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Per diem is on an as needed basis - not a stable job. May work 1 day a month. nm

Posted By: MT on 2006-02-09
In Reply to: Hosp perdiem interview tomorrow! SM - Chloe

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Also, per diem, I believe means as needed.
:)
per diem is basically *as needed*, nm
nm
No benefits either being per diem but definitely ask about the average hours per month you can....

expect to work. Most per diems are only allowed to work a certain number of hours per week. 


Also, find out how much "notice" you will get for working; i.e., will they call you a day or two in advance, or call you the day they want you to work?


The bright side of per diem is that usually a hospital will hire the per diems if they are interested in a full time job before posting elsewhere. It's your foot in the door so to speak.


Ask your PS to see if you can try it on a trial basis, say for a month or so...sm
You won't really know if it'll be better for you unless you give it a trial run. 5-1/2 hours each day should go by quick even with breaks.

Good luck.
Hire someone to work per diem or for a weekend. NM

"


I work with SR on a daily basis, and I can tell you...sm
...it will NOT be replacing human intelligence, now or 10 years from now or 50 years from now. The files we work on come from a VERY expensive speech recognition system and the quality is very poor. SR cannot handle punctuation well at all, doesn't know when to stop and start sentences, has problems with capitalization, and ironically enough, when the doctor actually spells something out, that totally confuses SR!

But even if technology advances to the place where speech recognition can accurately reproduce every word and sound that comes out of a doctor's mouth, so what? That STILL will not replace human MTs, because doctors do not always say what they mean, or even when they DO say what they mean, what they mean is not right! We're the only ones who can clean up that mess.

Jay
oil field pers a "per diem" which is a set amt of money they get to show up for work that day,
1
Thanks. You know, we have been OUT OF WORK for over a month.

the moment is hard.


And, ha ha, nothing with MQ is fast anymore anyways.  I bet I haven't made over 120 lines an hour in 3 months.  I get bad reports nonstop.  NONSTOP. 


It would have been decent of them to have said it was an option instead of pretending like it was mandatory.  Especially since they know we are broke out here from having no work.  And believe me they know we have had no work.  


Oh well, just another reason why I can't stay in MT after all these years.  Why do I want to keep "giving" it away. 


Only been there a month, but have not ran out of work yet.. more than enough.
Maybe it depends on your account. I have only worked on one account and this one has plenty of work. I have not ran out at all.. usually, the account is even a little behind..
Let's do all our work for the month in 4 days. (sm)

Anyone else out there with this problem.  Just when you think the work is flowing fine, all of a sudden it's slow, no work, the doctors are on vacation.  Then they come back and whammo!  Your plans are shattered to continuously sit at the desk for 4 days straight.


I'm ready to quit and make hair bows for a living.


 Rah, rah for hair bows.  No stress and if I work this hard, I could probably make more money.


I slept right after work, before if I needed
x
STable?
No one is really stable in this profession; they can outsource in a New York minute and never forget that!  Many people work in public places.  Go visit that hospital you work for and I bet you'll find loads of stuff sitting around with the patient names on there and also people flat out talking about the patient in this room or that room.  It's not fault proof. 
No special files needed. If the PC has USB ports, then it will work. SM

Simply download the ShortHand install file from the website onto the jump drive.  Then open up your jump drive and install it.  When it asks for the file location (which defauls to c:programs) change it to your jump drive (on my PC it is the F drive).  Then install it.  The entire program will install on your jump drive.  Then plug into to whatever PC you want to use, open up the drive, double click the shorthand icon and it will run the program in the background from your jump drive.


I did it for years.  I had to type radiology in the office into Cerner with no abbrev Expander provided by the hospital.  I used my jump drive and it worked like a dream.  Everybody was amazed at how productive I was.  Never, EVER ask the IT people to help, the answer will always be no.


Do you mean like critical, stable, poor?
Not sure what your question...I'm just thinking of all the conditions someone can be in.  If it were a family member, hearing "guarded" would make me very nervous.
I pay $35/month through Vonage for unlimited LD. Local phone co. charges $50/month. NM
x
Opan a large stable and board
horses, or become a doctor.
In the past when I've needed extra work could get a response from co.'s within a week and be w
Now it's like zip, zero, nothing. No responses whatsoever from my emails to the companies here and on mtjobs.com.

At first I was looking for specifics regarding hospital work, clinic work, days, hours, etc., and choosing those but later got desperate and even with 16 years experience have been applying for 7-cent-a-line clinic jobs.... STILL no response from ANYONE! Well, actually, I get responses but they are automated emails stating I've passed the test(s) and will be contacted in X amount of days/weeks/months. Then I never hear back even with a followup email. In the past, I could get a new job within a week or two.

I don't know. I was thinking maybe they're thinking that with 16 years experience it would be easier to go with someone with less experience (for whatever reasons), so I'm considering just putting down 5 years or so as my experience instead of the truth. Could be they don't want to deal with this old dinosaur and want new blood, I don't know.
Not sure. I was told by the stable owner it was a fungus but my ferrier said it
was not.  Probably time for a vet.
The way I see it. Competing with national rates. If stable acct, good dictators. Bid low, get job
dd
My advice: Regroup. Find a small cave, cheap, take the kids, get a stable job (1), quit trying to

need to stabilize.


Medical transcription is not a "living" - it is a sideline anymore, unless you can find a doctors office or hospital where you can count on an income and count on medical insurance.


Leave the BF - they are dead weight.  They wear you out and rarely help you find any solid footing.  If your's did you wouldn't be here asking for advice.


I used to think I need to be married - then I began to ask myself:  WHY AM I MORE BROKE AND MORE TIRED WITH A HUSBAND?


There were more hours in the day and more money in the bank when I was on my own with my children.  We may not have had fancy things but we were happy because their mom was happy - ME.


Again, don't use 3 PT/transcription jobs or even 1 FT and some PTs to say you are making it.  Either bring your budget down to living on the 1 FT and let the PT be the discretionary income (extra for savings, emergencies, etc), or leave transcription entirely.  MTing is a losing proposition at this time.  Unless of course, like I say, you are in a stable place like a hospital.  And don't COUNT on the PT to carry you through - these nationals and side jobs are playing fast and loose with paying people or providing any security at all.


GOOD LUCK. 


 


What is per diem? nm
nm
per Diem
What exactly is per Diem?  Thanks!!!
per diem
Hello:  What is a per diem medical transcriptionist?  Is this relatively the same as an IC?  Thanks in advance for any info.
To me pe diem is ......
Per diem, or "per day," is a Latin phrase meaning specific amount of money an organization allows an individual to spend per day so it might mean like on a salary and you get paid no matter how much work you do???  But it is a specific amount of money you get paid no matter what -- now if it means you have to get 2000 lines per day no matter how  long it takes or do 200 minutes per day no matter how long it takes and you get this much for it -- need to check that out. It is almost like getting paid per report no matter how many lines are on it -- but this is just my way of thinking and could be wrong
Per diem
I am per diem for an account and it's basically I work when they need me, fortunately it's been daily!
Per diem
I have worked this way for some big companies and some were medical and some were other types of corporations. I was an employee at all and received benefits if they chose to include them; sometimes I had to work a certain amount of hours to qualify in a given pay period, sometimes they just wanted me so they gave them to me anyway to keep me from quitting. You are an employee at per diem usually, you just don't know how many hours each day you will work or how many days a week (sometimes you know the days, just not the hours or vice versa). When I transcribe per diem I have set days, like Monday, Wednesday and Friday 8 hours each or 4 hours each, or whatever Sometimes the start time is fixed, sometimes it is flexible. For one I can do it from home or from the hospital. For one, I just have a certain amount of minutes to type and I know how long it takes, as does the employer and when I am done I leave. Their system is accountable and knows how long I was there, how much got typed and how much to pay me. Sometimes per diems have a guaranteed minimum salary too. That is nice. It all just depends on what you work out at your interview. One hospital I know will pay air fare, hotel fees, taxis, and a higher than usual hourly rate or line rate for a couple people to fly in when they are backlogged. They do this because those people have both worked there for a long time before they moved to other cities and they are "worth it" because they know the system, are excellent CMTs, etc. and will produce massive amounts of work in short time frames and they don't have to be proofread or whatever. I hope this is not too long! I like it that way. It is like working for Ghost Busters! We could start our own company and call it Backlog Busters!
per diem and on call in job ads
When a hospital places an ad for an "on call" transcriptionist, what exactly does that mean? Does it mean they can call you up at 3:00 a.m. to come in for an emergency report?? And per diem means you just come on for a job here and there, right? It isn't regular work?

I am sorry if these are dumb questions. I'm new. Thanks for your input.
per diem could be an employee

The per diem I am familiar with meant as needed.  For instance, if there was a vacation or if someone was ill, the per diem employee filled in.  Hope this helps. 


You're defining PRN - per diem is per day. nm
.
Per diem means "per day." nm
nm
Been there myself on a day to day basis.
and it just plain blows big time.
First name basis
IMHO, if the client wants you to call them Pipsqueak, you comply.  It's their perogative - the customer is always right. 
It's on a per-account basis. nm
..
My husband does this on an every day basis
changing what I say to something else and I laugh each and every day we are together. He is so funny i start laughing before I ever get a sentence out of my mouth. He keeps me in stitches, my bestest friend in the whole wide world! I tell him I think he needs a hearing aid and he says WHAT?? I said is something wrong with your ears and he says.. I don’t have any tears. I have no dull days when he is here with me. The way he works is home most days and I can hardly wait for him to get out of bed so I can laugh more.
Regardless whether HIPPA is the basis or not....
there is a problem there that needs to be addressed here.  Either you agree or don't!  No need to critize an MT who is at least trying to make an effort to do something about it. 
possible, but not on a consistent basis, I don't think
I have done it, but it is not possible to do that for 4 hours straight, and definitely not for 8. There are so many factors that affect your work.... how many times you stop to look up things, ESLs, wasted time with doctors who don't have their thoughts organized, etc. I have done 350-400 lines an hour rarely... usually it is 275-300 if I have a very familiar doctor, no terms to look up, and my fingers and mind are communicating that day. :o) So long answer short, it is 'doable', but doubtful that you could keep it up for 8 hours.
If you don't speak on a daily basis . . .
x
What reference do you use the most on a daily basis? SM

I lost all my reference books in a fire and I can't afford to replace them all at once.  I am buying a couple of books each pay check and I've been trying to decide what I need the most.  So far I have gotten a Dorland's Medical Dictionary, Surgical Word Book, and Radiology Word Book because I do radiology a couple of times a week. 


So to all you acute care MTs out there, what books do you find yourself using on a daily basis?


I have probably 30 dictators that I get on a regular basis, usually

the same work type, but depending on the workload I may get all different work types, and lots of dictators I've never had before, but that isn't the norm.   My company has very high standards and I think they realize in order to retain the good MTs they have to make them productive and they try to do that as much as they can by keeping them on one account. 


I've had accounts in the past where it was rare that I got the same dictator more than a couple of times and they were all very difficult ESL dictators, which makes it harder to learn them. 


I take ibuprofen usually on a daily basis
although really should not. I have this in the bilateral wrists so it cannot be just the mouse use alone. A certain movement with the wrists elicits such excruciating pain, you probably know though. Am glad not doing anything real serious, like brain surgery or the like, when this pain hits.
Google is not good basis, IMO. sm
Look up the definition of "hire." It can apply. You can certainly hire an IC, just as you can hire a service, plumber, electrician, babysitter, etc. Even if Google does show it's being used often to refer to employees, that doesn't mean that every single person saying it is implying or in any way establishing an employee-employer relationship. That's not to say the person you are referring to didn't mean it that way, just that I don't think it's fair to paint every MTSO that might say it with that broad brush. I don't think the IRS would consider it a valid cause as establishment of employee vs. IC relationship, either. It's a stretch to say that someone can't even say they "hired" an IC. I just think that's reading way too much into it. JMO, FWIW.

From dictionary.com:

Hire is a general word, most commonly applied to paying money for labor or services...
Most pay is on a production basis these days, so SM
in looking for a typical wage, you really need to find out what group of "typical" MTs to compare oneself to. All experienced, of course. Slow, below-average speed, average speed, above average, fast, very fast, and wow-I-wish-I-could-do-that. Some very experienced MTs are slow for various reasons. A few probably have no real talent for the job but have always worked on salary. Others can be faster but again have always worked on salary, which didn't encourage developing one's maximum speed. Others prefer to work in a relaxed manner and choose not to focus on high production. The higher producers are either very talented or they've worked hard at harnessing the available technology to work for them, and all work steadily and fairly hard.

$20+ also strikes me as fairly typical for a sincere MT who applies herself reasonably consistently, and I agree that 30-35+ is still an achievable goal for most who commit to making money, though typical only for the fast classes.
Most pay is on a production basis these days, so SM
in looking for a typical wage, you really need to find out what group of "typical" MTs to compare oneself to. All experienced, of course. Slow, below-average speed, average speed, above average, fast, very fast, and wow-I-wish-I-could-do-that. Some very experienced MTs are slow for various reasons. A few probably have no real talent for the job but have always worked on salary. Others can be faster but again have always worked on salary, which didn't encourage developing one's maximum speed. Others prefer to work in a relaxed manner and choose not to focus on high production. The higher producers are either very talented or they've worked hard at harnessing the available technology to work for them, and all work steadily and fairly hard.

$20+ also strikes me as fairly typical for a sincere MT who applies herself reasonably consistently, and I agree that 30-35+ is still an achievable goal for most who commit to making money, though typical only for the fast classes.
I fax all my reports on a daily basis
I have a fax machine right in my computer. As soon as I'm doing typing a report, I print it directly to the fax. It has the capability to schedule faxes. Where I work we have to hold the reports for 5 days in case there are any corrections so I just schedule my faxes five days in advance and it automatically faxes everything out. I can keep tract of whether or not a fax has gone out just by clicking on the fax icon on my computer. It's really very handy.
Not to mention doing it on a regular basis
I could maybe, maybe, if the stars were aligned properly and all the factors MTinNC mentioned were in place, type 3000 lines in a 12-15 hour day. But it would be one day. I couldn't do that everyday, and it probably would take so much out of me that I'd end up slowing down in subsequent days, making it all balance out. Of course, I'm no longer in my 20s, but I think it would still take a quick toll.
I type oncology on a daily basis.
It's tough, especially when it's a young person. At least with older people, I think they lived long and happy lives. The doctors are taking good care of them, and their family members are usually there with them. Then there are times when the doctors describe the person's presenting symptoms and I sit there wondering if my aches and pains could be cancer. Maybe that's why so many MTSOs are looking for people to type oncology. Nobody wants to do it. I should probably find something else to do.
We are paid on a tier basis, based on
your production during the entire pay period. For example:

12,000 - xx
12,001 - 14,000 - an additional 0.05.
14,000 - 16,000 - an additional 0.05.
16,001 and above - an additional 0.05

So, lines between 12,000 and 14,000 we are paid xx + 0.05;
14001 - 16000 - xx + 0.05 + 0.05;
16,001 - above xx + 0.05 + 0.05 + 0.05.
I need something on a trial basis for now...if it works out, I will invest later...Can't afford..

to invest in software unless it is a sure thing.  Thanks


People die and lose everything on a daily basis, not just hurricane
victims. I wish people would stop insinuating that everyone in the country who is getting on with their own lives is selfish or uncaring.
Once I got over needing/wanting to talk whoever on a daily basis, I liked not to - sm
For years (my 20s) I felt I had to talk to my SO every day for 5 years....finally broke up for good...took 3 times to work. Next SO was much more laid back, talked to him 3-4 times a week maybe, saw each other maybe 3 x a week. Helped me a lot in getting over the previous jerk/SO. That lasted about 20 months....then met DH. We did not talk every day at first even though we lived 100 miles apart....later on we did. I moved in with him though 6 months after meeting him so it became a mute point then. But even today he calls me usually 1-4 x a day which at times gets to be a bit annoying actually. Though when he does not call I do worry and wonder if he is okay....he did not call yesterday and the roads were icy so it gets you worried when your DH/SO does not stick to form. The only way to get over being annoyed is to call him and ask him if he called and hung up and to next time please leave a message. Or be stubborn and wait and get angrier if that makes you happy.
very few responses on the State Boards on a daily basis
So I thought I would try the main board. If I don't get a response in a couple of hours, I guess it could be taken off.
Thanks