It depends on your skill level, your speed, your ability to do the
Posted By: worktypes. on 2006-10-16
In Reply to: How many hrs (on avg) does it take to type 6,000 lines/wk? - Sherrie
nm
Complete Discussion Below:  marks the location of current message within thread
The messages you are viewing
are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select
the boards given in left menu
Other related messages found in our database
I think tier level should be based on the ability
to transcribe jobs assigned to the particular tier. My first job as an MT (I worked in house) required that I do all work types including OP reports. We, of course, did not have tier levels assigned; we were paid hourly. But, we were required to do all work types. 
Depends on your exp level...sm
And whether you think it is a fair offer?
Absolutely can! Depends on your speed and
the account. You can make a lot of money. Granted 6 cpl is not a great rate, but if everything is included, even bold and underline, h/f, etc, the lines rack up. I average anywhere from 400-500 lph straight transcription on my best days, 350-400 on off days. So, it can be worth it.
Figure if everything including bold and underline, etc is being paid for that equates to probably 9 or 10 cpl for those companies only paying spaces and not paying for h/f or bold/underline, etc.
I say go for it.
Good Luck!
depends on your speed, knowledge & accounts.
x
Depends on how company counts unofficicially, as well as your speed. SM
I did excellently at one company, better than transcription because I'm relatively speaking a crummy typist, continued to do excellently after rates were adjusted as more people became proficient, the same again, but then my production mysteriously dropped, dropped some more, dropped, dropped, until I was making less than straight transcription--all without those official rate adjustment notices. I'm now with another company. It may be you, or your company may be underpaying. You need to figure that one out and act on it, one way or the other. Best wishes, Fellow MT
I came from low level neighborhood. I know the effects low level people have on a child's
mind. I fought very hard to get out of there. If you think narrow-minded high-horse thinking people are the only ones who are making trailer park comments, YOU ARE DEAD WRONG. I know white trash people who live for the weekend to get drunk and party and make just enough to get by. I am educated in the "real world" and whether you like it or not, the "real world" doesn't want to be anywhere near a trailer park for real or imagined reasons and does ostracize trailer park people along with ghetto people and section 8 people. Crime, drugs, do come from low income housing. BTW, people are outraged at black-on-black ghetto crime. That does not happen in higher working class black neighborhoods. Same deal with white trash people. Low class white people get drunk fight and end up in jail. If you read the newspaper or watch it on TV over the weekend, you know what I am talking about. Crime, drugs, etc is rarely an ONGOING problem in upper class neighborhoods because most of these people have goals for the future. Lower class neighborhoods and low class people are what they are because that's what the people in the neighborhoods settle for.
increase speed 3, decrease speed 2...sm
increase backspace 9, decrease backspace 8. At least that's what mine does.
from each according to his ability, to each according to his need?
The communist manifesto
transcriptions have a skill also
as far as looking up addresses go!
the ability to procreate does not mean someone is not gay.
x
Ability to get job is what matters most
Yes,Andrews and M-Tec are more expensive than a CC, but if you want to work from home, the companies that are looking to hire you don't know if your CC program is adequate. Some are, some aren't, and there are lots of them around the country. The companies know that if you successfully completed Andrews or M-TEC, you are likely to succeed. There are so many posts on these boards from newbies who can't find jobs, yet M-TEC and Andrews grads get hired. I was hired fresh out of school by a large national, worked there 3 years, and was just hired by a smaller MTSO. Getting both jobs was a breeze. I have never had to test for a job. Both companies told me they hired me because I am an M-TEC grad, and they did not feel testing was necessary.
There's a shortage of US MT's because the skill is becoming obsolete
Schools don't even encourage anyone to get into this field anymore because they don't want to have someone take a course and then be out of work in a few years when this skill goes the same direction that shorthand did several decades back.
Like someone said on the Company board, education is the key. Don't allow yourself to be a one-trick pony and learn how to do something else while you can.
MTs with less skill s/b paid less with that money going to the best
I can do xxxx but it makes me sick when the slackers get the exact same pay as me. Please don't give me the xxxx story that I can make more by being more efficient.
This is all part of transcription and the skill
I have had in all of my years of experience many types of dictators. I can honestly say that I have had ESL dictators that were better than your run of the mill American dictators. We are a melting pot, and what's funny to me is that so many make comments about an MTSO sending ESL dicators offshore, yet we have Mexican, Chinese, and Indian restaurants that we eat from and love the food. I think we need to somehow learn to embrace the ESL dictators. I had an ESL that was the most lovely physician. He knew that his dictation was difficult and was always willing to answer questions and would take the extra time to explain why he stated this or that. 
Upping the skill ante.
You might go online and look at Oak Horizons. They have an excellent reputation and are affordable. Also check VO-Technical schools for grammar as they are less expensive but adequate and junior colleges in your area. Good luck and good for you in improving your quality.
I work on Winscribe. There is the ability to
see which MTs are on Winscribe when you go into it. They also can see how many minutes it took to transcribe a report. They probably do averages. I do not know who you work for but I tend to follow the eight hour shift with two breaks and a lunch. It is easy for me since I came out of a hospital setting where I had to work that way.
I do have a recommendation. The Phillips comes with the ability
to download twice and I would make sure I set that up. Download to the file that will be coming to you. Then use the backup download to a file that is totally separate. I call it backupvoicefiles. I have found files in the backupvoicefiles that for some reason didn't come to me in the regular file. They would have been lost if I didn't know to check this. Phillips has no explanation for why this happens. I have been most happy with the Phillips equipment especially since I figured this part out. When the girls are looking for work that he claims that dictates and I have not transcribed, I know the approximate numbers to check and have them go into the backupvoicefile folder and check to see if it is there.
Good luck. My doctors love the Phillips better than they did the Olympus and much fewer problems.
Must have been my ability to overlook. Now that it's pointed out,
I did scroll back down and see a bit. Guess I'll go back to overlooking them again, life's easier that way.
Right on, JMO. Also, when I have the ability to choose dictations SM
from a list (which I don't have at my current work, darn), I like to gather up all the dictations I can find for bad dictators and do them together to learn that dictator right up front, instead of struggling over months. I'll also use them to put together a template, which if dictation's really horrible will include a whole pack of phrases he/she has been known to use, a grab bag of possibilities to scan over. May sound like a bother to some, but it's a real serenity-saver.
He's trying to take away my ability to give myself raises
He doesn't want to pay me for my templates, my macros. He's taking AWAY money from me. He wants to change my "line count" to key strokes, so he doesn't have to pay me for a few paragraphs when it only takes me a few Keystrokes to put the macro in. It's like he thinks I'm cheating him! Isn't that industry standard?? Also I don't have the ability to "raise my production" what I get is what I do, every day I finish all the work.
The problem I'm having is what I make with them won't cover my living expenses any longer. That's why I asked for the raise. I mean I know as an IC i don't "ask". They said no, and guess what I have to stick around until I find something else. I won't find something better I'm sure, so I have to change careers. I'm having a very hard time dealing with this. Maybe cause I'm young and I don't feel like I know what I want to do. I wanted to be able to stay at home and raise a family, and now that dream is shot.
I'm just very upset you know, just ranting a little :)
Good research skills the best skill an MT
x
If you believe editing is a HIGHER skill, then why are we being paid
Failing national skill test
This is to Vicki. Please do not be discouraged. The MAJORITY of the companies out there (most of them advertising here) actually DO NOT want experienced MT's. They are looking for the stay-at-home mom (not critizing, wish I could be one) that do not actually have to carry an active part in family income. If you are experienced you would actually produce (imagine that-isn't that why we are working cpl?) and that would cost them money. Where a newbie makes the minimal amount for a time and that makes them happy. Not to say that they would not be on the newbie's butt to produce 98%+ etc.
I have 30 years experience, and I have failed tests from a national company. I have kept myself updated over the years and extremely computer literate, and had been in charge of staffing before they recently outsourced our workflow to India, so it is not a case of not accepting the "new ways" of doing things. Many of the "new" AAMT guidelines are grossly incorrect according to the major hospital system that I represent.
Just my say. Thank you.
I admire your ability to forgive and hopefully this will all blow over - however, that being said,
please make sure that Animal Control did not list this as an "incident" so that it may not be used against your dog in the future, even if no charges were filed. A lot of states have a strict "no bite or 3 bite" policy and would not want this to count against your dog later in life. My brother-in-law's dog bit a child when it got tangled up in her bicycle wheels (granted she should not have been that close to the child in the first place), so we've learned to be very careful about our animals.
What if you post messages under a different SN (AOL gives you ability to create several).
I remember posting a response. Received an e-mail began which began with "Hi" and my name. This was rather unsettling as you can imagine.
My 10 yo dog has lost ability to use hind legs
She was put under anesthesia to have a large mass removed from her chest. What I thought might be a malignant lump turned out to be lipoma. She had hip dysplasia all her life and was arthritic but never thought she would lose use of hind legs. Surgery was today. Picked her up at 5:00 and now, 4 hours later, I am truly concerned. She is a weinaraner. I am to give her 10 mg of prednisone daily.
Geesh, I wondered why the vet didn't bring the dog with her when she talked to me. And when we discussed surgery, I mentioend that anesthesia was hard on senior dogs (it was hard on me and I am healthy adult).
Just wondering here if she will recover. Maybe smeone here knows something about this. Thank you
What someone else is silly enough to pay you, has no bearing on your ability or character.
:+
I think any transcription service can well assess an MTs ability
requires so many test files to be transcribed is taking advantage of applicants.
If I had just one other skill that allowed me to pay for my modest lifestyle, I'd utilize it.
Maybe it is the 20 yrs in this business. I now have tinnitus, am absolutely sure that sitting for 8-10 hours a day is having a detrimental effect on my health, am more anxiety ridden now that there is very little job security and I am a sole operation here in my little world, have arm and hand fatigue (it's a freakin miracle I do not have CTS yet). I just really do not enjoy doing this as I used to. I have to really force myself to stay focused and am really really trying to find some joy in it by realizing other people have tedious jobs just as I do that they must also dislike.
B.S. in HIM, no MT school, OTJ training for that skill, but the HIM classes for the knowledge. nm
x
Editing is the higher skill since it's more brain work,, AND SM
the computers are taking over the finger work. That and practitioners entering directly into the electronic medical record mean that most traditional transcription jobs before too long will be a thing of the past.
So I'd recommend you go directly to editing since you'll end up doing that anyway. If there's a future in this, it's going to be with a higher level of medical knowledge and a more expanded involvement in medical records beyond merely editing dictation, but likely including that.
Plus, with editing you'll be in at least twice as many reports as if you were transcribing them, which means you'll get much more experience more quickly. Whether you'll lose some benefit from not typing every word out I don't know, but you will spend a lot less time getting verbage you don't need to learn on paper. I.e., instead of typing some version of, "The patient presented to the emergency room by private automobile with a complaint of" a few hundred times a week,...you don't.
Do commit to developing an expansion base that will cut the Keystrokes it takes to do your work to the very minimum. As long as anyone's paid on a production basis, and as long as we're using keyboards, someone using 5 keystrokes to make 2 edits will BOTH make a lot more money than someone who takes 9 keystrokes to make one correction AND be a much more valuable productive worker--i.e., worth keeping on and developing as most traditional jobs disappear.
And do sign up for more medical classes, the ones people preparing for nursing and medical school take.
Whether you'll make more or less money one way or the other right now probably depends more than anything on the particular talents you bring to the job and the particular skills you choose to develop. Unlike the previous poster who does better transcribing, I make more editing, but I'm a fast reader and a slow keyboarder, so the less my income depends on what my fingers are capable of the better. Best wishes!
Yes! We're talking critical skill developement here! nmx
x
We have the ability to see each others # of reports and # of lines. We are to report to super
visor when one person has done 150 exams a day but only has a minimum of lines typed. In radiology, it tends to average out. They are watching it for morale's sake as well as they figure if the MT who jumps jobs is probably cheating elsewhere in the job or her/his life. Too many ethical ones these days to settle for a cherrypickers.
Ask them to give you the ability to choose your work from the queue SM
They may refuse; but assuming you do have to sign off (I don't remember any more), you can explain that it takes too long. All they can do is refuse. Another--big--benefit is that you can choose several jobs in a row for a dictator or specialty you're having trouble with and learn in a day what can take months to learn coming through in dribbles.
Mine isn't working either. Wonder if they've taken that ability away or archived stuff so we
s
When I worked on site, we would judge docs by ability to dictate ...
As it turned out, our assessments were usually correct as to who the best/worst doctors were by the way they dictated. It was not necessarily just that they pronounced words correctly. It had more to do with general sloppiness and lack of attention to detail.
Totally agree. They're no longer paying for this so-called skill
and that's part of the reason the quality is down.
C-phone speed help! PLEASE! Speed key!
I am in tears - typing speedy gonzalez - a total knee replacement, not a standard, dictated in under 1 minute - FULL REPORT! Can you imagine? I have a C-phone that is just hanging in there, but lost all its programming. Isn't there a # key on the number part of the phone that reduces speed? I need it way slooooooooooow!! I'm afraid to just start hitting numbers, though, cause I've lost reports that way!! Anybody have a # to hit for me???
This is a very basic computer skill/concept. You copy files to another drive using Explorer.
There are very detailed instructions in the Help files that accompany Windows. You can read those for more information.
Basically, you open Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer). Locate the files you want to copy, highlight and right mouse click. Choose Copy. Now, find the location where you want to copy these files (usually another drive like D: or H:, whereever the flash/jump/thumb drive is located) and paste the files there.
Good for you, Linda! SM First, editing's a desirable trend. Higher skill, easier SM
I feel it may be like a train about to rush around the bend at me.
For the discussion, editing is a higher skill and it's easier on the hands--absolutely no carpal tunnel problems since I started editing. And the WAGES ARE ABOUT THE SAME--you go through approximately twice as much dictation (some people more, some less depending on talent) in the same time it would take to transcribe it and get paid half as much for that amount of dictation, ending up without a drop in wages from editing. This is fair and market-driven.
Fewer editors would be needed, but some would be needed for the stinkers, even scary-good as VR gets with most dictators.
The big threat is from the electronic medical record, where physicians and their assistants check boxes on a handheld device they carry around with them and there is NO text report to come to us at all. England has had this for some years; go look and see how MTs are doing on the Emerald Isle.
No Chicken Little here, guys, AND not burying my head in the sand either. I don't have a view into the future, but the one thing that's clear is the future will require developing new skills, professional or trade level, of one kind or another. I just hope and pray it doesn't require going back to suits and office politics. School's okay, even at my age, but am guilty of putting it off to see if I'm going to be allowed to continue pretty much as is until I'm too old to work...huh--maybe there's some sand obscuring the picture after all. Best wishes.
Level I
After 25 years as a MT and I'm only a Level I? I think not, but with MQ, yes, that's all I've been able to get...
Level I
what's wrong is having 5 accounts to switch back and forth from and running out of work....
I never once said they were on the same level--sm
It is just my personal opinion that killing of any breathing living being is wrong. and since there are different *punishments* for killing a man and killing a beast, a *punishment* is still a *punishment* and I personally prefer not to be *punished* in any context. This life alone has been *punishment* enough. I simply prefer not to be *punished* in the after life for causing harm to another, be it human or animal. I try very hard to live my life by God's laws, which are far more important than any self-serving laws that man can think up. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Since I am not looking to debate this already dead issue any longer, I will not respond to any more posts concerning it. This was just my opinion and I am entitled to it without having to be criticised for it. Have a great day.
well on that level, i'm with you
100%. I think the vast majority of Americans are frustrated at the loss of jobs and the illegal immigration situation.
It is exp. level....sm
Newbies up until 2 years are MT level 1. I know 2 years and up is level 2 and I am not sure of MT level 3 how much exp that is.
It's not funny when you're on a board where language is one skill you're selling.
.
God gave us the ability to judge for good reason. Then told us judge not, lest thou be judged. NM
:
It's not even a sport - these guys aren't athletes - it's a SKILL not a SPORT
x
And your educational level is?
and the more I read this board the happier I am that I'm getting out of this business. Too many "bully wannabes" in here with their name-calling and misplaced aggression. If your life sucks so much that you need to get off on "winning your little pretend cyber battle for the day" ROCK ON. I'm going to use my degree and talk to intelligent people in the real world. Have fun!
Entry-Level MTs
Hello to all!
Can anyone give any advice on where I may be able to go and find an entry-level MT position? I greatly appreciate all the responses I hope to receive. Thanks all!
Entry Level MT's
MedQuist hires entry levels with good testing scores. Fax them your resume. Its worth a try. Good luck
|
