I'm the slow kid in the back.....
Posted By: starstruck on 2008-04-25
In Reply to:
...and I need to get faster! My transcription is okay but my line counts are low. After transcribing, I re-listen to the entire file to make sure I got everything. My mentor says that's slowing me down too much. Can any of you established MTs share some advice on how to edit more efficiently? I know it's supposed to be something that comes with time, but is there any way to hurry the process along a bit??
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I may have one that I bought a while back. Will check tonight and get back to you.
nm
I'm new, but am I still too slow?
I am working on getting faster but here is where I am now:
8 weeks into a new job, my first as an MT. It is clinic work and I have the same 7 or so dictators and its a fairly easy specialty. I send an average of about 1 out of 7 or 8 of my reports to QA for blanks or clarification. They have me sending everything else straight back to the client, so they must be OK with my quality (the account format was pretty easy to learn)
I type between 150 - 185 lph (no spaces counted, 65 char line). I was told to keep my research time down very very low because I am slow, but I am still trying to spend up to a minute or two figuring out drug names or names of equipment or procedures. I have my stedmans word book and my drug book by my side and Google at the ready.
I have a secondary account on which I am not as fast, and don't get to do as often, and I type an average of 120 - 135 lph (no spaces counted, 65 char line) on that.
I sometimes feel like I am doing OK because I get a little faster each week, and sometimes I feel like I am just slower than molasses.
I guess I am just trying to get a feel for where I, as a newbie, should be in terms of speed. I was told that some other MTs on the account are around 200 lph, but was not told how new they are or when they started working on the account.
Thanks. Not sure if I should feel  or  or simply just keep on truckin 
Been slow over here too.
Caught between a rock and a hard place. I need the experience. I need to be working constantly to get that experience. Oh well, I will press forward. Maybe the work will start piling up soon.
It is normal to be slow at first
I mostly edit VR reports with a few standard thrown in on acute care and ER reports. When I first started, I might have made 500 lines on a good day. Now I generally get 1200-1600 and have been doing this for 1-1/2 years. Once in a while though, I will have a run of difficult speakers and wind up with fewer lines on those days. So, I think it is safe to say we all can have a bad day sometimes.
Rest assured, as a new MT your speed and confidence will grow. When I first started, I found myself looking up a lot more than I ever thought I would have to. Of course, I still find the need to research, but not on every report.
My best suggestion for increasing speed is to try to get where you can read (and comprehend) along with the speaker. That was hard for me at first because I guess my mind was filling in errors at times and I would have to catch them on proofing, but I found slowing down the dictation helped until I got used to the speaker's voice.
I don't think anyone can really tell you exactly how many lines you should be getting right now without knowing what kind of account and difficulty of speakers you have because some accounts and speakers are easier/more difficult than others. Most of us start off rather slow and build from there. Accuracy is extraordinarily important and is key to your success.
I wish you success. God Bless.
You need to go back
I've been doing this for 22+ years, that includes in-house, on a QA level, managing, and being an MT. I have never reached 50K and do not anticipate that I ever will. I have reached that 40K mark on good years like the other post stated, but 50K is unrealistic without years of experience and great pay...which we do not get anymore. You really have to love this job, not like it, and give hours and hours to it. It consumed me for a number of years, then I realized I needed a life. Gratefully, I went back to just being an MT working at home and actually make more money then when I was a manager. If you are simply in this for the money, you will get burned out very fast. This profession can burn you out like no other. Good luck on your choices, but be realistic.
Getting back in
What would a refresher course do for you? The purpose of a course isn't to teach you a bunch of words, instruments, and drugs. It's to teach you how to transcribe--the process, the expectations, what references to use and how to use them, etc.
If you worked for 4 years, you should already know how to transcribe. The fact that you were away from it for 5 months doesn't mean you lost all that knowledge. You should still be able to get going with it.
No training course is going to update you to TODAY, because there are no training materials that close. When you trained before, you might have felt that you learned words and terms that were "current," but they were only as current as the teaching materials.
You should be able to dive right into a job. If you want some review, consider getting some of the SUM program tapes . . . maybe the ESLs. That's a good set and you'll benefit from it. They also have practice tests and other materials at reasonable cost.
If you do that, you can get your speed back up enough to feel comfortable applying for a job. After that, you should be able to work just fine.
Redpen
Andrews School
Going back to school
I have been taking an at home MT course. I have lost all ambition to continue with it due to the things I have read on this site. I don't want to waste anymore of my time and money on something where I will not even be able to find a job when I am finished. It appears there are hardly any jobs out there for "newbies", and the money doesn't seem to be much. So, I have decided to go back to college and go into radiology. It will only take two years and I will make more money than doing MT work. Good Luck to all of you.
Get back what you can, and enroll with...
M-TEC, Inc. The cost is substantially less, and they offer placement assistance. Their current rate of placement is about 97%. Most companies waive the 2-year experience requirement for M-Tec grads.
So what if someone is getting a kick-back
If someone is helping others, and they want the help, why should kick-backs matter? I did not take an online course or any course for that matter, but why should it matter if someone is getting a kick-back? I think that is just a nasty way to be when we should be helping one another. Sounds like a little jealousy to me. JMO.
They responded back to me...
10 hours (600 minutes) of transcription is all they do in "training." Gees - that's absolutely nothing!
Go back to school?
They came to town, advertised in the local newspaper, held a seminar in which they promised lots of work and no worries about technology taking over. I enrolled, worked my pootootie off, paid a lot of money and discovered a newfound respect for medical transcriptionists. I just finished the MT course after about a year almost 1/2 with a GPA of 91, yet I never once thought to investigate what companies were hiring and whom they wanted. I did call the local hospital and an owner of a transcription service who advised me to enroll in school. Now...I find companies want 2+ years of experience and the local hospital is not hiring at this time. I did not attend Andrews or M-TEC; however, I am wondering if I should enroll in one or the other. Any advice for someone fresh out of school looking for a job?
ME too, I wish they would open it back up to us, with
strict rules and if you break them, you are out, that probably is too time-consuming, oh well. Great supportive board there.
Getting back in the field
I have a certificate in medical transcription with four years experience working from home; however, I have not worked in five years since quitting to be a full-time mom. Can anyone recommend a great way to back into the field or a refresher course from a reputable company? I would love to do transcription again but don't want to spend a lot of money to do it since I already completed a course a few years back. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Getting back in the field
Thank you for the advice. I do need to update my reference materials. The school I attended no longer offers the program and unfortunately the company I worked for is no longer around after my supervisor retired, so I am at somewhat of a disadvantage. Has anyone ever heard of FutureMT? They have one of the least expensive programs on the internet. I'm looking at that one and MedTrans Inc. I hate to repeat a lot of what I know, but may not have a choice at this point.
Getting back in the field
I'll look into this. Thank you!
I am going back to college
I went to school back in 06 for this. I know MT is going down. I know I cannot give my kids the kind of life I want to doing MT. I absolutely want to stay in the medical field, so I chose to go back to college for nursing. I am getting a loan for it, and at least I know that when I am done with schools and testing I CAN get a job in the hospital without a problem and be able to pay off my loan. Its just right for me and my family.
If I were you, I'd want my money back from whatever MT course you took.
If you've had any decent MT training at all, this shouldn't have been any problem for you.
I go back to test...
later this week. they called me back after the interview!!!!! woohoo!!!!
thank you for the encouraging words! :)
Go back to the school that trained you
and demand that they finish the job. They did not make you job-ready. Your English-language skills are too weak to make you employable in any position other than a dead-end, minimum-wage job. Bluntly speaking, if you do not improve your English communications skills, you will face disappointment in your job search.
Got that right, mom! Can't just put the little ones on the back burner while you try and earn a
s
I'm like you, type, then go back and relisten. I used to just
read but kept falling asleep. I just turn the speed up several notches and relisten and it isn't so bad. I actually am sometimes able to get a blank with the speed up that I couldn't when I played it several times at regular speed.
Disagree. MT is dying. Get out and don't loook back.
x
I send my wav. files back and Encrypt them
x
Funny how you keep coming back and posting this - sm
Makes me think YOU are the "owner" of Proficient Transcription. Hmmmmmm...
What I want to know is why the VLC owner lives in Canada and is not allowed back in the U.S.?
nm
Sorry you didn't check it out before signing up. Can you get your money back?
It definitely is not a very good school, and you definitely will have a difficult time finding a job after finishing that course, because the people doing the hiring know that that course is not extensive enough to teach you what you need to know.
Read back thru the Word Help and Style boards, too, to see answers to ?? others have. You'll lear
s
Quick Look Drug Book great for this as it has conditions/diagnoses in back with meds
s
You can switch Vista to XP, but then you can't switch it back to Vista is what
I understand. I've known several MTs dump Vista and they didn't have any issues.
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