I've tried Dell, which is what I prefer. sm
Posted By: Me on 2007-03-01
In Reply to: I don't know if that will be a problem, but.... - mg
The reps have told me that all home desktop models now come with Vista. Period. I even asked if I could purchase one with XP if I paid extra and received a negative response. :(
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I've had two dell laptops and 5 Dell PCs. Here's the thing...
Make sure you get the extended warranty, again, MAKE SURE YOU GET THE EXTENDED WARRANTY. And, here is why.
My first laptop went out on my, though it was a couple of years old. Because I had the extended warranty, a service tech came to my house, replaced motherboard, hard drive, heat sink, and keyboard. He was able to back up everything first and restored it once all the new stuff was in place.
One of my PCs kept giving some weird blue screen error and I couldn't get to go even in safe mode. I called up Dell, told them the problem, they looked up my extended warranty and they sent someone out to repair it.
Overall, I have been happy with Dell products. The only drag is that everything Dell sells regarding accessories is proprietary and you have to order it through Dell. No generic accessories will work. My suggestion is if you decide to buy a Dell laptop, make sure you get the car power supply and you might even get a 2nd regular power supply because I have been known to leave town and forget the power supply at the house. Now, I have everything in my laptop bag for when I go out of town and can just throw my laptop in the bag and know everything is there.
Lastly, some Dell laptops require a special aircard to connect to the internet. I ended up getting a 2 cabled USB air card and I'm glad I did because 2 USB plug ins give better reception than one.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask. I'm happy to help.
I've used both. Prefer Shorthand for being able to hold entire reports in an abbrvn. nm
s
I've heard with Dell if you tell them you're a business,
you'll get someone from the US. I already have two HPs but tried it anyway. I used to say home or home office but said I use it for business and still got someone from India but he spoke very, very good English compared to some I've spoken to in the past.
I've searched and not all Dell laptops have the parallel port.
So I just wanted to check to see more specifics from those who have. Thanks.
I have a desktop Dell and it has been alright so far, but I've never owned a laptop.
What brand are you currently using then?
I've worked on a Dell Inspiron 8600 for 3 years
I've heard they're not as good as they used to be, but so far (knock on wood), I haven't had any problem except last week my AC power pack died. They mailed me a new one within 3-4 days (I was under 4 years parts warranty). I use a USB keyboard and mouse and don't bother to try to use the scrunched up laptop keyboard.
I've lost more than one hard drive on Dell computers
That's the message you get normally if the hard drive if fried. I just called Dell and they diagnosed the problem and sent me a new hard drive and I returned the bad one. Is yours still under warranty?
Escription users: I have a question. I've about had it with Dell junk computers.
and their Indian call centers..nothing like getting help from someone whom you cant understand. Even if they hear you, they have NO comprehension skills. Anyway, I have like 3 Dell computers which goes from bad to worse. For Christmas, I got my husband an Mac IBook ...wow..what a difference, now that's a computer. Anyhoo, they now have Microsoft office programs for Macs..anyone know if this computer would be compatible at all with the Escription platform since it's so picky. If not, any laptop computers suggestions that are not a piece of junk.
I have both a Dell Latitude Laptop and a Dell Dimension desk top PC and bought both...
off of Ebay. The laptop I paid $300 for had Windows XP and works great. It wasn't wireless, but they sent me a PCI card with it and it works fine. The desktop PC has XP on it as well and I paid $250 for it. Both have Pentium IVs. Both work great for work. I have no complaints and I feel like I got a great deal both times out on Ebay.
Company provides a Dell for work, I have a Dell for personal use, too.
x
Dell customer service is overseas. I have had a Dell, a
Toshiba Satellite, and an HP. The Dell was a piece of junk from day 1. The HP hard drive crashed after 4 to 5 years, but otherwise no problems. I bought a Toshiba about 6 months ago and it is okay, nothing special. I was looking at the Sony Viao and the salesman said that some laptops are made to be portable, but that the Sony was not one of them, but the Toshiba was. My keyboard also has a numerical pad on it, but it throws the other keys off a bit, so when I'm in a portable mode and don't have room for an external keyboard it really slows me down. I have a Duo Core processor and notice no difference whatsoever in speed, the number of programs I can have open, etc. I have also noticed that even when I am not on battery power that every so often the battery is charging. I don't know if this is a defect or something that is supposed to happen, but I need to investigate it.
I don't like Dell. I bought a Dell laptop and it
was a piece of junk, so I'm not the one to ask if you should buy a Dell. I'd get at least double that processor speed. My computer is about 10 months old and I have 5 times that, which means that there is probably something faster out now, or soon will be. It is more than I need for work, but I also use computer to download music/pictures, and a bunch of other stuff. The Dell I had had 650 mHz and it was slow and that was almost 6 years ago. You may have to customize anyway to get XP unless you buy one previously owned, which you can also buy from Dell. It is always a good idea to buy bigger than you need currently just to allow for updates to any software or new software you may add. You need to also think about tech support. I know Dell has tech support in India, which can be extremely frustrating. I don't know that other computer companies don't offshore their tech support, but that would be a question I would ask and find out if there is a locally authorized dealer to handle warranty repairs or if you need to send off the computer. I would not recommend a Gateway computer and I would not recommend any computer that has a Celeron processor. They tend to be in all the lower end computers.
Buy a Dell!! You can't go wrong with a Dell but
I bought an Emachines and had trouble with it from day one. I returned it, as the store I bought it from a six month return policy, so I returned it after about five months. I bought a Dell two years ago and have had no problems since!! Buy a Dell, you won't be sorry!! :)
I am not a Dell lover. My Dell has been
a lemon. I just replaced mine with a Toshiba Satellite and I have seen a few others here recommend this. Dell's customer service is in India. The only thing I dislike about my Toshiba is that because it also has a number keypad the shift key is in a different position than I'm used to and I end up deleting and retyping when I use the laptop keyboard. I normally use an external keyboard, but I travel a lot and try to work on the road and just don't have space for an external keyboard.
Where did you hear that everything you buy for a Dell has to be from Dell?
I have LOTS of peripherals on both my laptop and desktop Dells and they certainly didn't come from Dell. You've been misinformed.
I love my Dells.
I use EXText with my current job and I've used at a couple of other jobs I've had. I've ne
used DocQscribe, but I have used Meditech, Cerner, Vianeta, the Precyse platform (I can't remember the name), Dolbey, and Lanier platform I think was called Cequence (?).
Out of all the different platforms I have typed on, I have liked EXText the best. In my opinion, it's very user friendly, easy to learn, and I really like ESP which is the built in abbreviation expander. Plus it is very easy to create your own normals which I love. My fingers literally never leave the keyboard because there are macro keys for everything. You can use your mouse if you prefer or learn the function macros. I love it. I think I'm more productive on EXText than with any other platform.
I prefer IC . . .
simply because of the flexibility. I don't want to feel chained to my computer. To me, one of the reasons to work from home is the freedom it provides. I also find I have a lot to write off at tax time and have never had a problem tax-wise. I don't need the benefits and don't want the company control that comes with being an employee.
Neither...I prefer
my taxes to pay for defense of this nation, protection of its citizens through federal regulatory agencies, police, fire and emergency rescue programs, libraries, public schools, educational assistance for anyone who needs it, assistance for those who cannot help themselves, drug and medical research, paved streets, streetlights, utilities, assistance for new business startups, and few other oddities.
How would you prefer - sm
Wondering if you have any suggestions for a better way? What would make it easier for you?
ME vs MT WHAT DO YOU PREFER
and why.
I prefer only the ................NM
I prefer
by far short reports. Doing long reports, well, I just feel like I'm being held hostage, KWIM?
I much prefer sm
to work for a company and let them hustle up the work, provide the system and equipment, and get paid by the line. Maybe if I were 20 and not 60, but I find that by getting your own accounts, you lose a lot of money. I prefer transcribing fast, and being paid for just that. No setup. No delivery or pickup. No office managers to deal with. Pure profit all the way.
I prefer IT.
xxx
I just prefer it.
There is so much wrong information out there that I like to look in my books first. I also hand write in "sounds like" in there so I can find oddly spelled things. Plus it is a business expense. ;-)
Most will prefer DSL for
security reasons I believe and specifically say "no satellite". It is one of the downsides of living in a beautiful rural area.
I prefer...
Quick Look Drug Book but not actually the book, the CD version, that way you do not have to get off computer, grab book, and manually look up the med you need. You just click on to get into the information, type in name, or a version of it, and it automatically pops up with everything you need to know, including what it is used for, and doses applicable...so much quicker.
I prefer my ESL
over the English speaking mush mouth one that sounds like she drunk when she transcribes or the one who talks so low I can barely hear him with the sound on as high as it can go.
Myself, I prefer sm
Stedman's surgical equipment book. The Surgery Word book is pretty well useless, but the equipment book is fabulous.
I have had a Tessier's and I gave it away, found it completely useless.
I prefer it
I cant sit for 8 hours. I have to break my work up into 2-4 hours at a time.
I prefer In-Hock Rd.
dd
I certainly prefer Word but......
I have become accustomed to it. It is not too difficult to learn and overall I don't feel a bad program. I have used DQS as well and I think Emdat's InScribe offers more options from what I see.
My biggest complaint is the spellcheck. I copy/paste and save all my reports in Word and spellcheck in Word as it catches errors that InScribe's spellcheck does not.
Also, I do not use their Expander - I use Instant Text which I love.
I have done both and prefer IC because I can write
everything off. You have to be very diligent about receipts and setting aside tax money though.
The only real difference in pay between the two is 7.25% for social security (self employment. You have to put aside the taxes rather than have the company pay them for you but either way, that tax money comes out of your check not the company's pocket.
I also prefer in-house
... but I am doing radiology. I worked at home doing hospital work for 4-5 years, and it wasn't interesting enough. There wasn't enough variety for me. I could see problems that I would be sooooo good at fixing if I was working in-house, but there was no way for me to have an impact on quality issues working at home. I now get to improve the referrer database, look at the future schedule to look for missing referrer names, work with schedulers, techs and radiologists, and just do lots of little things that really add polish to our business, and are very satisfying to me.
To each her own. 
I prefer VR, MTg for 28 years....nm
thanks but prefer programs not from...
She does prefer that I type in EMR
but said she we would discuss what would work best for both of us. Thanks for the info, that was the kind of thing I needed to know.
I prefer the CD. I can travel with my
job and used a laptop. I am able to have all my references available because I have them on the computer. Stedman's only allows 2 downloads though, so if you are one who may have lots of computer issues where you will need to reload your computer a coupld of times a year or if you might want to resell then CDs wouldn't be the way to go. The books you can find used on the classified board.
You can use www.drugs.com as a drug reference.
There aren't a separate set of books for clinic work, but I would recommend a book called Sloane's Medical Word Book by Ellen Drake. It is a large book with all the specialities and while obviously not as thorough as the Stedman's books, the terminology used in clinic work isn't as technical as acute care and will probably be good enough for you. I haven't looked at Stedman's lately but they may have a similar book.
prefer books
I prefer reference books, as all my work stays in one spot in my office. Have tried the CDs in the past but didn't care for them. I can understand wanting the convenience of having everything on a laptop since it sounds like you move around frequently. Guess it depends on the work sutation.
I prefer ESLs
I personally prefer an ESL to a native English speaker any day of the week. At least I know with an ESL, I am dealing with a tougher ear level, a level not many folks can do or are willing to do, and 99% of the time, they happen to be the best dictators out there, they don't rush their dictation or speak half-thoughts/utter a sound that means 10 words, they do their best to speak clearly...all I need to do is learn their accent and clean up their grammar.
I have only 1 current ESL who speed talks with a thick accent...Just 1 of out say 50+ that I handle between 5 acute care accounts. I handle a lot more ESLs than that due to the logistics of 3 accounts being major city hospitals, but I didn't want it to seem an inflated, BS number.
In the long run, my willingness and desire to deal with ESLs allows me to build my ear skills further. When it comes time to job hunt, that little line on my resume, Heavy ESL experience gets my foot in the door to show what I am able to hear and do, making me a bit more marketable. Don't get me wrong, MOST ESLs I can handle. Russian accent still leaves me saying WHAT?!?! but hey, at least I am willing to try to step up to that battle to conquer and learn them.
I worked for a company that NO ONE wanted to transcribe the 52 ESLs. I kid you not. The TAT on those files was disgusting. MTs would actually refuse to transcribe them. I took them on, they became my primary workload, my preferred work. I'd log in for the day, my supervisor would ask me what I wanted for "breakfast" as she read me off the list of who she had. I had the freedom to choose back then, and let me tell you, it was CAKE, I was loving it and laughing all the way to the bank. My queue for the day was set with just about 120 minutes of assorted accents, my daily line requirement, as a part timer, exceeded the full-time requirement. I never ran out of work, I never NEEDED to worked late, never felt pressured, and didn't have to worry about leaving a blank, for it became clear to my supervisor/QA/team leader, as well as the CMT/owner, that if I couldn't get that blank, there was no way they could either. I took care of my supervisor/QA/team leader and she took care of me, we were in a win-win situation. But, that job is gone now, as the company folded and closed its doors. My comfort zone is gone.
Currently, I work for 2 nationals. They do not filter and distribute files broken down between ESL and native English speakers. I pull my daily workloads from a pool, so I never know who I will end up with. It's in my own best interest NOT to shy away from an accent.
I prefer the CDs but use the books...
because I can pass the books on to new recruits who may not be able to afford a lot of new reference materials right off the bat.
Getting into QA prefer hourly
Do you know which MT companies pay QA by hour? Also who would be willing to train a QA person. I have been an MT 10 years and would like to get into QA...I have excellent editing skills and have worked in-house, IC, home-based employee and have an associates degree in science (pre-nursing classes).
I actually prefer the variety to doing the same old - sm
thing day in and day out. The downside, of course, is that you don't get the line counts, what with all the research, backing up & listening again to the difficult dictators, and not using full-page templates because every report is different. It took a long time to get to the point where I was comfortable with this much variety, and now actually enjoy it. Unfortunately, the average MTSO's pay scale doesn't reflect that. So I guess there are 2 choices: Be bored to tears and make more money by mass-producing 'McDictation', as I call it, or be mentally stimulated, and continue to learn, doing harder accounts, but making Third World wages.
I'm with you sister; I'd much prefer using my pc
rather than any company provided one. We are not children here, but professionals. I need to have a watchdog hovering over my shoulder documenting every single site I click on to keep as ammunition to eventually fire me for misuse of their pc.
I've seen the pcs these companies provide for their employees -- like they are doing them such a big favor. BULLSHID! The pcs are refurbished pieces of junk, which they deduct a rental amount from your already poverty-striken paycheck. Nationals: Keep your pcs -- they are worthless pieces of crap.
used to prefer stethoscope
but now find i just don't want anything inside my ears at all -- didn't want to mess with batteries, so found (on ebay) some Bose over-the-ear kind. Very good sound, very comfortable ear cushion, long cord, great swivel ear/headband part and they passively block outside sound very well.
If IC, use which ever you prefer; most of the Nationals
xx
you say that like there is something wrong with that - prefer them to bulldozers.nm
:)
i hear ya. I prefer being tucked away
 Nonhostile, nonstressed, maybe just a little goofy. I think we lose our thick skin working alone for so long. I start college next week, I better find some people armor.
I prefer non-Southern accents
I'm from the south but lived out of the area for several years. My favorite accents are Northeast and MidWest. For a while I did MT for a hospital in rural Alabama where a resident from Cuba was working. He had acquired a number of southern altruisms that cracked me up with his thick Hispanic accent. I'll never forget when he treated an elderly woman who had received a rattlesnack bite to her foot through her "teenie shoes." (if I hadn't been from the south, I wouldn't have known he was referring to "tennis shoes!")
Once my dryer needed servicing and the repair man came out. After talking for a while I asked if he was from somewhere near southern Russia because of his accent. He got so excited that someone knew the geographic area of his origin! He was from a tiny little country bordering southern Russia! (one of my neurologists was from Russia). I love to try to place someone's accents
d~
Which do you prefer, Shortcut or Shorthand (sm)
I've always used Expanders already built in to program, but making a change and need to purchase an Expander (Word-based platform). So I don't know much. Please enlighten me. Which do you prefer?
Thanks, guys :-)
I don't want my own. I had one before but I prefer hospital radiology and like
having someone else worry about time I need off, vacations, getting paid, etc. I won't go on my own again.
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