Question regarding Radiology Imaging Training
Posted By: vera on 2009-02-22
In Reply to:
Hi Everyone. I am an acute-care MT and have 30 years exp. I am wanting to expand my field on typing Imaging reports as there are quite a few jobs in my area that pay hourly salary for this. I used to have a hospital hourly salary until they outsourced. There are 2 hospitals in my area that need Imaging MT. I actually have typed some imaging reports that are thrown into our pool as I took a position with the outsource company that our hospital contracted too but I do not like working by line with no spaces being counted. Makes it hard to make decent money for years of exp. These two hospitals do have Imaging positions open and they pay by hour. I was wondering what schools would have courses that I could take via commute to learn Radiology/Imaging. My friend that I used to work with got back into doing radiology reports and now gets paid by the hour again. Myself and one other ex-coworker have applied for an additional position open in Imaging but we have not even had a call. I am quick to learn and have Radiology books, but I would not feel that comfortable in going these reports until I had some additional schooling. There are a few schools in my area that have transcription, but I do not need the whole course. I listened to a report for my friend one day and I understood every word the doctor said. I know I could do it with time, but evidently my resume is lacking in this department and really no hospital will give you a chance unless you have that experience in this Imaging field. These days there is not many places that will give you a chance on the job training unless you have been to school. They just do not have the time with the busy pace these days. Any info would be helpful. Even if I did the extra shooling there is no chance they would call. These positions are for home MT and I have been a home MT now for 20 of those 30 years and I have worked from all over the country. Any information would be helpful for checking into. Thanks
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New Radiology Imaging Book
Hello, I use this new book I got and love it. Radiology Imaging Words and Phrases Second Edition by Health Professions Institute. It is newer than the Stedman's (it is 1995 edition) so it has the newer terms it may not have. This one came out this year, a month or two ago. I just got it a few weeks ago. It is 750 pages and is 36.00. I am totally glad I bought it.
Diagnostic Imaging / Radiology
It's pretty much all I've ever done, although I did work at a medical school for a while and typed research papers and such. BORRRIIINNNNG!
I like radiology because it spans almost every field (except maybe psychology LOL). No matter what part of the body it is, when you want to find out what's wrong, you send them to x-ray.
Radiology is getting hit big time. Stand alone imaging centers especially.
Radiologists and lawyers usually mix about as well as oil and water. But radiology's near-term future could depend on the efforts of an Alabama attorney who is fighting a one-man battle to overturn legislation that could devastate the independent imaging center industry.
Jim Zeigler is an elder care attorney and self-described Republican activist who has taken issue with the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005, legislation enacted earlier this year that makes cuts to a wide range of federal government services. In radiology, the legislation specifically cuts $2.8 billion in Medicare payments for imaging services conducted in out-of-hospital settings.
Mr. Zeigler's beef is with the changes the DRA has made to the way Medicaid calculates how people can qualify for federal nursing home assistance. He might be just another gadfly if it weren't for one fatal flaw in the legislation -- a key difference in the versions of the bills passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives wasn't properly reconciled, as required by the U.S. Constitution.
We're featuring a Q&A interview with Mr. Zeigler in our Imaging Center Digital Community, in which he explains his objections to the DRA and what the radiology community can do to help. Read all about it by going to http://www.auntminnie.com/index.asp?Sec=sup&Sub=imc&Pag=dis&ItemId=70190&wf=770.
I saw this happen in MQ office while training. Supervisor was supposed to be training but
account was behind so she did transcription while she collected salary for "training" me. Of course I asked others for guidance rather than bother the furiously typing supervisor. I don't know if she cherry picked but she definitely double dipped into the MQ payroll.
imaging
(Single) contiguous (axial) image was obtained from base of the skull to the vertex without (intravenous) IV contrast.
Not really sure about the word single and axial in this sentence.
imaging
They can do a single axial image but it is not as effective as doing contiguous axial images.
LVN(LPN) or imaging tech. sm
I don't know anything about medical assistant, but the LVN (licensed vocational nurse) program can be obtained at a local community college in sometimes only 12 months. The only bad thing is, almost the only jobs a new LVN/LPN can get any more are in nursing homes, as most of the patient care is now done by CNAs (aides) and most hospitals require RNs now, which is at least a three-year program at community college.
You might want to look into becoming an imaging technician, which is also a community college program, I think it takes two years but not sure--and be trained and licensed to perform scans, IVPs, radiology, etc.
How about imaging tech? nm
.....
No quota. Visalia Imaging Center. (nm)
dd
there is a world of difference between MT training and NP training
honestly, I am in nursing school and have lots of health care experience as a paramedic and medical assistant. I think you can relax and leave your family's health either in your mother's hands or their physician's...
Hard to believe sonography & imaging tech jobs are
I look on some of the job websites for my state, and there appear to be a lot more jobs than MT jobs. And the pay is better, too - around $42-52K.
Mortuaries, nahhh. I also think the whole funeral industry is a ripoff. Nursing is overworked and underpaid for what they have to know, (much like MT). Even if I wanted a teaching credential (which I don't), I'd have a lot more than 2 years of college ahead of me, especially considering all the courses I didn't take in high school, especially math. One of my sisters got a teaching credential (mainly as a fallback job, though she only taught a few elementary summer-school programs), and she had to have her master's in education in order to be credentialled.
What other sorts of things might an MT do well at? Also, an MT who is close to 60, so doesn't have 8 years to go to night school, and can't afford expensive tuition? I don't think I'm meticulous and detail-oriented enough to be a lab or pharmacy assistant, and the old back won't take kindly to a job that involves a lot of standing all day. Being equally up and down is best for me, and sitting is 2nd-best. Standing is the worst.
I've explored coding, but after being an MT, I just don't trust any clerical jobs in healthcare anymore. I'm sure they'll find a way to automate or offshore coding, just as they've done with MT. If I'm going to endure several years of night school, I want something that is more recession proof and can't be offshored as easily.
Interestingly, right now there are quite a few State MT jobs available near where I live, (such as for state mental hospitals and the prison system), but with all the layoffs, budget messes and furloughs, there's no way I'm going to take a State job and then sweat it every July when they can't balance the budget.
It's all sooo frustrating! When I fell into MT back in 1974, it was a perfect fit, after I'd bounced from office job to office job for many years before that. I like typing, and like working with words. (Sigh - if only I had the next 'Harry Potter'-like novel inside my head, waiting to be written.......)
Radiology transcription, what type of reports are considered radiology
I have lot of experience with everything and I would like to know what exactly is considered radiology so I know if I qualify for that type of work? I've had many types that I think qualify for radiology.
I just went through training and they
told me that MQ itself does not pay for spaces. I was trained on DQS and again it was told to me during training when I asked about that and the answer was, "No, DQS does not count spaces as MQ does not pay spaces."
?? I'm all confused now.
Training (sm)
To tell you the truth, and I'm not dissing the trainers, but I really would be sure they are passing on correct information by asking your transcription supervisor.
When I was trained, they told us to disable some of the features of the platform, like the capitalization after the period and the thing that corrects your text if you type 2 capped letters. These are probably some of the best features of the program and I, nor any MT who wants to produce as much as possible, would dream of disabling them.
So... I really wouldn't put a whole lot of stock into somme of the info they give out. To be sure, get a second opinion. :)
You will need a LOT more training
than you have to be a successful transcriptionist, or even a mediocre transcriptionist. Simply from reading your post, it is apparent that English is probably not your first language. You will need to improve your English-language skills considerably before you will be employable. On the basis of your post alone, I would not hire you. I would not even bother to test you since you have so little training and your English is so poor. You need to take a GOOD transcription course, not something offered by one of the matchbook-cover schoools and certainly much more than you already have taken. Self confidence is all very well and good, but simply believing you can do something is not an acceptable substitute for good training. You do not yet have the skills you need. It is, of course, unlikely that you are going to believe any of this, so to satisfy your own curiosity, just start submitting applications to transcription companies. One or two might let you take their test. Your results should be an indicatino of just how far you have yet to go to be properly trained. Good luck to you.
MT training is not enough
it is just a foot in the door. The real training comes in by doing various dictations from various clinics/hospitals. Every doctor talks differently or uses different terminology.
MT training is not enough
it is just a foot in the door. The real training comes in by doing various dictations from various clinics/hospitals. Every doctor talks differently or uses different terminology.
OTJ training
I had on the job training. I trained for about a year. I am very lucky that I have a family member who is in the business who was willing to train me. She actually talked me into it. I have now been working for seven years as an MT for her and another company.
My DH is in training for this job.
:+
Training
Just another word of advice from somebody who has been there many, many years ago. Please remember that you send mixed messages when you switch back and forth from underwear to diapers. This confuses them. I did what this other poster did -- make it a game, praise, praise, and more praise. In the end, he will get the idea. It does take perserverance on your part. Set that timer and then have a race to the potty. The winner gets to use the potty -- and we all know mommy never wins this race. Good luck -- he will be fine.
Training at MT
So how do you know when you've received proper training? I have finished a program with a local college but when you compare the training hours versus other colleges its way lower? How can I be assured that I am trained enough to be able to do a MT job? Any suggestions????
Training VR
That sounds wonderful. However, this sounds like something that the doctor would set up on his own. I am looking mainly for something I install on my end, train, edit, etc. from here. I have a small account with three people, and maybe a couple more coming. They would not want to be bothered with doing anything different on their end. I wanted it for my end to speed things up for as they expand so I can keep up.
But are you in training?
I notice the first poster spelled clarity as "clearity".... A very easy third grade spelling word. Are you coming to the job with experience of any kind or do they know ahead of time that they are training from scratch? Are the editors paid well?
Because training an inexperienced person takes a lot of time and sometimes it's not successful.
BOS training
About the BOS AAMT guidelines. I am relatively a newbie with 11 months experience. When I started with my first job and I had been trained like you said to strictly follow AAMT guidelines. But when I got a job oh was I in for an awakening. They wanted things done the way they had always been done and didnt go strictly by AAMT. The acute care account I do now is the same way. I have been penalized for doing things according to AAMT. But every company and client has their way they want things done and you have to learn to follow them. Little things like AAMT second edition says only use disk now do not use disc anymore. Well I got penalized for that. They want disc used when referring to the spinal cord no matter what AAMT says because that is the way they have always done it. That is just one example. But yes knowing AAMT guidelines is good but it doesn't always give a newbie the advantage.
As far as training, you get what you pay for.
training
Just to let you know - they will take you off of training before the two weeks is up if you don't need it anymore. Mine only lasted three days but I had overlapped training with my last two weeks at MQ, so when they told me I was off training early I told them I had to finish up my last two weeks at MQ and I could only give them 200 lines a day for the rest of the two-week period since I had made arrangements around the two-week training assumption. They were fine with that.
More training
I have been doing transcription for 9 years now and am not making the lines or money I need to. Anyway, there is a local school I was thinking about going to that trains in coding/billing and they have placement assistance afterwards. I have heard it is next to impossible to get hired without already having experience in billing/coding. They do have federal loans/grants to help you pay for the training, but the costs is 7,600; seems awful high to me, but if they can get me a job paying better than transcription, might be worth it? Then again, I was thinking about just trying to get a job in medical records at a local hospital going in as a medical records tech. I know I must sound crazy, just trying to figure out how I can bring more money into my house. Thank you for any advice you can give me. 
on-the-job training
Trust me, if you have no medical work background that involves terminology you would be totally lost doing MT. It's really like a second language. The only on-the-job training I've ever heard about was someone who worked in a medical office or a hospital records department for a long time and was taught MT while they were there. I know of no companies or hospitals, small or large, that would hire you with no experience AND no training/schooling to go straight to work doing MT. There are some that will give you a chance once your schooling is done if you test well.
Right on. Using VR = training it, and training it =
training
Does anyone have any suggestions on getting training in other fields? I see a lot of jobs posted for radiology or even acute care/hospital work. I did hospital notes when I was in school many years ago, but since then have done all clinic work-multi-speciality like psych, OBGYN, family practice, pediatrics, chiropractic, physical therapy, allergy, internal medicine, ortho. My favorites are chiropractic, psych, OBGYN and physical therapy, but these seem to be hard to come by. Work is becoming slim and I'm looking at other options.
I would love to learn surgery, ER, or even just be able to get more work with hospital notes or radiology.
Any feedback is appreciated.....thanks! 
The training process
>>>you end up fixing things like changing "were" to "are", "a" to "an", that kind of thing.
Like I said, it's all in the training process, which includes ar-ti-cu-lating correctly. You have to feel the words form in your mouth. If you don't, you're going to have errors like these. Also, did you use add phrases to the vocabulary? You sometimes have to do that. What about the microphone? If you used one of those right out of the box, that could be the problem. And your sound card? Did the program analyze thousands of documents? --- You can't just install the program and off you go. Like many an expansion program, you have to put time and effort into it ... but the gains are worth it (at least, they were for me).
>>>Easier in my opinion to type from scratch,
It depends upon the individual. If you're a relatively fast typist (100+) who can remember ten of thousands of abbreviations, or you're a whiz bang with ST or IT (which still ultimately requires memorization) you're certainly not going to benefit from the program aside from alleviating any pains and discomfort you might have as the result of RSI. But to those of us who who aren't whiz kids or are experiencing physical discomfort from years of clicking the keyboard, VR is blessing.
>>>not to mention that you are usually making half what a normal line rate is to do VR.
I can dictate and proof an average of 350 lph. Multiply that by 7 hours in a day.
I know about the weight training
but thanks for the ice water tip. That's one I haven't heard, but makes sense!
to uhh not fair, DQS training pay
 I'd for sure take that one up with corporate or "ask Frank". It was stated when DQS first came out that ALL training was paid @10.00 per hour, period! Should be across the board, since it's company wide . I'd have to wonder where the training pay your offices did not give you, actually went to, because they sure the heck got reimbursed from corporate. I was in a training session for 2 hours with THE head honcho in training and she clearly stated, across the board, pay is the same, period.
OJT training (especially for ortho)
I think cardiology may get a little more complicated (or not) depending where you work. I think orthopedics is probably easy enough for you to pick up on the job considering your experience. I would try for OJT. Good luck!
No legal training, but...
I did have secretarial and word processing experience. I think my average wpm back then may have been about 80-90 wpm. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes to type/transcribe and is good with the English language, grammar, and spelling!
Yes and ANYONE can do it, right? No training needed! nm
nm
It IS good training, however, I don't see sm
my dogs as low ranking in my family. They are right up there with my kids and husband and if they misbehave, oh well, every dog has a bad day. If I wanted a low ranking pack member, I would adopt one of the wild coyotes we have running around here.
potty training
most children achieve this at their own pace, but I have a few ideas that helped with my son. I made a game of it. I floated squares of toilet paper in the toilet and had he do "target practice" and if he hit the target then he would get an M&M. He thought it was cool and it worked. Another thing I tried, a kitchen egg timer. I set it for 1-1/2 hour and whether he had to go or not, we went. This got him used to going and helped him to remember. One very important thing to remember, do not punish him or make the child feel bad about not going in his underwear this will make him feel worse and make it harder. Instead, over praise him when he does it right. Also, my son really wanted the cool underwent (this was 20 years ago) like Heman and ninja turtles instead of the white cotton kind. So I told him he had to earn them by showing me that he was trying and eventually he got the kind of underwear he wanted. Just some thoughts. Just do not make this a big deal, because in reality it is not. He could live to be 80 years old, so just let him take his time. He will get it. Just make it fun and as stress free as possible and you will see resutls.
Potty Training
Hi there! I went through the same thing with my son a few monthes ago. He is the same age and the situation you described was identical to my son's. Okay here is what worked form me. I basically decided no more diapers or pull ups. My son would beg for them when we went to the store...I was firm in saying no. Then I started insisting that he wears underwear at all times. When he soiled them we changed them. Finally I think he realized that I was not going to give in and after about the second day of constantly being pulled away from whatever he was playing with to change his underwear he started to soil them less and use the toilet more. Honestly, I would sometimes wait if his favorite show was coming on or something to change him then...that way he was inconvenienced also. I would tell him during his protest that when he goes in the toilet that we won't have to change his underwear during Blues Clues. It progressively got better and was remedied within about 2 weeks. However, I was probably more busy washing undies than I have ever been...but it was worth it. I hope so much this will help. Good luck!
potty training
new to this board, just had to weigh in on the potty training issues. Lots of great advice here in terms of being patient, supportive, encouraging....want to add my personal experience as mom of 5, including a set of boy/girl twins. My oldest DS, 18, did not train till almost 4. This despite being in COTTON diapers, not pullups. Hey, stuff happens. My oldest DD, 16, trained herself at 2, kept herself clean/dry during the day for more than 3 months. Did such a good job that she got a UTI, and lost control, so frightened by this experience that she went back into diapers for another 9 months! Finally "clicked" at 3+. The twins, well, now you can see the differences between boys and girls, but SHE encouraged him (I have a great pic of the 2 of them sitting on the toilet, one behind the other, like they were riding a horse!) They were consistently clean/dry at 3. Toilet training is a process, I talk about body parts, body functions, things like up, down, clean, dry, wipe, flush....vocabulary and lots of demonstration (what's privacy?). My youngest DD, 4 the end of November, just trained in February. Yes, 4+. YIKES!!! the problem? My teenagers! they were way too interested in "helping" me parent her, and were way too heavy handed. Gave her something to rebel against. So she took control and decided NOT to do her business in the toilet! She was also more than a bit phobic about the whole bathroom business, must be a very big deal if EVERYONE in the house is so so so very interested in what was going on inside her diaper. My attitude was leave it alone, it will happen (so nice to have perspective that experience brings). We had to tone things waaaayyyyyy doooooownnn in order to get her to "chill" about this whole thing. At 3-1/2, I "encouraged" her a bit more...I put her diapers/pull-ups near the bathroom door, along with a big supply of underwear, lots of pretty underwear. Also a trash can. I told her, you change when you are wet, I am out of a job! She had to choose each time, diaper or panties. She consistently chose diapers, and changed, and put the wet diaper in the trash. I still had to change dirty diapers, but figured that even with trained kids, mom is still responsible to make sure that "clean-up" is done satisfactorily. At 3-3/4, I started having DD sit on the toilet in a diaper when she had to do #2, then I handled the clean-up. One day, at 4+, it just "clicked" and she did #2 WITHOUT the diaper.....and the rest is history. Toilet training is a process, she had to learn how to control #1 and #2, in the house, use a toilet OUTside the house (don't you just love using the bathroom at the supermarket, at the mall, here, there, everywhere?) and then night-time training. BUT because this one was so OLD, all these pieces fell into place within 2 weeks!!! Clean/dry both day and night! Lots of patience, matter of fact praise (hey, no one claps/sings, gives stickers, candies, etc when Mom uses the potty!). This too shall pass. In my experience, it seems that the bigger the deal is made out of this, the longer the process takes.
has anybody ever heard of training your
replacement (as an ic) after giving your two week notice? can anyone tell me their opinions on jester's touch? I can't find anything current when I search the archives and only found from 2003 & 4. also, why would they need my driver's license number when my job doesn't involve driving for them?
Training in Trinidad
There was a thread a few days ago on the company board. They are training transcriptionists in Trinidad, so don't expect to have a job for long. Difficult to get lines and pay scale is low and weird. Hope that helps.
How to get more OP note training
I had dabbled in operative reports quite sparingly at a prior job, really only typing STAT ones that the hospital called about since I was the only Transcriptionist working nights, so I really do not have much experience and dreaded them. I think it would have been easier if I would have had some training or examples prior to just doing them, but they were quite frustrated most of the time. Anyhow, my question is how to get experience on OP notes so they aren't so frightening? I had asked my current employer when I was hired, but they of course (and I understand why, not complaining here) did not want to have to train or 'help' someone. So I type the rest of acute care minus the OP reports. I would like to get some experience on them however, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
opinions please regarding training, sm
i work for a small MTSO doing clinic accts. i have my own accts assigned to me. now they are wanting me to train someone on my accts. okay, we all know how long it takes training someone usually. no compensation offered. i have to send all my templates, instructions, etc, etc, etc to them. okay, a lot of these i made myself to save myself time. which should i send the things i made myself. no one trained me on the accts nor sent me templates, instructions, etc. when i started.
how do you all handle this? am i just being tacky? this job hasn't been going so well lately so i think there are ulterior motives.
if i refuse, i would probably lose my job but at this point i really don't care anymore. otherwise, do it and loose my income and time to help someone else learn my acct to probably take my place when i am already swamped?
On the job training is fine
You can achieve the goal of MT with on the job training. I started out at a state hospital in NY and was trained working in the clinic as the transcriptionist. On my own, I went to night college but the training I received on the job was excellent The last hospital I worked at in-house, we had a training program and once a year we would hire a newbie and I would train the person and edit their work. If you live in California, I would check out Chronicle Transcripts as they hire newbies and train them. Pay-wise, you can make quite a bit of money and also practically nothing. Depends what company/hospital you work for and what part of the country. Good luck.
P. S. So, the transcriptionist is the one training the s/w. sm
Of course, we don't get paid any more for this little item which will actually lower our line rates when we are editing the gibberish. It's a vicious circle.
so let me get this right...you're IN training right now so
we could definitely call you a newbie. Maybe even a pre-newbie. So you don't have experience either, which means things like FTP sites, word expanders, productivity tips, etc. are new to you. This MTSO is going to give up her time (which Patti says she can do a 15 page report herself in an hour) to train you. So she is giving up anywhere from $30-$60 an hour to train you. Which means she is INVESTING in you and she has a right to get a return on her investment, hence the 5 cpl rate. Then she is offering you work on an account in which you will already have experience on, and have templates and word expansion for. Then you will be doing big reports (which are good because it means you sit in the chair longer and ultimately average better production) in a relatively easy specialty. When you finish training with her (say in 3 months), she will be offering 6 cents per line to a newbie without two years experience and I see postings all the time for 7-8 cpl for jobs that demand two years experience. So..... I guess it all depends if you have a better offer... but think carefully, because if you blow this one, she'll offer it to someone else and then we'll see you over on the New MT/Student page, whining about how you can't find a job...
VR - speed and training
Honestly, how fast will VR type the dictation. I read somewhere about 160? Is that all? I don't understand how a Transcriptionist can train the program when it is the doctor that is dictating. Can someone explain. I am trying to figure out if this is something I want - whether it be to save my wrists for the future/ or if it will type the work faster than I do. I am generally about 200 now, depending on the work, sometimes better, sometimes worse. TIA.
About 3 hours into training - everyone kept
using these little virtual clapping or laughing icons during training - I ended up having the flu, fever of 104, and was delirious. I raised my virtual hand and left...Have often wondered if I should have stuck it out...will never know!
I'm LOL at your training experience (sm)
I just went through a training period and it seems like there is always one in every bunch. I had to put my phone on mute because I couldn't help but laugh at a question I heard from one of the others in training. Like you, I'm thinking why would you hire someone who had little to no computer skills?? Over the years, I've gone through a small number of phone training sessions and honestly, there is one in every bunch!
I got to take some training classes...
that were provided to me free by my employer, which helped me learn the basic concepts. Then I just tried to start thinking outside the box a little bit, looking for things that annoyed me that I could change by using IT. Basically any sequence of keys or commands you type on the keyboard, you can program into IT. So for example it drives me CRAZY when a doctor starts dictating a paragraph and then says #2 when he didn't say #1, or the other way around, when he always says #1 and then there's no #2 and my account rules are that you have to fix that. So I wrote down the combination of keys that it took to go up to the top of the paragraph, take the number out and then drop back down to the bottom, and I made a shortcut out of it. You can use the command function in IT to insert things like ctrl/shift and the up arrow to take you to the beginning of the paragraph or the search/replace command to change Diagnosis to Diagnoses. I just kept track of what keys I was typing to do certain things and then made an entry for those. Some of them took some tweaking but once I got them exactly right they make my day go much more smoothly. There's also a website, I believe it's www.productivitytalk.com, that gives a lot of tips and tricks to use with IT. Hope that helps.
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