Spiral is probably the word you are looking for. nm

• images - Shawna
  • Could it be 'sacral high-resolution' ? - nm - Flibertygibbit
    • Spiral is probably the word you are looking for. nm - Rad
    • It was a chest CT, so not sacral. (nm) - Me
  • Need whole sentence. - Me
    • more info - shawna
      • Check this out. - Me

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I apologize for this being long but I have reached the point where I am ready to be finished with medical transcription and this is my catharsis..  I started my journey in this field in the early 1980s, being self taught and working on an IBM typewriter with correction tape.  At the time we thought that was the greatest thing we could ever come across.  I actually made good money transcribing on the typewriter  with my neat little Dictaphone that played cassette tapes ( I even transcribed from the old belts).  Then we moved on to computers, I think it was with WP51 and an "expansion" program, wow, how great was that.  Then someone that was a little more computer savvy decided to improve the system and then the downward trend started.  Put in the demographics so they feed, be they right or wrong, the Transcriptionist will fix them.  Then along comes the internet connections and we no longer need the cassettes, the people who have never transcribed decided that was a good deal, overall it is but the quality a lot of times is much worse than the cassettes.   While all these wonderful changes are taking place, the MT is still being compensated at a rate pretty similar to what they always have because they can now produce more, thus making more.  Then comes the larger companies, who have to have management, middle management, lower management, supervisors, team leaders, trainers, sales managers, sales people, QA managers, QA editors, QA mentors, computer tech supervisors, computer techs,  very few who actually work a weekend,  all the people in between the MT and the upper management, while the MT continues to generate the income, still making pretty much the same.   The MT has to be familiar with all specialties, all report types, the AAMT BOS, Vera Pyle, a continual need to be re-educating ourselves, yet no compensation comes for that.  Oh, yes, some companies will pay extra for a CMT, whether you have any real knowledge or not, hire a CMT with 2 years experience or hire a seasoned transcriptionist with 30+ years,  who is not a CMT and pay them the same.   Then the benefits start to trickle in, which are supposed to be enticing, QA incentive, production incentive, ESL incentive, weekend and shift differential, of course, they are all tied together, if you achieve a good QA score, you have to have the production or you do not get the QA, if you work the weekend or evening, you have to produce a minimum amount of lines to qualify for the incentive, in short, probably at least 50% of the time, there is no incentive earned.  But do not make any errors or your pay will be docked by some companies out there.   Then comes the lowering of the wages, change from gross line to character line, but don't count spaces, header or footers, remember now, the MT has to do the demographics but we will not pay them for doing that, it is part of their job.    Okay, through in some insurance for which the transcriptionist pays the equivalent of 2-3 days pay every 2 weeks for the privilege of having.  Have I missed the part where the wages increased?  I have over 30 years experience in transcription, I have been a QA editor, an assistant office manager, a trainer, and the majority of the time an MT, which I have always loved, yet when applying for a new position after my last employer of 15+ years, where I was still paid by the gross line and did no demographics,  yet paid me very well,  went under due to the big company buying them out, I am offered 8 cpl and the company offering it makes it sound like they are doing me a favor by hiring me at 8, when the newbies only get 7, wow, what kind of incentive is that.  I have always had a very high QA 99-100 and always produce 275-300 lph but I am only worth 8 cpl.  I am sorry if this sounds sarcastic, it is probably what about 90% of the people reading this board feel, I just decided to finally put it in writing so I would feel better and yes it does help to express my anger, disappointment, sadness about the way the MT has gone downhill, yet generating enough income to provide  a really nice salary for anyone in the company who is not an MT, the MT generates the income, yet is the lowest paid.  The MT does the work but they hire computer techs to set up the program, all the indians (not the kind from India)  before you get to the chief to decide what the MT should be paid and yes, all the of them constantly wanting the MT to produce more and work harder, 7 days a week, very few holidays, while very few of the higher ups have to work a holiday.  My team leader sent out an e-mail that she expected us to keep the account current and she would be checking in periodically over the holiday weekend to see how things were going.  I am really saddened that the MT is so often expected to do everything required yet have very low compensation.  I have decided when the company closes its doors, and I do have to move on, it probably is time for me to go elsewhere for a career. I am too old to go back to college but maybe will figure out something were I can make my nominal wage that I now make as an MT.  Again, I apologize for this being so long, if it does not get deleted and if you make it this far, I applaud you for reading it all. 

I applaud YOU for writing this letter, and believe me you are not alone in your thoughts.  Not only do we have to know the proper terminology and "catch" the many mistakes the docs make. we are often referred to as secretaries. so that we know our place.

I too am disgusted and discouraged with the way this profession has turned.  Just another example of what happens when people get greedy.  

Good luck to you.

your read my post that said we are all just people no matter what color we are?

I have a friend who sent me a document with .docx extension, presumably Word 2007. I can open it in Word 2003; however, all I see are musical notes and highlighting, no text (this is a document with words and highlighting only, no pictures, music notes, etc.). I tried to open this with Notepad and only see the usual gibberish.

I know I opened another 2007 Word doc before and I remember seeing the converter load at that time but that was probably a year ago. Is there something that has changed that I'm not aware of?

Darn Microsoft.

I am interested to know if anyone is running two platforms with a different version of Word on one computer.

I am running eScription's ES with Word 2003 and want to run ExText but their version of Word is 2000.  Has anyone done this or doing it now.  If so, have you run into any problems. 

I can't seem to get a straightforward answer from the Techs at either company.    I can't just load ExText and jeopardize it interfering with eScription. 

I am interested to hear any and all comments.  Thank you so much in advance for any help!

Has anyone upgraded from W2000 to W2003? If so, did all your autocorrect entries and normals transfer easily? I would like to upgrade but don't want 2 lose my shortcuts and expanders! TIA

If so, try this....Go to microsoft.com and search for Word 2000 Supplemental Macros.  When you get the article, it will tell you to download the small application.  You will open the application in Word, and it will give you instructions on backing up the macros you already have.  You will do this on the computer you want to move macros from.  Once you have made a backup copy, email it to yourself.  Go to the computer you want to put the macros on.  You will need to download the Word Supplemental 200 Macro application on this computer also.  Save the email you sent yourself on your desktop, and open the application in Word again just as before.  You will select restore and pick the file on your desktop to restore to.  The macro will do all of the work and transfer all of the macros into your new computer. 

Now, if this is not want you wanted....... never mind.....

I had also said, before the thread got moved and deleted that we are all people and that color shouldn't make a difference.  What it all comes down to is Dog Chapman is a prejudiced person and he got caught.  What his son did was wrong, but it still doesn't make Dog Chapman right. 

Regarding AAMT, I thought what one poster said about Dog getting paid 6 cents a line for being AAMTs "motivational" speaker was hilarious.  And, what on Earth did having him as a speaker have to do with MT????  Again, I thought it was a tremendously dumb move on AAMTs part.

has AutoCorrect, which is probably what you're meaning. When you program a macro, it records your Keystrokes and actions and is more complicated than what you're needing.

In Word 2003, type the word/phrase you want (i.e., degenerative disc disease) then highlight it. Go to Tools, AutoCorrect Options, and your highlighted word should be in the "with" box. Type your shortcut (i.e., ddd) in the "replace" box. Click Add then OK. To use the new entry, just type what you put in the replace box (ddd). No other keys necessary. I would guess it should be about the same in Word 2007.

Hope that helps! Feel free to email if you have more questions...

If you have Word 2003 and upgrade to Word 2007 - will you still be able to access your Word 2003 documents? 

I am still kinda confused on this as everything I have read about this states that the Word 2003 files will be opend in a "compatibility" form, as opposed to normal. 

Would it be in my best interest to save the Word 2003 files to a disk first?