I'd concentrate more on not leaving as many
Posted By: me on 2007-02-06
In Reply to: How do you get to 200-300 lph? - Tomatoe
blanks since that seems to be more of an issue. The speed will come with practice. My very first day I did about 670 lines, no macros, no previous MT experience, no MT education, and I nearly flunked typing in school. I have been at this for nearly 20 years and I can routinely do 300 lph and sometimes closer to 400 lph, but not consistently, and those are proofed client ready lines.
I'm assuming you are working at home and if you aren't this won't apply, but if you are on-line many times throughout the day, work on only getting on-line to check your e-mails. If you can wait to send work in, write down all your questions and get on-line at the end of the day to investigate. If you are allowing yourself to be distracted by TV or household chores, make yourself work 2 hours before getting up. You can set a timer if you need to. Personally I find my biggest time waster is the internet. I get on to look something up and 30 minutes later I get off and I never looked up what it was I got on for, but checked e-mails again and answered them, surfed my regular sites, etc.
After you have gotten better about filling in blanks then work on your speed. I set the speed of my dictation up a bit and increase it a notch every few months.
If you get corrected files back from QA save them. Print them out and put them in a notebook by doctor. When I started my current position I had lots of experience, just not with ESL dictators and I had lots of them. I was overwhelmed because I had several blanks in almost every report and and I can usually go months at a time with no blanks. When I had the corrected reports to look at I was able to decipher what they were saying and couldn't believe that I didn't hear it the first go round.
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I would concentrate more on
the medical aspect of the testing than the Word part. Most of what you would need to know in Word to do reports is going to be as simple as knowing how to make a numbered list line up (Ctl-T), how to use autocorrect in order to insert "canned" text and simple things. Don't worry too much about formatting because they will give you samples to follow if you get the job. Most employers don't even looked at formatting when hiring because everyone formats differently.
Think more in line of HOW do you find something you don't know. What web sites are good to have noted in your favorite list...how to use Google for searches, maybe sign up for a free month on the Stedman website, free subscription to Monthly Prescribing Reference...how to quickly find a doctor's name and address.
Yes you should look through your terminology to brush up on that, as well as the drug list. I think Rxlist.com has the top 200 drugs on their home page, at least they used to.
Good luck. It sounds like a good way to get into the business.
d~
I would concentrate on your
expansion program, making more shortcuts for yourself. Listen for his key phrases. You can do English phrases as well as medical phrases. You are doing fine at 5 weeks production wise IMO, but if you add another 3 hours of work a day so soon it could be hard on your mind and body. Personally I wouldn't add more work until you can get 1200 lines done in 6 or 7 hours. That's when I'd think about stepping up the work, but that's just me.
Stay healthy. Get your exercise with brisk walking, swinging your arms if possible (I know, most moms are pushing a stroller when they're exercising, but I'm afraid it must put their shoulders in knots!). If your neck and shoulders get tight, you'll have pain and get tired and start having headaches. Sounds like you're doing well with the work though.
Leaving outside job
I once was in your position. After Andrews, I also kept my outside job for several months while taking on a PT MT job. When I reached the same $ amount doing transcription PT as my FT outside job, I went FT at home. Yes, you still may be slower at first, but you will have the motivation (and more time) to keep increasing those line counts. Pretty soon you'll wonder why you didn't make the switch sooner. :)
Good luck to you!
Leaving the dinosaur behind...
Hi, I'm a newbie to this board and hope someone can help me.My experience has been working from home for a clinic, but driving back and forth picking up/dropping off micro cassettes and using them in a regular transcriber at home. They used word perfect 5.1 (yes, I said 5.1, remember the blue screen from 15 years ago?) and I save all my work on a 3-1/2" floppy and that's how I have done it for the past 5-1/2 years. Well, now they are downsizing, bringing all transc. inhouse for the secretaries to do so here I am looking for a job. Since I have only done one speciality, I am limited, however, I am a super fast learner and pick up on things very quickly. My question - I have been doing a lot of reading and searching job lists. I don't know which is the best equip to get. I have taken a test for one company that worked fine with an olympus foot pedal and worked on any program on my computer (itunes, Express scribe, jukebox, dss, windows media, and quicktime player) but I tried to take another test through startstop/gearplayer (vox file). I couldn't get that one to play. In your exp. should I have two foot pedals? I'm afraid I will get hired and not be prepared. Also, is it possible to get used to the hot keys on express scribe (which I downloaded free already) and not even use a pedal? I'm sure I will have more questions later, just didn't want to wear out my welcome on my first post as I know this is a long one. Thank you so much for spending your valuable time on this!
Sherrie
Leaving blank
Leave a blank about 10 spaces long so it can be easily seen. Send an e-mail to the QA person and make it known that there is a blank. However, this only depends on the requirements of your particular employer. All employers are different on how they want blanks handled.
It's hard to tell because you are leaving out one important item
it says "can work from home after training period."
Is this a place that is local to you? Why don't you try googling the email address and see what comes up.
There are some hospitals that are willing to train people for this job, but I have found that happens in very very tiny hospitals where they may have something like 40 beds or less.
I know when I was just starting, I was leaving whole phrases blank! sm
that is the only way to build your vocabulary. Also you need to learn techniques for re-listening to figure out words. First rewind and listen over and over and try to pick up the very beginning. Be careful that you don't let the end of the prior word run over into the beginning of the word you are trying to figure out, (as in "gonna lash it to the bow", if the end of "lash" runs over into the beginning of "it" LOL). If you can figure out the beginning then run through the dictionary or word book, looking for possible matches. Relisten through the matches. Be careful with similar sounds, B and P, V and F. If you think it starts with a P and you don't find it, look in the B's. If you can't find the beginning, then start listening for the end. Sometimes that can be helpful. Once you have more experience you will have an idea of what **should** be in the blank and you can look for something that might fit and go from there. p.s. this is why MTSO's don't want to hire newbies....too much extra training 
Leave a blank. Leaving a blank may be bad, but it is better than guessing
and guessing it wrong. Listen to the whole dictation, transcribe it, and then go back through it again. I have 18 years' experience and I've taken a couple of tests recently and I've had to leave a blank or too and still got offered positions.
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