You hit the nail on the head. We're working harder, longer, and less pay. This is the only profe
Posted By: Gotta get outta this place, if it's the last th on 2007-09-04
In Reply to: the downward spiral of the MT - time to get out
that you make less now than you did 10 years ago. I remember making 10 cpl and thinking I should be making more. This is so depressing. Where did we lose ground, what happened. I find myself sitting here for 12-15 hours a day, every day, trying to make a living. All I have ended up with depression, weight gain, losing my friggin hair, and stressed out the max. I miss my family, my friends, and mostly my life. It went with all of the dignity I had. Now, it's considered "average" to be offered 6-7 cpl for years of experience. I do not know whether to cry, scream, be insulted, offended...or all of the above. Even 8 cpl is pathetic. I make 9 cpl now and still struggle. I am going back to what I know best..insurance billing. At least, my job will never be replaced with Indians and VR. They will always need me and I will get raises and compensated for what I know. I am done with this depressing profession. Good bye 14 years, hello bright happy future. 
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Of course I hit the nail on the head.
I'm your psychic network friend. And I also have a hard time playing nice and sharing in the real world. Especially when the masses are idiots. You know what I mean?
hit the nail on the head
i totally agree with what you're saying -- nothing is across the board, like when the statutory people in some office only needed to get 4000 lines in a pay period and others went from 5000 to 6000 and then I think they finally after about a year or so decided that it needed to be across the board. that doesn't go over so well.
Being treated as people would really be the nice part.
Exactly! You hit the nail on the head
It seems it would be for everyone's good.
You have hit the nail on the head here!
I cannot agree with you more! I have over 20 years experience (hospital, orthopaedics, urology, cardiology, etc). I absolutely love medical transcription and I am very good at it (years of experience, not bragging). I have always earned a very nice paycheck and have had to turn work down locally because I was in high demand - that is, until MQ came along. Now, it's absolutely ridiculous.
Now, I have had to reduce my lifestyle. I can't buy my children the clothes that I used to. We have to watch every dime. AND - this is with working TWO JOBS now instead of one.
My reputation is practically useless now. So, just as you have said, even though I absolutely LOVE MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION, I have no choice but to return to school at 40-something years old and study nursing. I have a 23 year old daughter who earns more money than I do, even though I USED TO EARN MORE!
So, thanks a lot all you big corporations who are living high on the hog because of my expertise. Keep in mind, it won't last long, at least not with my help!
Woo Hoo! You hit the nail on the head!
nm
You hit the nail on the head.
Yeah, they do, don't they? And they all support each other. Must have no life whatsoever that she needs to come on here and incite these angry posts just to get some weird satisfaction in her life. And then she has to agree with herself to give her wretchedness some validity. What a giant loser.
You hit the nail on the head!
!!!!!
You hit the nail on the head... sm
Taylor is warm and genuine and he looks like he is having a great time.. also not changing his style or music choice just to fit what might be expected. I love Chris, he's talented in his own right and he's the same way as Taylor being genuine and true to his song style. I hope these two make it a long way. I think Ace is good looking, but that's about as far as I think about him.. his song choice last night made me say, "huh?"....
Thank you, you hit the nail on the head.
Thank you for saying that, I was thinking the same thing.
You hit the nail on the head.
nm
I think you hit the nail on the head when you
said "preference of style." However, preference of style should not even come into the picture. There needs to be a standardized "style" within each company with those guidelines given to everyone, MT and QA alike. 
You hit the nail on the head! LOL (nm)
x
You hit the nail on the head. Thank you very much.
People are so paranoid around here too. See how this thread went. Just an example. All the OP (me) was wanting to say is things need to be constructive rather than personal. And BTW I am free to have my own opinion just as is anyone else, no?
OMG, you hit the nail on the head. sm
I worked for a major insurance carrier five years ago (will not indicate the name). This company had absolutely no idea that medical dictation coming from major medical facilities in the U.S were being transcribed overseas. The company they contracted with had a U.S. based address, phone number, and contact person. The hospitals were only seeing the savings in $$$ and were oblivious to where their patients' medical records were going. Nevertheless, the contract was terminated once the details unfolded. Trust me, it is very easy for a transcription company to mask themself as a U.S. transcription company, when in fact their work is going overseas. These companies should be fined heavily or put out of business for false advertisement.
You sure hit the nail on the head on that one, too. I always could relate to The Who
and Tommy - what was the "evil uncle"'s name - Uncle Ernie! Yuck. My family had, and still has, a few uncle Ernie's, among other names...Horrible stuff, huh? And lets NOT forget as mothers the dangers of sleepovers. I know they are all the rage, but do you know how DANGEROUS they are? My husband and I are in our 40s, and we BOTH were "fondled" and luckily ran away at sleepovers when we were kids - either at relatives' homes, or "best friends". Same thing with LOTS of my girlfriends. I used to want to vomit when I got invited to one - was a social blunder to say NO, and I could NEVER tell my Mom why I really didn't want to go...I also type sex assault clinics regularly, and you would NOT believe how often stuff "goes wrong" at these things. Ever wonder why some parents are just ALWAYS so eager to have sleepovers at their homes? I have given in with each of my kids once and let them go to a sleepover, and always something has gone wrong - not very wrong, but wrong enough that my kids don't even want to go to them anymore. We can never take back a mistake like that -sending our kids to a sleepover, sending them to Aruba before they're mature enough. Its far better to err with caution than to mess up. And, yes, its not always the stranger next door, its the monster in your family.
Nail on the head, Snowbunny. nm
x
You totally hit the nail on the head!
I agree. Maybe this will work out for us MTs who are SEs who are serious about making money and not casual about it. We will see. My only concern is that I usually put in 50 hours, now down to 39, I will need to get a part-time job. I am solely supporting a family of six here!
You have HIT THE NAIL on the head----very good SM
You have certainly hit the nail on the head. The problem with the MT industry is that it was killed by management.
Hades is too good for what I've been put through in this field. I don't think there is an honest person left at top of the MT industry.
Now that hits the nail on the head!
You said that right.
'MEDICAL TRANCRIPTION SUCKS."
It is the only job I have ever had where I actually do 25% of my work for FREE because my employer SAID IT WAS MY JOB.
And every day these companies are more creative looking for new and improved ways to bleed the MTs for more of our hard earned money.
And that IS the reality of this business.
You've hit the nail on the head. (sm)
Our fund of knowledge has to be pretty comparable to what a skilled nurse has to know. The main difference is that it's applied differently: The nurse's is hands-on and face-to-face with patients, ours is in documentation. The other function we have is as an error-catcher. Just think how many dosing, gender, left-vs-right side, etc. dictating errors you catch before they go in the patient's permanent medical record. Not only is our work a valuable tool for the doctors who read those records, it also can become a court record as well. Look what court reporters get paid. They have to learn a specialized skill, just like we do. Their hearing, English skills, and typing speed have to be top-notch, just like ours do. Yes, they do have to show up in court every day, but that right there is a large part of their job security. They don't have to work 7 days a week, or 10-hour days. A court day usually isn't very long at all, and the lunch break is usually 1-1/2 hours. If our job were directly compared to both nursing and court-reporting, the pay should be almost exactly the same.
You hit the nail on the head! Qualified sm
IS the operative word. I blame most of this on MT schools that make big promises and cant possibly deliver in the little amount of time they require for schooling. As Travelin MT said, just by the questions on the Word Board it is obvious that even beginning MTs have not been taught the basics. I don't know what the whole answer is but I do know that these schools that promise to turn out MTs in 4-6 months need to rethink their promises.
Also back when I use to do hiring and testing I would get people I knew were not qualified, did not match the qualifications I listed in the ad but would not take no for an answer. I had a few that I just finally brought in for testing and as suspected they could not even finish the test and the parts they finished were horrible.
There has to be an answer to all of this someplace.
Wow, SnowBunny, you hit the nail on the head. It blows my mind how people think they can
just take a course and jump right in and expect to make a living in this industry at home. Only the small percentage is able to do that.
I think this poster has hit the nail on the head with advice -- My dogs all get along great except
when it comes to dinner, treats or toys. They have to be separated during dinner, separated to be given treats, and sorry to say, don't have much in the way of toys. The rest of the time they can be practically right next to each other and nothing has ever happened. Two of my dogs are greyhounds, so one little scratch can send us off to the vet's office, so I've learned to be very careful!
An IC working smarter, not harder, does not
x
Anyone on this forum working Smarter and not Harder?
I have been in this profession 28 years now; turned 50 this December. Back in the day, I could sit down and type nonstop and be done with my work in 6 to 6.5 hours at 2000 lines. Now it is all I can do to get 1200 lines, and I am working from sun up to sun down. I work a full time employee position and part time IC position. Full time consistently running out of work, so first of year, I will be subcontracting full-time, but will also keep the part time IC position- just so I don't have all my eggs in one basket. What is the key to working less and making more?
Working at home is harder than in office
Because we are our own housekeeping, tech support, errand runner, no cafeteria, ect. I have no idea why they are passing around this WAHM myth. I don't understand the savings idea either because our utility bills are higher. In an office you get paid 15 min breaks 2x a shift too. You are also paid for all the stuff you deal with that you have to deal with to work. Like talking to supervisor, sending an email, reporting a problem, ect.
You're making it much harder
x
Working probably longer than you have
been on this earth. I have worked over 30 years in this. I do work for an agency as have been outsourced twice from hospital work, always at a lower rate than the hospital. The first hospital I made nearly 60 thousand a year, outsourced, dropped 20 thousand in the new hospital, outsourced and now my salary per year in the 20s. I do operative notes, discharge summaries, history and physicals, consultations and my pay is about yours, 7 cents a line- most of the time you are just expected to produce more- we used to have production (incentive)- some might still have but probably few and far between. If I had to raise a family now, would have to work more than 1 job to do. This is me- I am not speaking for others even though my speed is extremely high. I put my all into my job, have answering machine, no interference, have office set up in my home, have fax (because I need 1 just for my own use), printers, phones, my own computer and a backup in case this 1 goes. Your tapes definitely sound like the real McCoy. That is what we hear day in and day out. I started out with a hospital almost 70% ESL, oh, so hard, well even the English were also and even now after all these years still grit my teeth sometimes just to do a certain dictator. Good luck!
I am working towards my master's and I don't transcribe any longer.
x
Hmmm...my line count has gone way up since I am no longer working on ExText.
nm
Only one side of head set working??
Why would this be???
Yep! And the longer you're at it, the weirder you get about other things, too. nm
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Basically, harder dictators and harder reports with a lot of formatting with tables, etc. SM
give you extra lines because of the time involved in doing those particular reports. Not so much you get paid more per line, you just get extra line credit. For example:
You have a 100 line report, but it is weighted because of a table that you have to input. Then you would maybe get credit for 130 lines for that report.
You're obviously having enough fun with yourself and all the voices in your head.
You play nice now.
Hellooo! you're so in my head right now
One after the other, when I broke up with my fiance. About four years of it! One worse than the next. You're right, they have no money, the decent looking ones want models, the older ones are too set in their ways and anal retentive, they will most likely say just about anything to get you into bed faster. The whole thing is a joke. After awhile, it seemed I was going on different dates with the exact same guy. One was even married. One was almost 100 pounds heavier than his picture...in the picture he had a neck..in person, no neck. They think one dinner gets them to first base, and after three dates with no first base they start to turn a bit evil. To be honest, after not finding what I wanted, I was just going out for a free meal.
Totally agree. They're no longer paying for this so-called skill
and that's part of the reason the quality is down.
Ooops, sorry. My last post said "head head." I meant "her head." Sorry.
They're still working on that...nm
ss
You're working against us, then.
?????
You better stop working for yourself then because you're the one
who started all the sniping and rudeness with your sweeping generalizations. If trying to hire a good MT has you that frustrated, maybe you shouldn't be in management. There are plenty of negative people out there who don't have what it takes to run a company.
Well, if you're working in Word
you can use that Word Count and do the math yourself, or there is Abacus. I don't know of any free line counting programs. I work in Word and just use the tools in word to count lines. You highlight the document and count it that way through the tools menu.
They're talking about working for sm
a company doing VR, not doing VR on their own. Those are the "editing" jobs you see.
Does anyone else feel like you're always working
i feel like i'm typing constantly!! my whole life is type type type type type
do you ever find yourself "editing" when you're not working? sm
I find myself, like when I'm reading a menu or magazine, newspaper, etc, always finding the grammer errors, punctuation errors, spelling errors, and it drives me--not to mention my DH--nuts! I guess it's out of habit, but I can't seem to turn the "editor" in me off! I'm always, instead of enjoying the story or article, or whatever I'm reading, looking for errors or typo's. Does anyone else ever do this? I guess I'm obsessive/compulsive. Think I could get work comp for that? 
Nine cents is fine if you're working for someone else. sm
But, not so good if the account is your own. :)
We're working on the website for better optimization.
/
I assume you're working in Word?
Did you record the Find & Replace macro? You'd get more help if you posted your macro code so we can see where the glitch might be.
Misha, you're almost working for free--
--doing this. There are many general transcription companies that pay real money. I know, because I work for a couple. General transcription is a real industry with real people supporting families with their income. Whoever is paying this low a wage is LAUGHING at your gullibility.
Go to bed. Get off the thread. You're tired alright. Looks like you have been working
all day trying to defend MQ. Get some rest. When's second shift coming to relieve you. Hope they have something more original to say. RIGHT? Whoops, my caps are starting to run away with me and I can't stop myself...... I have been reading too many of the multiple personality CAP person's posts. HELLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPP
...to change the magnification of your page. If you're working in
s
Works perfectly. Just keep it minimized while you're working. nm
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