have always considered myself transcriptionist 'ist' is a specialist. nm
Posted By: oh well on 2008-06-26
In Reply to: I still refer to myself as a 'transcriber' because I hate - AAMT's stupid mc-word, 'transcriptionist'
mm
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I never liked the 'ist' because it feminizes the
to the job being considered on the very outer fringes of importance, and our pay going down, not up.
And reason #2 is more practical: I find it nearly impossible to fit the long word 'transcriptionist' into most spaces on forms, including tax forms, that ask for the type of work you do. So I use the shorter "transcriber".
And #3, I just never liked where the 'ist' word came from (AAMT), and that it came about at pretty much the same time as our wages, job satisfaction and respectability all took a nosedive.
OP Specialist
I have a friend that feels the same way. She loves them. She copies most of the notes, attaches the surgeon's name to it and a brief description and saves them. She says they dictate the same (practically) and she reuses a good portion of the note. Does this make sense.
Kathy
The last specialist I saw regarding my TMJ, sm
suggested that if I didn't proceed with the recommended surgery and braces, to simply hook my thumbs under my mandible and pull my jaw forward and hold it there for a few seconds. I found this helps more than anything else I've tried, and it's cheap, too.
As for neck and back, my physical therapist suggested raising and lowering the typing chair several times a day to prevent a "freezing posture" which is what causes our pain. He also suggested getting up and moving around every hour.
During my break, I find it very therapeutic to go outside and pull weeds. This dissolves any aggressions I had with difficult, clueless dictators, uses different muscles, and makes my yard look better.
My eye doc suggested to frequently gaze at a distant object during the course of the day to prevent eyestrain.
Another great exercise for the shoulders is to clasp your hands behind your back and just rest there a few seconds. Repeat each time you feel strain coming. This helps a lot, too!
I 100% agree with the ES Specialist...
If the pretyped text document one receives on the computer is full of mistakes, it is diffult and takes a lot of time to correct it. Confusing, I would say.
If it does not contain errors, it's a breeze!
But usually it has a lot of errors, whole sentences that do not belong there and are not included in the voice file.
Medical Language Specialist
That is our title, Medical Language Specialist, which really throws people. When asked to define what that is, tell them you translate medical dictation to document form, be it hard copy document or electronic docment, to provide pertinent medical information for patients, physicians and hospital staff. See their reaction. 
Of course when they say "all you do is type," ask them to spell esophagogastroduodenoscopy as an example of the terminology you use. That usually shuts them up. (Smile)
I worked for an infectious disease specialist sm
who was asked his opinion on someone suing a company because he caught pneumonia from being cold, then hot. This specialist said you cannot catch cold or any other illness from temperature, just from a bug. A person could get hypothermic and then get ill, but it would have to be in extreme cases. Here, it was 20 degrees on Monday and Tuesday, and yesterday 81, and today 62. I'm staying away from people who are coughing and sneezing. Temperature changes have nothing to do with illness.
Taiwanese ophthalmologist/retinal specialist
he was horrible. i scrubbed for him too, and when he dictated, he tried to do good but in surgery, he was horrible!
Just stating, "I'm a medical language specialist" usually stumps them (nm)
x
I would say a GI is the correct specialist and keep switching until you find one who helps you. So
//
I seriously considered it myself because
my former coworker kept telling me how great it was. She planned on getting rich off of it and retiring by the time she was 35. She was too busy promoting her "home business" on company time and the company computer to even get her work done at her regular job. She's still not rich or retired.
Also, there are a lot of negatives out there regarding Ameriplan. There is one dentist in my entire state that accepts Ameripan cards. No other medical providers will even consider it. One good post by someone trying to sell Ameriplan doesn't negate lawsuits, BBB complaints, and thousands of people who weren't given refunds when they requested. I would never stand behind a company that wasn't ethical and honest with people.
Believe me, I understand what it's like to work hard and still live paycheck to paycheck. However, "Posting advertisements or solicitations of business" and "spamming" are against MTstars terms of service, which you agree to when using this site. Selling the discount cards (and/or recruiting people) is what you were trying to do, so be honest here.
Have you considered......
Where I work, there are a people who actually work part time, at 30 to 35 hours per week so that they do not have to meet the high line count for full time. If benefits is not an issue for you and you are paid by the line maybe you should consider 30-35 hours a week instead of 40. I am sure you would not loose much money and making rate would not be a problem because you would have that big gap i.e part time rate is 5,100 and full time rate is 10,200 that would mean your only required to make 5,100 a pay period even if you are 30 to 35 hours a week......then you would'nt have to work so hard and you could have more time with you son. From what I have heard from other MTs...it was actually a relief for them to have to go part-time because they did not have all the pressure anymore.....it is something to think about. However, if insurance/benefits is an issue than I could see how this might be difficult.
You might also want to try getting on earlier, ie. 4 am to 7am and then once your son is off to school get back on and complete your shift. I wish you luck. I am sure something will work out.
Have you considered
asking your company if you could copy someone's? You wouldn't happen to be working on ExText and using the ESP would you?
It's not anything I considered, but I just...
Googled scoping and came up with quite a few hits that should be able to give you some info.
re: anybody ever considered
A lady I know is married to an HVAC man, and she got a general contractor's license. She makes money off it, but subcontracts all the work out on building jobs. Her husband does the HVAC part.
Anybody ever considered
becoming a plumber or some other type of construction? My husband and I are looking at things we could do together. Don't even know if a woman could do the job and I'm 54 so might be too old to cut the mustard and been doing MT for 9 years so out of shape.
Is 4 cpl considered too low?
Is 4cpl, 65 character line including spaces and hard returns, very low for a new graduate? I've been told that this is exceptionally low. BUT, with companies offering MTs with 5+ years of experience 7-9 cpl I thought it was a fair wage.
Am I wrong? Am I working for a MT 'sweatshop'? The accounts are not difficult, and no ESLs.
Now after hearing some people tell me I am working for peanuts I am wondering if I need to find a different job. I like these accounts, but I also want a fair wage. I was told we'd renagotiate pay when I got off full QA.  Am I being taken advantage of?
I have considered that myself but have yet -sm
to find a product that I can get my hands on cheaply (i.e. wholesale) in order to re-sell at a good profit, not 1 or 2 dollars. I have 2 boxes of stuff right now that I plan to put on ebay, old kid toys basically, books, etc. Don't care much about making a bundle just want to de-clutter my house some, one man's junk is someone else's treasure and all that jazz. I have toyed with the wholesale designer clothing scene (returns/imperfects) but it requires connections and basically buying a tractor trailer worth of clothes for $5K or more, nothing to enter lightly. As with most risky ventures you have to have money in order to make money (i.e. stock market). But in regards of gettign out of MT I have just gotten my CDL for bus driving, have 10 more hours of training (paid too at $8/hr) then I can substitute drive for my county, yeah! Within a year I should have my own route (don't have to use my own gas either to get to work, nice, they have a shuttle pick you up at home), work 2-3 hours a day and get $60 a day for my trouble, a lot better than I make doing MT. Great thing is I get paid 12-months a year and make about $1K a month which is not much less than I make now and I work a lot more than 3 hours a day. I still plan to do MT but cut back some so I can reclaim my life a bit. I will still have freedom to do what I want during the day and have a well paying PT job (which they call FT and it has benefits too, health insurance and 401K). So it is an interesting alternative for me and will give me a steady income and I will have job security too unless I have a ton of accidents for some reason, but really don't expect that to happen as I am a good driver. In time may apply to the USPS for driving the smaller mail trucks (not tractor trailers, different CDL class), have to get 1 year experience before I can consider that. Just looking at my options for the future as my DH wants to retire in 8 years at 55 (who doesn't?)(I'm 7 years younger by the way) so I need a job with good health insurance IF we have to change insurance that is, something I do not want to do since we have phenomemal coverage. Doubt this helped you at all but maybe it will get you thinking of other avenues other than ebay. Good luck!
Have you considered therapy?
zz
We were considered a valuable
not just a sweatshop drone. 
Have you considered asking your instructor
for help? After all, you are presumably paying for your education. Shouldn't the school be helping you when you have difficulty? Why should you expect working MTs to drop everything and help you? Maybe you just need to put more time into your studies. If you're going to be a successful MT, you're going to have to learn to figure things out for yourself.
I considered a lease once (sm)
but when I found out my payment would be only $1 different I decided to buy instead. My loan was for the same length of time as the lease, had no "fees" attached, and didn't require a down payment. Make sure you read all the fine print on a lease. They can determine who services the vehicle. They determine "wear and tear" when you turn it in, early termination fees (you never know), and on and on. Any little dent that might be on the vehicle will need to be repaired, either by your insurance or out of your pocket, or they will charge you for it at turn-in. Beward of leasing salesmen that call you after you have already leased the vehicle and try to squeeze cash out of you. I've heard of that scam more than once.
The only way to end up upside down on a loan is to pay more than it's worth to begin with. As soon as you drive a new vehicle off the lot you are upside down on the loan and will be for at least 6-12 months. You'd be better off buying a vehicle from someone else who made that mistake. Not a lease buy-back, but from a private individual who needs to get out of their loan and hasn't driven the vehicle into the ground in a year's time. With a year-old vehicle you can easily determine whether there are major problems with them too, unlike new vehicles where you just hope it's going to be okay. Check epinions.com and read reviews from owners who are already driving that vehicle. Good luck!
Are you serious? Is 1400 really considered low???
nm
Have you considered the Kinesis?
I have the Kinesis Classic and I have tried several types of keyboards and find this one has the lightest touch that I have personally tried and it also stopped all my finger, hand and wrist pain I had prior to that. They are pricey and take some time getting use to but, to me, it is well worth it. I can't even type on a regular keyboard now. I use one even with my laptop.
Patti, have you considered
considered overnighting tapes? Find an excellent MT to subcontract and overnight the work back and forth when you need time off (we ALL need time off!!!). If your clients are willing to wait days for you to do the work that has built up, they may be willing to wait an extra 12 or 24 hours for overnight. Once you train your sub, you can go on vacation, your client's office staff overnights tapes to your subcontractor, the sub overnights the reports back.
I know how it is to come back from vacation and have piles of work staring at you. That is one of the reasons I stopped taking my own clients and now only subcontract from services.
Trolls are considered to be the certain--sm
individuals who frequent the board and post responses to other peoples posts that could be considered rude or inflammatory, just to start an argument.
Been at it 33 years - most likely that's considered well beyond
X
what are considered ops notes?
I currently type clinic reports but I would like a change. I was considering ops notes. I am not sure what it means when a company indicates Ops notes experience. 
No lawsuit even considered
I nor my friend have even considered a lawsuit. I just get mad at being pre-DISQUALIFIED no matter how good I am at my work. I have had to deal with this problem all my life, so it is nothing new. It is just that I have never been visually disqualified for anything before in regard to work and this was a real eye-opener to me.
And for the record. Morbid obesity is a legal handicap and so is being left handed which I am both. It is just sad. Oh well... I will continue to work where I am appreciated for my job well done...and so will my friend....:) They pay me way more anyway.
I think it's really sad when 0.095 is considered good
I made that over 12 years ago. To know that MTs really believe that 9-1/2 cents a line is mouthwatering pay these days just shows how much the industry has changed for the worst and isn't ever coming back to us.
All our skills, knowledge, intelligence, experience, work ethic, and everything else we bring to the table as MTs is worth little more than 7 cents a line, if that, no matter if you have 10, 20, 30+ years experience.
To get the ever-evasive 10 cents a line, you either have to jump through hoops with the most awful ESLs or American mushmouths you'll ever hear in your life...OR...you'll only get 5 reports a day because there's not enough work to go around.
I admit I'm just beating a dead horse. I really need to get out of this business, I know. I rue the day I chose medical transcription as my career of choice. What a stupid thing to do.
Just wondering - doesn't anyone remember probably about 1998 or 1999, if I recall correctly, when almost all the jobs on the MT job boards would pay at least 9 cents a line for experienced MTs?
At that time, I remember it was the norm for MTs to come on the boards and complain about any companies who were trying to get away with paying experienced MTs a measly 8 cents a line! LOL I remember those days well. That's why I have such a hard time with 8 cents apparently being the norm even for EXPERIENCE now, when it was higher a decade ago. And 9 or 9.5 cents being considered frickin PRIMO pay. ..? Uggh!!!
I'm just royally ticked. I know what's happened & no use going back and rehashing and torturing myself, so I have to let it go. Maybe go get a waitressing job here some time this week, too ;)
I considered polysomnography, too....sm
There's a school nearby that offers it. Then in researching online I found a chatboard much like this one, but for polysomnographers, and the complaints were rampant...long boring hours, understaffed, low pay. Didn't seem like much job satisfaction. Gave me a bad taste, and I dropped the idea soon after.
You know you are a transcriptionist
n
come on.. you are a transcriptionist
if you have ever been in house when someone has tried to illegaly obtain medical records... lawyers, insurance people, you know what I'm talking about.
There are a million ways to use your medical information against you.
My SIL wants to be a transcriptionist...
She wants to study at home, but I went to college for it like 15 years ago. I don't know anything about computer courses or whatever. I don't just want to "google" it. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
Jodi 
Is a transcriptionist a
healthcare professional? I am filling out something online that asks me to select a category - that is closest thing besides other....
PT transcriptionist
It's cake once you get used to the terms. Stedman's ortho and rehab words is a life saver for me. "Googling" also helps a lot. Get the stedman's dictionary and within a couple of weeks, you should be doing fine!
Feel free to ask away if you need help with anything else on this subject!
How Much Can One Transcriptionist Do....
Hi all, I am wanting to get some advice here. I work at home for a 270 bed acute care hospital and have a minimum of 5000 lines per two week pay period requirement to maintain insurance. I also work as an IC for a psychiatrist doing progress notes on tapes that they aren't in any real hurry about (usually pick up tapes twice a week) and then work part-time for a national company. I just was called to do transcription for a neurological group that has three physicians. They have basically told me to set my price as they are unhappy with the person doing it right now and are looking for someone else. When do you know you have reached your limit or do you just try it for a while? Also, I have a friend who is wanting to do some work on the side, but I am not sure how to go about doing this (paying, taxes, etc). Any help here would be appreciated. What do others in this situation do? Thanks
Tami
Are you a transcriptionist.....if so....you can
NM
You know you are a transcriptionist when...
You know you are a Transcriptionist when...you tell your four year old daughter to get ready to go to bed and she looks up at your from her favorite toy (an old keyboard) and says "Let me finish my report first. "
Is transcriptionist necessary for
VR, yes, for the time being. I have worked on VR now for the same place 4-5 years, exact same physicians for the most part. It was pure salad starting off but like I said, surprised me when it went so fast to straight VR. The pay is different for this. Did you know that? I do a combination of VR and also some straight, 75% VR and the pay is a lot lower. Is yours a combination of the 2 or not? I have good speed so it really it not a hinderence to me, might be if I did straight VR.
ER transcriptionist
I have been an oncology Transcriptionist for over 6 years and getting a little bored with it, so was contemplating doing ER. Can any of you ER pros tell me what you like about it or don't like about it. Is it difficult to learn the lingo and get the lines you need to produce? Any info is appreciated.
Thanks for your input.
Transcriptionist!!
I remember when word-processors replaced typewriters. Back then, people were concerned that they would no longer be called typists.
Face it. Speech Recognition is here to stay, and editing is better than typing. I make more money with editing at 3.9 cents per line than typing at 8 cents per line.
Isn't this considered a policitical discussion?
Along with daycare, mothers working, breastfeeding in public, cosleeping, religion, politics, and all those other hot topics that are just going to flame anyways?
Isn't your husband considered family? LOL
Come on, let your inner child out. Which movie star do you have a crush on?
Driving a van was actually considered "cool"
x
Have you considered a split shift? DH and I
are on separate schedules (though I have some flexibility) and we find we have to plan private time. I'm a night person, he's a morning person - just doesn't work very well. If you worked Sunday through Thursday schedule you'd have a chance to have some time to sleep on Friday and you could still have a weekend and not be dragging your butt. If kids are all in school you could sleep during the day and working nights might not be so bad. There will be a period of adjustment and there will have to be some compromise about when you sleep and when DH takes care of the kids, but you do what you have to do.
Has anyone ever considered going to med school after years of MT or
xx
Have you considered Physical Therapy?
Or occupational therapy? There is a great need for it, it helps people, and you generally don't kill anyone (grin). While it takes a master's degree to be a physical therapist, the assistant is a 2-year degree.
I have an application in to the physical therapy program at my university, and I'm a little nervous because I'll be turning 50 my next birthday. On the plus side, I won't have children surreptitiously sticking the cat into a Ziplock bag while I'm trying to study this time.
You are considered the transcription supervisor, yet you are the only MT. SM
So what exactly do you supervise? Yourself?
I think you are being territorial and I think they could hire Claudia Tessier and you'd find something to complain about.
If 35 hours is considered FT, at what point does
OT kick in, anything over 35 or at 40?
I considered this as a career a while back...
I was actually training to be an interpreter for the Deaf and when that wasn't turning out to be what I thought it would be... I was looking into other options involving the Deaf community. Closed captioning was one of those options and at the time (this was about 10 years ago) they were doing live-captioning but it was NOT work at home. Of course, there may have been companies who did pre-broadcast captioning as well, this was just the part I had heard about/was interested in doing.
I always assumed the typos you see were due to people typing 500 words/minute, not voice recognition. 
Is p.o. considered dangerous abbreviation?
nm
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