OLD typing rule I have in my head, whether it is accurate I do not know, hence I said IF---nm

• Offered $5.50/1000 words?? - Being new, not sure..HELP PLZ.
  • I get paid this way too...see message - nej
  • That only works for newpapers - MT nope - MT4-2YEARS
  • Ya'll are great! Thanks to all who responded - I got some very useful info!
  • If they make it that difficult to figure out what you are earning, then I would tell them NO. - Tell them no
  • would not take it until............. - granny
  • Think about .07 a line ---IF a word is considered 5 characters - sm - Laura E.
    • When is a word only 5 characters. I thought 7-10 was an average and 10 words a line? nm - Been a while since I've done this
      • OLD typing rule I have in my head, whether it is accurate I do not know, hence I said IF---nm - x
        • yes it is accurate I also was taught sm - long time MT
    • If no spaces, it is more like 5.75 which stinks! - nm - Laura E.
      • Sorry, to clarify .0575/line - nm - x
  • How do they define a word? Is it characters? Is it the MS Word definition - oy, dunno
    • I think it was based on 65-character line - does that sound right?
      • IC meaning independent contractor? - granny

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The above poster makes a blanket statement: "...counting programs that count this convert the document to one big long document without returns, etc., linking all the characters in one long line and counting them that way."

If you look at any full line, you will see there are more than 65 characters on that line. There are several programs that will allow you to count the spaces, tabs and returns (although you have the option not to) as well as any text included in headers, footers and whatever else is agreed on in the contract as fair to count.

The simplest method to determine a difference it to take an already completed document, open the properties and compare the number of lines against the character count (with or without spaces) divided by 65.

BTW, congrats on the new account.

When I take the occasional typing tests that measure how fast you type without worrying about errors then I type closer to 200 wpm. 

Fast typing doesn't always mean sloopy work...any more than a slow typist doesn't mean they're doing a quality job.

There are so many individual factors that can be good or bad for one person and not another.  You'll see good and bad on every single company out there, because you just can't please everyone!  But, what I do to try to keep it in perspective is just try to avoid the companies which you see the most "bad" comments about.

That may not be really accurate though, now that I think about it, because I worked for Spheris for many years and I was very happy with them.  And, you know, I'm sure, that Spheris gets slammed big-time on this board.  So, to each his own, I suppose!

You want lineage as well as speed.....I would do Hemoglobin is 13, hematocrit is 45, and platelets are 200,000 (whatever is in the CBC).  I do the same for the chemical profile.  Sodium is 135, potassium is 4.2, chloride is ...etc....

but they have to say *is* plus *and* for me to do that.  I will never just insert extra words to inflate, but the word *is* - if they are dictating that to you...that is 2 more character spaces.....more is better for you.

Sometimes MDs want them separated.  I have a couple of dictators what want individual sentences.  Hemoglobin is 13.  Hematocrit is 45.  Platelets are 200,000.  I usually give them what they want.....as long as it is 100% accurate.

For the last two years I have been doing Urgent Care/ ER work and have not noticed any slow down but I am now doing multispecialty clinic work and I keep hearing about a big slow down.  Can anyone shed some light on the subject for me.  TIA

A big ole lie on the part of anyone who says it's great or that 500 lph is possible.  It's also possible that pigs can fly. 

That's what I was taught.  Everyone is in the same boat and has to take the bad with the good.  Refusing to do the hard stuff makes it worse for the other MTs on that account, and they will not appreciate it.  Until the problem doctors go poof and disappear, nobody has the right to say they can shove all the bad jobs onto the next MT because THEY are here to make money (everyone is, and someone has to type it).  And there is such a thing as Karma - one day you might log on to find ALL the work is the dictator you dread, because all the MTs that came on before you felt entitled to leave the crap work for YOU.  You really won't make any money on that shift, as opposed to doing a few bad jobs each shift.  So type them as you get them, like the rest of us. 

If everyone got together and went to management about the problem guy, that's one thing (and yes, we all feel this way about at least one doctor).  Deciding you don't have to do it because you don't want to is quite another, and often grounds for disciplinary action.  Work is often just that, hard work, and with time and practice it becomes easier.  Nobody promised you a rose garden, challenges are what this job entails.

you set your own line rate.  However, we all know that NONE of the MTSOs hiring IC MTs allow us to set our own rate.  They "offer" a rate, and we accept if it's OK.

I worked for a real cheapo doctor when I first started out.  He paid hourly and kept riding my backside to type faster because he only wanted to pay for the actual time dictated instead of the time it took to transcribe.  More than once I told him that it takes an average of 3:1 typing to talking ratio to get it done.  It worked out to be $.03 per line.  I dropped him like a bad habit.  He bounced through a few other transcriptionists who all quit on him before he wound up having to pay to outsource to a service.

I use an "f" after any abbreviation that I want to expand.  I just use the standard abbreviation plus f, so I do not forget what they are.  My ShortHand is full of things like this.

ex: cbcf  tcpf  tshf

Works for me!

Hmm...I thought that that was already in effect, that no US Govt transcription contracts could go overseas/be outsourced - at least the V.A. has that standard in place...

...requires a covered entity to make "reasonable efforts to limit use, disclosure of, and requests for PHI to the minimum necessary to accomplish the intended purpose."  The only AHA-approved HIPAA training program, HIPAA Academy, specifically states in its training materials that HIPAA intends that personal information be limited to document headers unless absolutely required   I will quote page 4-56:

"In practice, we expect the minimum-necessary requirement to lead to compartmentalization of the medical record so that one portion of the record (the body of the report) may be readily disclosed for one purpose without compromising the privacy of the entire record."

By limiting PHI to headers, reports can easily be redacted of personal information; when the PHI is scattered throughout the reports, this information cannot be redacted.

....reboot!

That will take care of about 95% of problems.

If you have two identical toolbars, then you may need to go to View, then Toolbars, and then Customize (way down at the bottom of the list). On the Toolbars tab, see what is checked.

If both Standard and Formatting are checked, this is where you may have your duplicate. Try unchecking either one of those and see if that puts your toolbar back the way you want it.

If that doesn't work, come back and we'll try again!