I did a couple years ago and it was of no help...just my experience..nm
Posted By: AzMT on 2005-11-10
In Reply to: Has anyone had any experience using sm - mlstoo
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Do you need to have 2 years full time experience or just 2 years' experience? nm
..
I did a couple of years ago
I did about two years ago, two years after I got divorced with a lot of debt. At first I tried to settle the debts at 25-40%, and supposedly would have 3 years to do so, but then got sued anyway and had two lawsuits, so I was back to where I started. Spoke to a lawyer about bankruptcy and he said go for it and encouraged me to do it myself. Of course I didn't own anything except for a car that was worth about $200.00, so it was easy. It was the last thing I thought I'd ever do, but it flew through without a hitch and four months from the time I filed it was over. Yes, my credit has been stinky, but it's coming back. Wish I would have filed sooner.
Don't know about your situation, but a lot of lawyers will offer a free consultation so you could see if it would be worth it for you.
Good luck!
A couple of years ago . . .
this lady in California won the lottery. She divorced her husband and didn't tell him about the lottery. He thought she was being very generous because she let them have their house and most everything else. Well, he started getting all this mail for lottery winners and put 2 and 2 together and took her to court. The judge was very hard on her for lying and made her give everything to the husband. Live and learn. 
A couple years ago...
someone told me 15-16 cpl, but I'm sure it's more than that. This person "knew" or so she said.
I tried it a couple of years ago - sm
But I'm a hard stick and they won't do the back of the hand, so I was banned from donating. They did pay me $20 for my time, though, and I think they paid cash on the spot.
Apparently, the more you donate, the more they pay. The place I went to was crowded as heck and there seemed to be a lot of sitting and waiting involved so bring plenty of reading material.
I definitely would have done it on a regular basis had I not been a hard stick.
Went BK a couple of years ago. It turned out
to be one of the best things ever. Since then, we only use cash and have been able to save and pay off our house. Unfortunately, the laws have changed and I think it is almost impossible to file a Chapter 7 now. Anyway, good luck to you either way!
We went to Maine a couple of years ago and it
was a MAJOR disappointment. It was nothing at all like you see on TV. We were in southern ME and people didn't keep up their yards, no one had a single flower in their yard, although there were a couple of hanging baskets and people were not very friendly. Went to Portland and couldn't get out of there fast enough. Everyone we met was rude and the place was just so dirty looking.
Same situation with me a couple years ago...
my ex-husband and I still remain friends to this day. We saw a mediator, who pretty much divided everything the way we wanted to. He bought out my half of the house, etc. and I even got spousal support for a 1-1/2 years (and we don't have children) and he paid my health insurance for a year. The mediator will tell you how to file your divorce papers, etc. Cost me about $350 - he just deducted it from what I was getting. Good luck!
I've used it for a couple of years now - sm
It's not really a typing program - Transnet is just the way to send the files over the Internet - you download the file, transcribe it, then sign it off. I do the downloading on one computer then type in Word on another computer. Works really well but has to have its own foot pedal (darn that Dictaphone!).
Yes. I made that my first couple of years.
Now it's at least twice that when I'm lucky enough to have a half-decent account. (Those are getting fewer and farther between.)
This happened to me a couple years ago
I worked for Golden Isle and they had the wrong state that I lived in. They submitted a revised form AFTER I filed my taxes. They had the state they were located and NOT where I lived. What a mess.
I used Tax Cut and put down document preparation or something similiar every year and never had a problem.
I heard this on the news a couple of years ago, or maybe it was
Paul Harvey. Graduates of the Naval Academy received diplomas with "Navel" Academy on them and they all had to be reprinted. You would think with something like that they would have someone proof and reproof before it went to final printing, and then proof again after printing.
Along with spelling errors that drive me nuts, bad grammar makes me cringe. When I hear someone say "I seen" it is like fingernails on the blackboard.
When I joined a couple of years ago it was something like $30 a month and you could either pay
monthly or have it deducted automatically from your account. If you elected to pay monthly, I think the membership went up about $5 to $10.
There wasn't any high pressure sales. I basically called them and asked could I come in a check it out and they give you like a week trial or two weeks (my memory is sooo bad!). Then if you decide to become a member, you fill out the paperwork and they weigh and measure you (fun, fun) and file it all away. And then periodically they will ask if you want to be weighed and measured to see how much you've lost.
They are really encouraging there (at mine anyway). They gave way prizes for different things like if you came a certain amount of times in like three months, you got a T-shirt. And then there are prizes for when you lose 10, 20, etc pounds. And at mine everyone had a little paper doll that started out at 0 and when you lost weight you moved your little paper doll around on the wall. It was kind of fun.
Well, I've just convinced myself! 
started at about 8K PT 2002, last couple years 12K but
I did not work much in 2005 for about 6 months when my 5-y/o got diagnosed with cancer and going through chemo, etc. So I would have made a bit more. I expect to do about $16K this year. I alternate my hours a lot though, about 60 or so minutes of work during the school year a day, but then only 30 during the summer, plus a side job that fluctuates ($300-500 a month). I am shooting for $20K next year, still not at FT (5-6 hours a day). I'll see how it goes. I think $12K for PT is good, but that is my opinion.
There have been lots of changes over the past couple of years (sm)
What kind of info are you looking for specifically? Are you asking about posting a resume on the MT Stars site? - or the JLG site? If the latter, I believe JLG takes applications on their web site.
I saw Meatloaf a couple years ago on a news show and...
he looked GREAT. I guess he had had a heart attack and had lost tons of weight and was taking care of himself. Apparently he's back on the McDonalds because he looked very heavy and not well at all. Too bad. He used to have a great sound back in the day.
I started a neighborhood watch a couple of years ago...sm
we were having similar problems to what you're having and they're gone now. Here's what worked for us. I gave every home in the subdvision a flier asking anyone that was interested in forming a neighborhood watch to come to an organization meeting and made the meeting a week later and on a week night, and gave my phone # in the event someone was interested but couldn't attend then. Out of 150 homes in my subdivision we had 40 people show up and 20 called expressing interest.
Everyone had the same complaints on the same "problem" homes and as a group we decided that each time the noise level was high enough to hear outside of the vehicle or house that we'd call the police. We all alternated placing those calls so the police department didn't think it was just 1 person complaining. The police department agreed to increase the patrols for our subdivision at all hours of the day and night and just having people see them ride through every few hours helped significantly cut down on the problems.
Over time the people that were causing problems either put their houses up for sale or moved out of the rental home and left when they saw that we neighbors insisted on a peaceful and quiet living area. It worked! When these problem homes left the problems with the trash thrown on the roads left as well.
In addition we were having some problems with some of the youth hanging out walking the streets at all hours and it was making some of the residents nervous, especially when the youth were walking through yards. So, we told the youth to stick to the roads, ask permission before cutting through yards to find out who cared and didn't care if they walked through them, and one of the men placed a basketball goal at the end of one of the cul-dec-sacs for the kids to play basketball after the neighbors in the cul-dec-sac agreed it would be fine. It worked - some of them started playing basketball there and they honored requests of homeowners that didn't want them walking on their yards.
Good luck to you!
I switched from WP51 to Word a couple years ago
I chose InstantText as my Expander because it would import my PRD list and that was important to me to make me feel comfortable out the gate. Several of my co-workers didn't really like IT but at the time, it was the one that had the easiest import function and I *had* to have my PRD to type! IT's not cheap, but I think it's well worth the investment.
Also, I highly recommend Laura Bryan's book on Word. There is another lady who is a Word guru, Cheryl something (I'm sorry I can't remember her name at the moment) who is also very good. Basically these are MTs who know you have to keep your hands off that mouse to make money, so they show you the keyboard ways to do things, in contrast to other Word how-to books for the general user which focus on the mouse.
It's a moderately painful switch, in my opinion, but once made, definitely makes one feel more 21st century. :)
Best advice - work in-house a couple of years
You really do need hands-on experience in order to be able to do this at home. You will run into terms that you will have no idea how to look up - like "booj aw boo" would you know to look under bougie au boule? Or "terry onal craniotomy" would you know it is "pterional" or would you spends loads of time looking for "T" words? If you work face to face with experienced MTs, they can help you when you run into similar situations. I'm not being snooty, I am only pointing out real situations that you will be faced with and the reasons MTSOs insist that before an MT can work independently at home they have at least 2 years experience. I believe that most of us have worked in-house in the beginning to get to the point where we can do this efficiently at home. Once you do get that experience, though, stand back, the MTSOs will be beating down your door with job offers. Good luck and hang in there! Remember we all had to start somewhere. Best of luck to you!
I've had Bellsouth for a couple years now. Reliable and no problems. nm
xxx
I switched from SH to Instant Text a couple of years ago and would never go back.
I increased my productivity another 30 percent pretty quickly. And you can still use your old shortcuts with IT. Browse through the IT Commands forum on Productivity Talk for tricks you never thought you could do with a text expander.
Besides the fact they've had a freeze for hiring transcriptionists for the past couple years.
The MT I know works a few hours, is required to take 2 hours off, then come back and finish her shift. Plus she has to work 4 hours on the weekend. They do work at home but keep to a strict schedule. I wouldn't want it.
How many years experience as MT? nm
x
Yes, I could see 9 CPL with 18 years experience!
I am just a newbie doing clinic reports. I get 7 CPL and am grateful that MQ was willing to hire me right out of school. I sure hope all the bad rumors do not materialize. I am hoping to get in more experience before the rug is ripped out from under me. I am glad that you posted. There were rumors about the 'new' minimum lines being 8,000 PPP and I am only up to 6,000. So I might be Okay in that area. Did they state anything about any certain percentage of reports going to QA. That is another rumor going around, that only 15% of reports can go to QA, which does not make sense as I know they don't want us GUESSING what the doctor said!
With 2 years experience!
It is a good thing to make that much with so little experience. HOw did you start editing with only 2 years experience? How can you possibly know enough of the language of medicine to edit? I call someone with 2-4 years experience a newbie not an experienced editor.
Is this right? MUST HAVE: 2 years' experience
bn
15 years of experience and you don't know
x
Well, she's now said she has 16 years MT experience
and explain to me how she has been in this field for 16 years and does not know medical terminology? An impossibility. Maybe she did not understand their format, how to access or send back work, any number of other issues - but if you have that many years experience - you definitely know what you are doing MT-wise. And I am the poster from below who was let go after all the changes by the MTSO - and her true belief that her way was the RIGHT way and the only way and how could I not see that (???).... there are so very, very rude people out there - lucky for you perhaps you have not met one yet - your time may still come - and perhaps you will take a different attitude. I agree that there are really some dingy MTs out there - I do QA - I see it daily - the terms are hysterical they come up with - well they are funny when they are not serious - but you don't last 16 years and not know your stuff.
Thanks. You can do it with 14 years' experience! (nm)
x
7 years experience here, doing
multispecialty clinic work for local lady who has her own accounts and get .10 per gross line, also work for a medium sized national and get 7.5 per 65-char line. Same as the other poster, would rather have enough of the .10 per line, but it is not there.
With 22 years of experience. :)
nm
10 years experience s/m
I've been with MQ for going on 10 years now and only make 7.75 cpl. I am a "tier 2" - doing acute care basic 4, clinics, specialty clinics and even some cardiac procedures and OP notes. I recently interviewed with 3 companies and was offered anywhere from 8.5 to 9.5 cpl. With your experience, I would certainly expect to be making 9 cpl, unless you can pick up some private accounts on your own.
Another thing to consider is whether or not you'll be needing benefits. My experience has been that IC pay is a little better because there are no benefits. The line rates I listed above do not include any incentives which may be offered. That's also something you should take into consideration when looking. Those rates are based on a 65-character line - spaces and demographics included.
I have 15 years experience, mostly
heme/onc, endocrine, ortho, etc. I have been exposed to op notes for the past 8 weeks and absolutely despise them - cannot make my line counts after previously being well above what is needed. If you can afford to take the cut in pay to learn them, go for it, but I sure cannot.
Someone with 30 years experience does not need CMT after their name.
Okay, 25 years experience,
and STILL having this problem. Now I don't feel so bad. I really feel for you! I don't know about the QA keeping busy, as they are always complaining how swamped they are. They just get mad when you send too many blanks and they are supposed to fix it, when the real person to be upset with s/b the dictator! Do they talk to THEM, no! Then stop complaining already!
How many years experience do you have? If over 10,
I mean, if you have 10, 20, 30 years experience, how do you like receiving the same pay as a newbie just out of school or with only 6 months to 2 years experience? Don't you think you've paid your dues and earned your stripes and deserve better pay than what the noobs get?
I have 3 years experience.
I agree that someone with many years experience should get somewhat higher pay. But more experience doesn't always equal a better MT. There are some people in this field who have been around a long time and probably shouldn't be in it. And like it or not, if you want to make decent money, you have to be fast. Accurate and knowlegeable also, but if you're not fast and using every tool at your disposal, you'll never make good money.
years experience sm
If you go at it looking for a job, and put in 10 years or so, it'll come back as no jobs fitting that category - in other words, no one is willing to pay for people WITH experience!!
I have almost 30 years experience and
am making 9 to 11 cpl on a tiered system at my FT job and 10 cpl at my IC job.
or it could be MTs with 5 or more years experience...
I have been an MT for 10 years and I am only 31 :)
Are you saying you have 2+ years experience and only make .04 cpl? -- if so you really need to look
for something a little better. That is a total slave wage.......I make .085 now with 3+ years, and I started at .06 with 1 job, and .075 at another, and .085 at another (until they changed their pay tier then down to .07 which sucked). My goal is .10 eventually......believe me you can do better, start looking if you are not already.
Actually, no, MT with 9 years experience. So, I can only assume
not organized, or just dawdling. Who knows, but it is frustrating.
I have 20 years' experience. I once took a test for
a company that was I currently working for because I had heard so many people were flunking it and I flunked it too. I am a very good MT, and my company called the extraordinary even, but I still flunked the test. I also tested for another company and made a 79 I think.
Who hires with 2 years' experience?
I want to get back into MT work, but everything seems to be acute care/hospital dictation. I have some experience in that area but not 2-3 years' worth. Anyone have ideas?
30+ years, and similar experience to yours. (sm)
I just quit a clinic I'd been at for over 25 years. Was treated like dirt, and when other employees got a COL raise and I did not, I was told I had "worked there too long." Nice, huh?
Have over 25 years worth of experience and do you think
I made more because of all the years? Better think again. My salary now for straight typing is 8 cents a line. Most of the companies are not willing to pay us like we made in the past. I am not upset about this for myself but I know others are not as fortunate in that they have to raise families on less and less.
Can I help? Ortho/WC MT experience x14 years.
You need help on something???
20 years' experience in Radiology
Please email me privately and I'll be glad to give my 2 cents.
What I make with 22 years of experience
Here's my experience. I have been making around 10 cents per line since 1997. I was with ddi and then Medquist for a total of around 16 years. In 1997, I was given my last raise - mind you, I asked for ALL of them, no one ever offered them to me. After that, I was told I was in "highest tier" etc., etc. Even when I offered to work on more difficult account (back when that still mattered and we were offered extra) - I was told I already made higher than the difficult account offered. So, I have made the same cpl since 1997, yes, 11 years. I hit just over $40,000 one year out of the 22 years... otherwise, I range from 35,000 to 38,000 if it is a good year. I am dedicated, work full time, weekends as required, and holidays as when possible/the number required. When I started looking to leave MQ, I was offered 8 and 8.5 cpl - my experience was irrelevant, though all the companies seemed to be quite gleeful to be getting all the MTs out there with many years of experience for 8 cpl... One company offered to up the 8.5 to 9 cpl if I would work their night shift and only ops on their most difficult account. No thanks. I work days. I finally found a place that offered me a lateral move. Really like where I am now but if I think too hard about it, still blown away that something I love to do has led to making the same amount of money I was making 11 years ago... with really, no hopes of more, unless I live and breathe MT and become a workaholic. I'm 43, by the way, been doing this since I was 21. Because of my move to a new company a year ago though, I refound my love of MT. Good luck.
30 years' experience of transcription
Have transcribed for 30+ years in internal medicine, cardiology, orthopedics and pulmonary
With 10 years experience, I wouldn't
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