I am filling out a job app and they want transcribed words per minute.
Posted By: ThankfulMT on 2008-01-23
In Reply to: Wouldn't it depend how fast/slow dr dictates, - hmms, haws and pauses of each dictator, etc?
Thanks.
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how many words per minute do you type?
Just curious to see how many words per minute is good for a medical transcriptionist.
How do you calculate lph into words per minute?
I know I transcribe an average of 200 lph, but how do you convert that to words per minute?
Lines an hour to words a minute
Hello!
Does anyone know how to calculate words per minute from lines per hour? I'm curious to know how many words per minute I'm actually typing (even though it is with a word expander). Currently, I'm only averaging 140 lines per hour--is that good?
Would appreciate your help!
I do not know about words per minute, but lines per hour. And everything depends on the dictator.
x
Lots of 'em, but use a Lab Words, Sted's Ortho/Rehab Words, & Tessier's Surgical Words most
s
We get docked by QA for not filling in the address
or carbon copies, EVEN if we've notated that we can't find it anywhere and leave a blank. I have to look things up on the website, in a word document, anywho.com, and Google to fill in blanks. The doctors mispronounce the names and don't spell them out. It's a waste of time, and time is money when you work production.
filling downloaded IRS forms
Okay, I'm supposed to be able to fill in the 1099-Misc form I just downloaded but for some reason I can't add any information. Am I missing a plug-in or something?>
I had a molar that had a filling from when I was a kid. The tooth
cracked and they put on a crown, but the tooth cracked below the surface and need a root canal. The couldn't get the crown off so had to drill through the crown. I had no pain during the procedure and very minimal discomfort after the procedure. He used some type of a drill bit with his hand to drill out the canal. The only thing I had a problem with was that he kept taking x-ray after x-ray to be sure he got all the root. I they they took at least 6 x-rays.
I hate going to the dentist, not because I'm afraid of what they do, but I've just had dentists who tell me I need work done that I don't need done. They just need a new boat or something. Anyway, other than having my mouth open for so long and the x-rays it wasn't an unpleasant experience.
Resumes and filling out applications
Hi all, I'd like to know if any of you have run into the same problem as I have when filling out applications and what you did about it. I have, from time to time, left MT work and applied for other jobs outside the home. Over the last few years, I have worked for a few MT services for a short time. I don't even remember the dates that I started working for each one and stopped. Some were so short (a few months) because it didn't work out for some reason (job wasn't as described or some other reason). How do you handle something like that on an application? You don't want to appear as though you job hop, but you know as well as I do how some services are and you CAN'T stay any longer working for them. I'm at a loss now, how to handle this on a job application.
Thanks for any help or advice.
errr...make that "feel like filling in"
see, we are human, we all make mistakes. We just get frustrated by the few - and I REPEAT Few! - MTs who abuse QA and then blame us for their inadequacies. I know that it is not most of you, most of you are awesome and I am humbled by your knowledge - but there are many others who are just plain lazy and should have chosen another line of work. You must understand our deep frustration.
hit insert button before filling in fields.
see if that works for you. You will need enough space in between or you will type over the next field.
you also can do columns but I am not good at those; hopefully someone else will come along with info on that.
Paid by the minute... new to me... does $1.14/minute sound reasonable?
x
You'll need a lab words book and maybe the Derm and Immunology Words..nm
s
If you have not transcribed using BOS
guidelines that is probably the problem. See which version they are using and get a copy.
Stedmans Med $ Surgical Equip words, Path and Lab words, and Tessiers Surgical Word book (3rd
edition). I never buy drug books anymore. Waist of money in my opinion. New drugs come out so often, it's best to use the web.
and this is how our records are transcribed =(
x
I have not strictly transcribed in about 10 yrs.sm
I work full-time doing medical transcription but I also have other duties that do not involve transcribing so I don't keep up with lines or anything like that; I get paid by the hour. I have worked 3-4 hours in the evenings for one of the national companies for a little over a month but I can't seem to get my line count up. I've only been able to do around 100 lph. I know it will take longer than it would if I worked 8 hours just transcribing. I would like to quit the other job and just work from home transcribing but I'm afraid if I can't get my line count up I won't be able to maintain my current income. I'm not a blazing fast typist, I probably type 75-80 wpm without any kind of expanders. Any helpful advice or encouragement on whether you guys think at my typing speed it is within reason to think I can make it to 150-200 lph? I've done straight transcription in the past but I never had to keep up with lines. I have 30+ years of experience. I just need to decide whether to keep things the way they are now or take the chance on income by production only. BYW, I transcribe acute care for the national.
Your transcribed report would be your testimony, if anybody, for whatever SM
bizarre reason decided your input would be needed. Why the heck do you think you'd get called to court?
I got charged $75 for a copy of my old MRs, even though I transcribed it!!! n/m
:p
QA Help: Earlier I transcribed a report where
the doctor used a really offensive curse phrase. He was actually quoting what the patient said (ER report). He said place this in quotes. It was a really ugly thing to say (mother F word). Even though it's in quotes as what the patient apparently said, I felt uncomfortable actually transcribing it. And believe me I'm no prude. I've heard it all (and said some of it). However, it just seemed really unprofessional and not appropriate in a medical document. It's not like it was a psych report. In fact, it really had no relevance whatsoever, in my opinion, but I could be wrong I guess. So, I left a blank. But now I'm thinking, was that really not my call? Should I have just transcribed it? What would any of you out there have done? QA? What do you advise in cases like this? It's happened before but never as filthy as this. 
Contact the clients you transcribed for
n/m
VA accts transcribed offshore
My first editing job was for a company located in Virginia that has since closed and one of their largest accounts was for a network of VA Hospitals. I always wondered if they (the VA) had any clue that the actual transcription was being done in India.
It is 10 reports transcribed for free.
The OP states the account goes through transcriptionists. I wonder why? The OP states later on in the thread they go through transcriptionists.
I'm trying to protect Lisa from getting abused from the get-go. All she has to say is "my charge is" and go from there.
Too bad if they were already transcribed. Does that mean Lisa should take the loss? NO. Absolutely not.
Again, read above where the OP states "they can't seem to keep a transcriptionist."
To the OP: Charge them! You won't regret it. If you are an IC, you have every right to charge them.
Plus, look at rockinMT's post. She bent over backwards for an account and what happened? It turns out she was spending more time than it was worth.
These are all my opinions, and I am trying to give my opinion on what the OP should do in regards to reports that she transcribed and should, yes, be paid for since she was not aware ahead of time and especially because it is a new account.
What do I know? Ya know? I mean really? Just looking out for the best interest of the OP, but hey, that's just me.
The reports that are transcribed get scanned into
the EMR record. They do the same thing with the lab slips, x-ray reports, etc. The transcription is still performed in the usual way it has always been done.
I have transcribed from handwritten notes
and it was a nightmare. Sometimes the info was missing and my neck hurt like heck looking down and up, down and up. I charged per page. This dr went from dictating to these 5 page forms that he would fill out when he saw the patient. He scribbled and it was horrible. It wrecked my neck, so I gave it up. I was better off straight transcribing at lower pay than when I had to keep looking up and down from a page and no a stand for the forms didn't help because my eyes kept leaving the monitor, so it was hard to get back in gear only to have to take my eyes back to the handwritten form.
MTs by definition are hired to transcribed - sm
what the doctor dictates. We can't be expected to have to catch their mistakes - they're supposed to catch their own. That's why they're being paid the big bucks and we're note. Years back, we weren't expected to know all this stuff -- the meaning of every word we transcribed, the normal/abnormal lab values, what a particular drug is used for, and I could go on and on, and we were paid better, appreciated more & respected more.
I do agree that we must know how to spell medical words and words of English usage. That's what they get for their 7-8-8.5 cents per line. I do NOT believe that we should have to look up doctor's names, on our time, when the dictator has it right in front of him/her and would take him/her only 2-3 seconds to spell it, thus also avoiding any confusion. But I guess that would be too easy.
I didn't always feel this way. Years back, when I was treated as a professional and compensated accordingly, I performed as such. If I want to flag a doc's mistake, I do it for the PATIENT'S sake (but for the grace of God it could be me or a loved one lying in that hospital bed) - and as a courtesy to the doctor. But they really expect too much for too little.
I swear, I just transcribed Bill Cosby! sm
you know that voice that Bill Cosby does, kinda sounds like he's drunk? Well, this doc I just transcribed sounded like that!!! and it's workers' comp, no less. Just had to vent a little! It's still too early for all this! 
Not an MQ employee but have always transcribed via turnaround pool.
The office manager I worked for set it up so they could bill faster, i.e., ERs in 24 hours or less, op notes, discharge summaries, etc. She said it made for a better cash flow for the hospital. That's probably what MQ is trying to accomplish, maybe per client request.
Well, I just transcribed 1500 lines in 3 hours. sm
I work on the same account every day, same dictators, lots of templated reports I did myself and put them into auto correct. I get up early, start at 7 am and today I was done by 10 am. Cleaning the house now. Also, the line pay is slightly higher than most, so 1500 lines is fine for me today.
On harder days when the account is really behind, I get up and vacuum the house after 3 hours of transcribing then come back for 1 hour. If things are caught up, I stop for the day. If not, I will go back in the evening.
I can't sit for 6-8 hours straight. Making $160 bucks in 3 hours is good for me and enough. Tomorrow is another day!
Use templates and short cuts - that will help! I have whole reports in my auto correct, but you have to listen through and change and correct things as each patient is a different case.
I do have to tell you, I do not get this many lines every day in such short a time. It just happened that today was a good day. 
Hope this helps.
copies of previously transcribed reports
What I always found helped, make copies of reports from the medical record charts. Make a few copies of each doctor and keep them in your desk that way you can refer back to the report when doing the doctor. You will get the hang of it. No hospital wants to go through the money and time hiring someone just to let them go right away. Usually you get about a three to six month probation period.
Guidelines are one thing, but if your client wants it transcribed a certain way, just do it.
p
My grandmother transcribed part time into her mid 70s.
,
I have transcribed for doctors in the past who have dictated...sm
that the patient is heterosexual. I'm not much on what is politically correct or not, I just transcribe what the doctor dictates.
Pull up the whole period for which transcribed...see more inside
Say July 1 was the first day and July 14 was the last day - are you able to do a date-specific count? If so, get that on the screen, hit the "Print Screen" button (above SysRq next to Scroll Lock). Then open a Word document or go to Accessories and get either Word Pad or Notebook. Do a control C, which is the Word command for copy. This will copy the whole screen shot into that new document. Go to "file" on the task bar, do a "Save as" and name it what you want, say 07012008to07142008 or something so you will be able to recognize it. This will now give you a document that you can email to their payroll period with a nice little message something to the tune of "WHAT GIVES" or other equally professional question - just kidding, but now you have proof of what your total lines were and a bargaining tool. If you can only do it 1 day at a time, you can still use the screen shot method, but you will have a lot of documents to email if it comes to that.
Be sure to question them verbally by phone first as that might clear up any confusion. If not, then you can tell them YOUR line count and ask why your figures are so different. Just a thought. Good luck!
Meds are not given based on transcribed reports
Meds in hospitals are not given based on what is in transcribed reports. There are so many errors with transcribed material that everyone expects there to be errors in meds, either because it was dictated incorrectly or transcribed incorrectly.
Physicians write orders for drugs, treatments, tests, and procedures. They're in a different part of the record entirely. They're either handwritten or they are in electronic form.
That's not saying there are no medication administration errors, but just saying the likelihood of an error stemming from a transcribed report are almost nil.
"For 30 years, I've transcribed things by what is..SM
correct." This is where the problem is. Do you know that some of the most stubborn, difficult, argumentative, inflexible MTs I have ever met in the course of my career are the ones who parrot that particular sentence?
What was done or has been done for 30 years is not necessarily the correct way now. Language has changed. With the advent of VR, the way we transcribe is now more of a verbatim way than ever.
These 30-year MTs are still adding 's on to Down syndrome, still typing out the word "centimeter" even though it is no longer accepted as anything but line-padding....get my drift?
We're paying 9 cpl and everything transcribed plus spaces is paid for.
/
Depends. Did you just study or have you actually transcribed lots of tapes as sm
part of your training? If you can't put down on your resume that your home study included multiple tapes in many specialties, etc. you are going to be hard pressed to find a good job.
On the other hand, you might be able to type some orthopedics or pt notes (and then at least have some experience to put on your resume.) Orthopedic doctors have TONS of dictation. Besides their clinic notes, etc, most of them do IME (independent medical evaluations) which are fairly easy to do. You'll need some good ortho books to get you started, but most will let you start without the experience if you can demonstrate you know the terminology. Good luck. Get some experience and the doors will start opening REALLY fast for you. Sometimes, taking a low paying job is okay in the beginning just to get the experience. If you can possibly get in a PCP's office to help out with clinic notes (even offering to to backlog/vacation stuff, you will get good experience and your resume will look great for the future stuff that comes up. Good Luck to You. Hang in there and learn everything you can.
Let the docs use their reports transcribed in India as a defense! LOL
The doc can sit there while the personal injury lawyer shows the jury a grieving family and the messed up report.
US MTs should not accept sweat shop wages or conditions. We are providing a service to them! We are their first defense!:) :) :)
If US MTs stoped working for low wages, the physicians who value patient safety and their livelihood would pay a descent wage. The other ones can try to explain the report being done in India to the personal injury lawyer tearing him apart.
IMO, you violated a patient's confidentiality by even posting about this - that you transcribed t
I know you didn't give any personal info, but even mentioning this in a public forum on the "world wide web" - I don't know, I would consider that a violation of medical record confidentiality. I know some may post a sentence or a blooper or something, but this is probably something I would have kept to myself... I am sure you thought what an interesting coincidence when you show the show, but my opinion is you should have kept it to yourself, and if I was the transcription supervisor at your hospital and I found out you had posted on this.... well I would think that would be reason for discipline. No offense meant, just my opinion.
Here is my understanding of conversions of time dictated to transcribed
I was told once that the ratio of dictated to transcribed minutes was approximately 1:4 for an average MT for average dictation. So, if you've been given 300 minutes of dictation it might take you 1200 minutes to finish it, divided by 60 minutes equals about 20 hours. Obviously this is just an estimate and could very depending on a lot of factors, but this might give you some idea.
Another conversion I've heard is that one 65-character line equals 6 seconds of audio and so 1 minute of audio equals 10 lines. So, if you are charging by 65-character line, you may be looking at 3000 lines or so, which when using the above formula would have you typing at about 150 lines per hour for 20 hours, giving you about 3000 lines.
Sounds like this is very doable, typing for 7-8 hours per day if you have until the end of Wednesday. If it has to be back by Wednesday morning, you will have to work 10+ hours per day on it today and tomorrow.
;)
Christine
Thank you for response. :( I figured it was nearly impossible for transcribed lines.
I think my co. wants me to quit...
They don't remove eyes based on transcribed medical reports. SM
Hate to burst your bubble - we're important, but not that important.
I take great pride in doing great work and doing a bunch of it.
The Sted's Ortho & Rehab Words is probably my most used book and then the Lab Words book. GL! nm
s
per minute
I do approximately 15-20 minutes of dictation per hour and/or 150-200 lines per hour. So figure from there.
one minute, maybe? sm
I was fast already, so faster, not so sure that I could be much faster without compromising my own comfort level with quality, and I don't want to listen to my docs at a distorted speed rate.
I also have an Advant Prime clicky-kinda keyboard and am just as fast on it but prefer this Atech4 as it is quiet and has programmable keys.
hth!
Well, you had me for one minute there.
"Finally, if you love what you're doing, happy with your income and don't want anything to change - fine, get on with it and leave the sniping. It is only serving to make us suspicous of what the real bottom line is with you. Are you management? Are you American administrators of overseas transcription companies?"
Don't assume that just become someone expresses an opinion other than the original poster, they're management or American administrator of overseas transcription companies. Sometimes American workers need to think for themselves and other American workers will ask questions designed to make them think.
Otherwise, the rest of your post was well-thought out, although I would say that my impression from reading most of the nonsense about a strike, etc., was the intent was not to make the public or politicians aware of the situation with HIPAA violations but rather to make life difficult for employers, even to the point of risking patient care--neither of which should ever be consider humorous if you're trying to make a point in a responsible and professional manner.
GBP per minute
I missed this somewhere along the line. I saw an add on another site for a job that paid xxx per GBP. What does GBP mean?
By the minute
I'll bet the speediest speed demon dictators are those who are charged by the minute and pay their own bill! If only they were charged by the line and charged extra for fast talking, I'll bet they would slow down rather quickly!
cpl pay vs per minute
What is the opinion here on pay by line versus pay by the minute? Pros vs cons and why? I can figure out for myself that, for example if you are paid 10 cents a line for a 65 cpl and they say nothing but one sentence for 10 minutes and you listen to shuffling of papers you would be much better off by the minute. I am just curious here what the opinion is and why which one is better. After all these years of being an MT I know companies are always trying to figure out how to make money for them without passing on the rewards to the MT.
Paid by minute
I get paid by the minute but I do Basic four and radiology. Fast/Slow dictators usually balance each other. Now, if I did just radiology, I would get paid more by the line or report because of the very fast dictation.
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