Re: Going rate for tape tx/delivery
Posted By: Me on 2007-03-01
In Reply to: Advice needed. - SDS
The only advice I can offer, since I have never been in business for myself, is to state where you live. Rates can vary by region.
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Sounds like tape delivery sm
Do you still do tapes? I would like to do this, so there is hope. I am going to retire and want to offer such service to those docs who have not gone digital. Am I going backwards? Yes, but I would like the flexibility of a 48-hour turnaround and going back to what I used to do. I like it better, as I was totally in charge of my own destiny. Don't laugh, I loved it!!! As long as it's close by. I live in New England. I loved the one-on-one contact with the client, etc., and I was appreciated! Let me know if anyone is still doing this horse and buggy type work.
The delivery isn't over until placenta
is delivered, and if not intact then they have to do a D&C.
First ever delivery note
When doc says cord blood was collected, I put "quart of blood was collected".
It was not the subject matter, it was the delivery.
OPEN YOUR MIND is rude. I used to think like you did until I saw firsthand what all the closed businesses did to our town. It's not my way or the highway. I do see your point. It's a no-win situation. Walmart provides low paying jobs with lousy benefits where those workers used to have decent jobs with benefits elsewhere.
Do you charge for pickup/delivery? sm
Can I charge? If I do pickup/delivery, do you give them a 48-hour turnaround time or longer? Wanted to pick up 2 days a week, Tuesday and Thursday. Any suggestions would be helpful. Also need suggestions on what type of carrying case to put tapes to be HIPAA compliant. Any answers would be appreciated.
Anything more than a week for a norm delivery is too much, sm
C-section - I would say 2 weeks max. Anything more than this is "milking it."
YES, if the pregnancy or delivery was complicated...nm
nm
Me, too!! Also can't stand delivery notes. Bleah! nm
x
No DSL, no cable, not even mail delivery to house.
I live in an isolated pocket half a mile from county line where cable service ends. Even postal service is in town 3 miles away in the other county so no delivery to the house, though we can have a mailbox just across the line. Most cell phones don't work in this mountainous area. My son was able to use his new cell phone with bells and whistles if he sat outside on the deck. His service provided by Verizon.
Phone lines here are ancient. Dialup maxed at 26.6, and that was rare, usually 19.2. When I called the phone company a few years ago and asked about the future of DSL here, the guy actually laughed before saying, "It'll be while, and there will probably be new and better technology before then." Only choice is satellite. So far, it's been very good. I've had one or two brief periods of outage on heavily overcast rainy or snowy days, but overall pleased. I do keep a cheap dialup plan for those times as a backup.
Leftover delivery pizza from last night, heated in sm
microwave. Sausage, mushroom, fresh tomatoes. Such a good place I found locally. Can't resist them.
Day Labor/ Temp Agencies/pizza delivery
You only asked for meal advice.. I just wanted to tell you about these places in case you didn't know. Every city usually has several "day labor" companies. Your dh would have to arrive around 5-6 am, they would take him to a site all day. They usually pay the same day. He would need is license and ss card.
Most temp agencies have jobs immediately available too.
Another idea is to deliver pizza at night. He could still do real estate during the day. He would get cash right away. They pay for gas mileage, at least minimum wage, he would get tips, and PIZZA! :-)
Charge him an hourly rate. The current rate is
between $15-21/hr. according to your location. If he had to use an independent secretarial service, he would be charged much more. You can look in the Yellow Pages in your area under Secretarial Service and ask them what they charge, then charge accordingly knowing you can back it up.
Tape - sm
I just saw some down the street from me, it was yellow with black letters saying "CAUTION".
There is a tape
and available at most Home Depot or Lowe's stores. Bright yellow with black lettering. Used it on our home when we had a major disaster so no one would fall in major holes in our yard. Worked well.
tape
A few years ago I was shopping for Halloween goods and in a store like I-Party they have that tape for Halloween - try one of those stores. I bought some years ago for a mummy and coffin for front yard. Just an idea.
that is why I tape them
I'll watch them while I iron, etc. Then I don't feel so guilty for "just watching TV". Plus you can zip through the commercials.
The one I used did not use tape
Sorry, I don't remember make or model, it was a while ago. But I would dial into the hospital's dictation system. That was where the voice files were stored. I had to have a dedicated phone line with unlimited long distance for the C-phone.
I too used to tape the tape together (sm)
You might lose a bit of dictation where you are taping it together, but I was usually able to salvage most of it. Good luck! :)
Anyone know how to erase tape with...
a Lanier transcriber? Bought it on ebay and do not see an erase function.
TIA,
Dawn!
Tape erase
A lot of people also have disabled the erasing mechanism so that tapes cannot accidentally be erased and have to manually erase them. I have always done that to prevent it after my first accidental erasure. Other than allowing the tape to play forward without background noise, to tape over what is there, no answers here and have been using tapes for 15+ years. A manual eraser cost is cheap.
Patti
Tape eraser
You might wish to invest in a tape eraser; the one I have is from a company by the name of Geneva. The device consists of some strontium-ferrite magnets in a housing; just pass the tape through the housing and it is erased. The part number and description are as follows:
Audio cassette / mini-data cartridge eraser QM-230
Phone: 1-800-328-6795
Hope this helps.
Do you have a tape transcriber, or does it have to be
voice files? I have some practice dictation minicassette tapes here that I'd be willing to send you. As for the voice files, you could try Google searching. I typed in "medical transcription" practice sound files download but don't really have time to search through the results. I don't even know if there's anything out there.
tape her or get it in an e-mail or IM, something
x
try barricade tape
or cordoning tape, but I didnt find much on that
To MTs who transcribe via tape- SM
I found great, low-cost software that allows you to convert tapes to digital files (MP3, WAV, WMA, etc.). Check out www.dak.com ! Your PC needs a sound card and a line-in connection (usually next to your line out to plug in your headset or speakers), as well as a tape player and an actual line that plugs from your PC line-in to your tape player. Think they call that line a male-to-male or male-to-female or something like that (got my line from www.martelelectronics.com). Use Dak to convert your music cassettes, too. Hope this helps!
P.S., I'm an MT, not from DAK
The end of the tape becomes detached
from the spool and is no longer winding outside the case/housing. It is all wound on one spool. Our office manager has been able to repair some by taking the tape apart and reattaching to the spool, so we can get some of the info off of it, but by handling the tape, etc. it distorts it to where we can't hear some of what was dictated and we lose some notes. Thanks! I will suggest one of those brands.
I never got rid of my tape-player or my -sm
typewriter. You just never know what sort of disaster could come up in the future, where those things would be a real life-saver. And amazingly, PCs never increased my daily work output. It actually DECREASED a bit once we went to PCs.
One tape about 2 hours.
or make templates.
Broken tape
HELP! I have had a microcassette tape break. Any ideas on how to fix it (if possible!)? 
Thanks!
fixing tape
I had that happen quite a few times - take a very small piece of scotch tape and splice the pieces together- cut the scotch tape as narrow as the cassette tape is so that it will line up on the rollers. You will lose the dictation at that spot - probably a sentence or so - but it's better than nothing. On mine, I had to pry open the cassette case because the ends were inside. If you end up having to do that, pry it open carefully. Hope this helps.
Scotch tape
Try putting a little scotch tape over the letters. You can rewrite them with a fine sharpie.
I have 2 tape accounts.
I love it! It is so cut and dry. I throw the tape in and start typing. You may save time so people think by going digital, but it takes time to upload and download voice files. I just find that throwing the tape and typing is just simple! Of course, I'm a simple person.
In answer to your question, yes I think you may have something there as the tape doctors do not want to go digital because they like doing things simply. They don't want a lot of hassle, and yes, I do believe there are physicians that still like the old method. Some do not think that digital is very user friendly.
The other problem with digital is there needs to be someone in the office doing the uploading, which mean the physician is paying them to do that. With the tape, the doctor puts it in a folder with his patient list at the end of the day, and then leaves it for me. The only thing required by the office staff is the copying and mailing when I bring the work back usually anywhere from 3-4 days later. They do not require 24-hour turnaround, which is great. But, if they do need a note, which happens very rarely, I can simply fax it over to the office.
I am quite content with my tape accounts and the other thing I like is the networking. I can network with the office staff and feel like a movie star since they don't see me every day. They usually stop what they are doing for a friendly quick chat, which is very nice. I have business cards that I carry just in case someone mentions to me that so and so is looking for a transcriptionist.
Broken tape. sm.
I just broke my dictation tape while rewinding it. Should I try to open it and put it back on the wheel. Any ideas. I has three days of dication on it. Thanks.
if you need to cut it, you can tape it back together.
nm
mangled tape
I was able to take the cassette apart to get the tape inside unmangled, but now I'm trying to figure out how to roll it back up as tight as I can so it doesn't happen again, and I don't know how to do that. I have a few feet of tape hanging out and I can't roll it tight by hand unless I want to spend days on it, and it still may night be tight enough around the spool. The tape is intact so I don't think I need any splicing. I'm think right now this is just ridiculous that I'm having to do this and yes, the doctor is technotarded. He kept erasing his dictation accidentally on the digital recorder so went back to using cassette tapes.
tape broke
Did you hear me scream? I guess I'll cut and tape and try it from there.
mangled tape
A company I found on the web called audio-restoration.com repaired a tape for me. The cost was $25.00. The doctor's office paid for it because it beat having to redictate 1-1/2 hours of dictation. It took about five days to get the tape back.
Do you have a tape in the machine?--sm
If there is no tape with dictation, there would be nothing for the machine to indicate. My Lanier has a counter but is not this model. This site has info on the 210--http://www.transcribesolutions.com/lavwmicama2.html
Hope this helps.
okay, york hospital said they had delivery records, but no prenatal records. sm
they had no idea who she practiced with or anything like that and of course SIL doesn't know any name other than Freundel. i am also a midwife besides being an MT and in order for me to take her given her bicornuate uterus, i have to have her records. i guess delivery records is better than nothing, LOL, but i have to have her prenatal records. i wonder if there is a clinic there or something that med students rotate through. i couldn't even find ms. freundel on AMA, but she may not be through with her training yet either and that is probably why.
erase tape update
See below, don't want to rewrite the entire thing but it did all work out. Basically I had put the envelope and tape from one day in a different spot due to being in a hurry and the other one the doc did not hand in as he was going on vacation. So when both were gone, I thought I had erased them and handed them back in. When I told the doc that I thought I had erased one and he grinned at me and gave me the tape, he told me to include some extra charge for the time I spent looking for the tape -- so it did all work out. God just threw me a curve to tell me to slow down. I averaged 2500 to 3000 lines per day last week and that was with one doctor on vacation. So just hurried, hurried, hurried. Thank you to all of you for your support, it really helped me in a tme of need. Patti
Patti
Also many offer $30 for a 60 minute tape -sm
so if 600 lines you get a whole .05 a line, WOW!! I have only seen 1 I was remotely interested in doing so far, but have not bid on any as yet, doubt I ever will.
All the different colors of correct-tape!
Sure does bring back memories. I remember sitting at my Selectric in my basement when I was a newbie back in 1975 crying my eyes out because I had just finished a 3 page report and the doc wanted me to insert a paragraph at the beginning of the report! There was no "memory" back then and the whole thing had to be retyped just to add one paragraph! I remember them fondly, but am much happier with my computer! Thanks for the walk down memory lane, though!
Oh no! Tape missed part ....
I have Desperate Housewives and Grey's preset to tape every week. Wasn't thinking with the Super Bowl that Grey's would start late. The tape cut off right after Dr. Burke sent everyone out of OR except for 2 other people. He had just told the EMT that her hand was keeping the man from bleeding out and the bomb squad was coming. Then <poof> that was it! What happened next? Anyone, please? Thanks.
I don't think anyone is saying give up a tape account but
I think what started this whole thing is a person asking about how to go about getting a new account, picking up tapes, how much to charge for paper or whatever. In that case, I think OP should research the options out there and start with the approach to go digital first, then accept a tape account only if you have to. Of course you don't give up an account. No way. Never. Ever.
If you mean one side of a mini tape
For my private mds, each side of a tape yields approximately 500 lines, takes me no more than 2 hours to do a side, sometimes 1-1/2 hours if I'm a speed demon and take no breaks!! 
huh? even if you speed up tape you'll
albeit, if the OP does speed up tape, she'll make those lines quicker!
I'd go for at least $60 a tape; if 600 lines then .10 a line - sm
but I would not go any lower than that. If you can get a sample and do a count that would be the best way of course to figure out a fair rate so you don't get the short end of the stick. Obviously try to use an Expander to its best ability so you can maybe get your time down to 4 hours, which would be a reasonable time to do 60 minutes of work. Plus printing and delivery, yeah, no lower than $60. Think I'd go for at least $72 since you are doing printing and delivery.
Broken tape memories
One of my docs about 15 years ago broke a tape and he spent more time putting the tape back together than it would have been if he had redictated. Another time, the same doc walked in my office and handed me the tape while I was running a finished tape through the little erase box and I immediately took it out of his hand and erased it right in front of him. I almost died. He always dictated on half speed to get more on a tape. What would you have done if you did that?
Tape crisis solved-so far
I manually wound the tape up, holding it taught with one hand while winding with the other. It only took an hour. So far, so good. Thanks for the responses. If it ends up getting mangled again, you will all hear me scream wherever you are:)
I suspect it's another newbie doing a test tape to get a job
"D-dimer"
"Parenchyma"
"Acidosis"
Any first year terminology student wouldn't have to ask about these elementary MT words. It's a cheater trying to pass a test she is in no way qualified to be taking.
so then why did you LIE and say you were doing a practice tape of your friends??? if it truely was a
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