Yeah, some days I do too, until I remember the typewriter.
Posted By: California on 2006-06-08
In Reply to: I hate computers nm - so sorry
Then I quit cussing my computer! lol
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The old clunkity clunk electric typewriter days
Way back when, I didn't even know it was "transcription." I did some transcribing as a secretary at a clinic with 8-10 docs. Office manager showed me how to use "a tape player that you operate with a footpedal." (never heard the words "transcriber" or "transcription"). Only had a Dorland's Med. Dictionary and IBM Selectric. Wasn't until several years later at first actual medical transcription job, realized previously had already been doing medical transcription, "typing" the doctors' chart notes and letters (plus answering phones, sorting/distributing the doctors' mail & journals, bookkeeping/accounts payable, payroll, etc.) for ridiculously low file-clerk type pay for what was really an administrative assistant type job.
You wanted a laugh though: One time, in a hospital transcription dept., me & the other ladies were in the breakroom, giggling about something in the newspaper, someone made a great joke about whatever the subject was, & we were laughing so hard, the security guard came running down the hall and into our breakroom to see what was going on (he thought he heard screaming!) When he saw us all cracking up, he just shook his head, laughed, & told us to get back to work!
boy, do I remember those days
Make an appointment with your doctor asap and explain the situation. Ask for a Rx for Lindane Shampoo. It's more effective than the OTC products, which are also far more dangerous to use over a long period of time. If you are unable to have someone remove the nits, I would recommend using the product every 7-10 days for a couple of months, since that's how often the nits hatch, and within 7-10 days they'll be procreating all your head again.
It is imperative that you speak with the teachers in your child's classrooms and explain the situation to them. With the weather getting colder, coats are going to be thrown on each other and that's how the condition will spread, over and over again, from child to child. A letter also needs to be sent out to all parents about the problem. After that, you have to hope for the best. There's too often a "not my child" attitude which leads to noncompliance. It would take YEARS to finally eradicate the little monsters, despite the fact that you're doing everything you're supposed to do.
Trust me, I know. 
I remember those days
I graduated second in my class (Dean's List) in transcription and A&P. However, the real training was on the job. I had one doctor who was very ESL!!!!! I would work for ever on one of his reports, which would end up full of blanks, and I would only have transcribed a very few lines. He was very frustrating. I can remember one day going for a coffee break, coming back to work and sitting in the parking lot crying. I vowed I was not going back into the office, that I was quitting. Then I thought, my husband will absolutely kill me after spending so much money for schooling and training :-). I went back, and 18 years later I am still at it. It gets better!
I remember those days
They used to say you could make $80K/year tax free, but you had to live in a compound ...
I remember those days, too...
While it was a more casual and friendly environment between doctors and the HIM departments, I remember freezing up and getting so nervous when the doctor was standing there dictating live & watching (both about my speed and my accuracy). I only hope they knew I wasn't always that bad, hehe.
Does anyone remember only being allowed to gas up on odd or even days sm
back in the 70s, depending on what number your license plate ended in? brrrrrrr long, long lines
oh i remember the good ol days
I could never stand working with people a straight eight hours a day, i'm not an "on" type of person and not gossipy either. Just not my thing. A lot of backbiting went on and you could just feel the negativity in the air. At home I don't have that. My dog/cat never talk behind my back nor are they fake. They really and truly like me. Just kidding. But I remember those days well, couldnt get out fast enough.
I remember the days of refunds.. Now all we do is pay pay and more pay
Stinks to be us.
LOL @ both legs! I remember those days!
/
I remember in the old days when you were not hired without
at least 3 to 5 hears working in house - no in house on the job experience? - not considered.
Oh my gosh - I remember those days. sm
I started working at home 18 years ago when my son was born. I would have him in my office with me. He liked the bouncy walker back then. He would sit in it for about an hour bouncing up and down.
I would take him for a long walk and to the playground in the mid morning to tire him out. He would nap for a couple of hours in the afternoon and that's when I did some work. But, I have to tell you, I did most of my work at night when he went to bed. I had him on a strict schedule for napping, meals, bathing, and then bedtime.
Bedtime was 8 p.m. I started work at 8:30 p.m. and was done by 2 a.m. I managed 5-6 hours of sleep a night.
I lived on coffee and any other type of caffeine I could ingest. Not very healthy, but doable.
Back then, I had my own accounts, picking up and delivering tapes, etc. I took him along with me in the morning to deliver and pick up. It was very difficult, but somehow I managed.
It gets more difficult when they are more mobile, around ages 2 to 4. Then at age 5, they go to kindergarten, and you kinda get your work day back.
You know your child better than anyone. You sort of have to schedule your work day around him or her.
IC status worked for me in this situation. I don't think I could have done it as an "employee" type job with a strict work schedule.
Good luck ~ I hope this helped in some little way.
By the way, I still work evenings and night 18 years later, and I have daughter 16.
Hey, Brandi! I remember your stories about those days...
lol! Too funny. Yah, you Transquickers certainly did live on the wild side. I'm sure some still do!
I remember this being in our local paper a few days ago nm
x
Hah!!! I remember the days of 2000 lines!
Not with my company...A good day is 1600 lines. Horrible platform. Wish line count was better.
I remember back in my hospital days...
when we had the more personal contact aspect with the docs. The ones who cared could/would actually walk back to where we were and you could ask them questions, have them correct something, etc., or the MR director could tell the heavy ESL docs to enunciate their English better, ha-ha, which sometimes actually worked. Our county coroner would tell us some interesting stories late in the evening. One lady plastic surgeon loved what she did so much, if you asked her a question, she would draw you pictures of what she did. I once handed an awful resident doc my earphones so he could hear what he was dictating; he was so embarrassed he slowed down from then on, so it made a huge difference. For a few years, to get the docs to get their charts done faster, the MR director held a contast; the winning doc would get a free trip somewhere. You would not believe how some of these guys would compete for this prize, cracked us up.
Yeah, those days are gone, but I hope to live to see the work goes back to the local hospital level. A hospital system the next town over to me did post 5 full-time Transcriptionist jobs last fall; I applied, just wanted an interview. I never heard back so I don't know how this panned out. I think I'd apply to return to in-house work if that ever happened. The job was definitely more interesting then.
Do you guys ever feel like just a number? Remember the good old days...
When if you had a problem, you could go straight to the manager and they'd take care of it right away, making you feel secure in your position and important? When I talk to my supervisor, I feel like her main focus is to get off the phone with me asap, being very short with me, and quick to say she will get right on something when in fact she never does. I just feel so remote and always worry about how long i'm going to have a job in the MT field because of how uncaring the supervisors are, not knowing us personally, not having a face to go along with the person, being able to yank us off an account we're comfortable with onto some ungodly thing where our line count goes down to zilch, and having NO control over it. I was never one to work around people because of all the backstabbing that goes on with women in the office, but I would love to have a home office to report to periodically throughout the year, and maybe work in-house a couple times a month, just to put a face with people and not feel like a number that would be easy to dispose of.
OMG I did too!!! Remember the raunchy equipment and "blue belts". People these days should
.
yeah, know that...this diet was only for four days...
no salt, etc. but it works. Called the "four day wonder diet." Could not, would not do this for more than that! Yukky, no flavor. But it kicks in the fat burning thing... Thanks for your support....Back to some "tasty" "live-it" foods! :)
YEAH!!! free after 14 days !!!
Yeah, and it's always raining on those days!
for me, anyway!
Glad it's your Friday! Today's my Wednesday. :)
Yeah, I love days like that. Wish mine was.
I was thinking about finding a job that's Tues - Fri because I like to take Mondays and clean up the house after having the whole family home for the weekend.
Yeah. Sounds like you could use a vacation. Maybe a couple days? nm
x
Yea but that was on an typewriter
That was on a typewriter and you were lucky if you could get 60 lines per hour and when you made a mistake in a letter you had to rip it out and start over or if the doctor changed his mind and no count of the previous lines. With the computer came the capability of macro's, auto text, etc. and our lines per hour jumped to 300 per hour. You have to compare all the facts. That is why I count more of what I make per hour than what I make per cpl. If I make my $$ per hour that I want, I keep my cpl the same. Just me. Have done it both ways and to me am happy with my cpl now versus what it was when I was doing it on a selectric.
yes typewriter
My terminology came from nursing school and then from experience. I don't believe there were MT schools back then.
In the past, on a typewriter, Courier 10 meant
12 characters per inch. Is it not the same for word processing programs?
I worked with typewriter and carbon paper, too, but
No way would I work that way on production pay. That would be like paycheck suicide. There are far too many jobs out there with the proper tools to work anywhere with that antiquated of a system. Sorry, not spoiled, just wise. Since line rates are on the decline, you have to learn how to work smarter in this business so you can maximize your line counts per hour, thereby maximizing your income per hour. Otherwise, you'll just eek by.
And I get it that it CAN be done, but I don't get why anyone would WANT to do it if it's production pay. Hourly, maybe, but production, heck no. Not when I can work somewhere else using all the production tools and making a lot more money.
Word can't do this, but you can download typewriter sounds. sm
You'll get lots of hits if you Google "typewriter sounds."
ROFL - Manual typewriter and belt back in 1973! Old geezard here :)
x
Started in-house at a hospital, medical records department, on a typewriter in
1983, earning $6.00/hour, eventually moving up after 7 years to $10.00/hour. All hospital work was then outsourced to a national service in 1986 (beginning of our downfall), went to work for the service and made $2.10/page. Service was bought out by another service, rate changed to $1.90/page. Rates changed again to $0.08/cpl. After many years of experience in all services, found my first account in 1992, charged $.09/cpl/gross lines but blank lines not counted. Business has grown steadily through the years through word of mouth. Now charging $.16/cpl or $25.00/hour or $6.00/page, and having to turn down work at this point. If you have the experience and are detail-oriented, you can find your own accounts eventually like I did. But you have to pay your dues first and be able to transcribe all ESLs accurately. If you learn how to transcribe ESLs well, those doctors are the ones to target for work. I do work an ungodly number of hours, only because I am trying to save at a faster pace for retirement because of all the uncertainty in this line of work.
30 hours divided by four days equals seven-hour days. Most of us have to work pretty much every day
.
Working 6/hour days, 5 days/week I make
$42,000.00, but the work is there to make more if I want to. I'm in the southeast.
2000 low days, 4000 busy days
Did 43,000 lines last month. 6 doctors.
You can "make a living" if you work 16-hr days, 7 days
and if you rarely buy anything but food and the barest essentials in clothing. My balancing act is so precarious that all it'll take is one of life's little disasters (rent increase, sick pet, major car repair) to pull the rug out from under me. Not a good feeling at all.
550-650 lph on average. Some days more, some days less. It all depends. nm
x
How? By working 12-hr days 7 days/week?
;LKJ
Yeah, yeah, that should be "your work..."
Yeah, baby, yeah.
We are here for the long haul.
just please remember that....
science is a GOOD thing :) If anything, the ultimate gift of God. IMO
(shuttin up now)
OKAY, BUT REMEMBER
Remember, maybe your current employer would pay you a penny more a line (MAYBE), but what about the next employer. Things in this business change quickly, and just because your current employer may up your pay, the next one might not care.
Do you remember>>bet I'm
How about those HUGE transcription machines bigger than a desk>>>>I gravitated to MT from KEYPUNCH school...REMEMBER THOSE KEYPUNCH MACHINES!!!!!
I remember
I learned to type on a manual typewriter. I actually won a county typing contest on one of those, when some of the contestants had brought their electric portables with them. I won because I relaxed, thinking I did not have a chance on a manual, and had only two errors. They counted off words for each error. I got my A.S. in HIM, only then it was Medical Records Technology. My first job was in a small physician's office, where I had an IBM Selectric. Dictation was on this little thing with belts. After that was a machine with small little discs that looked like film, that never came out of the machine, just stacked up like a juke box. After that came tapes. My references were a big Dorland's, a Taber's and a PDR. Of course, like another poster said, I had the chart. Even with all the bad things about the business, I don't think I would want to go back.
ek, remember ET...
AND REMEMBER
Oct. 1 if you are ME, you get the "reward" of 20% decrease in pay.
just remember
remember
They used to think that about male nurses too.
I believe so, but can't remember what it is! nm
Don't remember where I was
I probably found out about it at night, when the newspaper arrived. It didn't phase me at all.
In terms of my age at the time ... 27.
How do you ever remember them all?
That's my problem
Remember When? SM
I posted last evening and spent time this morning just chuckling over what people have written. I still have the red book, "A Syllabus for The Surgeon's Secretary." It is all beat up and the spine is broken but I will not part with it. Let me quote, "Only when a satisfactory degree of proficiency has been achieved should a student be given actual work assignments. She thus learns by POSITIVE TUTELAGE as contrasted with the outmoded method of trial and error." The 2nd edition, January 1965 is the date of publication. We had no electronic dictionary or medical speller. Everything we wrote had to be correct or it was literally "thrown back at us" to retype. We had to use our "Dorlands" or "Tabers" and one PDR for the use of the whole office. Believe me, these "one of a kind" books were tattered and torn but we used them or else. We "had" to get it right, no excuses. What a wonderful way to start the New Year. Somehow it seems all worth it now, sore back and tired fingers and all. Happy New Year, Everyone. Mary Mc
I remember when...
As a child;
Movies were 50 cents. We went at least every weekend...
We got cable TV...wow, more than 3 or 4 channels!
Our first VCR had a remote...with a cord running across the floor!
As a teenager;
Let me just say...leg warmers!
Big hair!
Wham! Boy George! Flock of Seagulls...
Those were the days...
I remember
as a child
Combination TV and record player. The record player could play 33-1/3, 45's AND 78's
Stores were closed on Sundays.
As a teenager
White lipstick
Rolling hair up on orange juice cans.
Cash registers without scanners.
Wishnicks (lucky troll dolls)
Don't let the trolls get you down.
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