just be a P.A. instead of an M.D. 
yep, for some it's a big deal so learn it *LOL*
The patient will be seen for followup in a week.
Followup one week.
The patient came in for follow up of her acne. (I believe this can be hyphenated to follow-up.)
The patient will be seen for followup care in a month. (This, too, some MTs hyphenate to follow-up but I do not.)
The BOS has this very issue - Book of Style by the AAMT 2nd edition - discussed in it.
Where did you learn all these tricks?
I have the program and have really not got into it too much yet, but the manual leaves a lot to be desired. It is very highly recommended so I intend to keep on trying. I bought it about a year and a half ago, and admit I finally gave up and put it on the back burner, but I really want to learn how to use it. I will add, though, that I have had a lot of trouble learning the tricks with Word, since I am on my own and having to teach myself.
Is it easy to learn?
Thanks
It will help you learn MD names and
I think help you get a realistic idea of your nursing career. I don't have kids though. I hope you have a good support system.
Good luck to you.
LIve and learn...
her name? Isn't that a little unprofessional and childish on your part. Too bad you got a bad deal, but you chose her. Maybe she's making more money doing something else or had a family emergency. Did you have her sign a contract because if you didn't then you really have no leg to stand on. I just personally think it is poor taste on your part to try to smear her name. I wish you would produce your full name so that I don't work for you in case I want to quit - you won't smear my name. Grow up and quit  ! Just find someone else!
The system will learn...sm
If everybody types PhosLo in the beginning, the system will learn it that way and will eventually put out a draft with PhosLo in it. However you type things is how the system will learn it. At first, we were told every number had to be Arabic, even cancer stages and factors, but because of complaints by doctors, we started typing stages with Roman numerals. It has taken a while, and it isn't perfect, but the system is learning to type Roman numerals when the word "stage" is in front of it. Good luck with E-scription...I love it!
You have to learn not to take it personally - sm
when I started I was basically thrown to the wolves doing acute care, but I hit the ground running and became a good MT. In one of the jobs I had at the time (had 3 PT jobs my first year in order to get exposure to many types of work and good experience), the person doing the QA was less than nice at times. He would make the corrections and send them to me, but if I did a repeated error or did no pick up on the diagnosis from the assessment (usually repeated in start and end of report) I would get a nasty comment. If I made a repeated error his patience would just go and again with the nasty comments. I was "scared" of him for a long time but once I got used to his ways and took his comments as constructive criticism I did a lot better. Now he does not even look at my work (yes I still work there) and we have a nice working friendly relationship. The key is to (again) not to take the comments personally. QA sees report after report of mistakes and maybe yours that day was the one to break the straw, who knows; Also most importantly LEARN from the corrections. Make notes of words you have problems with, I use an address book, A-Z and write down any unfamiliar and new terms, got that tip on here from someone else, works great. Also remember there is such thing as a dumb question.
learn something new all the time
Thanks for all the input, I worked for a company prior to this one and "pay day" was the day I physically had a check in my hand via mail and if pay day landed on a Sunday or Holiday, it was always in my hand 1 to 2 early...it had me worried there for a minute
I agree many need to learn how
to speak English more gramatically. But their accent? Unless someone comes here at a pretty young age, the accent is not possible to eradicate. We're born with the ability to make all sounds but we lose it. So it is always appreciated when they are aware that they are hard to understand and try to enunciate and not go too fast.
You would need to learn format.
Perhaps if you take an at home MT course that would be sufficient, and with your medical background might be able to land a job. After getting a dentist's salary for so long, might be depressed when you see your paycheck, and with all the ESLs out there might not be so much fun. Not trying to disillusion you but just stating the facts. Also, need to be able to type pretty quick, and have listening/typing coordination - takes some getting use to in the beginning.
If you decide to do it, good luck.
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