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Questions about creating a bid proposal...

Posted By: Sampriss on 2008-06-28
In Reply to:

I am fairly new to the business. I am currently transcribing part-time for a local clinic. I learned that the clinic will be accepting bids for a new contract position. I have never drawn up a bid. Do not know the first thing about it. I have someone who can help me with that. What I would appreciate any suggestions or advice on are:

1. What to charge per line? Will picking up and dropping off tapes at 3 sites. Will be transcribing outpatient clinic and radiology reports.

2. Turn around time? Current contractor has 3 days. The contract in place states 24 hours but they have been lenient lately.

3. Would it be accurate to figure 30% for taxes and 20% for benefits?

I appreciate any and all advice. Anything I have forgotten, please let me know!

Thank you for suggestions.

Complete Discussion Below:

marks the location of current message within thread

Questions about creating a bid proposal... - Sampriss
- I emailed you (nm) - midwestMT
  - Thank you midwest ;-) nm - mt
  - can you e-mail me with this info? - thank you so much - NM
  - Looking for the same info... - mt

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Other related messages found in our database

Creating a proposal for services
I have been asked to submit a proposal for transcription services for a local imaging facility. The dictation is accessed over the internet and the reports are typed directly into their own system. I am a bit sketchy on how to submit a proposal like this. Can anybody provide me with a "sample." I will be hiring additional subcontractors to help me on this account. I have only been employed as an outside contractor on one-site facilities and dont really know all the wording that is needed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Proposal
I would basically just type up what you are proposing to provide as services, outline TAT, price who will provide what equipment etc. This is not the contract just a proposal of what you are stating what you will provide at what price. Just make sure you know all the little details or be able to put in some type of stipulation that the propsal is NOT a final binding contract but with what details are known this is the proposal of your price and TAT. Same as if you were to get a bid on someone to do a roofing job, windows, work on your car, that this is a propsal and not a final cost. I have just always made mine very simple and if they accept and want a contract I go into more specifics i.e. invoicing, payment due, etc. Also if you will be needing IC's be sure to put into the proposal that you will need some time to hire IC's, etc., get set up, and so on otherwise you could be hiring and have no work for them if you jump the gun. Now the balancing act begins, having enough IC's on hand but not too many so that there is enough work for all of them but not too much in case one or more call in sick, have a sick child or decide not to work. Also being able to pay them enough but you still make something off the account for all the headaches of managing them. So I wish you the best of luck, but basically just specify what you are services you are proposing to provide to them.

Stock proposal forms
Does anyone have a "stock" proposal form they use to bid on transcription work? Thanks.

Creating Templates
I am looking for a way to create a sample report and put ?? in the places where changes would be made, using a control key to jump from ?? to ?? i.e. This ?? year-old ?? patient.....Blood pressure ??, pulse ??, temperature ??, ETC.

Creating Resume
Can someone tell me how to create a resume on MTStars. Thanks

Creating glossaries

To create glossaries, the first option would be to import your AutoCorrect file. Right-click on Phrases and go to Importer and click on the AutoCorrect option and follow the prompts.

The next option would be to do a compilation as suggested in the previous post. To do a compilation, right-click on the glossary list and select "Multiple File Compilation" and then follow the prompts.

With regards to not seeing any matching phrases in your advisories: What glossary are you currently using? What are you typing for a short form? Do you see anything in the advisories at all?

It may be easiest to troubleshoot over the phone. Please feel free to call us at 781-272-3200 ext 2 with any questions and we can help get you started. We are here Monday-Friday 9am-5pm eastern time. You can always email us as well.

Textware Solutions

Meditech questions and Cerner questions. Any input is appreciated. SM

I just recently went back to work in the office at a local hospital. We type in both Meditech and Cerner, depending on what you are typing, i.e. Medical Records reports versus Radiology. We are currently typing blindly in Meditech, meaning we do not have access to our line counts and must depend on management to give us our totals. In Cerner, we are able to run a line count report and print out a hard copy of our line counts at the end of the day.

We are finding that 800 lines in Cerner equals about 500 lines in Meditech. We are not paid per line nor do we have an incentive plan, but we have a new HIM Director who would like to institute an incentive plan and the administrator over our department has laid down the law and decreed that all transcriptionists not making minimum in the department will be written up. Problem is according to Meditech line totals that we have been given, that would be about half the department.

The transcription supervisor has taken our concerns to the new director who told the MT Supervisor to hold off on writing people and has taken home all the line counts from the last month and she is going over them with a fine tooth comb this weekend.

I am not a very trusting soul by nature, so I am doing a little research on my own. I've been in this business for about 15 years. I started out in a hospital and have worked for a few services at home and am now back in the hospital setting. So I know a few things about line count and I consider myself to be pretty well informed on trends and technology in the industry. I would like to walk into our next department meeting armed with as much knowledge as possible. So I have come up with some questions that I would like some fellow MTs to answer, give opinions, and maybe even direct me to websites or individuals who could give me a better understanding of Meditech and Cerner. Here are my questions:

Is it possible for an MT to have access to her line count in Meditech or is strictly a management function? Any MTs that work in Meditech on this board, do you currently have access to your line counts and if so, how do you check them? Is it an option on the main menu after you log into Meditech?

How is a line defined in Meditech? (i.e. 65 cpl, with spaces, without spaces)

How is a line defined in Cerner?

What abbreviation Expanders work with both Meditech and Cerner?

Examples of incentive plans (if anyone would like to share that with me that would be great, if not I completely understand).

Measuring productivity by minutes of dictation versus typed lines.

What would be the minimum minutes required for an 8-hour day?

How would one structure an incentive program based on minutes?

I was thinking of presenting the idea that we keep track of productivity using minutes instead of lines since there is such a discrepancy in Meditech. I also worry that if an incentive plan is put into place and we are still typing blind into Meditech, what's to keep management from shaving off a few lines here and there?

Feel free to email me or post here any responses. Either is fine. I really appreciate any input, comments, or just plain old supportive posts would be nice too!

Creating Jump Codes
Can someone help me, please? I'm trying to set up my own templates and need to create jump codes. Does anyone have any suggestions? I did the Ctrl F9, but when I saved the template and reopened it, the blank symbol was gone. If anyone has suggestions, I am willing to try them. Thanks everyone. Have a blessed day.

Need help creating a go-to function in Word...
I would like to set up Word so that I can press tab (or some other) key and it will move to a specific point in the report such as ???, so that I can then insert text at that point. I have had many templates come to me with this function but I would like to be able to set it up for my own templates, only don't know how....after spending 30 minutes in the Help menu I'm just frustrated!!

But I bet one of you folks know how to do it! Sure would appreciate the help.

Help creating letterhead templates

I would like to take an existing letterhead, scan it and create a template for it that can be pulled up and typed right into. Someone I used to know did this for one of my accounts at one time, but I have no clue on how she did it and no contact with her anymore. It doesn't seem like this should be anything difficult to do, but I have played around with it and just can't figure it out.

Would really appreciate any pointers, or even links/websites where I might be able to find simplified information on how to do this. I am a little "behind the times" and not very experienced on much besides typing at this point. I will be changing direction soon and need to update my ways of doing things.

Thank you in advance for any tips or direction.

Creating Templates in Word

Anyone familiar with creating report templates in Word ?

Creating a resume on MTStars
Would someone please explain how I can create a resume on MTStars. I appreciate your help. I really need to post a resume ASAP.

Instructions on creating a field.
Using Word 2002, you would do this by creating a field in the report. First, you must enable Field Codes by going to Tools, Options, View, under Show check Field Codes and Shading Always. Then hit OK.

Next, in your template or blank document in Word, go to Insert, Field, select Go To Button. The Go To Button will be grayed out on your screen. However, you will be able to see the Go To Button field on your monitor screen if you enabled the field correctly as described above.

To use the Go To Button field in your report, to land in this field when transcribing, use F11. This will place your cursor right in the Go To Field box in your report. As soon as you starting typing, the Go To Field box will be replaced with the text. This field is very useful when you only need to fill in text in a paragraph. I use it all the time in my templates to save time. And we all know time is money in this business.

Of course, these instructions could be slightly different in other versions of Word. I use Word 2002. But this is the basic concept of setting up a field in a document.

I hope this is of some help to you.javascript:editor_insertHTML('text','

');
javascript:editor_insertHTML('text','

');

Creating back space in IT

I admit that I am challneged when it comes to Instant Text. Year-old is already entered but have been attempting -month-old with no success.

Any ideas?

As always, my gratitude!

Very sorry if I'm creating the wrong impression...sm
This post will be a little long - my apologies in advance.

First, I wasn't "discounting" the dslextreme suggestion per se. However, the OP had already indicated that her phone company couldn't provide DSL, and if the phone company can't physically configure a line for DSL no other company like dslextreme, which has to rely on the phone company provisioning the line, can provide it either. I should have been more explanatory in my response, but then I suppose I would have been "preachy".

As for whole "preachy" thing and the "belarc" post sounding like a magazine article, I write the way I write. It's true that I've written many articles on technical subjects, so perhaps that style has crept into my forum posts as well. What I'm trying to do is to include as much information as possible in my posts so that I'm not just leaving everyone with more questions than answers. Sometimes, a little information just confuses people while a little more information would have made it clearer.

In other words, I'll plead guilty to sometimes trying to teach, but I have no gospel that I'm trying to preach. Perhaps you'll make that distinction in the future.

Maybe it would help if you knew a little about me. I've been in the transciption industry for over 25 years, and in that time I've sat in most of the "seats", including production, QA, supervision, management and tech support. The latter is most relevant here, so I'll go further to explain that I've always had an interest in the technologies that we use and have invested literally $tens of thousands in taking everything from college courses to certification "bootcamps" to seminars having to do with telecommunications, networking, operating systems, PC maintenance, computer security and even digital forensics. I've also done quite a bit of HIPAA training. If you'd care for a list of the training I've had, I'll be happy to provide it if you reply by email.

I don't say this for any other reason than to point out that I don't come on this forum for any other reason than to share what I've learned with the members of the forum. If it's not helpful to post on the forum, I have other things to do than posting and I'm sure members have other things to do than reading the posts.

Personally, I think it's a shame when anyone who has something of value to offer and does so voluntarily finds that they're being attacked on "style points". When you commented on my Belarc post, my only thought was, "Yes, but did you download and run it, or did you let all that other junk get in your way?" If it's the latter, you're the loser, not me.

...and now, as I said, I have other things to do. Have a nice day!

Are you creating a template or form letter? Then try this. sm

Your message makes me think that you're trying to create some kind of form. If so, try these steps.

View, Toolbars, Forms. You will now have a toolbar that makes creating the form much easier for you. Mouse over each button to see what it does but it sounds to me like you'll use the text form field button the most. Finish creating your template/form and click on the padlock on the toolbar to lock your form. Save it.

Now, you can just hit tab to move between the fields to make filling it in faster. Hope this helps.

But at least with straight you're creating a document, not -
correcting one a machine did. I just get so bored proofreading, that I think correcting VR would put me to sleep.

Also, doesn't editing pay a lot less per line than straight transcription?

India and China will undoubtedly be creating
Just as the blue collar workers in manufacturing can be replaced, in this global setting, so can the entire corporations - I give them 10 years before the enterprising businessmen in China, India (whereever US CEOs have fled to gain access to slave labor) steal the info and create their own companies and compete as they certainly would be happy with a fraction of the American CEOs income.

Great tool for creating shortcuts

I just found this really great site with a tool on it for counting the repeated phrases in documents which we as MTs can use to make shortcuts!

here it is: http://medicaltranscriptionexpandproductive.blogspot.com/

...sigh... and don't bother creating a 2nd email acct. nm
s

re questions
yes i drink green tea, but prefer black tea. No, i've never had any such symptoms from it though and have no idea why it would happen, unless there are other things in that brand of tea that might irritate the colon?

questions

i am very interested in taking courses on mt and would like some help in guiding me in the right direction....can someone help me on that

Questions about VR
I am getting ready to train on VR and I am wondering if this is part of the latest, newest technology in our industry that I have been hearing about. Are just some companies going to use this or is this something that is going to be required in the future from us throughout the industry?

Questions....

If a person takes a job and finds out they aren't happy and then looks for another job, what happens if the recruiter overpromised? Do they find another job? And if they find another job and that one is running out of work all the time, do they start the search again?

Final question....if they do all this, why do so many people on the boards call people who complain about companies good-for-nothing job hoppers who are never happy?

Looking for a new job. What are some questions...sm
I should ask besides pay, benefits, and hours to make sure I don't miss anything and then find out I've been screwed later? Should I get pay in writing to make sure they pay me what they tell me. I never worked for a National, so I am unsure how a lot of things work with them. Thanks.

IC Questions
Hi. I just accepted my first job as an IC and I am nervous! Did I do a stupid thing by going IC instead of employee? They are paying 8.5 for 65-char line including spaces and returns. Does this sound reasonable? How do I pay my taxes? What about social sec? HELP!

Any questions to MQ

you can be an employee and ask, what will be my new

pay under the new plan.......NOBODY KNOWS.

you can ask what do you pay to be an Editor of voice recognition....

NOBODY KNOWS

But at the same time they want people to work for them.

Now you are saying there's a new mystery something? This is

hilarious.

No legit company every does business this way.

two questions
I am also single and 50K is what I am thinking as well. I have very minimal bills. My only "dependents" are my 3 kitties and bird. To be honest, I got into medical transcription after my first year in college. I wanted to be a veterinarian. As much as I love animals, I really love what I do and honestly cannot say what else I would want to do.

Ok, I do have some questions...
Is it possible to speak to you via private messages or something? This board is a bit awkward to use and I have a few questions for you.

Thank you both... I have a few more questions...

Is this something that will happen on a regular basis? How often do bipolar people get like this? Is this the worst of it? We both watch each other's kids a lot, and my kids absolutely love her. But I'm a little worried now that it might not be safe.

I'm also concerned for her as she just started a new job and is working on her master's degree. I'm afraid that she may fail at both if she doesn't get this under control. Is there anything I can do to help her?

ok, so you have 2 questions?
1. i'd think that is great money.

2. i gross about $1200 weekly in 40 hours as an employee.

More Questions

To those of you who so kindly gave me advice on working from home:

What kind of equipment should I invest in? Do most companies us the internet. One company I talked with still has clients that us Lanier equipment.

#1 I would think would be a wav pedal and headset but what about an LX-219?

What do you use?

Thanks

Your IC Questions
You are responsible for your taxes. I recommend w/each paycheck, you put 20% in a savings account so when you file taxes, you don't have to scrounge up the money to pay IRS - or you could do like others and file taxes quarterly. You will have a 1099 instead of W2/W4. You don't establish yourself...as an MT you are either an employee with insurance benefits, 401K and taxes withheld or not.

Questions about DQS
Good morning, I am about to start with a company that uses DocQScribe and I understand that MQ uses it also. Since there is a specific MQ board here I thought I might get some answers here. I really like Stedman's Spellchecker, and want to know if it is compatible with DQS? Also use ShortHand for Windows, wondering about that. I have used built-in spellcheckers in other platforms, and just don't care for them, they just don't seem to be as good as Stedman's. And in general, your opinions about the DocQscribe platform itself. Thank you.

VR Questions

I have an office going to EMR with voice recognition software. The OM tells me I will still have this account because there is no way the VR will work for their Indian doctor and another doctor that mumbles horribly. Is there anyone that has experienced this? Also, will editing of the VR be needed? The OM mentioned that if it does work, she will need me to edit reports. How much does one make per line for editing VR?

I know I have lots of questions, but this is my largest account and with a disabled hubby and three kids, I'm a panicked breadwinner right now.

Thanks!

More questions
Does he hold out your taxes? Do you have benefts? Do you get paid the same amount no matter how much or how little you transcribe or if you take time off? Have you figured out how much you get paid per cpl or hour? I would figure out how much I am making per cpl or hour and go from there. Be sure to figure in the time you are not working and getting paid. That is a little unusual to be an IC and paid monthly and not on production.

Questions
Are you using an Expander along with the keyboard? (I sometimes mess up by assigning F keys to things that I shouldn't). I've linked an article from Computer Hope that might help. If it were me, I'd just go out and buy a new keyboard. Nothing more frustrating than a semi-functioning keyboard (except perhaps a semi-functioning toilet).

asking questions

I get the feeling that many MTSO do not liked to be asked questions. If I am looking to make a switch I am just looking out for myself. Mind you, I send in the resume and THEY call me. While I may get some that offer 3 insights to the job right off the bat, if I ask if there is a chance to make more of a base pay I either don't hear from them or they think I should look into something else. I have run across 1 company that was very very informative without me asking too much, but they didn't have direct deposit, and they were on the other side of the country from where I am and was just not too keen on the thought of a check by mail. I guess I'm just kind of feeling not to happy right now with all of this. Thanks for listening.

Questions

You have several hundred addresses typed out, but are they in a table format or free style? If table, then keep the doc open, then go to Tools, Envelopes and Labels, select the label you are going to use under options (refer to the Avery label sheet for label number). Then you click New Document. Go to the doc where you have the addresses, select all and copy and paste. You may have to copy and paste by table row, to make it work correctly.

If you are trying to integrate them into a Word Mail Merge doc/letter, I can explain but Word help does a much better job. Look in Help, Mail Merge, data source, show data source, or something like that.

two more questions....

What companies do you use and what were the up-front costs? I believe the monthly fee is around 50 dollars from what I've seen. Thanks in advance.

I did ask those questions!!!!!!!!!!!
I did ask those friggin questions!!! My company did what a LOT of companies do--they tell you one thing in the interview and then when you actually work the job, they change it! There is no reason under the sun that I shouldn't be able to work a split shift. One of the women who has been there 30+ years said it's possible.

I know what I was told in the interview and it was that women with small kids are their "ideal candidates". Certainly they don't think an ideal situation would be to have toddlers running around while you are trying to type.

Give me a break.

FTP questions...

I work for a small doctor�s office and the time has come for us to have outside transcriptionists working as independent contractors. How do I set this up for them to send me their completed work via FTP? Help!! The only thing I understand about the FTP is you can transfer files from computer to computer securely � the rest I am totally lost about. How do I set it up? How/where do I log on to get the work? How/where do they deliver the work?

While I am asking questions
the voice file is coming from a service out of Oregon who posted a job position on MTStars. She did not give her company name, but I found it on the Internet. It is BMT Office, or Bassel Medical Transcription. Has anyone heard of it?

Two Questions

Does anyone sit on an exercise ball while working? I am wondering if it would be too difficult to balance because of the foot movement and the typing.

Also, about running enrichment (from previous posts) ... can anything similar be done in MedRite? That would be awesome if I could search out the common phrases used!

Thanks for any input!

If I can help with any questions...sm
feel fee to email me!

Why can't you ask questions for
This board is a resource for information, just as any other internet sites are resources for information.