I want an experienced MT to email me please - I have questions for someone who has been there, done

• I want an experienced MT to email me please - I have questions for someone who has been there, done - that in transcription
  • Been where and done what? You didn't leave your email anyway. - RU Xperienced? (1980s flashback)
    • Actually, Hendrix' album of the same name was released in 1967, not the 1980s. :) nm - passing thru
      • There was a techno dance remix of it done in the 1980s. - electronica

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Since I have always been an at-home national service employee, I am completely ignorant as to what I would need for equipment/software in order to set up a system so that I wouldn't have to pick up/deliver tapes.  I live in a rural area so it is several miles to the nearest large town and would like to be able to eliminate the need to travel back and forth daily to pick up and deliver.  Can you give me any information on what I would need to do this and how expensive it would be to set it up?  Thank you so much

I just recently went back to work in the office at a local hospital. We type in both Meditech and Cerner, depending on what you are typing, i.e. Medical Records reports versus Radiology.  We are currently typing blindly in Meditech, meaning we do not have access to our line counts and must depend on management to give us our totals.  In Cerner, we are able to run a line count report and print out a hard copy of our line counts at the end of the day.

We are finding that 800 lines in Cerner equals about 500 lines in Meditech.  We are not paid per line nor do we have an incentive plan, but we have a new HIM Director who would like to institute an incentive plan and the administrator over our department has laid down the law and decreed that all transcriptionists not making minimum in the department will be written up.  Problem is according to Meditech line totals that we have been given, that would be about half the department.

The transcription supervisor has taken our concerns to the new director who told the MT Supervisor to hold off on writing people and has taken home all the line counts from the last month and she is going over them with a fine tooth comb this weekend.

I am not a very trusting soul by nature, so I am doing a little research on my own.  I've been in this business for about 15 years.  I started out in a hospital and have worked for a few services at home and am now back in the hospital setting.  So I know a few things about line count and I consider myself to be pretty well informed on trends and technology in the industry.   I would like to walk into our next department meeting armed with as much knowledge as possible.  So I have come up with some questions that I would like some fellow MTs to answer, give opinions, and maybe even direct me to websites or individuals who could give me a better understanding of Meditech and Cerner.  Here are my questions:

1. Is it possible for an MT to have access to her line count in Meditech or is strictly a management function?  Any MTs that work in Meditech on this board, do you currently have access to your line counts and if so, how do you check them?  Is it an option on the main menu after you log into Meditech?


2. How is a line defined in Meditech?  (i.e. 65 cpl, with spaces, without spaces)


3. How is a line defined in Cerner?


4. What abbreviation Expanders work with both Meditech and Cerner?


5. Examples of incentive plans (if anyone would like to share that with me that would be great, if not I completely understand).


6. Measuring productivity by minutes of dictation versus typed lines.




1. What would be the minimum minutes required for an 8-hour day?


2. How would one structure an incentive program based on minutes?

I was thinking of presenting the idea that we keep track of productivity using minutes instead of lines since there is such a discrepancy in Meditech.  I also worry that if an incentive plan is put into place and we are still typing blind into Meditech, what's to keep management from shaving off a few lines here and there?

Feel free to email me or post here any responses.  Either is fine.  I really appreciate any input, comments, or just plain old supportive posts would be nice too! 

e-mail address because it is not revealed when they send mail because we have spam protection in place.  The only way they would know what your email address is, is if you reply to the email they send you.  If you don't want to receive any email from anyone, simply do not enter your email address in the Email field.

Administrator

who is in San Antonio and may be able to help you.

I'm in Corpus.

I truly love interviewing with these companies, then trying not to spew coffee out my nose at the line rates offered.  Some of those rates were even for IC with no benefits or tax withholding.  I'm about ready to quit MT and let them offshore because rates have dropped so much since I started.  It's wonderful being offered the same rate to do ESLs and upper level work as what I made 10 years ago as a newbie.  It's getting to the point where you can't make a decent, honest living anywhere any more.

Dear MT Pundit,

Thank you for taking the time to write your thoughts about experienced vs. new MTs.  I think you're right-on.  I see myself in the set-in-my-ways attitude sometimes.  I'm not speaking for anyone else, of course.  I can only speak for myself.  Change isn't easy for me, but I've tried very hard to adapt and think I'm doing okay.  This industry is changing fast and furiously, and if I want to stay in it, then I need to be able to go with the flow.  Otherwise, my job may well end up in India. 

I am an experienced Transcriptionist but I have always worked as an employee.  I now have the opportunity to pick up a side account as an IC. 

I really need some help and guidance on how to create a contract and what needs to be in that contract.  Can someone please give me some advice?

Thanks In Advance!!

I have been doing this for 15 years.  Did my time in the office before going home and still learning every day. 

I feel that I am above average at what I do, in the past 11 years on my current job, not one QA audit below 98%.  I also have a 2nd job to make ends meet and in the past year, my monthly QA audits have been above 99%, twice at 100%.  The 2nd job is OPs only and paid less than the 1st job. 

I work a schedule at both!  I do not complain and take pride in what I do.  Of course I look things up.  I do not abuse QA.

Thanks for you advice about trying to find a job like yours that never posts ads because no one leaves.  That should help a fellow MT find a home. 

that was an ad in the job seeker's board.  UN-freakin' believable.

This is a new account and we're still on dial-up, and don't have the help function.  I have 2 questions:  1) How can you bring a normal you have made for yourself into the document without having to go through the entire list?  2) How can you stop an expansion from expanding on a 1-time basis.  Let's say you have PT as prothrombin time, but you need just "PT" -- how could you get it to stop at PT?  Many thanks! 

Do those of you who have been at this awhile (but not burnt out) feel that MTing becomes more enjoyable as time goes on?

I am still pretty green at this and am hoping as I gain more experience and knowledge it will become more pleasurable and less wearing.

What has your experience been? 

  I may have commented on this before, but now my boss wants me to handle it in a different way, and I am not sure if it's the right way to go. 

One of my docs makes up his own words.  He will often say that the results of a test are "equivocable".  We know that's not a word.  I can't just substitute in "equivocal" or "unequivocal" because this is a verbatim account.  My boss used to tell me to just make a note in my log, which is sent with my work, that the doc had used that word.  I liked that, because it provided documentation with the file (of which I retain a copy) that while the doctor may not know that's not a real word, *I* do and I am just typing what he's saying. 

Now my boss has asked me to leave that off the log because it is annoying the doctor.  I totally understand her point, because we know how snotty docs can be.  Lord forbid anyone point out that they're wrong about anything, or the world might spin off its axis.  But I am not sure... 

Do I need something on my log so that I can prove that it isn't my mistake being made?  Is it okay since my boss knows that and the doctor should know his own non-word since he's the one who made it up in the first place? 

I am probably worrying about nothing, but just thought I would see what you wiser, more experienced MTs were thinking. 

I would love to have some tips to help with the transition.   My shift will be from 8pm to 4am (I am west coast time so three hours difference from where the company is) three consectutive nights a week. 

Many friends have told me I'm nuts, but my hubby will be working on the days I am sleeping, no kids at home anymore and we live in the sticks, so no one just drops by! 

Any good or bad feedback appreciated!