They're not thrown to the dogs when they had no work to begin with!
Posted By: wondering on 2008-07-07
In Reply to: Is the grass greener? - grasshopper
nm
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I work 2 jobs. One is ER with DS thrown in and the
second job is everything but ops since that is all someone wants on the account I'm on.
It's not all cut and paste. Make macros for common phrases. If you find you keep spelling something wrong, make a macro of the wrong spelling so that it automatically corrects it. I write down my words that keep getting stopped in spell check and at the end of the day I make a macro of it to put in the correct spelling. If it needs a capital letter, make a macro so that it capitalizes for you w/o hitting the shift key. If it's an abbreviation that needs to be capitalized, macro a macro of it. Lowercase pt comes out as PT, pmh comes out as PMH. I use pmh- to make it print out as past medical history and put a semicolon after pmh; for it to print out in capital letters. I have macros for the % sign. 1P = 1% and goes all the way up to 100p for 100%, 1L is 1 liter, 1h = 1 hour. If you are constantly typing certain headings for doctors make a macro of it. I have one doctor that wants all different headings than on the template we are given. I made a template just for him where everything is capitalized and bolded the way he wants so that saves me a ton of time. Make macros for your common meds. Also put correct caps of meds into your spellcheck. If I capitalize something like prednisone, it will make it automatically a lowercase w/o stopping on it except if it is the beginning of a sentence.
I promise you - I begin work at 7:00 p.m. - I'm only PT, and my day always begins with
stat, H&Ps, consults, etc! I love it!
When they have me working mornings I am getting special procedures, ops, caths, and don't like it one bit! Maybe 2nd shift would work for those who just can't see themselves working from 11 to 7. Good luck!
P.S. I can't work without my dogs and cats around. Go figure. nm
nm
no tear gas thrown on guardsmen
Why were the guardsmen there? We have freedom to protest. The military is not allowed to patrol and keep tabs on the people. That is the job of cops. The military is used to defend the US not control its citizens. The governor of Ohio was wrong and that has been proven. There was no tear gas thrown at the guardsmen, there were stocks and rocks and then the guardsmen shot their guns and killed students.
I saw below that my 20 garlic chicken was thrown in a few crockpots..
x
Probably staining the new fence we put up to keep our dogs in and other dogs out.
The neighbor dog won't stop trying to attack our dogs, so we put up a nice big fence. Should do the trick. Doesn't keep the rabbits out, though. We'll BBQ, too. Can't go far. Hubby is on call for the weekend with his job.javascript:editor_insertHTML('text',' ');
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Well, you're all complaining that accounts are current and work is low, so, gee, maybe they're
focusing on WORK, as in CLIENT and transcribing, as maybe half of you should be focusing on!!
No, they didn't. Just the tape covering that I had thrown out when I first opened them.. NM
.
Boxers, KY warming jelly, lots of sweets thrown in the bag with them
and one of those big chocolate chip cookies shaped like a heart and decorated with red and white frosting.
You're lucky they work for you. I've never gotten a refill to work right, ever.
x
Where to begin?
Brandy,
Where do you live, most importantly? I am a mom to 3, in Georgia, and am currently homeschooling my son in kindergarten. I can give you some tips, if you want, but there is a lot, too much to post here. IF you want more info, post back and I'll give you my e-mail address or e-mail you privately.
Oh, where shall I begin. sm
The *hoopla* about offshore not being secure is absolutely a valid threat. It may have nothing to do with transmission and everything to do with the value system of another group of people though. At least three VERIFIABLE instances of offshore MTs holding medical records for hostage and at least one where the MT threatened to publish the records on the internet if she was not paid, exist. Hardly *hoopla* my dear. I seriously doubt if the CMT will ever become a mandatory credential and I seriously doubt that for several reasons. After nearly 30 years, the AAMT has fewer members now than it ever had. People are leaving in large numbers. I also have it on good authority that the test the offshore MTs take is not the same one given to US MTs. Personally, I don't put someone down for having a CMT, I just have no great real respect for it or the association. I trust I am allowed my opinion. I worked at a local hospital where the transcription supervisor was a CMT and she could not answer one blank when asked! I actually know a lot of CMTs who are not all that.
Maybe it's your attitude to begin with.
Change your tune. Be sugary sweet when you think someone is being rude to you and see what happens. Pay it forward. Give someone a smile or a kind word. Let someone in line in front of you. Just do one little nice thing per day and it will multiply. People are never rude to me. Everywhere I go, they know me by name because I take the time to be kind to them. Gas station, grocery store, bank, school, doctor's office. You might have to fake it 'til you make it, but you can change your outlook and how you perceive the world treats you. If someone is "rude" to you, blow it off. Maybe they're having a bad day and it's nothing personal.
To begin with, I would suggest
Paying for your rent/mtg, food and utilities without fail first.
I ended up in BK 13 so I can't help you with a company name but this is what I learned, food and shelter come first.
That's Why I Posted To Begin With
I didn't make the assumption that 'fast typing' was all it took. I still believe that you have to be able to type fast, but I also have 'top notch computer skills' and can learn well. I wanted to know more about training in this field because I assumed training was a necessary evil. One thing I didn't assume was that the folks on this forum were just downright rude!! Not saying you are, just most of the others that replied to my initial post. I am certainly not looking at MT as a way to pay my mortgage or put my daughter through college. Just a way to fill some free time.
Thanks for your post!
You should have a system to begin with. SM
I recommend mining the Productivity Talk forum for tips and a book such as Saving Keystrokes by Rolland. One high producer strongly recommends Easyscript Express by Levin, an old ABC-based ShortHand method that can be used with a keyboard.
When I first started with expanders, in the Ice Age seemingly, there were no forums like this to consult and I just started dropping definitions in without a good system. I've since had to redo everything a number of times as I wanted my Expander to do more and more for me.
As time goes on, you'll also want to abbreviate EVERYTHING for you, which requires system, both because you can't possibly remember thousands of abbreviations but remembering a few rules is easy AND because you need to have a way to enter various terms that seemingly need the same letters.
One tip just to jump you off: Some systems start two-word phrases with the first two letters of the first word and the first two or three of a second word. However, if you look up "lesions," say, in a medical dictionary, you'll see immediately that starting with three letters of the describing/adjective word and two of the noun (i.e., cocle for cochlear lesion and corle for cortical lesion) would serve you much better. Although if you gaze over just at the ones that start with intra- you'll realize more system than that is going to be needed for more complex terms. I personally start that prefix with "ia" to differentiate from ones that start with inter- "ie". Best wishes.
ADD vs. MT - Let the Battle Begin
Have you tried setting a timer for 20-30 minutes, then giving yourself permission to get up from the desk (setting the timer again for 10 minutes or so), wander around, surf the web a little (on a different computer if you can, it will help keep the surfing bug separate from the MT'ing bug), then when the timer goes off again, go back and set it again for 20-30 minutes and start typing again?
These days, I'm working in bed from a laptop due to back and wrist issues that don't play well with conventional desks, but in some ways that actually helps keep me focused, because it's such a pain in the neck to get up and walk away... I still struggle with wanting to surf while typing though - a problem I never dreamed of having back when my shiny new computer was an IBM PS2 or something like that - where the floppy drive held less information than my cell phone does today!
Good luck!
Does it have 3 letters, begin with an M?
If so, I'm there too...Ain't life grand???
The one time I asked for one, they said no. Ask and if they say no, begin looking elsewhere.
dd
The rules for Op notes are a little different. You may begin a....sm
sentence with a numeral; so, you would never spell out cc for blood loss, IV fluids, urine output etc. In the indications section, if a sentence starts with a number e.g. "Three days ago the patient" or "One day prior to surgery, I spell out the number. Otherwise, in the body of the report or in the headings, I use the number.
Don't get excited. You should have provided it to begin with. nm
x
The head set worked to begin with so
if it was in the wrong hole would it have worked in the beginning? Because it worked until I downloaded the pedal software.
How do you begin to come up with a line rate..
to pitch to a new account? Been working for others as an IC, now contemplating approaching an account on my own. No clue how to not hang myself and selling out at too low of a rate vs giving a quote that's too high and will make them back off quick. Would it be a good "rule of thumb" to take what you make as an IC on someone else's accounts and add .05cpl? From what little I've gathered over time, that's about the ballpark of what the MTSO gets paid per line for the account vs what the IC gets paid to do the typing. Does this sound about right to those of you who have experience with this? Tks
Nope. It was a small account to begin with.
The work never went anywhere. The company has not lost contracts. I'm not being "phased out" either. The workload simply doesn't suit my needs any longer. I can do it in my sleep, so I'd like more work that's more challenging.
I would never begin a sentence with an abbreviation, for one thing. nm
x
I begin my day, every day, with a nice 2 to 3 mile walk with
This gives me time to think, alone time, fresh air and of course exercise. I love to walk and it seems that since I began doing this I am less stressed out. Have you had your thyroid checked??? Just wondering if that could possibly cause hair loss. I wish you the best.
Was taught in my program that all those eye words begin with
s
That is assuming they could even understand the dictation to begin with.
I would love to see the doctors having to listen to dictation.
Utilize the speed typing engines and begin
storing in their favorite phrases so that a few letters will bring them up. I am working for several physicians. Took me a few months to get all the words into speed typing mode but now that I have, the time I spend typing is cut in half.
Never type a word larger than 4 letters.
chest pain - cp
pneumonia - pnea
atelectasis or infiltrate - aoi
so on and so on - whatever works for you. This is how to make money these days, high production. And the speed typing engines lessen change of typos and other erros.
Okay. Where do I begin? I need some advice! My husband is in real estate. sm
He owns 5 houses (rents 4), and just closed on a house on Friday that he needs to "flip" really quick! Basically, it's a 30,000 profit IF he sells it quick! We've never bought a house to flip before, but have purchased them for rental property and to gain the equity. Okay. I'm spoiled. Very spoiled. Or you could call it blessed! We are both Christians with good jobs. I only work part-time and then we live off of his salary and the 700 we make in rent that is extra after paying ALL the mortgages. But we are in a real bind now. We have renters who owe us 2 months of rent, well now 3 months of rent! They won't take our calls, you know the rest of the story! This house that my husband bought on Friday cost us ALL of our cash because we had to put some down and then pay closing costs (close to 4,000!). So now, for the first time, we are broke (NO cash flow whatsoever now). And I'm struggling over here! I mean, we can't even go and get ice cream tonight. I'm really questioning our decision to purchase this house.
See, we had no idea UNTIL closing (honest to God), just how much it was going to cost! So, we couldn't back out of it. We were thinking 2000 on the high end. I completely flipped out when the attorney told us how much we needed to write a check for!!!!
We've gotten a couple of calls on the house, but obviously no takers. My husband went straight from the attorney's office to the house to put up for sale signs in the yard! It's a cute house. We just need someone to buy it ASAP!
So, if you've ever wanted to meet the people on the Carlton Sheets infomercial - here we are!!! yes, we've made a lot of money in real estate, but there are huge, gigantic RISKS! You could go for the gutso (like we did and buy all these houses) and you could lot a lot if it doesn't work out. The loan we got on this new house is a type of loan I've never heard of before. It's just a "quick" loan where you need to pay it back pretty quick in the hopes that you will make the 30,000 in equity that the house did appraise for.
What do you do on a budget? What do you do when you are so broke you can't even buy ice cream for the kids? I want to cry now, even though I know some of you out there have zero sympathy for crazy folks like us...Well, I need some ideas on food. What's cheap to make and cook? I put 30.00 in my SUV last night and that will have to last me until the 15th!
To all of you who struggle every week like this, my heart goes out to you. It truly does. Now I know what it feels like to live in desperate need every day.....
You're 100% right! And where we work - (sm)
(and what we wear!) should have NO bearing whatsoever on whether or not we're considered 'professionals'.
I think the reason the MT industry has gotten out of the hands of MTs and hospitals, and into the hands of plain old businessmen, is because, since we're a mostly 'invisible' workforce, they could see countless cracks and loopholes they could take advantage of when it came to cheating the workers (and the laws in this country) and making more profit for themselves.
I caught something on TV last night speaking about the "equal value" laws some states have, when it comes to the disparity between men's and women's pay. Certain jobs were awarded point systems to determine their worth to an employer. One example was secretaries (women) vs. the building's heating/AC/etc. maintenance workers (mostly men). They each were worth 100 points. Yet the men made twice what the women did, and worked fewer hours on average.
Considering what MTs are expected to know (especially according to AHDI/AAMT), I wonder what our point-value would be compared to, say - a paralegal, or a paramedic, or an executive secretary, etc. (Probably not the best comparisons, but all I can think of at the moment). The only difference between us and them is where we work. They're on-site & highly visible; we are off-site and totally invisible. (How many of us have ever even met our bosses or supervisors face-to-face? Very few, indeed). But does that make an MT worth less? NO. Only in the eyes of the tunnel-visioned doctors, dictating away and aware only of their own jobs, or the hospital CEOs trying to bolster their own worth to their institutions by cutting transcription costs (many of them don't even quite know what transcription even IS), and worst of all, the owners of large MTSO's, who in large part these days are simply businessmen or women who bought the company because they felt they could turn a huge profit with it by underpaying its workers, and most of whom have never been an MT a single day in their lives.
I think you're all wrong. It's all about getting the work done
for the hospital in the fastest time possible and my company doesn't care if I do it or if you do it (if you worked for us) or if someone else does it, just get it done for the client. So complain as you like, find somewhere else to work if you need, but get the work done. That's the bottom line.
Look at what you're using now as far as ports for work. sm
You'll need to get a laptop that has the same kinds of ports. If you're using all USB, you're in luck because most new computers only have USB. If you're using a serial foot pedal, consider buying an model just off lease that has that port. There has been such a problem where I work because they don't have USB capabilities in their software yet and so their serial foot pedal does not work with newer laptops even with adapters from serial to USB.
I just bought off lease a Dell and made sure it had all the ports I wanted, including a parallel port because that's the foot pedal I have. The laptop was built in 2002, has over 1 gig of RAM, all the updates for Windows XP and it works just fine for me.
I understand what you're going through. I work both myself. sm
I have been IC for several years, and thought I might go back to employee for benefits. But I found the insurance was so high, and the pay was not as good, so I work both part time now. The bottom line is, I can't give up the freedom I've had in the last several years. I am given so much work in the morning, and have all day to finish it, and I love this system. I tried to set a schedule for my part-time employee job, thinking I would like to go to full time if it worked out. But I had too much trouble making myself fit a schedule (they have offered to let me work when I can, so I'm still keeping the job, but if I can't do it right, I will quit). Unfortunately, when you get used to IC, it is hard to fit back in a "box." Maybe you could look for a company that would allow you some flexibility in your schedule, say an 8-hour window to work 6 hours. If you have the experience, some companies will work with you that way. I don't think IC is a dead end, it is just a little harder to manage. But the benefits did not pan out. I can get the insurance cheaper individually, the pay was lower so I could actually put a little back as an IC every pay period and take time off "paid." The only thing I miss is what they pay for taxes (I think 7% or so), and having someone else do these things for me. If you like IC as I do, try setting up your own retirement plan, getting your own insurance, and put a little back each pay period for some time off. Good luck with your decision.
You're RIGHT, & many of us *need* to work at home
:(
How does income tax work when you're IC?
I was offered a position from a company as an IC, and the contract had a clause about being responsible for your own tax deductions, etc. As I have only ever been an employee, I am not entirely sure how this works. If you are IC how do you pay taxes? Thanks!
You're lucky. I get lots of work but have
You're right! I wouldn't work for a company that SM
expected me to surf all over the world just because some prima donna didn't want to be bothered with proper dictation.
I work for a national, and we're allowed
.
Any program will work if you stick with it and it's NOT what you're doing right now. nm
s
Depends on where you work and how you're paid
kj
It depends on what kind of work you're doing..sm...
If you're doing clinic work, you would need the book that pertains to your clinic. I'd also recommend a Stedman's Abbreviations, acronyms & symbols. I'd also recommend Sander's Pharmaceutical Book. Other than that, I'd use Google and trustworthy websites.
You're right. Unfortunately, in some areas inhouse work is
I keep hoping some sort of changes in U.S. laws may come to the rescue before it's too late, and the whole industry becomes offshore and automated. Because if that happens, there will be less and less reason to want to entrust one's care to an HMO.
True. So then don't work. We're talking CHOICES here. nm
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No! And boy do I know where you're coming from! I tried to get the Olympus pedal to work, but..
wound up pulling my hair out instead. They don't make it easy on us, do they?!?!? 
If you're so brilliant then, why aren't you in a better line of work?
1. Surgeon.
2. Attorney.
3. College professor.
oh, and yes, my brilliant one - what year exactly did you graduate with your Ph.D. from Harvard?
LMBO
So you use MCI for unlimited LD for work and they're fine with it? About how many minutes do you
use per month, do you think?
You're right about the "prehistoric" part! The place I used to work (sm)
uses Lanier, and it's a mess. It's WORSE than prehistoric. It was down more than it was up. It was also not at all friendly for at-home MTs, either.
For Pete's sake, if you're too sick to work,
call in sick!!
This past week I've had chronic sinus drainage and a nagging,constant cough that has kept me up most of the night. Felt okay during the day,(although typing speed decreased significantly).Was able to take cat naps off and on during the day to make up for lack of sleep, otherwise,I wouldn't have hesitated to take a day or two off.
If I'm "really" sick,I call in for a sick day without hesitation!!
You're rude. That being said... Some people just work alone for a couple doctors and don't
s
Or ask for samples of the doc's work if they're hard to understand. GI terms are
s
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