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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Maybe you local Cancer Society unit would have suggestions? nm

Posted By: wanderer on 2006-08-29
In Reply to: Need some ideas - Romey

s


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society
Are you sure you are not me?
ICs are a bane on MTSO society.
Legally, they are an uncontrollable resource. They tend to be prima donas who have never seen the inside of a BOS, much less read one. They work. They don't work. They don't care. In a business where TAT and quality are key, they are a production and QA nightmare. Yeeees, there are wonderful IC MTs out there, and you should be (and hopefully are) treasured by your contractors. I admire your work ethic. However, you are the exception to the rule.

I've been in management for two nationals who have decided during my tenure to take on ICs. The top brass see this as a GLORIOUS concept, but the rest of us see the decision as a QA nightmare and a production hell.

JMHO.
Try a St. Vincent De Paul Society (nm)
x
Nat'l Humane Society Disaster Relief

Just watched the rescue of doggies, kitties and birdies with 1700 animals rescued. My wallet just got a couple dollars lighter. Poor little things.


Oh, don't you know that it's society's fault these people are criminals???
x
trying to re-enter society and failing miserably
After 11 years at home minding my own business, having a fairly peaceful life, seeing people when I wanted to, not because I had to, i've become quite spoiled.  I find that when i'm around new people, (trying to go to school) i'm easily annoyed and have no sense of humor like I used to.  I've completely changed.  I feel like a stick in the mud judgemental person, but people laughing annoys me and makes me tighten up rather than join in like I used to.  I can't stay in my MT hole forever, but I feel like cousin IT amongst society now.  Will this get better???  I miss my old self!  I used to be FUN!
I am heavy by society's terms. I weigh
about 210 and am 5'6" tall. Every single female in my family tree for generations had the exact same body habitus. We are all German with big bone structures. I cannot lose weight - period. Been there, tried and done that save for gastric surgery. It is genetic in my case. Seriously, it really can be. I am totally comfortable with my body and how I look - I even love clothes, shoes, jewelry, until....I have to go to the doctors for anything - a hang nail, and its because I'm -- OBESE -- you name it, a cough - its because of that. And THAT makes me MAD!  My cholesterol is normal, I don't have high BP and am 50. I am what I am what I am, and am happy with it until the med profession makes me feel like pond scum. All my relatives also lived into their 80s and 90s, the old healthy as a horse body types. I am super strong and in shape. I guess you get the picture. I have no arthritis, either, or any of the normal problems of mid life. I also drink milk - I LOVE MILK. I would probably lose 10 pounds max if I eliminated milk, but then I feel sick and run down. Its been a long time until I did get happy and satisfied with my body structure, but I still honestly hate doctors for their bias. And sometimes it is bias.
Buy local. The local stores pay taxes to support your city and state. (SM)
Using online and catalogues does nothing to promote the local economy.  We complain about outsourcing and about the big companies gobbling up all the work so the jobs at local hospitals are gone, yet we do the same thing when we buy on ebay, catalog, and these web sites that may be located any place in the world as their primary business location. 
Sound of Music, Dead Poets Society, Forrest Gump. nm
x
I went local. Great local tech support, they know what I do and were able to set it up just for me
:)
IC MT to Unit Secretary - sm
Do you like to answer the phone? Do you like to file? Do you like to have people order you around? Are you neat and organized? Can you do three or four things at once? If yes, then go for it. The hours 7 pm to 7 am may not be as busy as when I worked during the day, but your hospital may well be busier, depending on what type of unit you're on. I learned a tremendous amount working as a unit secretary, one thing being I didn't want to be around people anymore, the pubic being the most obnoxious of them all. An doctors in person can be very arrogant too; a lot different than on the other end of the line. Don't know how you will do those hours with small children, but good luck to you.
IC to unit secretary

You brought up some excellent points!  Since you have done both US and MT, you definitely would say that you prefer the MT over the unit secretary? 


 


Thanks for your input!!


Need transcriber unit
You need a transcribing unit that has a pedal that comes with it.  Your digital pedal will not work.  Depends on size of tape -- micro, mini or standard. 
Unit Coordinator
That was my first job in a hospital, although I had worked as an insurance examiner for an ins. company and had medical terminology.  It was actually a job I loved.  I answered the phone at the unit desk, called for missing reports needed for the patient to go to surgery.  When I did it I transferred all the doctors orders onto a cardex and filled out the necessary lab/x-ray/PT, etc. requistion slips.  I filed the lab slips and x-ray reports on the chart when they came to the floor.  When a patient coded I had to respond and take notes of when CPR was started, all meds given, who responded, time ended.  If the nurses were all busy I often answered call lights and relayed the patient's needs to the nurse caring for that patient.  I loved it because at the time my boys were little and I worked part-time 3-11.  I only needed a baby sitter for two hours till DH got home and I got full benefits for my entire family at no cost.  So besides the small check I was bringing in I was furnishing my family's medical coverage.  Every job now wants you to be certified in ACLS (Advanced Cardia Life Support)  they want you to often times be able to monitor patients if they are in CCU or ICU (that is be able to tell when something out of the norm is showing up on the monitor).  I wore scrubs, so no work clothes expense.  If the pay works for you go for it...it is totally different from MT and often times there are opportunities for advancement to other positions once you get your foot in the door.  I loved it, it was a great job.  Just be aware it is a 7-day a week position, so not every weekend off and you will work holidays, Christmas was always the worst but at least it was 3-11 so I had Christmas morning and early dinner with my family.
TENS UNIT
I have used in the past all day.
Could also be life support unit. nm

I agree with Former Unit Secretary sm
Great job, learned a hell of lot, meds,diseases, etc., but I worked days and weekends, notoriously busy,busy,busy, and saw a lot that I just didn't like. Staff personalities are really much worse behind the nursing station than they are on the floor, believe me.  Got tired of getting reamed by doctors who thought I was the nurse just because I answered the phone. I never had as much problem with IBS as I did then. If anything went wrong, a med order, lab order, whatnot, it fell on my shoulders. You need a tough skin to work days, nights might be easier, who knows. My skin thinned out faster with that job than 13 years of prednisone usage did. Good luck
Anyone work with a Lanier VTI unit?
Just started today for a new service.  I have plugged in the  Lanier VTI unit and have checked the connections; they all seem to be correct.  I can dial in to the hospital system and access a report, but the foot pedal won't work.  My MTSO is calling in a technician but I hope it's not something silly I'm overlooking.  Any suggestions?
Lanier is a digital unit
There is a screen on the front of the unit letting you know the job information, number of minutes, dictator, etc.  The unit itself utilizes a phone line.  The dictators call the server and record their dictation.  You access their dictation through the Lanier. 
Your still have to have software with the handheld unit

that allows upload to FTP.  Without that, FTPVoyager is useless.  Make sure you buy handheld units that have the software capability to upload to FTP otherwise you'll be stuck.


If you find that handheld units with the upload software is out of your price range, consider the EZ-Voice solution.


Good luck!


Long-term skilled unit?
ss
Whether or not to leave IC MT job for unit secretary job at hospital???

HELP, PLEASE!!! I am currently an IC, which I have been for eight years, and I recently applied for a nursing unit secretary position at the local hospital.  I interviewed and who would have guessed it, they offered me the job.  The position is third shift, 7pm to 7am three nights a week.  I do have little kids to think of when considering this.  My ultimate goal is to go to nursing school and I am thinking that  working in the hospital will be good experience.  I don't know if it will be easier to go to nursing school while working as an MT or as a unit secretary.   I am having a hard time deciding what to do.  I don't know if I would be better off staying put even though I have no motivation to sit down and type or should I take this chance to do something new.  Like with any new job I am afraid that I won't like it but I don't particularly care for this current job.   What do you think would be the better move?  I know you can't make my decision for me but some input on what you would do in my situation would be helpful.  Any advice is truly appreciated. 


Thanks!!


MT goes unit secretary ... check out my story!
Ive been an MT for 13 years. I was an IC for 10 years, and a FTE for a local hospital for the last 3 years. I came back from vacation in June to discover my lovely boss was interviewing companies to outsource the MT department. He lied to us - told us not to worry - and then a month later our union received the '60 day notice' letter and we were out on our assess. I took a job as a unit secretary - and a $5 an HOUR paycut along with it, working 3-11 and alternate weekends. Am I crazy to do this. Well yes and no. I'm keeping my awesome union benefits, building toward being vested in 2 more years, and just landed an IC MT job doing guess what: MY OLD JOB. The company that outsourced us hired me. I plan to rake in the bucks in the AM and do the b.s. job at night. 3-11 is half the work as a day job - plus you get the shift differential. Wish me luck ! Joanne
Probably medical records or unit secretary
In my area the pay is about 50 cents less an hour than MT seems like a gravy job compared to this.
There is a small microphone on the front of the unit
If you look on the front panel beneath the volume slider, below the button labeled 21, you will see a very tiny hole. It is a microphone hole. I have used the stick from a Q-tip to fill it in and it lessened the hum quite a bit. I left the swab tip hanging out as an extra buffer. Looky weird but it worked!
Try this and see if it works, but unplug and replug the unit first
Programming Dictaphone unit:

1. Press the "Program Key" key (far left button under the display screen) and you will see the word "Keys".
2. Press the "Keys" key (same far left button under the display screen).
3. Press the first button on the left vertical row of black buttons (remember this marked button as it has been programmed for the display), and put in the following: # * 1 8 (to program the display).
4. Then press the "select" key (look on the right hand side of the phone keyboard itself and press "x" where it says "Dictate" aka the multiplication sign), and the display window should clear.
5. Lift receiver to get original display back and hang the receiver back down. You are done programming.

To get a job, dial the hospital phone number, enter your ID#, and press 6. You will hear the prompt say "at start". To get the demographics, press the "programmed key" (or the button you programmed on the vertical row) twice. You should hear four rapid tones and it will start giving you the demographics. If you miss any part of the demographics, you can press the "programmed key" again twice, and it will start the demographics again. Every time, you sign off a job and get a new job, you will have to press the "programmed key" twice again for the demographics.

The code to program the display button on the Dictaphone is # * 1 8. If for some reason, your Dictaphone will not give you a dial tone or seems locked, trying reprogramming the Dictaphone as above.

What model is the unit? I used one a long time ago..sm
However, the doctors called into it to dictate. There was a hard drive with it that was connected to phone line. I would log in on the machine and pick up the jobs to transcribe. Is it similar to that? Or is this something else? There is also a Philips call-in station that hooks to phone line, but that's only for the docs to call and dictate.

How are you using the Philips to get work from your friend, that's what I don't understand? Does the friend have the same system? Just trying to figure out the setup and how to be more helpful. I know I once tried to use the Philips call-in to re-record dictation from a microcassette and it wouldn't recognize it and just timed out. It would only accept an actual voice, and that was using landline phone, so I think they do have certain parameters set up. It might be that the Vonage isn't compatible. Maybe you could call a Philips tech support person and ask. There's a tech number in the manual and on their website.
Handheld unit software question. sm
Is there a software for the Olympus WS-100 and other units with USB ports that copy from the unit to FTP or designated site for file transfer, store a copy onto computer, and then delete from unit?

If so, please advise. Thanks.


Hospital Unit Coordinator/Clerk
Anyone know what this kind of job would be like? One of the local hospitals has a few of these positions open in various departments. I'm wondering if it's a high pressure/low pay kind of thing, if only because they seem to be hiring from the outside. When I worked for a bank many years ago, they hired "outsiders" only for the crap jobs. I'm tired of MT and want to explore my options.
TENS unit inquiry minds want to know:

Just wondering if anyone has a personal experience using a TENS unit they could share.  How long do you use yours for, if you find relief that you forgot you could have, etc.  As a chronic low back pain sufferer, I’m looking forward to getting mine on Tuesday! 


Thanks


P.S. The temperamental Sony unit was a bargain at $100! Ouch!
Anybody want to sell me a bridge?
Which hand-held unit is simplest for doctors? sm
Need a handheld unit, but need to know of simplest one for doctors to use. Also, is there a program that uploads the dictation as soon as you connect the unit that sends it automatically? Thanks.
Also plan on getting a cooling unit to park laptop on
they run anywhere from $30 to $100 depending on features. Worth it definitely to run a laptop for 6 hours or more to keep the unit cool.
Take at home transcription job or unit secretary job at hospital?
I've been an MT for 12 years and have worked at home doing MT for 10 years. Recently got replaced by EMR so had to find work elsewhere. I took a job at a local hospital as a unit secretary working 3-11 now I have been offered a job with a national transcription company. I'm not sure if I should go back to transcribing since the line count/money making potential has me worried. I've been assured that I will never run out of work but I'm worried that I will actually be working longer than the 8 hour shift in order to make the amount of money I need. I would love to be back home with my kids typing again as I miss not seeing them as much as I used to and they want me to be home. I am just not sure if I should stay in a job at the hospital which has a guaranteed amount of money per pay period since I'm being paid by the hour and not by the line where my paycheck can vary. Any thoughts/suggestions/opinions, recommendations out there? Any and all would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!!
I am lucky for the most part, my only hard ones are in the Trauma ER unit, where it's crazy but t
just love to dictate while on the spot there, talk about noise.  But the name spellers are the worst, as suggested below that will spell "Smith" but not "Teona" (1 I had earlier). I do several divisions that are supposed to supply patient lists (but tend not too), but I guess they get their jollys seeing how bad I can butcher the names.
This happened to me once. I had bought a Lanier transcribe unit from someone advertising over on SM

MT Daily.  I sent her a money order for $500.  She sent me one email after she received the money order saying she had sent the Lanier and of course I never received it and she didn't answer my emails for a week.  Then she finally emailed again saying she had asked her daughter to send, but she hadn't and that she was going to ship the next day.  Still I didn't receive it.  At that point, she stopped answering my emails and eventually blocked me from being able to send me emails.  I had her mailing address and phone number.  Of course, she screened her calls and never answered the phone. 


One thing people should know about MT's, we do our homework.  I immediately researched what my legal options were and here is what I did:


1.  I contacted the adminstrator of the website on which the original classified add appeared.  They attempted to contact her to no avail.


2.  I contacted the police departments in both her city and mine and filed a fraud report.


3.  I then contacted the Attorney General's off in both her state and mine and immediately filed a report with each office.  I was told that the claim would be investigated, but more than likely nothing would not come of one complaint, BUT if they received more than one complaint regarding fraudulent practices by the same business or individual, then they could file charges. 


In the end, she made the mistake of forwarding one of those chain emails to everyone in her address book and mistakenly sent it to me.  So, I had the email addresses of her business associates, co-workers, employers, friends, family.  I promptly sent an email to everyone of them telling them exactly what she did to me and that they should be very careful in dealing with her.


I got several angry emails for people asking me not to include them in my email war.  I apologized to those people and took them of the mailing list.  However, three of the email contacts emailed me back and said they had bought stuff from her and never received the equipment.  And finally, I received a very angry email from the perpetrator's other daughter.  Apparently, her mother was freaked out about the fact that I had reported her to the police and the attorney general's office and I also let her know that I had made three other contacts ready to file with the attorney general's office which would probably get my case more notice.  The daughter Western Unioned me my money within 24 hours.


Casey, I say break out the big guns and start shooting.  That's what I did and it worked for me.  You probably have the person's mailing address, so you know where he/she lives or at least what city and state he/she lives in.  I wonder if we dealt with the same person?  Is this person from Texas?


a phone/transcription unit with foot pedal and earphone...
dials to hospital dictation system for reports to transcribe.

If Google it - might find a picture of one.
Unit secretary will help somewhat with terms, meds, and learning the flow of the shift, but it won&#
s
cancer

My husband might be diagnosed with oral cancer.   He has had a lump in his cheek for awhile and wasn't really concerned about it until he went to the doctor for a check-up.  The doc is sending him to have it looked at more thoroughly.  Any words of encouragement or anyone that has gone through this.  Thanks 


     


Cancer
Please let me know if you need any moral support and feel free to write me. Read my post on MTStars.

Margaret
cancer.

x


cancer.org
They have a great cancer drug list. I really like oncology except when my doc does a weeks worth of dictations all in one day.
why so much cancer?
Did you know about the atomic bomb testing/nuclear bomb testing done around the world?  Well worth researching.  I was shocked to find out that it was more than originally led on, well over 700 bombs and I cann't remember if it is just our country or if the numbers were world wide.  Then we have companies that polute our water, our land fills, our air... We have paved roads that are giving off gases constantly into the air, not including the vehicles that give off gases continuously, encircling the earth.  Do you know about the carcinogens in the plastics that hold bottled water?  Chemicals added to food is going to build up in the tissues...  Deodorant is not safe, either, and we don't stop there with hygiene chemicals...
cancer sites
I usually use the NIH-National Cancer Institute site. It has listing of clinical trials, types of drugs, different types of cancer treatments. I also depend heavily on the Oncology Word Book by Stedman.
Okay, my experience with cancer

Rather I should say my husband's.  He was diagnosed 6 years ago with stage III colorectal cancer.  Very advanced out of the bowel wall.  They did not think they could cure it, but did say maybe remission.  I was floored and in tears always.  My hubby was a young man, 50.  He had been misdiagnosed by several other doctors and it had reached a very large size by the time it was found.  It was found by a doctor I did transcription for.  This was God's intervention, because I feel this wonderful doctor was  put in our lives to save my husband.  He came and asked me several times to do his transcription and I was so busy I turned him down, but he was such a nice man, I finally said okay.  Well I was talking to him and I mentioned my husband's problem and he said to bring him into the office.  This doctor found the cancer on my husband's first visit.  We had a wonderful surgeon and a wonderful oncologist.  (By the way, all except the surgeon were ESLs so I love doing ESLs now, have a soft touch for them.) 


My husband had a very large cancer.  They were very concerned.  We sought alternative therapies, in addition to traditional therapies of chemo and radiation.  He had a 6-hour surgery, blood transfusions twice, blood clots, DVT, abscesses, etc.  It was touch and go, I felt.  Like being  on a rollercoaster.  We prayed and prayed.  We spent lots of money on alternative therapies that we researched on the internet.  Also he had conventional therapy, except had to stop the chemo because of low blood counts. 


Well my hubby is still alive today, no sign of the cancer.  In the doctor's consultation letter he uses the word "amazing" about not finding ANY sign of cancer during the surgery.  Everything was just dead tissue, they could find no viable cancer, just friable tissue.  I really believe that with the help of prayer, the angels, God, alternative and natural therapies, plus excellent regular medical treatment, a  positive attitude and creative visualization (which my husband also used) that it saved his life.  We moved 3000 miles after that cancer to where we always wanted to live in the mountains on a farm, both our dreams. I feel like I am living in heaven.  I don't get too worried about what is going on at transcription companies, just do my work, because are so much more important things to concentrate on. 


Very little gets either of us down anymore because we learned the hard way what is truly important in life.  My three children have their dad still and I still have my husband.


Good luck and I am praying for you.  Remember, cancer IS curable.


 


 


Cancer - moody as all get-out and
sometimes very touched and concerned about my transcription patients. Even though I know they are totally in another part of the US.
Leo. On the cusp with Cancer.
Very appropriate!
Cancer ..... Leo cusp nm
nm
Just had a doc say a guy with gastric cancer was...
admitted to the OB/GYN service.  (I didn't miss something in my training, did I?)
does anyone know if bone cancer is always..sm
metastatic or can cancer originate in the bone? 
Breast cancer
Does any one on this board know where I might find a sample report with regards to breast cancer?  Any tips greatly appreciated.  I want to be sure to get all of the stages ect. right on and though I have MT experience this is my first shot in the area of breast cancer clinics.