You seem like a person who can look ahead and do analysis of situations...
Posted By: Old MT on 2006-05-02
In Reply to: Wow, I must be a spoiled - brat.
you definitely should take the at home job. You will make significantly more money as long as you actually are on the keyboard. I think it's a surprise sometime as to how much time is actually spent transcribing and how much is wandering around. If you time yourself at home, just to take the laundry out of the dryer can add up to 10 minutes in no time. So take that into consideration. You won't get paid for 8 hours - you'll only be paid when your fingers are actually making contact with the keyboard. Check your line production at work if you can to get an idea of how many lines you are actually cranking out in a day.
Now, that being said, you need to take a good long look at what is coming down the pike for MT. In all reality, MT is not going to last until you retire. Don't forget, what is left of MT is going to have to be either a) spread around amongst all of us or b) competed for by all of us. When there are more MT's than MT jobs, you can bet pay and working conditions is going to go down. So right now, while you have a job, you need to be thinking and planning where you are going to be when you lose your MT job and can't find another - or at least another that pays decent...Ask yourself, what would I do if next year I lose my job? and start exploring options that way. Me - I'm enrolled full time in nursing school for a BSN. I wasn't sure I could go back to school at 46, but I am and doing it quite successfully, no less. I still have at least 15 more years to work before retirement...so just plan ahead...
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If I boil mine ahead of time, I go ahead and peel off the shell after they have (sm)
been sitting in a pan of cold water for about 30 minutes.
and in the final analysis
It will always boil down to memorization.
I have a very old version of IT and ran the compilation for VR (helps improve accruacy), but there is no way I could remember all the different phrases they have. I'm lucky I remember the traditional chfx = congestive heart failure.
LOL re analysis paralysis - that's me in a nutshell! nm
nm
Good analysis. Mass mutiny, new unsuspecting
nm
sometimes these situations
can be a blessing, by causing us to realize we can't do it on our own, that we NEED God...and again we learn to TRUST and depend upon Him.
Sometimes there are situations where
"forgive and forget" don't work. Leaves it up to all parties involved to work with the best solution. Gifter may have solid, personal reasons for having issues. I can relate. You have to respect that.
I also have been in these situations before sm
I have been working at home now for 17 years. My kids are 18 and 16 now, the 18 year old in college; however, while growing up both were athletes and in every sport year around. I have seen other kids who never had a parent at their games or special occasions. My kids always appreciated the fact that I was there, never missed a game or event, and always home when they got home from school. That in itself is reward enough.
It brought about a sense of love and security, at least for my two kids, while growing up and knowing Mom is always there. They could call me at lunch or after school before practice if they needed something, etc.
It grounded them and brought stability into their lives and they excel academically.
All-in-all, I would never trade this profession for anything else. It has paid off big time for me.
Now, I just have to wait about 10 years or so for grand kids and the cycle will start all over again!
Isnt' this one of the main reasons, we who have children, work at home?!!!
Those situations different than STAYING in bad
Robbery or scamming are an in and out situation that you have little control over. Staying in a bad job is usually a long term situation that you CAN control. It is hard to change jobs. However, the longer you put off starting the process, the longer you are allowing yourself to stay in a bad situation. It is sad to think you would give someone else such control over your life that you let yourself be abused. And the only one that can change something like that is YOU. The buck stops with you when it comes to who has control of your life.
There have been similar situations posted before.
I'd be looking for another job and if they owe you any money I'd start trying to get it. Send a certified letter, contact labor department, etc.
In true IC situations, the company CANNOT set your hours...
However, your contract can stipulate that you do a certain amount of work within a certain timeframe. They also can ASK you for a general idea of when you will be working, but they cannot make you/tell you that you have to be working certain hours. If they tell you when you have to work, you are not longer an INDEPENDENT contractor - "independent" being the keyword here. If they set the hours, you are an employee.
Did you ever notice how many real life situations (sm)
there are where you can say it reminds you of a Seinfeld episode?! I still watch reruns - never get sick of it.
Not all 8 cents a line situations are created equal sm
I am coming off a job using Extext and going into one using ChartNet. I have used Smart Type for over a decade and for Chartnet I have to go to Instant Text. I am able to do over 200 lines an hour after about a week at the new job. I will get to 300 again in a month or so. I say again because I have not done that much in a long time.
Extext...I loved it when I first used it, but after 18 months I can't get above 170 lph and that is with echoes and normals with lots of free lines, and that includes dozens of normals and report shells I have made myself. It won't get better and that is poor pay at the 8.5 cpl base rate, but then again I always have bonuses of a couple of kinds and shift differentials...but I can't do better than 1200 lines a day with any consistency, not in 8 hours a day.
I work a job in MedRite. Like Extext, it is a Word client and rather similar. Top rate for MedRite is close to 300 lines an hour on a horrid account with 80% PLUS ESLs. It is just a faster platform.
Enter ChartNet...never used it. Had to switch to Instant Text...never used it. I have been working about 5 days on it and I can do 200 lph and only one doctor so far who throws me for a loop when I can't do that. She is not an ESL, but a slurring motor mouth who skips around and forgets what she is doing on the phone in the first place.
The Extext work has been 90% OP notes, my specialty. The others are all the basic 4, and I have to say that I went from clinic for many years to OP notes, skipping the rest in between. I have very little experience in DS, CN and H&P notes, VERY little time with those. I'd be faster with them if I had done more of them before.
Part of speed is the expander, part is the platform and part is you. It doesn't matter how great you are as a typist and how perfect your expander, if the platform isn't very good you can't make money at any line rate. If the platform is good, but you are not Expander savvy, you won't you make it either. You can, however, be like me and a poor typist with a great expander and a decent platform...and STILL make money. LOL
In MY experience, the largest problem with making more money is the expander GLOSSARY, not which program you choose. I have heard some of the craziest stories about how to use an expander while on this board...ridiculous, wonky, time wasting, counter intuitive toro pu pu!!!! If you are struggling with an expander FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME. I am happy to spend my time helping anyone who will genuinely give my methods a shot.
Life's full of situations where you're backed into a corner
a winner thinks outside the box and takes a chance rather than be ASSURED of a life-time of misery.
You're the type of people who live in the same town their whole life even when there are no jobs and complain that they're unemployed.
Complacency will get you nowhere, neither will whining about having no money when there are other options but you refuse to look into them.
Your employer may be partially responsible for the trouble in your life right now but the only person keeping you in this mess is you.
Interesting! Fiber is used in constipation and diarrhea situations, which I always thought was
:+
Wow. After reading all of these sad situations and posts I actually feel pretty blessed. I did sm
Have my car repoed about 8 years ago and it was the most embarrassing moment of my life. I've since come out of a rut with me working and having a husband who works FT. We are blessed. We have definitely struggled with our bank acct. being overdrawn to the tune of 700.00 before, but we luckily came out of that and it only happened once. To everyone who is in a dire situation, may you find grace and peace in God. Believe in miracles. Don't give up. Good luck to you and I mean that in all sincerity.
Situations change. We are all in this for the money. Loyalty is great but appreciation (monetarily
And be honest. This is a financial issue and a matter of there is only so much time in one day. They may be shook up for a bit but in the end, they will remember you for the work you produced and your day to day performance and personal character traits. Give them plenty of time to find someone new if you are very fond of them and, in this case, you could offer to train the new person.
Proof positive that an hourly rate would eliminate those types of situations.
I work for the person. I know. Very excellent person, personally and business-sense.
It is an INSULT to have QA hovering over seasoned MTs who know what they are doing. She trusts her MTs and again if there are questions there is one person, a trainer, who can answer them via phone, e-mail or instant message or you can send the whole report to them if you choose.
Point was is the person willing to make up for the slack of the person who types 1 job when there is
if that is all they WANT to type. Is the person who wants to be a supervisor willing to make up for those people?
You have crap supervisors, editors and mts in the business like you have good ones. Sadly, the really good ones of all of them are few and far between.
When you have a QA person that is picky and another QA person that is very lenient where does that
leave the MTs because some are getting a lenient reviewer and others are getting one that picks at everything. How do you reconcile that issue with the difference in QA mentality. Some people make out well and the other people could be just as good but dont. I wonder about that.
The person MTSO pays is the person who
dsf
Don't do anything, just tell him to go ahead and do what he
has to do. If he's not for real, the threat has been not worked. If he is for real, he MUST have documentation to prove his case, or even then it's no use taking it to court. He will file in small claims probably, if less than $5000. He must prove his case, and you don't have to do anything, bottom line.
Don't get too ahead of yourself..
You may certainly have a valid argument, but don't base it on the "fact" that rad reports are all paid by report. I have been doing rad for over 12 years now, and have yet to be paid by report. Most are by the line, and any MTSO I have worked for, rad is one of the lowest line rates compared to other work type accounts. Yes, there are companies that pay by the report, but, I surely wouldn't go so far as saying that is the "norm".
Then go ahead. Not me.
nm
Go ahead
post it! You will feel so much better and be able to continue knowing you got your two cents in. Sometimes it makes you wonder about American standards for the practice of medicine, does it not? Doesn't it make sense that in America doctors should be able to communicate properly and have a handle on the language? Accents are not what I am talking about either. I am talking about vocabulary and grammar that can possibly cause a change outcome. This is a very serious business, medicine. Those who dictate should be qualified to dictate. Amen.
So how would you know ahead of time if
problem with drinking? Don't mean to get off the subject but just wondering.
Ah, go ahead...don't be ashamed...
No one will laugh. And, most likely no one will slam you for it either. There are only a few really nasty, jealous people here. 
Go ahead and invest......SM please
Go ahead and pay for a decent program so you'll be set up. In all honesty (my opinion) you do not get the same kind of quality sound with these freebies as you do with the others. If you intend to do this job, at least get proper equipment.
IMHO
that should say *ahead of time*
x
Go ahead, tell us, what is abortion then?
x
go ahead rant!
One of my dictators smacks gum in my ear constantly and it drives me crazy because it is rude!!
thinking ahead
Yes, you are so right, be cordial and that's it. Her problems are not mine and she is very manipulative. My concern is mainly how this will affect my friendship with Patty who happens to be a very close friend of mine. Also, thinking ahead to the future, H's daughter is getting married. Wait! Before I get into this... H's daughter moved out yesterday. They had a huge fight and H kicked her out of the house. The daughter is now living with the fiance's family!!! I know they will patch it up probably in the near future... so here is my problem. About a month ago, H called me and said she is having a shower for her daughter on July 29 at 1:30 and I should mark the date. I said "I'm busy that day" and I was joking, but I wish I was busy. First of all, I hate showers and I hate Pampered Chef parties which she is also always having...and I never go !!! :)
I don't go to those. Secondly, I want to backpedal from this family as much as possible. H is the type who will never speak to me again if I don't go to the shower. All advice is appreciated. I guess if she isn't talking to me maybe she will not send the invitation... but I can't count on that.
Go ahead, argue with me on how you all think
Lets see the moral ethics flow.
Paying below poverty... minimum wage is POVERTY, yet, below that.. what a joke.
So many drs, so many specialites, can't get ahead!
Ugh, I've been working for a National for about a month now, and they keep throwing new drs and new specialities at me everyday, and it's so frustrating. My line count gets lower it seems, instead of higher. Is this normal?
I've been an MT for 10 years, but worked for a local small company until they went out of business. This national thing is completely new to me, and I'm not liking it so far. Just when I was getting comfortable about 2 weeks ago, they threw new docs and new specialities at me, and I can't seem to keep up. Very frustrating!!
go ahead girl
I know it is very fustrating when you are spending your time which you aren't paid for trying to make sure that the report is right by researching extensively. And some of the dictators are so inconsiderate like when they decide to eat while dictating and talk with the food in their mouth so it makes it hard to make out what they are saying and sometimes they arent eating anything just dont have the courtesy to make the dictation as clear as they can. I have a clinic account where some reports have to be sent back with a blank name for a cc or letter to referrring physician because there are more than one doc. with that same last name in the same city and they think you should know who they are talking about. And sometimes they may both be just general practioners so you have no idea based on their specialty either. We definitely don't get paid enough to do their research. It does make you want to just throw the reports out to get the line counts and leave blanks and let them figure it out.
you go ahead and demand that $75K
That will leave your position open for another person who doesn't think they are the MT queen. That "level of expertise" has been achieved by many hard-working individuals. They are out there with excellent skills and might be happy to take your place. Then you can spend your time pursuing something that will make you happy and allow you to feel fulfilled. I feel sorry for you that you are so bitter about your choice of employment. You still do not need to go out insulting other people and calling someone stupid. You do owe her an apology.
I would think just go ahead and apply.
If you've done acute care, you should be fine with radiology. I've never done pathology, but I would think it would be pretty similar to radiology in that they use certain tests for certain specimens. I think there's a touch of radiology and pathology in acute care reports. I do a lot of clinic and also have worked full-time radiology, and they are seem to intertwine. I would say either let your current employer know you're interested and see what happens. 
Listening ahead
I am just wondering if you listen ahead regardless of the length of the dictation?
I do need help increasing productivity and appreciate all suggestions. It just seems wasteful to listen for 5 minutes without doing any work. (Maybe not......others have more experience.) Feedback?
As always my thanks
On listening ahead
Listening ahead doesn't mean to listen without typing or to listen to the whole dictation first.
Older MTs transcribe this way because they had to use older transcribers which typically did not have that little backup or "instant rewind" feature. They didn't stop on a dime, either, but slowed to a stop. During the stop and start, you could lose an entire word or phrase.
MTs thus learned to stop in the pauses between sentences. They listened to the first part of the sentence, began typing after the first couple of words, then paused only to get PARTIALLY caught up. They listened ahead and typed AT THE SAME TIME.
This is a lot more efficient than the hear-a-word/type-a-word method.
It also helps to type slowly enough that you do not make any typos at all. That way, you do not have to stop and correct them. That alone saves huge amounts of time.
I Think I Listen Ahead
I'm old enough that I started transcribing on a typewriter. It was a Selectric, which was state-of-the-art at the time, and was much faster than a machine with a carriage. :)
My stepmother was a court reporter, and I started out transcribing court transcripts. I was thinking just the other day that I can't remember how on earth I managed, what with a baby crawling around while I was typing all day and the fact that errors were a nightmare to fix!
In any event, I had never thought about it until I read this thread, but I guess I listen ahead as I'm typing. I'm not sure what "word-for-word" means, though. Can you explain?
I would go ahead and apply...
If you apply and they pull up your *record* and decide not to hire you, you'll have your answer as to whether that'll affect your ability to get a job. If you get turned down, it's not as if you get put on a list somewhere - this is just a company who will put your file in a drawer somewhere and that's it.
If you do get called back, don't mention it in the interview. That record has been marked as *no conviction* and that's exactly what it means. You don't get treated the same as those *with* convictions.
Also, I had a dispute with a telephone company once and was looking up the situation online and came across several lawyer sites that can answer questions like yours, i.e. whether a record under the first offender act needs to be mentioned on an employment application.
My sister was arrested for shoplifting 30 years ago and she finished nursing school, married a doctor, and with the kids gone now, is back being a scrub nurse, so I don't think you'll have a problem.
Good luck
Way to go!!! Hope I am ahead of you! nm
xx
Sure, go ahead and apply and
do testing if you can't find an employee position that you like. Don't buy any equipment except a USB pedal though. A pedal would be a good investment. Even if the company is a small one, they may still provide equipment you need, or rent it to you if it is a Lanier or C-phone. A lot of companies have you logging into the hospital's system directly so you may not even need a new version of Word. Be prepared to arrange for unlimited long distance if you don't have it already. It looks like lots of places require that. If you have internet cable that should not be a problem; just get internet phone service also and you will have your unlimited long distance.
Good luck with your search. It's a jungle out there.
Sure, go ahead and apply and
do testing if you can't find an employee position that you like. Don't buy any equipment except a USB pedal though. A pedal would be a good investment. Even if the company is a small one, they may still provide equipment you need, or rent it to you if it is a Lanier or C-phone. A lot of companies have you logging into the hospital's system directly so you may not even need a new version of Word. Be prepared to arrange for unlimited long distance if you don't have it already. It looks like lots of places require that. If you have internet cable that should not be a problem; just get internet phone service also and you will have your unlimited long distance.
Good luck with your search. It's a jungle out there.
Eh, I am going ahead with the BS degree.
I can always take electives for x-ray tech. This program has a lot of identical courses, so it would not be hard to switch to another discipline like x-ray. X-ray pays less, but either of these careers is more than what we get as MTs these days... and in 18 months from now, hospitals and clinics will still need on site techs like this, unlike transcription which can unfortunately go poof gone any day now. It's going to be hard, but I am going for it...gotta get out of this business I am sad to say of Mting.
Okay, I apologize ahead of time for this
nm
Addendum: But ya'll go ahead! :)
..
You go ahead and live your lifestyle--
I don't care what you do as long as you do it in the privacy of your own home and leave the rest of us out of it.
Sent you an e-mail, went ahead and bought some.
I just ordered the Noisebuster headphones. They'll be here in two days. We'll see! :o) Thanks for info!
I go ahead and leave blanks
They can't have it all if they won't let me have it all, IMO. If they want to block the site where I could look up the doctor's names, then they'll get a blank if I can't spell it. Let them waste their own time vs mine until the light dawns on their end, I'm not losing money because they force me to be less efficient.
Poll regarding listening ahead.......sm
I am just curious how many of you listen ahead and listen word for word or character by character? I learned word for word in my training and I do think that helps my speed but was just wondering how everyone else does it. I still do word for word but I have one dictator whom no matter how far ahead I listen, they still will change an entire sentence! 
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