One has longer lines and shorter reports
Posted By: and lots of time in and out of reports on 2005-09-17
In Reply to: gotcha- - jp
Really comes out equal.
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My experience has been that the shorter the reports, the more my line count suffers, UNLESS
You have docs who truly repeat themselves day in and day out. Then you can clean up and make some real money with having all kinds of normals. Otherwise, I have found that it slows me down to no end to listen to the stuttering, slow ESLs who never say the same thing and where you feel as if you are typing with just your thumbs. Sorry. :_(
You are not supposed to do it in medical reports any longer.
This is for clarity reasons. Now numbers are written as numbers just for the simple reason of it stands out. This has been that way now for a couple of years.
Does anyone have to use size 10 font? Does it take you longer to make your lines? nm
s
lines/reports
There are 54-65 character lines in one full page. 7 minutes of dictation is usually equal to 70 words. there are 13 five character words on a line. you can do the math
What type of reports do you get the most lines on?...
I was wondering if you had to choose, which type of reports would you want to do exclusively that would net you the most lines, of course other than a wonderful account with normals on every report  .
Depending on how many lines/reports a company
requires a QA person to do, it can be as much as $3.00 or more per report just for the QA portion. That is money I feel should be paid to me if I do high quality work rather than paying me the same or less than other MTs who are careless, sloppy, lazy, or incompetent and send everything to QA to be done.
Sometimes there are things you can't figure out, but at least take the time to try. You might even learn something. This is especially true for new MTs.
60 reports in a QA cue just because someone is too lazy to call the office to get a normal for a doctor who says to "use my normal" is not acceptable and the MT who sent that report should NOT be paid for the report that I had to find and put in for him/her.
Keep this activity up and no one will ever get a raise.
When discrepancy between # of reports (rad) and lines, they look deeper, one warning and
dd
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.
Calling all ICs. Just curious. How many lines and reports do you average per day at
whatever company you are working at currently? I'm wondering because it seems like I work A LOT (I should actually start counting hours, but I don't) and at the end of the evening my line count is so low and it will say 8 or 9 reports, even though it feels like I have done about 20 or so (this is DQS, but you can answer with whatever co. you work for).
Thanks so much! 
Our department does 1200+ reports a day. They average 11 lines. nm
This is for 2-3 line normal chests to MRIs. They look longer, but if you take 65 characters with spaces, you will be surpised. Here's an example:
CHEST:
INDICATION: Chest pain.
FINDINGS: Heart size within normal limits. Lungs are clear.
IMPRESSION: Normal chest.
This is 116 characters with spaces, which is 3 lines (if you round up - actually 2.55 lines). If by the line, you would make $0.30.
Something to think about.
Do the same with an MRI of the knee. Copy and paste it into word and count it. A very long one I had was only 15 lines.
Template lines usually refer to pretyped canned reports
These would include such templates like epidural steroid injections and such where you are just typing in patient demographics and the date of procedure, cataract surgeries, or whatever canned dictation the physicians have come up with so they can cut costs and not dictate. Make sure you are not always having to revise the templates constantly at no cost; otherwise, that is a good price.
the shorter the pants
Stick to your guns, mom!!!
Shorter and not sweeter. Take your own advice.
Bye-bye. 
Might be less stress/shorter program being an EKG tech. nm
s
I prefer working a shorter shift 6 to 7 days a week. SM
I work hard when I work to put out a lot of lines per hour, which is very tiring. Also, my company has a work flow/volume problem, and this allows me to schedule my hours for those times when work is most likely to be available.
Regarding having a life, in a 24-hour day, subtracting say 8 hours for sleep leaves 16 hours, and subtracting 6 hours for work leaves 10 hours every day for "life," a luxuriance of time if you don't have young children or other heavy responsibilities filling them with other work.
The trick (sometimes it is a trick!) is be firm with yourself, and others, and get the work out of the way briskly and on schedule, such as those early-morning or evening and split schedules, and not drag it out through the entire day, sandwiched in between TV shows, phone chats, family duties, and so on.
The MR reports were being filed. Referring physicians/medical care providers reports were not.
This is a hospital radiology department with in-house MTs and a clerk who is in charge of the report distribution.
The two sentence normal reports will balance out the 3 page reports.
I am Wendy too
Anyone work 7 days a week with shorter work
I have arthritis in a couple of places, and I'm having a lot of trouble making it rhrough 8-hour days, even with split shifts, and I end up working most weekends anyway to make up for my decreasing production durng the longer days. I'm wondering if I should just commit to seven 5-1/2 hours days and be done with it.
Aaahhhh, now I get it. Gross lines vs. Character lines. I guess I've just been conditioned to
think in terms of character lines. One of the perils of working as an IC for somebody who defines what a line is versus owning your own company and defining it yourself. After working for someone else for 15 years, maybe it's time to bust out on my own.
That is a lot of work/lines for 2 people. I do 3000 lines per day sm
if you times that by 30 days that only comes to 90K lines a month, that is working 7 days a week including weekends. I don't think 2 people can handle that.
900 lines is below 1100 lines, where the bonus starts.
x
Gross lines include all lines containing
printable characters, so a full line and a line with one word on it are charged equally. Straight lines are basically the same as gross lines, but with this method of counting the blank lines are counted as well (again, equally). I have only had one company pay this way, and they are a middle man. I would think the charge would be about the same as for gross lines, and that not too many offices will want their lines counted this way (the one I worked on was probably inherited from someone who had counted the lines that way, so just continued).
The norm is 1 minute = 10 lines; 10 min = 100 lines - sm
granted this varies per dictator. More lines if a fast talker, less if a slow talker.
I went from 2400 lines to 1800 lines
a day when I switched from clinic (through an MTSO) to hospital work. Not only was the clinic work easier with more macros (and less providers to learn, 12 vs 300+), but I was typing in straight Word (as opposed to Softmed/Chart Script). So you see, it really varies depending upon the type of work as well as the platform used. That said, I am so much happier typing the 1800 lines per day (I make over $15 per hour plus an incentive for any lines in excess of 1200 per day) plus a great health package/benefits, AND approximately 5 weeks of paid time off per year. In my opinion, hospitals really are the best employers WHEN they appreciate the work we do.
My advice for you is not to judge a job by any one criterion but rather the entire picture. The 'extra's can really add up.
Good luck in your job!
Which is the one where they are sc*&ing us the standard lines or the qualified lines? SM
Mine show up as STD when I pull up my transcription log. But I see now there is STD/QT.... So which is the one where they are ripping us off, standard or qualified? Need to know. I am about to switch companies and I will not do if they are actually taking lines from me. Thanks guys.
Your English teacher does not do medical reports. This is for medical reports.
.
The longer
you are in the business and have more expanders, the less errors you tend to make. You are then able to do more scan proofing (mostly to make sure you typed the expansion properly and didn't cause something bizarre to pop into the report).
I am still pretty green. I try to notice what I can while I type and always go back through it (and find something more to correct).
Some reports are much easier to proof than others. The long detailed ones that are harder to type are more difficult to proof as well. I have a hard time keeping my mind from wandering to personal issues, etc. while proofing those.
Lots longer
I don't know - I've been an MT over 25 years, am a super fast typist, use expanders, and have a great platform and accounts, and it takes me a good 5-6 hours, with a 15 minute stretch break here and there, to make 1000 lines. Bad dictators - a good 8 hour shift to make 1000.
*a little longer than usual...
nm
then that vet would no longer be my VET!! unbelievable. NM
z
If her first initial was J, they are no longer in
business. She went into nursing, pediatric intensive care I believe.
Don't wait any longer...sm
contact an attorney. You don't have to pay the attorney until he gets your money, then it's a certain percentage. I know it's a killer to have to pay, but if you don't you're probably not going to ever be paid. I had to sue a client for 3K. I still walked away with a good hunk of the money and my pride. It was well worth what I had to give the attorney.
WC does not cover CPS any longer. They sm
have determined that it is not caused by typing. Can you believe that?????
oh goodie - we no longer have to see her!!
      
Working probably longer than you have
been on this earth. I have worked over 30 years in this. I do work for an agency as have been outsourced twice from hospital work, always at a lower rate than the hospital. The first hospital I made nearly 60 thousand a year, outsourced, dropped 20 thousand in the new hospital, outsourced and now my salary per year in the 20s. I do operative notes, discharge summaries, history and physicals, consultations and my pay is about yours, 7 cents a line- most of the time you are just expected to produce more- we used to have production (incentive)- some might still have but probably few and far between. If I had to raise a family now, would have to work more than 1 job to do. This is me- I am not speaking for others even though my speed is extremely high. I put my all into my job, have answering machine, no interference, have office set up in my home, have fax (because I need 1 just for my own use), printers, phones, my own computer and a backup in case this 1 goes. Your tapes definitely sound like the real McCoy. That is what we hear day in and day out. I started out with a hospital almost 70% ESL, oh, so hard, well even the English were also and even now after all these years still grit my teeth sometimes just to do a certain dictator. Good luck!
I no longer use satellite, but used
DirecWay when I had it. Service was about $70/mo. Download speed is not consistent. Most of the time it was fast, but sometimes as slow as dial-up. It depends on if it is raining, snowing, wind blowing and tree may be blowing in front of the dish, if it is real cloudy, etc. Upload speed is much slower than download, but upload files are usually much smaller so it doesn't take long. I had trouble with e-mail, though they have upgraded equipment and supposedly the equipment comes with the software installed and configured already so basically you just plug it in and you're ready. I paid $800 for my equipment years ago - that included dish and 2 modems. The newer modems are a lot more expensive.
Delete them.........esp if you no longer do them...
For private MDs, I only keep their diskettes 6 months, since ALL the work and an additional diskette has been provided when I returned the work.........
If you worked for a national, you need to send the diskettes to them I would think.........that is, IF you worked for a national MT company. If not, I'd just delete them..........keeping the floppies for myself.........for future....(yep, I still use floppy disks...*LOL*).........
they no longer pay for proofing
Just kidding.
I know, I know...
Proofing is very important. Patient care is at stake.
And so are our jobs.
I have been MTing longer than you and get this
When starting VR was also told I should be using the function keys. My "new"(outsourced) job of years even went so far as to show us where we were using the mouse as opposed to the keys. I have never used the function keys and do over 3000 per day, my lines have increased since VR and have worked NOT using the function keys now for several years and it works ok for me. Did they threaten you with not using the function keys???
No longer confused
Now, that makes sense to me!
No longer so frustrated..
I've been reading with interest the comments my venting inspired.. both here and in my email .. and some of the assumptions are amusing.
I've been a Transcriptionist for 36 years, an MTSO a couple of times during those year, a manager with a national company or two, transcription manager, QA manager - basically just about every job possible in this field. I know how important it is for a transcriptionist to be respected for our skills and to be paid for the work we do.
We actually flew to a central location in California to train transcriptionists within a 10 mile radius of the central location, so there was no cost to the transcriptionist. We wouldn't have made the trip had we received only one or two applicants. It isn't that difficult to train someone remotely, but since we had several positions to fill and several applicants, we decided it would be beneficial to make the trip and meet the new ICs.
We have 35 very good transcriptionists, all on IC status, working at different levels of competence, on different accounts, with all of the flexibility they can use. Some started as trainees right out of school, others came to us experienced with one or more specialty. All have been cross-trained to some degree to cover each other when someone has a family emergency or just wants to take a vacation.
We have work, plenty of it, and our pay scale is competitive with other services. We've even done work share programs with other services for short term.
My plea is simply on behalf of other service owners - don't apply if you aren't serious about work. It is a waste of time, both yours and theirs.
Thanks for all of your comments. I'm getting back involved on the board a little more and find how much I've missed the exchange of opinions and ideas.
T.
Where have you been, this board is no longer -sm
***Removed by Moderator***
Hi. I no longer use this program...
also the job I worked using this program couldn't help me. So I guess I would have to hire someone.
Can't imagine what would be in conflict with it. I just want to remove it from my computer.
Thanks for suggestions.
I no longer use one, but on the back where the
cord comes in is a cover that I believe has screws. Unscrew it and see if the plug has come unplugged from the machine. If that doesn't work I don't have any idea.
In NYS I was told they no longer have
that particular program (I was lucky enough in the early 1990s to go to school for 6 months totally 100% FREE for MT, books paid for, gas mileage, everything) because I was laid my medical record clerk position at the hospital.
In checking now I find no such help at all because of funding being so low.
you would think is this great, rich country there should be plenty of money for those of us who put a huge percent of our earnings into the government for times like this when our jobs disappear yet alas I could find no such help. Displaced homemaker only applies to a specific group of people now, like those with children who are single I believe. Maybe other states are different...
Even losing your job to overseas outsourcing, pretty much only a few professions can claim that, and I think it was airline employees and tech type jobs.
Again, if we are all rich and educated, we probably could get some kind of help/benefits...but then who would need the help right?
sometimes I feel I am in debtors prison because my credit is falling because of the economic times and the company I work for just keeps somehow lowering my pay all the time as my bills are skyrocketing.
In my state anyway there are a lot of jobs you cannot even get without good credit (?) so I guess you have to not need to job in order to get one.
Funny I don't remember this growing up...I always believed if I just worked hard I would be okay...
not so much now
I have done this longer that 35 years now
and have a job, thanks anyway, what makes you think people are kept out of this field by the way we think or believe? I have paid my dues and others. You, my younger peer, get a grip.
Have been with this profession probably longer
that most of you have been on this earth. I, too, have paid my so called dues. I care not if the retired person hangs out with foreigners, that is her life. I do not have to have tea with someone that I would have to grit my teeth to listen to and that would be the case with me. I specifically tell any dealer I call if someone from another country trying to speak to me there is a language barrier and I would like to have someone who speaks not broken English. Having said that, I do not like to listen all day long to foreigners. I did not start out this way, hardly any in fact and now we are completely up to our necks in people who cannot speak correct English. I care less what people think about me, I can be politically incorrect if I like, try not to even have a PCP of my own, hear too much of that every day. Just the way I feel and my previous husband said if you think it, might as well say it.
Having just had a large pay cut, I no longer do
x
Have done this years longer than you and
when I first started in the 70s of course some then. I am still working but I get fed up, has nothing to do with whether you like or dislike doing this work, with ESLs dictating who cannot pronounce words, I really think more than VR that ESLs really compromise this profession. There are much more now than in the 80s, by the way and they are not getting any better, just worst. No one takes up for the MTers here, not being asked to spell a person they want a CC to, cannot ask to spell physician's name attending who is out of state, things are not good.
Why do some MTs try and cause problems when they are no longer with a company?
I just don't get it.
it would take WAY longer than 6 weeks for mine! nm
nm
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