I transitioned about 4 yrs ago and sm

I had gone from family practice for about 7 years on the same group of physicians right to OP notes, skipping the rest of acute care work types.  I had 4 months that were extremely difficult, but after that, it seemed to click.  Last year, I went from the surgical center OP notes to acute care straight.  However, once the places I have worked caught on that it was OP notes I am good with and OP notes I like, they never let me do anything else.

I feel like I went from the easiest to the hardest and didn't manage the steps in between.  When I worked clinic I was paid 7.5 to 9 cpl depending on the doctor, mostly at 7.5 cpl.  The problem was the work flow.  It was feast or famine and from about Thanksgiving to Easter the work was terribly slow and I worried like crazy.  The other months were better, but it was never what I am making now.  The most I made in a year doing clinic was $24K full time.  I make more than half again as much now with a marginally higher line rate (1 cent more) and I still only work full time.  The reason is that I have, or can get, a similar amount of work each and every day and all through the year.  Clinic bored me to tears for the last 3 yrs I did it, but no one would take a chance on giving me any acute care, let alone OP notes.  I had a lucky offer, I took it and they stuck by me until I could get to 99% accuracy or better and kept giving me more work until I could get to 1600-1800 lines a day. 

I'd tell you if you want to do acute care, go for it.  I am not saying the transition won't be difficult at first, but as you have experience it won't be the uphill climb that learning transcription was in the first place.  I tend to encourage people to learn acute care and transition from clinic to acute.  As fill in the blank EMR systems take hold clinic work will be the first to go.  There wasn't that much of it about when I was doing it and I'd say judging from the ads of jobs in MT, there is even less now. 

• Need advice: I have some Acute Care exp. - RAD-emtee
  • I transitioned about 4 yrs ago and sm - Jewelsy
    • Jewelsy, you're a breath of fresh air (sm) - RAD-emtee
  • I went from clinic to acute care last year... - curious
    • Thanks Curious (sm) - RAD-emtee
      • The account means a lot....sm - curious

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I'm thinking about taking a position at the local HUGE teaching hospital.  I don't know the pay yet, but the benefits are really good.  I'm trying to think about what it would be like to not work at home... and it kind of scares me.  But at the same time, it excites me... One of my major concerns is missing my dogs LOL.  and them missing me, of course.

Would appreciate any input from any of ya'll about your experience and things I might want to consider when deciding whether or not to leave my comfort zone. 

Oh, and it's located within 5 miles of my house, so gas would be a consideration, but not huge.

Thanks!