I just started telling them I was a "medical language expert"

• Anybody else have friends/family that act like you don't have a REAL job? sm - makesmemad
  • I say my "little job" got me $900 last week - and how much did you bring home????? - just me
  • Yes. - Passing through
  • I just started telling them I was a "medical language expert" - MQ'r
    • I love that! - Medical language expert!
  • Try this. - sm
  • i think we all can relate.. - vent..sm
  • Yes and ANYONE can do it, right? No training needed! nm - Lisa
    • That's right, anyone can do it...sm - makesmemad
      • One woman actually said she (sm) - used to do the hiring years ago
        • old supervisor put her ex-husbands - msbeanctr
  • People are jealous, I think, so they make snide and disparaging comments. - ladydi
  • get a real job - rae
  • Yes! My MIL referred to it as my "little job" when I first started. nm - JG
    • My SIL's mom also wanted to work from home cause she was *bored*. nm - honey
      • HA!! This sure would fill her time, wouldn't it? - txmt
      • know what you mean - everyone wants to do it
  • Yes! sm - AJF
  • Same here - Athomeforyears
  • Yup...friends of ours think I am getting a "free ride" - newbie

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I just looked at this site! My gosh--what is that guy on.  So our job is to transcribe medical jargon, huh?  According to Webster's, jargon is incoherent speech, gibberish (okay--that could be true), dialect unknown to one so that it seems incomprehensible (maybe for some of the dictators), a mixed or hybrid language (some dictators could fall into that category).

Ah--here we go--the specialized vocabulary and idioms of those in the same work, professional, etc., sportswriters (if only we got paid THAT well) or social workers (they make less than we do), or a somewhat derogatory term, often implying unintelligibility:  see SLANG, and lastly, speech or writing full of long unfamiliar or roundabout words or phrases.

This could explain the downward trend in pay scales for MTs!!  And very good point on not even having our own tax code--sportswriters do! 

Hello

I am also in the process of going digital.  Some things I have learned along the way.....

1. I bought the Olympus DSS 330 for each of my docs.  It's reasonably priced, easy to use, and software works great.  I bought the recorders, because the doctors were completely happy with the tapes, and I am the one who wants to cut down on travel time and gas, so I felt like I should supply the recorders.

2. Audio files are too big (at least for my e-mail) to transport via regular e-mail, and they have to be secure or encrypted, so I bought space (personal/small business account) on CryptoHeaven for 2.49/month.  This is supposed to be HIPAA compliant and secure.  The files get uploaded to this site and can be transferred back and forth between you and the doctors' offices.  Keep in mind, if you or the docs have dial up, this process takes forever, so it is good to know what type of internet connection your docs have.  Cable and DSL are much faster.  If they have dial up, it could take up to 30 minutes for them to upload one day of dictation or even more.  Just a side note... I have found that audio files in DSS format are the smallest and thus the fastest to transfer.

3. I also use WinZip with this as an added protection.  The practice felt comfortable with the protection of WinZip, but WinZip alone does not provide the vehicle to transport the large DSS audio files, and DSS audio files cannot get compressed much more, so that is why I went with CryptoHeaven. 

You can e-mail me if you would like.  Keep in mind, I am no expert, and I am finding out things as I go along.  I will let you know how it goes.

Lynn  

Do you have a "sample" report of something you've already done in whatever format you're currently working in?  If you do, you could take your report and figure out how much you made doing that report in the format you're currently working in.  Then copy the report and put it in a new document with Times New Roman 11 and one-inch margins.  Then, using 0.9 gross lines, figure out how much you would make with the new format.  Compare it to the old.  Maybe do this with a few different reports to get an idea of a true comparison.

Hope this makes sense. :)

Even my QA person can't get this one, so I thought maybe someone here might have an idea.  Podiatric.......the doc says, "The patient relates that approximately four months ago, the patient stepped into a hole and twisted his foot.  He heard a pop and has since had intermittent heel pain.  The patient does relate ______  dyskinesia with pain on extended periods of weightbearing." 

Once, it sounded more like prosthetic, only without the "r" sound, and the second time maybe even like postatic, which I know is not a word.  Any help would be much appreciated as he has gotten me on this twice already. 

Were it my personal account, I'd just call him and ask him! 

does anyone know of where I can find or how I can go about looking for a consulting person to help me out with trying to get local accounts and what I need and should do such as contract, how to go about charging the client, what software is needed and the ins and outs of various ways of getting the work back to the client?  any information would be so greatly appreciated.  I just need pointed in the right direction. 

Or can somone give me advice as to what they did to get up and running?

Have a beautiful day!

but it seems the experience that I have had with these, they are fairly short.  I guess they could be lengthy, but I would say on an average $3.00 a page should make you a mighty fine living.  You may want to see some samples before pricing this one out.  The experiences I've had were with a hospital, and these were fairly short reports.  The pathology department employed two full-time hourly MTs for a hospital that probably held about 650 beds.  The OR had about 12 rooms.  The ambulatory surgery department had about 5 rooms.  These are all just my opinions though.  Good luck to you! 

Going into the printer properties and checking your printing preferences. If your not sure how to do this....Go to your Control Panel, open up Printers...find the printer, right click on it, hit properties, and under the General tab, there should be an area at the bottom titled "Printer/printing Preferences (something like that)..hit that and check out all your settings. I'd play around in that areas with your settings to see if somehow something is in there wacko.. Just a thought. I hope it works..

I just downloaded the EditScript (Escription) program onto my computer but I'm not getting any prompts from the Installation Wizard to install it.  This is a brand-new computer and I'm kind of a Vista imbecile since I've never used it. 

Is there some other step I need to take to get the program to actually install onto my computer so I can use it, or have I done something wrong? 

I'm SOOOO confused and can't reach my supe to ask her, so I was hoping someone here would be able to offer some advice.

Thanks ever so much!!! 

absolutely nothing, but I'm going to give my opinion anyway. 

Here's the problem with the whole QA process.  We (MTs) are told when interviewing that this or that service strictly adheres to the great and almighty, BIBLE of medical transcirption, the BS, er I mean BOS.  Then, when hired and given our assigned accounts, we are told the BOS applies, but .....  we do it this way for this client, that for that client, and the other way for another client. 

So, we as MTs are supposed to sift through all the crap and put out a flawless document and on top of all that, we now must also consider the egomaniacal QA person who has their "own style" of QA? 

So, now we must take an awful dictator who can scarcely put together a coherent sentence and make sense of what they are saying, then we have to make sure that whatever sentence we've constructed to articulate the dictator's thoughts strictly adheres to the rules of the BOS but WAIT then we must make sure that we've broken the correct BOS rules to suit the account specifics, and then we must now contend with the QA person who has decided we should dot our I's with little hearts cause that's the way she likes it?

And we do all of this for 8 cpl ?!?!?!?!?!

Somebody stop this crazy merry-go-round, I feel sick! 

HELP! Does anyone else have this problem and what did you do to solve it?

I use ExText and if I do a Cntl-S then Cntl-T, ExText will close both the document I've been viewing AND the job I'm working on, then open a completely new BLANK document, no headers, etc. I still have the voice files, but no document. I lose the job I've been working on as there is no time to save it to disk. It  usually near the end of transcribing a job. It happens every day, usuallly near the end of my shift. My production is suffering because of it, too.

I'm getting so frustrated and don't know what to do anymore. ExText has been reloaded a couple times and that doesn't solve the problem. I've been told it's my Word causing the problem and I have to remove it and reload that program, which I had done months ago, but still have the same problem.

I don't know where else to turn or what to do. Am I destined to NOT work for any company that uses this program? If so, that leaves out a heck of a lot of jobs.

Other than this problem, I really love using ExText. I think it's great...when it works right.

I have never heard of them and they sound kinda metal to me.  What category does INXS fall into?     I said I know very little about the music that these people are singing for the most part.  Is Nirvana metal? 

Thanks.

Hospitals can set up an account with the AT&T language line.  You call the number, give your account code and tell them what language you need.  They have tons to choose from and they are available in real time.  You have to use a speaker phone so the patient, translator and care provider can all hear each other.  Some 911 dispatch centers use it too. 

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Theodore Roosevelt

platform was that turned out to be a low-line maker.....

And tell us the one that has been good too!!!

Thanks!

I now have been contacted by four others who went through the same thing.  This will really help if they don't respond to the complaints I filed.  Thanks for taking the time to tell me.

Dianne