I'm a small MTSO - what platforms do MTs like?
Posted By: sm on 2008-09-09
In Reply to:
Or do you prefer typing in your own Word program and emailing encrypted files? Do you prefer to use C-phone to access the dictation, or wav pedal? I'm seriously thinking it might be better to use a platform where MTs can go online to access the dictation and the platform to type into and I am looking for ones that MTs like and consider MT friendly. So...what have you used and which ones do you like best? I did do a search, but I'm asking again. Obviously, being a small MTSO some of the larger platforms might be beyond my reach, but I'm looking for opinions.
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Any small MTSO need PT help? sm
Okay, I have tried the big nationals and that did not work out for me. I would like something for a few hours a day - would love to do family practice SOAP notes again or something where I can just type away and make some decent money. I promise a fast turn-a-round and I am willing to work hard, but no complicated platforms and no set hours.
I had a small MTSO ask that once. sm
As I was heading toward the exit door, she asked me to send her every single one of the normals I used.
So, I sent her the exact ones she had sent me in the beginning, before I refined them to a fine tune, which had taken me hours and hours to do. I'm telling you, I had most tests for every doctor where I could just hop around and fill in the blanks. No way was I giving those hours of work away!
Two small MTSO (nt)
xx
Thanks, Small MTSO
I knew it must be something like that. Thanks for your reply. Molly
Small MTSO
11.5 to 12.5 cpl, put in 30 to 32 hours per week myself now. Went down to part-time this summer to 22 to 24 hours. First time in 18 years and felt good. Just got two new accounts and so back up but will myself after paying IC's make 50K, down from last year but worked less. Next year will be up to 55K+ unless I go part-time again in the summer if my IC's want to make more. Will probably raise rates in January as have not done so in two years. Patti
Especially when the small MTSO
is worth. I'm done.
I did when I worked for a small MTSO sm
and boy, did I live to regret it!  She was, let's just say, um PSYCHO! In a nutshell, my nephew died and she didn't believe me when I asked for a few days off...she had to see the announcement in the paper first! Needless to say, I dumped her shortly after that incident. There were many, many more, but this was the final straw! 
This happened to me too. Small MTSO been with
them for 3 years. check was mailed, but post office put it in wrong box. This has happened 3 times in the last 3 months and every time it was the post office not them.
www.lts-inc.com is it a small MTSO in Richmond, VA-
I have been working PT for them since May 2002 except for a short leave of about 4 months. As far as I know still looking for a few more people, just lost 1 yesterday who could not get the hang of WP5.1 I guess(it's what the hospital they contract for uses). Oh well, their loss will be someone else's gain.
I'm a small MTSO. Here are my thoughts on it
I would determine how much per line the seasoned MT should get. Not sure how much you charge. But I, being a small MTSO, charge my clients 14 cpl and I pay my subcontractors 10. Ideally you would be a bigger MTSO and could pay truly seasoned MTs 12 cpl or something on that order. Otherwise, if they aren't able to make a decent line rate, and they are truly good MTs, they might as well go get their own accounts.
About the pay between the new MTs/mentoring MTs - I would decide what the total you were going to pay for those lines were, and then divide it between seasoned MT and newbie MT. Say it's 12 cpl - pay the newbie 8 cpl and the seasoned MT 4 cpl for the work that the newbie does that the seasoned MT is helping with.
My husband's company does something similar. He works with a partner, but the partner is less experienced. He is basically my DH's helper. DH uses his own truck and the helper doesn't have to use his truck. Each job pays a set amount, and DH gets 70% and his partner gets 30%.
As a small MTSO, I found you had to buy
all I really needed was a few. So I started filling them out online at www.filetaxes.com. It's much easier and they send out the 1099 for me! Price is very reasonable too.
I mean big as in Medquist, little as in small MTSO's
.
I also make 11 cpl as an IC. This also is a small MTSO. nm
nm
For me, a very small local MTSO
doing tapes/office notes.
I have worked for a small MTSO once and
was never afraid of not getting paid. Something in her voice told me I could trust her and just dove in. No contract, either. But I did have to give her my SSN for the 1099.
Never realized I would be setting myself up for trouble but every 2 weeks the check came in the mail.
Ask the MTSO. That's all you can do.
Small MTSO here - 6 cpl -- ridiculous
I as a small MTSO would be so embarassed to offer 6 cpl to anyone. Could not believe what I read. At the most I take 20 - 25% of what I charge clients and pay the IC the 80%. I even do the pick up, QA, billing and delivery of finished products. But to offer 6 cpl is a slap in the face. Even newbies I offer 7.5 to 8 cpl and start them on the easiest accounts. Hopefully she can sleep at night and look at her face in the mirror.
My opinion as a very small MTSO
I determine what my minimum charge is by figuring out what I would pay an IC to do the work and then add in enough left over to pay my expenses (TASP, insurance, QA, etc.) and then some for myself as account manager. If you get an account that you will be working on yourself, you will make both the salaries for the IC as well as the account manager (you are doing both jobs) and pay your overhead. If you get an account that is bigger than you can handle by yourself, you can easily sub all or some of it out and still pay yourself and your overhead. Sit down and at least do the financial part of a business plan in order to figure out what you need to charge.
I assume she works for a small MTSO or something, not MQ
x
Re: Post way below about the small MTSO in Suffield, OH.
I posted that I worked for a company, though don't know if it is the same one. I'm just curious if it is. I've included by e-mail if you want to e-mail me.
MTSO needs to pay MTs on time, no matter how small sm
her business is, no matter when (or IF) the MTSO is paid by the client. I would NEVER contract with an MTSO that expected me to wait to be paid until they were paid by their client. Impossible way to do business, very unprofessional.
I used to work for a small MTSO that used gotomypc - sm
I would connect up to her computer and download the voice files to my computer. Then disconnect/log off. Then I would play the voice files on my player (Bytescribe) and go to work. When I was done, then I would just email the work to her. But if email was down for some reason I would just connect back to her computer with the gotomypc and upload the finished work to her that way. Your computer would probably run faster if don't stay connected via the gotomypc. I suppose you can do that of course, just doesn't seem much point to it though to me, unless you only get one voice file every now and then, so you just stay connected to see them come in on the remote computer.
Would be interested in working for small MTSo
I currently am working with a small co and I would like approx 15-20 more hours of work. I mainly do clinic. If you have anything please let me know. I love small MTSOs
I'm glad I work for a small MTSO....
I hope my boss never sells out like my last one did. My old company went down the tubes after that and I see lots and lots of posts about it here talking about how bad it is. These nationals sound awful.
No matter how small an MTSO is, their first obligation is to
nm
Costs for small MTSO equipment
This question is directed to our wonderful small MTSOs who participate in the site postings:
I have a question about what extent of expenses you incurred for equipment and related components for the physicians to dictate, i.e., FTP services, server, physician call-in phone services, physician digital dictation uploading/downloading services, and all that related equipment to send and receive dictations (voice files) and send/receive reports, all pertaining to internet and latest advances.
Considering a small MTSO venture of just three small doctor's office accounts, enough for 1-1/2 MTs, with a total physician dictator capacity of 5 physicians, not necessarily at the same time.
I would be also interested in not only cost figures (ballpark) but the types of equipment and software you elected to use (platform if any).
This information would be beneficial to me, and perhaps to other entrepreneurial MTs as well. Thank you in advance for your helpful information.
Just wait. I work for small MTSO and they have
dg
I work for a small MTSO about 25-30 hours a week
nm
I worked for a small MTSO who gave the client
the client changed to smaller and smaller font sizes, the MTSO let them know the rate would change so the MTSO never lost money just because of the font size. The clients always understood. The client simply wanted less bulk in their charts, not to short change the MTSO.
I only have dial-up, I work for a small local MTSO -sm
that uses a FTP site to send us our work, so dial-up is just fine for that (work is about a 20 hour TAT, so it does not matter how long it takes for me to download my work, and uploads are quick. So obviously a job that has no set hours, etc. is ideal for someone with dial-up. Also get your own accounts, then it doesn't matter does it as you are the boss. I have 1 account of my own and we transfer the files via the internet through an intermediary website (in place of a FTP). Just keep hunting there are dial-up jobs out there.
national/small MTSO are both on-line companies
there is PT and orthopedic work.
Or becuase of dropping rates, the small MTSO
fg
I make very good money at home with a small MTSO
looking for people that used to work for small MTSO in Suffield, OH a few years back.
ss
No (IC)....but I work for a small MTSO and have set deadline each day for my work
I will not be working on Thanksgiving day, though I will have 120 minutes waiting to be done and turned in by 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning.
small mentality usually means small pocketbook
Still make more than you and I but that is deserved. They've put the effort forward and educated themselves.
Platforms are bad.
Microsoft Word is great. The company's platforms really stink sometimes. Not helpful at all and make it harder for production.
DQS was one of first platforms (sm)
that pared transcription screen down to body of report, with all demographic stuff on UNPAID demographic screen. No matter how much time you have to spend searching for and filling in demo info, no pay for lines like cc's, dates of service, admission/discharge, names of consultants, etc. That stuff adds up when the reports are very short. If your new MTSO's account pays for such things as headers/footers, you should see better lph than you were able to achieve with DQS.
Yep that is low, though some platforms
are not MT friendly and if you have lots of horrible dictators it will slow you down. At most companies the FT MTs tend to get first shot at the work (usually, I know there are exceptions) and I know with my company if work is slow FT MTs get the work first.
Platforms
Platforms are programs usually provided by the company. Examples are Emdat, escription, or when you hear the term "proprietary software". Oh, I think another one, is Bytescribe, but don't quote me on that.
Express Scribe is considered a "player" for dss, wav files (digital recordings). The doc will dictate either directly into a microphone on the computer or he/she may have a handheld digital recorder. A lot of times these dss or wave files are provided to you through an FTP site. If you read this post, I have found that any word that is underlined and in a different color, if you click on that word, there is also an explanation of these terms. Very helpful indeed!
Do not feel that you are ignorant. There are still transcriptionists transcribing from tapes (me included). I only wish I knew about this board long before I learned about it. There are some nice people that will try to help you. Good luck in your "at home" MT'ing.... 
Platforms?
What exactly is a transcription platform and what are the best ones out there. On the Diskriter ad they say they use ChartScript but I also saw someone else say they used AnyModal Edit. What is the difference with these? Looking into picking up extra work at home and needs lots of info. Please be patient with me as I do not always know the answers or the right questions to ask.
platforms
I believe the platform is the software used to transcribe or edit the dictation. Some are more user-friendly than others.
Have you tried it with any platforms?
Have you talked with the tech people at the company about this? Even though they say it won't work, find out if you can give it a try and if it will work.
As far as changing the OS from Vista to XP, it can be done. However, in a case like yours, I would be inclined to spend the $$ and take the laptop to a guru/specialist that I trust for the sake of my sanity.
Platforms?
I have never heard of a platform many of you are speaking about. Could you please explain? Thank You!!
platforms
If each company has their own platform, why do they list "experience preferred in..." that platform on their classifieds? How could you have experience if you had never worked for them before?
Is MS Word experience recommended for most services?
platforms
I don't know anything about WP5.1 and FlashForward. Maybe I used them and didn't know it! But when I used a DOS-based program - or, before that, a dedicated word processor - I could rack up the lines in nothing flat.
Now we get yelled at to produce more, produce more, while they tie our hands behind our backs with the idiotic software they provide us with. What are we supposed to do in that position - type with our noses?
platforms
If you ever get the chance to use ChartNet, TAKE IT! It is the most awesome program I've ever used in the 38 years I've been at this. It is written for transcriptionists and is simple, amazingly easy to learn - an hour or two - and very rarely gives anybody any grief at all. A man in Hudson, Ohio, developed it and it's spreading and just the best.
MTS Platforms
For at home-transcribers, what is a good software platform - Express Scribe, Transcription Gear??? How about ExText - is it available for purchase to ICs?
Not able to do that with certain platforms.
nm
platforms
Can I get some opinions as to what you think is the best platform to work in? Does anyone think Scribe is slow? What is best, what is worst?
what platforms MT's like
I like just Word and then encrypted e-mail
It can be done both ways. There are platforms out there
that you can download the sound files, transcribe them, then upload the documents. This would be like an FTP site for upload/download and Word/Express Scribe (or another wav player) to type/listen.
There are also platforms that work "realtime" over the Internet with servers. Some places have you log into their secure system to listen to the sound files and type in a Word-based platform.
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