Line padding is also adding little blank characters
Posted By: seen it, won't do it on 2005-08-03
In Reply to: there a note on the company board from QA regarding cherrypicking and they mention "line padding& - wondering MT
like spaces throughout the report to get paid more. I saw reports at MQ and Sp that had lines of spaces shown on reveal codes between paragraphs where someone either didn't know how to work their expander, was cutting and pasting, or was deliberately padding their lines.
As for typing out abbreviations, I work on an account that doesn't use abbreviations at all. I use otcx for over-the-counter, etc.
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Line padding is also adding extra words. See inside.
Doc says: "General. Alert and oriented, no distress. HEENT: Eyes clear. Lungs: Clear."
MT types: GENERAL EXAMINATION: In general, the patient is alert and oriented. The patient is in no distress. HEENT EXAMINATION: The patient's eyes are clear. LUNG EXAMINATION: The patient's lungs are clear.
I kid you not. And there are companies out there that will defend the MT's right to do so. But, would the client's approve of it? I seriously think not.
How do you put in little blank characters with a macro and not have it show up on report?
I never heard of this type of padding and I'm not sure I'm not doing this by mistake.
A gross line is anything on a line is a line. A line set at 65 characters means it sm
has 1-inch margins on each side. The maximum number of characters on that line would be 65 and that includes spaces. If there is 1 character on that line it is a line.
A standard 65-character line usually consists of 65 characters with spaces unless, of course, the employer does not pay for spaces and then it would be 65-characters without spaces.
line padding
Okay. I have doctors who dictate words like "toc" for tocolysis, "conj" for conjunctiva, and other shortened versions of words that are not proper. I call this sloppy dictating and I always spell out the word IF I know exactly what they mean. If I don't know what they mean, I flag it for QA. Would you call that line padding? My account doesn't give any specifics on this. I was also taught to NEVER use abbreviations in diagnoses even if dictated. Is that considered line padding? Just wondering.
I hardly think she was padding line counts.
There are a lot of doctors out there who are completely ignorant in regard to spelling, proper sentence construction, and grammar. And with their grandiose and overly inflated egos, they don't like to be corrected by a peon transcriptionist.
A gross line is any line with typewritten characters on it - no matter how long or SM
how short. So your gross lines may be longer than 65 characters, but you get credit even for a line as short as "Sincerely,". If your gross lines are not being counted that way, then you are not being counted on gross lines and are probably getting screwed. I'd look into that if I were you.
Line padding is not using standard abbreviations and
11
Gross line, also including blank lines because my line rate is so low. It all works out in the wash.
x
A gross line is any amount of characters on a line
for instance...
MEDICATIONS:
Effexor
Prevasid
A 65 character line without spaces is black marks on the page only and 65 w/spaces is everything... tabs, spaces, numbers, letters, bold, etc.
Adding up line counts
I am about to start as an IC with a company. Up to this point, I have not had to add up line counts at all. What do you use to figure this out to invoice the company? Any favorite softwares?
Determine your line rate by adding that 25%
get and don't forget to add in costs of marketing, setting up a HIPPA compliant system, printing, sending/receiving work, travel expenses, trying to mantain a client who wants to lower your line rate because someone else will do it for less and/or suddenly finding the need to get a different client because the own you got decided to use voice recognition and didn't tell you until they no longer need your services....
how many characters per line?
http://www.medicalese.org/line_count.html
90 characters per line SM
It's a long line. However, when you are finished transcribing the 90 character lines you take a character count and divide by 65 and that's your line count. It doesn't matter if there are 120 characters on a line, as long as you divide the character count by 65 and multiply by 9.5 cpl, that's how much you get paid.
Clear as mud?
90 characters per line
 I just started working for a new company and was told I would be paid for 65 characters per line, including spaces, at 9 1/2 cents per line. I noticed when I was transcribing that there were really 90 characters per line with spaces. Has anyone ran into this problem at their jobs? I'm not sure what to make of it.
Characters per line - sm
With all the discussion going on about CPL, I wonder what character count ICs use, that is if you have a choice.
Without spaces, what line is that on? 65 characters?
t
Pay by line versus pay by characters; what is
nm
Depends. How many characters per line?
nm
Do both count the same # of characters per line?
If they're different (65 characters per line, 55 characters, etc.), then you need to let us know what they are before anyone can give an objective answer.
A 65 character line is 65 characters
on a line. If have 650 characters in a document, that is equal to 10 lines, then multiply that by whatever your cpl rate ie. If 0.10 cpl then that would be 650 x 0.10 which would equal $0.65, if 6500 characters, then that would be 650 lines x 0.10 which would equal $6.50. This is if it is a 65 character line including spaces.
A 65 character line is 65 characters
on a line. If have 650 characters in a document, that is equal to 10 lines (650 divided by 65), then multiply that by whatever your cpl rate ie. If 0.10 cpl then that would be 650 x 0.10 which would equal $0.65, if 6500 characters, then that would be 650 lines x 0.10 which would equal $6.50.
Think about .07 a line ---IF a word is considered 5 characters - sm
So that would be 5000 characters/65 (if a 65-char. line), gets you ~77 lines. Divide 5.5/77 and get .07. Now are spaces included? If so how is that factored in? Presuming from the offer that spaces are not included, .07 is fine if just starting and probably the average if less than 2 years experience.
65 characters constitues a line, no matter where
they are arranged on the page. You'd count all the characters (and spaces, if they are included in the count) in the document and divide by 65...that's the number of lines.
Hope that helps!
Yes, you are paid for every line whether it has 1 word or 65 characters
I would think so anyway if it is straight gross, paying. Remember you physical sometims have short lines, family history, etc.
Both 65 characters per line -- one counts spaces, one doesn't NM
X
When is a word only 5 characters. I thought 7-10 was an average and 10 words a line? nm
s
9 cpl, 65 characters per line, spaces, headers, footers included. employee status. nm
usually one "word" equals 5 characters, so it's still being paid by characters. nm
d
My line including spaces is 65 characters. I've heard that not counting spaces
takes away over 35% of your line count. I believe it too because you have at least 15 or so spaces on each line that you type. Use your first sentence up top as an example; you had 77 char and 21 spaces - in that line that would be a little less than 30% of your characters that you didn't get paid for. I don't think it's worth it and wouldn't want to work without getting credit for my spaces.
A gross line IS a gross line regardless if it's 90 characters long or 1 character long... SM
I'm very sorry that your lines are 90 characters line and you get paid by gross lines. You are cheating yourself - that's not my fault. You cannot change the definition of a gross line. So I gues I'm not understanding what you are trying to say. Now if you are trying to say that your line equals 90 characters and that's how you figure your lines, than you are not using gross lines. You have defined a line to be 90 characters, whereas most MTSOs define a line as 65 characters. If that is the case, then I must say again, you are cheating yourself.
So which is it, do you get paid by gross lines or by a 90 character line?
Besides padding counts
I worked with someone who got into the Lanier system and moved jobs typed from other transcriptionists onto her number. We were all "judged" by how many minutes we could type per day besides lines and also judged for raises by difficulty of the dictators we typed. Everyone could not figure out how she did so "well" until we started logging by hand the job #s that we did each day and then checked on it later. Lots of them magically moved over to her number. Somehow she got the Admin password and was putting it to "good use." It was mind-boggling and eye-opening.
Yes, like why do MTSOs allow padding to
x
Most of the Logitech ones seem to be less clacky. Put some padding under it, too, if
s
Is that called padding lines, LOL?
x
Could this be the reason padding allowed to
x
I agree, and it's also how they get more money out of their customers, too, by padding
s
MTSO usually also repeats benefit of padding
x
Discussion re padding counts. Anyone remember where it was?
nm
Excuse me -- that is called "line padding" and
one can be fired over that.
Employee padding time-card = "unethical".
Employees get fired for padding their paychecks, but employers don't mind how much overtime you work, as long as they don't have to pay you for anything but the lines you typed.
Be glad they didn't ding you for padding your lines.
sm
there a note on the company board from QA regarding cherrypicking and they mention "line padding&
This is a new one on me. I've heard of cherrypicking but what constitutes line padding? Isn't everybody typing what the doctor dictates? How can you possibly add extra????
EXACTLY! Thank you for adding.
x
And that is without adding in the
Ouch, ooch, eech, (walking out to grab the paper off the step this morning).
And adding to that. ..
What happens when the company runs low on work, which is known to happen. There is nothing in the contract about the "penalty/incentive" does not apply.
Nothing about MQ is adding up anymore.
x
adding my 2 cents
It can be done, as I have been in your shoes as well. It will be tough without family close by, but thank goodness you have a job that can keep you close to your children. When I did it my job was 12 hours a day. Just wanted you to know that you have support here, and by the looks of it you have alot of it. You and your children are in my thoughts.
lol.. thank you for adding humor to my otherwise
nm
Keep adding to that expander SM
Just backing you guys up. I'll never have those quick fingers either (nv hv tos qk fgs eir), just not in me, but by continually creating and memorizing abbreviations, I transcribe fairly challenging acute care hospital work somewhere between 330-340 lph--including short breaks for coffee refills and so on. It wouldn't add up to 3000 over 8 hours (most of my work is actually editing these days), but could be if I were doing work I could make more templates for, clinic for instance. Zero stress, BTW.
Adding Expansions
I was wondering how you build your expansion list, meaning, about how many words do you put in day? A few, 20, 50? And do you review them daily so you know what you have? I tend to create them and then forget I have them and then do not use them. What are you tips? Thanks in advance!
Did you try leaving the .09 and adding .09.vox? nm
nm
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