I just went back to radiology after 12 years
Posted By: smit on 2007-06-25
In Reply to: Radiology Transcription Question - Terry
doing another specialty. My biggest problems were the names of MR images complicated by fast talk and different images for different MRs and different language from many different docs. Sometimes 6-8 lines detailing acquisitions, sometimes not. Cardiac MR was the worst for me. I had 8 plus years of rad, but hadn't done it since PET was invented,lol...It helped when I had good dictators.I found a list on line of names of MR images, isn't complete. NM cardiac was another trip. I spent a lot of time going to google,just to make sure I was hearing what I thought I was hearing. I really like the job. You should get sample reports for the different docs for procedures, reading them will help, and you will have them for reference.
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I worked for Cbay for 3 years. I was also part of their lay off back many years ago. sm
Even though I got stuck in a lay off era, I still love the company. They paid well then. The people were nice (exception of 1 person) and if I had the opportunity I would go back again. Fortunately (or unfortunately - depending on how u look at it), I have a great paying job right now, so I am not looking for a change. I do know that at one time, they asked management to accept late paychecks, but never sure of the reason why. My check was never late.
I had 10 years in radiology - sm
I applied at a local hospital/cancer center and tested. They were in such dire need of quality transcribers that they took me right in. Now, I transcribe it all. You never know until you try.
I've been doing radiology for 4 years--
and I think it's great. It can get a little dull because you tend to hear the same things over and over, but you can get good line counts with it.
Have been doing radiology on Meditech for 15 years
It just depends on the version the hospital is using. It does have a spellcheck but again it depends on what is in it. I was there from the beginning so I had to input a lot of things through the years. The only Expander I found that works with Meditech is Shorthand.
20 years' experience in Radiology
Please email me privately and I'll be glad to give my 2 cents.
I'm learning radiology now after 19 years
in acute care. So far it's pretty easy. The phrases are familiar from the radiologic studies sections of consults, H&Ps and discharges. The internet makes short work of finding any new terminology. What is throwing me, though, is the sound quality. It's all pretty muffled. I don't know if that is typical of radiology or not. I thought maybe the proximity of the dictation equipment to the radiology equipment is causing it, but maybe they just have old phones.  Any radiology MT care to comment on sound quality?
I know it used to be 5-10 years back, but the laws changed within the last 2 years. They can only g
x
16 years, 1 radiology, 7 clinic, 8 acute
.
I have been doing Radiology only the last two years after several years (sm)
of acute care. I love it and find it easier although not as interesting as acute care. I was told by those who hired me that a good medical Transcriptionist will be able to do Radiology even with no experience in it. There are some specialized terms but easy to learn. I would never go back to acute care unless there were very good dictators and good sound quality.
When I trained, back years and years ago
We did not have spell checking nor the internet (Google for instantaneous help). OMG, how did we do it? We used Correcting Selectrics with the lift-off tape to correct errors- you only had dictionaries, both English and medical, to look up things so yes we did have to learn to spell all those big longgggggggggg words.
Several years back it was
an 8 or 10 hour shift and your only break is for a meal. Cubicles with no outside world communication. Heaven forbid if you need a potty break.
Hopefully things have changed, but I have my doubts. Huntsville Hospital is more worried about being "the biggest" than employee relations. There was a great letter to the Editor in the newspaper recently about the problems still going on there.
And, I'll state, this is JMO.
Back 25 years ago, the FDA.....sm
Back 25 years ago or so, the FDA refused to allow a cheap drug called Latrielle into this country for the AIDS/HIV patients. So, all the gay people went to Mexico to get the drug. Does anyone remember this?
Our problem is not with *crack-pot* medical systems in other countries. Our problem begins right here with the darned FDA. For those who do not know what the FDA is - it is the Food and Drug Administration....you know those people....much like the USDA (the US Dept of Agriculture) which allows a certain amount of feces and rat hairs into ALL our food. Start reading Consumer Reports!!!
There is better treatment all over the world - so please do not delude yourselves into thinking that the medical care in the USA is THE BEST because it certainly is not....it's merely BIG BUSINESS in the USA as usual.
I was out for 7 years and got back in, so...SM
you seem well within the time frame to do this if you have your heart set on it. I took some time off for raising kids and then worked at a school for 5 years in the meantime, then decided to pursue it again now that all 4 kids are in school (finally!) and I researched what company I thought I wanted to work for and took their test and was amazed to pass. After 7 years, I figured I'd really be out of luck. It worked out just fine. If I can do it after all that time, I don't think you'll have trouble. I only had about 2 years' experience before this, too, where you have much more. Good luck.
I used them some years back and have some feedback...
The service was great, and sitefever.com's FTP servers were very fast. The only thing was that when I got more than one client or if I had a large client I wanted to use FTP for, their free service didn't cut it. But, they have a 300mb plan which is like 45 or 50 dollars for an entire year, and it gave me access for up to 10 different clients and plenty of space for them all.
So, if you're looking at sitefever.com as an FTP provider, you're looking in the right direction. The only thing I would suggest is if you plan on growing, just pay a few bucks for their larger accounts.
P.S.- The free FTP accounts only work when you have the public ID number, which changes monthly. I see whoever started this topic had posted a current ID number.
28 years - OJT. That was the only way to train way back then. nm
x
This happened to me a few years back (sm)
when I was working for a national and they had a huge teaching hospital in Southern California. Must have been 500 docs, 500 specialities and 500 subspecialities - never had the same doc more than once......... I was so frustrated!! Sorry - not much help but I do feel your pain!
5 years and still going strong, I have a back up one though- sm
that I use for travel, that is about 4 years old but only gets used about 20 days out of a year if that. That one gets abused a bit and still works fine though.
I've used it for several years and won't go back.
It's very easy to learn and user friendly. I won't work on anything else.
We did and moved back after 4 years.
For us, we decided the big home and extra spending money wasn't worth it. I was depressed the whole time we were on the mainland. This is our home and this is where we want to raise our child. We are happier here in our little condo than we ever were there.
I have work going back years - sm
others keep it a month or two. I have one doctor who sees patients on a yearly basis, I pull the previous report so I don't have to retype a lot of it, as he basically repeats the old one with a few changes, I'd have a lot more work to do otherwise. I have another account that constantly misplaces their work, I have to retrieve work from months earlier because they cannot find their copy. I can either pull it from my stash, or the MTSO has a FTP where we back up all our work just for this purpose, she keeps it all there going back years. I have no idea how often she cleans it out, but she hasn't in the almost 2 years I have been with her. On another note, I only keep the sound files for a month, then I dump them.
Bless your heart. Back several years ago
I worked FT for a large hospital doing MT and ran an MT business full-time but I had 2 partners in my business. I slept every other night. Hahaha I was younger at that time. Made INCREDIBLE money. Still can't believe today what I made then. It was a killer though. And with running my own business, I was not doing actual transcription the whole time, there was a lot of normal business activity/transactions/planning to do. That is why I think I held up to it as long as I did.
Well, I'm very impressed. Congratulations. I couldn't do that today (two FT transcription positions) if I tried!
I've been back in college for 2 years now.
and wish you the best of luck! You can never have too much education. It opens so many more doors!
Visited Idaho a few years back sm
beautiful, beautiful state. Decided that's where I want to retire.
I've had a bad back for years and nothing works better...sm
for me than heat. I have a chair pad that heats and/or vibrates. I don't use the vibrator much because the noise is distracting, but the heat works wonders. Sometimes if the pain is real high around my shoulders, I just drape a heating pad over the top of my chair.....also keeps me warm and toasty in the winter time.
The REAL credential was the ART a few years back
WE had to have knowledge to get it. Not just show that we could transcribe. We had A&P with the premed students. We HAD to learn the stuff.
I've been fighting back for 30 years.
It hasn't done one bit of good. The AAMT sold us out a long time ago and when the computer came into being, it made it way too easy to ship everything offshore. At least years ago when we used a typewriter, you had to work in house. Now everything is about faster, faster TAT and hiring people as cheap as possible to get the work done. I have always said that if they could get trained monkeys to do this job and pay them in bananas, they would. They don't give a rip about the MTs and they never have. 
have been using Cirque Glidepoint mouse for years-would NEVER go back! nm
nm
No way - MQ is the pits, left 6 years ago and never looked back.
There is greener grass, believe me.
One of my instructors referred our class to them a few years back.
I used them for FTP on a paid account (I think it was only like 20 bucks or so a year) and it worked great until a company I signed on with provided their own FTP servers.
TA has been bad news here & on other boards for years! A search will back up what is
s
I switched from Shorthand after 6 years to IT and wouldn't go back. nm
xx
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.
looking for people that used to work for small MTSO in Suffield, OH a few years back.
ss
I'm horrible with math myself but was told several years back by a pretty reliable source
that w/o spaces is about a 17% reduction in pay - and I would say the figures you gave pretty much leads me to believe this may be true.
Radiology transcription, what type of reports are considered radiology
I have lot of experience with everything and I would like to know what exactly is considered radiology so I know if I qualify for that type of work? I've had many types that I think qualify for radiology.
She came around as an anti-Britney, anti-Christina bad girl a few years back
http://images.google.com/images?q=avil+lavigne&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=ii&oi=imagest
and I like her music. At least it's really her music rather than some oversynthesized Britney crap. Christina can sing but she's too slutty. Avril is a nice in-between IMO. Hillary Duff is another person of that genre who actually has talent but doesn't act like a scumbag.
With short arms, I need chair with shallow seat, good back support and high back. Want arm rests
:+
OK! I'm glad you're back down here. Now don't go back up there and read those evil posts ag
Okay? But I have to leave you now, sadly. Thousands of noble dictating doctors are anxiously awaiting my help with their "dictations"....They're all loading up on chips, drinking lots of soda so they can burp, and then have to go to the bathroom...You know the routine! Off I go to earn some pennies!! But, truly, I am thankful that I have a job! 
PS.. It apparently worked..I heard back and already submitted the paperwork back.
I'm not sure how many people they are hiring but you shouldn't stress too hard over it. Do the best you can.
I would not do them back to back - I have done 2 and 3 jobs at the same time -- all PT - sm
It is possible to do of course but you will burn out fast. Now I do one almost FT (about 30 hours a week) and the other is about 8-10 hours a week-- I still get beat doing that and that is w/o set hours. I find that the older I get the harder it is to work late and I am only 40! But a mid afternoon 30-minute cat nap helps a lot in order to keep going on busy days.
How do you set your computer back 1 day. I messed something up and need to go back 1 day.
NM
58, AHP/self-taught, trained at hospital 5 years, now with 2 of my own accounts for 10 years, employ
Also worn out 2 keyboards in 4 years. I will never retire. DH will come home some day from work and I'll be slumped over my keyboard. I put in 14 hours a day 7 days a week.
Pack years = packs smoked per day x years of smoking - sm
25 pack-years = 25 years of 1 pack a day, or 12-1/2 years of 2 packs a day.
I don't think pack-years applies to someone who smokes only cigars. But I don't know for sure.
6 years legal then switched to medical 17+ years ago. sm
I don't mind doing legal and will do it now from time to time, but be prepared to be totally bored out of your mind.
At least that's the way I feel. I love to transcribe, learned legal in college, went on to get my paralegal degree, etc., etc., but I did temp work when the kids were younger, which was about 90% medical and I would never go back to legal except for once in a while.
Booooooring.
Only 3 years away from reaching total years for retirement
but if I had to do this and raise a family, would feel exactly like you do. The pay is terrible compared to what I used to make. I work 32 hours a week, hope to be able to continue even after full retirement age. I have worked on VR now and unless places get to where they really do not care about how their reports look, think they will need MTs. I very seldom do a report and it is 100%, just cannot remember 1 like that and most take a lot more editing. Working now because want to, not have to anymore, thank goodness!!
Yes, you get back to work now. Go back to
some routine, and it does start to hurt less. I know And remember, she is still there at work with you. Always will be. I figure at this point I have a whole herd of loved dogs under my desk each day - along with a couple horses, hamsters, parakeets, rabbits...If only I could see them - must be quite a happy zoo! But I know they are all there I sense their love.
RADIOLOGY
I used to type radiology in-house for patients in nursing homes. After I typed the report, I would fax them to the nursing homes and they would put that report in the patient's chart. Then I would send original report to doc to get signature. After those are signed, they are mailed out to the nursing homes. I am not really too sure why you are asking but hope this helps some. The doc's never read my reports because they trusted me but I am sure they would want to before they put their signature on anything.
Radiology
I currently am typing radiology and have for 27 years. I also have to type in patient information but not in the manner you do. Yor are right, it is extremely time consuming the way you have to do it. You should have some kind of patient log or the information should already put in the template. No, you will not have a high line count in the manner you have to do it. Radiology reports, as you know, can be very short and the time it takes for you to get the information overrides the length of the report.
Radiology Pay.
I was just wondering what other rad MT's are earning out there - and are U paid by report or by line? Which method do U think is better?
Radiology
It is interesting although as mentioned already, it lends itself well to voice recognition (because it is very repetitive) and many of us are currently unemployed because of that technology. Wish I had your experience in today's workplace.
Go for Radiology...
It seems hard at first but after a while they say the same stuff over and over, and don't go into huge detail - many MT's who do it are paid per report (like me), so the bucks can really add up. I've been on the same account for 8 years, no secondary account, never run out of work and find it much more interesting than the usual discharge summaries, H & P's, etc...of course TAT is pretty short, which can be stressful, but overall I love it! At my company radiology accounts are considered the creme d'la creme (sp?) so we are treated with a tad more respect (since we have the cash cows)...try it, you'll like it!
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