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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Right-it has nothing to do with keeping up with technology... sm

Posted By: CheriL on 2009-04-11
In Reply to: companies want you to have Word 2003 - old mt

if it means compatibility with a company platform.


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Yep, it is new technology. Anywhere you can
get cell phone signal, you can get service. I am sure it will get better.

What a world to live in these days. I didnt want to spend the whole summer indoors, so I got it.

It is just combersome (however you spell that word) to lug around foot pedal, headphones, etc. lol

Not to mention the books if you need one, but it gets me out for a couple of hours a day with the kids.
ASP technology
i would recommend looking into an ASP if you are not great with computers. They make things pretty easy and do all the "tech" work for you. We use Medikin, I would say check it out ... and GOOD LUCK! :)
Technology
I used to fear for our profession...rumors of voice recognition technology, then decided to embrace it, not fight it.  Times will always change.  I jumped on the bandwagon, and am speaking reports, not typing them, and am up to almost 500 lines/hour.  We can either spend all our time worrying, or we can use our God-given intelligence to make changes work for us.
No it isn't the same. Technology
seems to have stolen some of the personal touches.
B. S. in Medical Technology

I worked in a hospital laboratory for 33 years and retired in 2001. I found out about a year later that my husband was losing his medical insurance after he retired on disability and so I had to go back to work. I had dabbled with transcription in the pathology department and so I decided to make it my second career and I just love it. I get to work from home and don't have to deal with the office politics and all the bureaucratic red tape that comes with working at a hospital.


Color me happy!!!! 


Ellen S.


I am not laughing at the technology.
At this point, at least to my understanding, the health insurance industry and Joint Commission require detailed documentation,especially the insurance companies who love to quibble on what they'll pay. When the detailed documentation is no longer being required and standard text and check off systems are used, the docs have no way to cover their butts. Let a few of them be sued for malpractice because they have no detailed proof of exact treatment, and we'll see just how wonderful this mobile system works. The insurance companies will be in an uproar over the judgements they are paying out.
BS in Medical Technology
I worked as a medical technologist (lab tech) in a hospital laboratory for 30+ years before retiring in 2001. I was interested in transcription as a second career so I volunteered to cover the pathology secretary's days off just for the experience.......and here I am and love it. The pay is only half what I made in the lab but there is much less stress and I love working at home. Obviously, my many years in the medical field helped tremendously with terminology but there was still a tremendous amount to learn; it's a continuous learning process. 
technology smarter than you think

An advert for *TAKE THIS MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION COURSE AND START A NEW CAREER!* was sifted into my junk email box. 



could mass producers be using technology? (sm)
A friend once told me (a man, of course - haha) I should be using VR personally, for my own work at a national company.  I considered it, but did not have the time (or money) to invest; however, I have noticed a couple of posts on here regarding such.  Something about the dragon- dragone, not sure what it is called, but I do think there are individuals using the technology, as employees.  I mean, why not really...

If MTs are using it personally, if it were to catch on, couldn't that cut out the work force significantly?  What if companies supplied us with it, wow, we would just be editing all day long, how hard could that be?  Lines would be gobbled up. 

Not that I am accusing this person of doing that, but if she is, it would definitely explain how there are people making huge bucks in the MT world. 

Perhaps that is what it will come down to...weeding out about 1/2 of us  ??
50, A.S. in Medical Records Technology.
Of course now that course would be called HIM.  Transcription was included.  My first job was in a physician's office and consisted of mostly transcription.  High school courses were heavy in typing. I do not know that I could contribute to a rebuttle.  The company that I just left had mostly older employees.  This company just closed.  Now I am an IC with about the same pay.  I do not believe that there are as many young people entering the profession.  Part of that is because it is hard work, and no longer pays well in proportion to other jobs they can train for.  Also, who wants to spend money and time training for a job that may be outsourced at any time?  The only young people I know going into this profession are doing it because they want to work at home.  This once was a good profession to enter, but now things really seem to be going sour. 
It's called technology and progress.
Things change. It's been happening since the beginning of time.
Does anyone suppose that with all the advances in technology that
there might be some more companies willing to take those MT's who only have satellite in the future?  There are so few now.  Really limits a person's options.  Wadyathink? MTSO's - any response??
A.S. in Medical Record Technology
This included a course in Medical Transcription.  Went to work in a physician's office.  My job title was medical records, but the main component of the job was transcription.  This led to later full-time transcription job. 
If you doubt progressive technology, remember
We've gone from typing in WP51 from cassette tapes, looking up words in a library of books rather than on Google, printing our own work and delivering it by courier to transcribing dictation directly into EMRs via internet-based software that was recorded on palm pilots. The extent of technology that we've seen in such a short time to me is amazing and scary at the same time. I also would like to think that there will be a long-term demand for editors (I am one), but common sense tells me to start thinking about a different avenue.




Anyone have exp with Vscript platform by MT Medcore Technology?
I just left EMDAT Inscribe and don't want a repeat of a horrible platform.  Thanks for ANY information!
Technology has made it so much easier for dishonest people to
take advantage of others. On the internet you can be Miss America, you can be a millionaire, you can be a movie star, you can be anything you want to tell people you are and these services are a breeding ground for people like this.

No thanks.

I'll size people up in person, at face value like anyone should who has nothing to hide.

Normal people don't have to resort to hiding themselves behind a monitor.
It's better sound for one thing. C-phones are just old dinosaur technology.
x
We have evolve with the technology. MT will simply become ME (medical editors).

What doctor's don't know is that speech recognition still requires A LOT of editing from a Transcriptionist in order for their report to be chart-ready.  If we let reports go as they are straight out of the SR software...  it just isn't going to happen.


I do strictly SR editing and there is a ton of editing that has to be done to each and every report.  There will still be plenty of work, it just depends on how adaptable we can become.  Of course, we will have to fight for a decent wage because the natural instinct of management is to want to pay us less, because in their minds we aren't working as hard if we don't have to type every single character in a report.  Nevermind the knowledge base we have... but that's a discussion for the future. 


I remember doing secretarial work on those old typewriters. I can't imagine MT w/o technology.

Every year technology makes my job easier.  Google, internet dictation, spell checks, expanders.  I can't remember the last time I opened a reference book.  Direct deposit.  Banking on line.  I can't remember the last time I was actually inside a bank.  Love the technology for MTs and payment process. 


I do remember standing in line to get check cashed on Friday at lunch when I was a secretary in medical office. Ughh.  I do remember having to get all dressed up to sit in an office w/o windows, too hot in the winter and too cold in the summer, to type and file.  Ughhh.  I remember lines of traffic going into town to get to work and then trying to find a place to park close to the building.  Ughh.


Lovin the new things/gadgets to make my life easier and don't look back with any regrets for the "good old days"


Just one thing though. I wish we were paid according to 2005 cost of living standards.    What's up with that?


 


Babies looking for attention.They have the technology of the Woodroow Wilson administration.
They'll get some kind of concession and go back and try to think of another way to get money out of us. Happens all the time.
common sense dictates you read the writing on the wall. technology has made you obsolete.
and the government has seen to it that american workers are no longer necessary and allows business to outsource many middle income jobs. 
A tip for keeping up..lol
I have MSN and it has "news" stories on there and I can customize it to how I like it. I believe other ISPs have it as well. I typically do not watch news because I have depressive disorder and there is never GOOD news (or at least very rarely) so better to just do it this way. LOL.

Log keeping

Sorry for the delay in responding, when I get typing I "get in the zone."  LOL!  Here is my code for keeping a log of my job IDs.  It may be different depending on which platform you are typing on.  I type on Enterprise (Webmedx). 


{@KEY Alt+Z}{@PAUSE 2}{@KEY Alt+J}{@KEY Ctrl+C}{@KEY Alt+Z}{@PAUSE 2}{@KEY LWin}{@PAUSE 2}{@KEY N}{@PAUSE 2}{@KEY Alt+F}{@PAUSE 2}{@KEY O}{@PAUSE 2}{@KEY Tab}{@KEY Tab}{@KEY Tab}{@KEY Tab}{@KEY Tab}{@KEY Tab}{@KEY Tab}{@KEY Tab}{@KEY Enter}{@KEY Alt+N}joblog.txt{@KEY Alt+O}{@KEY Ctrl+End}{@KEY Enter}{@PAUSE 2}{@KEY Ctrl+V}{@KEY Ctrl+S}{@KEY Alt+F}{@KEY X}


SH will do very complex tasks, you just have to tell it exactly what to do!  There are some downloads available on their wesite also.  I did not think any of them helped me, but you never know!  Hope this helped. 


keeping mail
There is an option in the Imail to have all mail forwarded, all you have to do is put in your personal email address and all Imail is automatically forwarded to you, easy as pie!!!
No pity from me, you are keeping yourself down.
So this company is hiring when there is no work, so they are misrepresenting themselves.  You know that, so get out. How is whining on this board dealing with the situation?  Any new hires will find it out soon enough and hopefully have the sense to leave. All the "discussing" in the world isnt going to pay your bills.  And besides, no one said you couldn't discuss, just go do it on a blog where someone is going to care.  We are getting sick of whiners who refuse to help themselves by taking action. 
Keeping any child
I disagree. I would much rather home school a child than send them into what passes for education today. I support the mothers who home school!
Keeping faith
When I am facing adversity (everyday), I often think about all of the times in the past that I felt like giving up for one reason or another. No matter how bad the situation was...SOMETHING worked out. When I say worked out, I don't necessarily mean it worked out the way I wanted it to.

Example: I was in a situation where I was behind on my car payments and tried every avenue available to try to come up with the money. I prayed some serious prayers hoping for a miracle. Well, my car was repossessed. I now had terrible credit and didn't know what I was going to do. At this time, I was working outside of the home and had a 6 year old who had to be taken to and picked up from school. My car was repossed on a Wednesday and on Friday I found a guy in the newspaper classifieds who was selling an 8 year old toyota for $3000. I did not have this kind of money. I called him and asked if he would consider taking payments on the car and I explained my situation to him. He told me he did not know me and could not take payments. I went to bed that night in tears. At about 11pm that night my phone rang and it was the guy asking for my address. He had had a change of heart and wanted to bring me the car. Not only did he reduce the price of the car, but after I had made 3 payments on the car he called me and told me he wanted to come by and do a bill of sale so I could have the car (no more payments).

Another.. I also had lots of trouble with my young son in school. He has been suspended 3 times for excessive talking, getting out of his seat and being disrespectful. He is now in the third grade. I took him to the doctor one day and saw four disabled kids in the waiting room. Two of them were much older than my son, wearing diapers and in special wheelchairs. It may sound foolish, but, I was thankful that my son is healthy and able to run around to get into trouble. Some of us think we are going through a lot, but we really aren't when you compare your situation to someone else's. Life isn't easy for most people. Be thankful that things are as well as they are.

I have several other examples, but I'll spare you. My point is...we are still living and breathing and whether we realize it or not, things always "work out". I still have that car which is still very reliable and has gotten me where I needed to go. It's not nearly as nice as the car I lost but I was and am still very thankful to you know who for that situation. Hang in there guys.
And you keeping watching, don't you?
Why anyone would watch that show is beyond me, but to each his own. All 3 of those judges are nutty in their own way. If Simon had a Brookly accent instead of a British accent, no one would find him charming. Paula has always been a little looney - remember when she was married to Emilio Estevez?

All this friction between Simon and Paula is just a publicity stunt.
keeping track
Maybe that is a personal thing if you keep track of who the doc dictates and who he doesn't dictate for.  All I know is that they can take it for granted and you can spend lots of time if you're not careful.  Could it be a doc in Ravenna?
Keeping files

In the process of cleaning my office, I found at least 600 floppy discs with work that I have done over the years - some as long ago as 10 years ago. Would like to "dump" all of these and more, but am not sure how long one needs to keep files especially for accounts they no longer do. Is there a good "rule of thumb"?


Thank you.


Log keeping glitches

Sorry, I forgot to mention that notepad has to be used, not word pad.  Also, note pad has to be the only program on your start menu that starts with the letter N. 


More info on log keeping

I guess I got up too early this morning, my brain is not firing on all cyliders today.  (Been up since 3 a.m.) 


Okay here goes: 


Requirements:



  1. The Notepad program needs to be listed in the Start Menu (it must be the only thing listed in the Start menu that begins with the letter “N”, please rename anything else beginning with “N”).
  2. A file needs to be created from within Notepad named joblog.txt and saved to the desktop – one time only
  3. Save the file at the end of your shift – by a different name –clear out the joblog.txt file to be used for your next shift

 


If you experience trouble with this entry working, you may need to increase the pauses within the entry. 


I'm keeping a watch
on the MT Reference style guide. I think it will be better when it's done than the printed BOS.
Keeping the following post going...

Okay...here goes...



So, currently I work in-house at my local hospital.  (Probably shouldn't mention this cuz it's rude, but just trying to give accurate information)..I make 16.47 an hour, plus benefits.  I love my job and it is supporting me and my husband (who is in college at the time...graduating in JUNE!!!)...So, it's worth it.  However, I have to deal with a LOT of crap from the other MTs in-house.  Lots of bitterness, competitiveness, bi*chiness, etc.  I am dealing with it because I know I am not going to do this forever.  Which brings me to my next point:



Don't stay in this job for a long time!!!  You won't go anywhere with it, if anything you will probably get laid off due to outsourcing.  I, myself, am starting school for medical coding.  I will be done with school ($2000) in June and then get started in my new career.  If have been a medical Transcriptionist for 6 years and have done everything from psychiatric to internal medicine to sleep studies as an IC (and it's not worth being and IC in my opinion because of all the taxes you have to pay...big bucks) and my best job yet has been working in-house at my current job.  However, like I said, MTing is not going to get you anywhere fast.  If you want a job that takes you to the next level, go into coding.  There are a lot more career opportunities out there and you can eventually work from home being a coder as well. 



If I had to do it over I would have gone straight into coding (except for the fact that I got a lot of medical experience working as an MT).  Good luck to all of you who decide to stick with MTing, but I don't think it will reward you in the future.  I believe it is a dying profession and we all need to move on while the opportunity is here. 



I pray for all of us to be able to support ourselves and our family!  I know it's tough out there and we all are struggling to make end's meat.  Just keep on keepin on and we'll all make it through some how. 


Keeping work in US
Because I always believed Americans respected law and they paid on time. I never visited this site MTStars even, but when I did because of all the circumstances that this lady led me into, I found out it happens regularly to other US MTs too and that Americans are no different.
Keeping reports...

There was a thread this week about someone saying they kept reports as a sample of their ability.  Everyone claimed this was against the HIPPA rules. 


Well here we have an ad, and I hope I don't get in trouble, for posting this, but see below:


Let me know if you have experience in the field of neurosurgery and if you can, please provide work samples. If I get the information and qualifications quickly, we may have a chance to win this contract, and work for you.

Thanks!

Now, to me that sounds like you would need to send sample reports.  Am I wrong here?  I guess this proves that it is okay to save reports as long as the demographic information is deleted and it becomes basically a "sample report." 


Just my 2 cents... 


It was a matter of keeping the accounts
Didnt they say they had to because the work was out of TAT? 
I am keeping a list of all the rotten
dictators I have typed over the last 10 years or more.  Not the ones who try but have problems, but mostly the non-ESLs who are just sloppy and inconsiderate pigs.  When I retire, I am calling each of them and telling them exactly what I think of them and how it really reflects on what kind of inconsiderate person they are.  I can't wait for 2 months to pass!!!!!!!!!!!!!
td = 10/13/2005. in IT I just keeping adding them as td.
dd
More important to me is keeping my financial

info within the US.  HIPAA allows many uses of unidentiable medical records to be distributed in many ways even within the US, not to mention overseas.  There is no law that keeps my financial information confidential and within the boundaries of the US.  Very little truly identifible information to connect medicall record A with a particular person other than by name is sent anywhere, even to MTSOs within the US. 


Who wants my medical information?  The College of Surgeons to help them identify ethnicities and trends in cancers, the AARP to help target demographic groups for products they sponsor and to "represent" when they pay their professional lobbying group in DC, the auto industry to decide my premiums, and on and on.


I got a Walmart credit card, was 7 days late in sending in my $10 minimum payment and got a call from India for collections.  ????  Mailed in the account balance and closed the account.  Then called all my credit companies to find out where their call centers were located.  I now have only financial business with companies who keep my records in the US.  That is my choice.  There ARE 2 cases of people who sold US financial records being proscecuted by the Indian government and a total of 5 people are in jail for this.


To the OP, share with us your thoughts.


Michael:  You've been missing a lot of work.  Peter:  I wouldn't really say I've been missing it.


are you not interested in keeping up to date
If not, then the Stedman's Work At Home is not for you. If on the other hand, you are interested in staying abreast of new technology and updates to words, then it is worth the money. For example, you may not be aware than LLW updated it's Stedman Spellcheck and the words in it are spelled more accurately than the words in the word books published before mid 2004. You may find errors in Stedman books that you will not find in the Work At Home package. You also get to ask about words you cannot document. I have used this feature and gotten an answer within an hour.

Very useful resource for the low price.
Keeping good thoughts for u nm
.
It sounds like your frustration is keeping you with
Companies do not seek out single people to put on the worst accounts, nor 2-income families for their best accounts.

We all have good and bad dictators.

Sounds like you need a good break. Hope you can arrange that soon.

Getting CMT may be least of it, keeping up with credits and renewel
zzzz
Keeping with the movie theme........

share with me the good movies you have seen in the past year (I like to get PayPerView and have picked some STRANGE stuff lately!!!)


Thanks!!!!


I think keeping animals caged
or "boxed in" and this includes, birds, snakes, turtles, and yes, keeping cats inside a house for their entire life cheats them of being able to live in their natural environment and doing what comes naturally to their species. Their exercise is greatly reduced and so is their instinctive behavior to feed, hunt or whatever it is they do. How would you like to live inside a box for your entire life? Just my opinion, you are entitled to yours.
I have been on since 3 a.m. without a problem, so perhaps maybe the ISP is having problems keeping t
more help, but I truly have not had a problem.  Hey, try this.....take down your modem and router for 30 seconds and restart and see if that fixes the connection.  Who knows what happens with the "gremlins" but sometimes it just works better when we start fresh. 
Hey, cool trick for log keeping. Can you tell us how you do it? :) nm
s
Keeping up cert costs too
I was a CMT for 20 years before I finally let it go.  Only one company I worked for in all that time paid extra for the CMT; then they were bought by Medquist who didn't care.  If you ever change companies - voluntarily or otherwise - the CMT may no longer bring you extra cash.  Remember, too, that you'll have to pay to keep up the cert.  I went to the conventions every year.  They ran me at least $1000 then with registration, airfare, hotel, food, ground transportion, etc.  Worked in-house then, and my employers didn't reimburse.  I was *lucky* I could get my vacation then.  It would probably be more now; everything else is.  If you don't have PTO where you work, then it will cost you what you would have made for those days as well.  Perhaps you're lucky and have a strong local chapter that will provide you CEs for much less cost and aggravation.  If you use the articles in the Journal, it will still cost.  Plus, it's not just any credit-worthy activity, it's one from column A, two from column B, etc.  It makes it much harder to get what you need (which may or may not have anything to do with what you REALLY need to improve your skills).  I didn't regret it while I was doing it, but I wouldn't do it again unless forced.  I hoped for 20 years that it would mean more than *personal satisfaction*, but it never did.
Have you ever thought about keeping track... SM

of the reports you send to QA and then going back later and looking them over?  I'm sorry, but when there are 300 jobs in the QA queue, we cannot possibly send feedback on each and every report.  Most of us are on production just like you or have production quotas we have to meet just like you.  At some point the MT must take responsibility for her work and do her own research.  It isn't enough that we get sent reports with 20 or more blanks because a lazy MT didn't feel like do the research, but now we have to make sure we email that same lazy MT and give her the answers that she should have been able to find in the first place?


In my opinion, once an MT leaves 20 blanks or more in report, the QA person is basically transcribing that report.  The MT should get docked those lines.  I have seen reports with 80 blanks in them --- 80 BLANKS!  Tell me that MT isn't just being lazy!


QA is abused by a lot of MTs.  They use us to finish their work and give them free lines.  They use us to do their research.  They are used to be handed free answers on these online word boards -- word boards, I might add, that are usually manned by QA people lending a helping hand.  I used to frequent the word boards and offer answers, not anymore.  Just try to explain to someone how to find the answer to the question instead of just handing it to them on the word board and you are met with hostility.


I've given up.  This us versus them mentality is perpetuated by the MTs not by QA and I'm so tired of hearing it.  If you want a better relationship with QA, get better at your job.


I wanted to, but I can't really justify keeping the kids out
until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. and have to drive on the Interstate to get home.  DH didn't like the sound of it either, not that I'd ever let anyone tell me what to do.  I'm just going to put the kids to bed tonight and go get the book tomorrow, then read it all in one sitting.  We're not really into face painting or wand making.  Besides, my friends said it was a mobhouse when they went and not worth it just to get the book a few hours earlier than other people.