what's the difference if they answer your questions or not

• Venting on job interviews - sm - Disgusted
  • me too - me
  • what's the difference if they answer your questions or not - definitely
  • I agree with you. If a recruiter cannot answer your questions and you sm - A recruiter
  • Disgusted too!! - Stacie
  • I've had people tell me that I would need to wait to have my questions answered until I worked... - AzMT
  • You are correct in your expectations. I know the answers to these questions. - Recruiter

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu

Did you have a learning curve with this keyboard?  I was reading about it yesterday.  I understand the home, page up, page down, etc. keys are on the left-hand side of the keyboard.  That would make for some serious re-learning on my part!  How have you coped?  Thanks to both of you in advance

How did you get your accounts and what line rate did you start with? Also do you pick up and drop off? Who do you speak with (Doctor or office manager) when you have a question about dictation?  What is your normal TAT?

--------------------------------

Pounded the pavement 12 years ago, introduced myself in medical buildings/offices that I chose to walk into, handing them my business card, spending a few minutes with them, giving a resume if requested, showed a little of my personality, asked for their business cards, followed up with them with a phone call.  I did this once a week, a different medical building in my area(s).  I started charging at 12 CPL.....never upped them until this year.  They so appreciated that.  I pick up and deliver and also supply plain white paper if they request the work be printed on that versus their letterhead.  I also never charge for just one word on a line, no matter how long that one word might be, and I give them free 5-line headers as it's only 2 Keystrokes for me.  (Most docs like to see something for *free*).  I spoke originally directly with the doctors and some of them I still do talk with them, but many times I just deal with the office staff.  I rarely have to call though.

Hope that helps and good luck to you. 

Let me first tell you about my background.  I've been an MT for 15 years and QA for 7 years.  I have also worked as a supervisor of a MT department in a large inner city hospital.  I went to a business college and enrolled in their newly established MT program and it was awful.  I paid nearly $5000 for my "education" in 1992.  Fortunately, I lucked out and was able to get a p.r.n. MT position with a local hospital and one of the instructors at my school worked at the hospital.  She became my mentor at school and on the job.  I learned more on the job than I did from the school.  I started out making $7.86 an hour!  It seems like peanuts now, but I took it and ran with it.  Best thing I ever did.  I am a firm believer that every newly graduated MT simply MUST work in an office for at least the first year.  You learn so much from other, more experienced MTs.  You develop a trained ear by having someone else with experience listen and tell you what you should be hearing. 

I owe my career to Martha, Jane, Sherri, and Helen.  They are all retired now, but they were MTs back when they used typewriters and recording belts!  They were my mentors in the beginning and everything they taught me is still with me today!

what type of school is nec.? Personally, I feel that you can take a medical terminology course, anatomy and physiology I and II, and English at your local community college and that is a good start.  I don't feel like any of the online schools out there really prepare anyone for the real world of transcription and their tuition is outrageous!  You can go to a community college for half of what you pay some of those "business" or "career" colleges.

is school required? Those courses I listed should be required.

what is an apprenticeship? can i work as an apprentice and get paid? I think an apprenticeship is an excellent idea.  After you completed the necessary course work, on-the-job experience is the next step in the learning process and an essential step.  As far as being paid, there are companies out there that pay a minimal line rate (usually 5 or 6 cpl) to newbie MTs who are still learning.  Even if you don't get paid, it's still excellent training and education.

can i work at home straight out of school or do i have to work at an office or hospital first?  Unfortunately, you can work from home right out of school, but I don't recommend it.  Like I said above, there is a gigantic learning curve the first year or two out of school.  And even after 15 years on the job, there is still a little bit of a learning curve.  For at least the first year, you need to be in an office with other experienced MTs.

I'm a fairly new MT and have done all my MT-ing so far with C-phones.  I am being switched to a Winscribe system.  My question is this:  Will the MTSO be able to monitor how fast or slow I'm transcribing?  I'm not trying to get away with anything.  It's just that I've read horror stories from some MTs on certain platforms where the MTSO can see (and calls) whenever they're "off the system" (bathroom breaks, looking up a word, legitimate coffee-breaks) etc.  I work as an IC and have a window in which to get my work done rather than a set number of hours.  What I'm wondering is if the MTSO, with this new system, will now be able to "see" if I'm not typing every single minute.  TIA

I really do appreciate it. 

DixieKaye

I just recently went back to work in the office at a local hospital. We type in both Meditech and Cerner, depending on what you are typing, i.e. Medical Records reports versus Radiology.  We are currently typing blindly in Meditech, meaning we do not have access to our line counts and must depend on management to give us our totals.  In Cerner, we are able to run a line count report and print out a hard copy of our line counts at the end of the day.

We are finding that 800 lines in Cerner equals about 500 lines in Meditech.  We are not paid per line nor do we have an incentive plan, but we have a new HIM Director who would like to institute an incentive plan and the administrator over our department has laid down the law and decreed that all transcriptionists not making minimum in the department will be written up.  Problem is according to Meditech line totals that we have been given, that would be about half the department.

The transcription supervisor has taken our concerns to the new director who told the MT Supervisor to hold off on writing people and has taken home all the line counts from the last month and she is going over them with a fine tooth comb this weekend.

I am not a very trusting soul by nature, so I am doing a little research on my own.  I've been in this business for about 15 years.  I started out in a hospital and have worked for a few services at home and am now back in the hospital setting.  So I know a few things about line count and I consider myself to be pretty well informed on trends and technology in the industry.   I would like to walk into our next department meeting armed with as much knowledge as possible.  So I have come up with some questions that I would like some fellow MTs to answer, give opinions, and maybe even direct me to websites or individuals who could give me a better understanding of Meditech and Cerner.  Here are my questions:

1. Is it possible for an MT to have access to her line count in Meditech or is strictly a management function?  Any MTs that work in Meditech on this board, do you currently have access to your line counts and if so, how do you check them?  Is it an option on the main menu after you log into Meditech?


2. How is a line defined in Meditech?  (i.e. 65 cpl, with spaces, without spaces)


3. How is a line defined in Cerner?


4. What abbreviation Expanders work with both Meditech and Cerner?


5. Examples of incentive plans (if anyone would like to share that with me that would be great, if not I completely understand).


6. Measuring productivity by minutes of dictation versus typed lines.




1. What would be the minimum minutes required for an 8-hour day?


2. How would one structure an incentive program based on minutes?

I was thinking of presenting the idea that we keep track of productivity using minutes instead of lines since there is such a discrepancy in Meditech.  I also worry that if an incentive plan is put into place and we are still typing blind into Meditech, what's to keep management from shaving off a few lines here and there?

Feel free to email me or post here any responses.  Either is fine.  I really appreciate any input, comments, or just plain old supportive posts would be nice too! 

When people first started coming to America, it was an undeveloped country.  Aside from the Indians, there were no other people living here.  What other language was there aside from what the Indians spoke?  The new Americans and the Indians learned to communicate with each other and both sides learned the other's language.  It only stands to reason, however, that English would be the dominant language, as they became the majority of those living in America. 

Also, when our founding fathers came to America, they and the others that then followed made America what it was and is today.  THEY are the ones who made America great by the blood, sweat and tears of their families.  They had every right to come over here as they were the ones doing all the work!!!!!  They did that work to take care of the future generations of Americans. 

But now our "powers that be" in the government do not make decisions based on AMERICAN best interests, but for people from other countries.  To be politically correct, we have flooded our country with people that want to prosper from OUR WORK.  They do not come over here and better America in any way.  They better their own little circle of family and actually make life harder for the people who belong here in the first place. 

That is the difference between immigrants then and now.  The more we let them in now, the more jobs we lose, the higher our bills become, the more terrorism we face.  When do WE benefit???????  It has nothing to do with prejudice either.  Who cares what they look like, where they are from?  It doesnt matter.  What matters is what they expect, what handouts they want, the bending of the rules for them while we get no break.

If you are Native American, then I would think that  you would be sick and tired of having all you work for taken away from you.  I know that I am.

they have a mechanism in place to allow you multiple installs. This only gives you 3.

If you want to make more money, then become the business owner, take the risks and then you'll have the additional income. You'll never get rich working for someone else. Complaining and badmouthing management and other business owners never translates into more $$ in the check--sometimes people complain themselves right out of a job.

I know this board is an "open forum" for all topics. It's just unfortunate that so much of the talk is about how terrible management/business owners are. There are lots of good MTSOs out there!

We are not an MTSO, we are employees of the facility working out of our homes.  I will keep track of the e-mails though as you have suggested. 

I do believe though that it is more or less passing the buck.  That way if it was supposed to be in there and it wasn't the doc has someone else to blame.  Thanks everyone.

eScription and ExText/ExSpeech.  I think Dictaphone administers both, but I think their ExText/ExSpeech platform is horrible.  ExText locked up at least twice a night (requiring a reboot) before I went to ExSpeech.  Now that I am in ExSpeech, the footpedal freezes (requiring a reboot), and the ExSpeech platform takes a week-long holiday every month or so, so if you are a VR editor, you still have to try to make Expanders and learn the traditional authors for that little bit of downtime.

Is the eScription platform any better?  My company has both, but I do not want to go through the trouble of learning a new platform and new accounts for the same crap I am already experiencing.

Sorry if I seem rude, it is just 3 weeks before Christmas, and I do not need the hassle of finally having work and the #@%$ platform does not work properly.

being realistic and pessimistic, tactful and rude.  I personally prefer to offer an optimistic viewpoint and hope that she takes the advice and builds a great business. We need more good MTSOs.