Not as a newbie! Lots of new drugs, lab values, tests, implants, etc. Clinic would be better. nm
Posted By: wandering on 2005-07-24
In Reply to: Does anyone know anything about transcribing for Cardiology? - smv
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Be sure to investigate the company first. Lots out there, lots
that are not legitimate.
RxList is horrible now. drugs.com is much better. nm
lab values
hope i'm understanding your question!
depends on the value. for instance, the doc could say a patient has a WBC of "twenty," and that would mean "twenty thousand" (per micro-liter). if it's, say, an electrolyte (like potassium), then you would just type the value ("three point five" = "3.5).
there's a good reference for lab values (sometimes TMI--lol): a manual of laboratory and diagnostic tests (fischbach). 
typing lab values
Can someone please help with ponters on how to type lab values in H&Ps. Which ones are commonly dictated one way but meant to be typed using decimal point values? thx in advance for your help.
Multispecialty Clinic
Your experience sounds more like multispecialty clinic work than acute care and you would probably be much more comfortable with clinic work at this time. Unfamiliarity with acute care will definitely slow you down, which will ultimately cut into your paycheck. You might not have a problem doing work for a small hospital with limited procedures and limited specialties, but any larger hospital or teaching hospital is probably well beyond your skill level right now.
Lots of feet....
I never expected such a response, but wanted to say that I opened that door to one person, from about 60 responses, and am happy with the decision. Best of luck to you all!
I've done lots of looking
and have never seen a work from home opportunity that doesn't require a few years' experience.
So it's better to start out in the clinic
area rather than the hospital setting? How do you find clinics who are hiring? I look in the paper and I don't see any.
No, I believe they mean they do many clinic specialties when they say that. (nm)
(nm)
There are lots of schools
I don't really know anything about the school you are referring to, but you are right about there being a lot of schools out there. I graduated from Meditec and don't hear much about them on the boards. What I have heard hasn't been so great. For all it is worth, I graduated, went through their internship program and am working as an IC MT now. I can't complain.
As far as schools go, sure you get what you pay for. But you also get out of a school the effort you put into it. I've tested with several companies and have never had even a hint from any of them that my school was a bad. Not everyone can afford the top three. Not only that, not everyone even starts out knowing about them. I'd already started in my training program when I learned the "top three" were even there. I did not frequent the boards then and that's the only place I see and hear this stuff.
If you do clinic work, I'm sure you
could find ophthalmology, but if you need a dependable income I'd suggest you not be that rigid.
One characteristic of most good MTs is that they like learning new things. There used to be a lot of money in repetitive reports, but less so now with VR and EMR technology, and foreign countries doing the work for lower pay, there isn't as much of that anymore.
clinic work
Spheris hires Career Step grads but only at 0.055, (at least you'll be home) and probably won't make more than 150 lines an hour, so you'll start out there making about $8.25/hour, they're clinic platform is easy, they have flexible hours, supervisors and QA people are good, they pay on time.
Cut yourself lots of slack...
I worked so hard for so little money when I first started out. I wondered often if I had made a huge mistake becoming an MT. But you do gradually get the swing of it and learn how to "work smarter, not harder." For me, it really was more like a year or so before I was happy with the money I was making and the stress level. Try not to look at your hourly rate too often, and focus on the things that are getting easier for you and better. You may work long hours for a while, but look at the gradually increasing paycheck. It's a process. This too will pass!
I'm sure you will be fine. The fact that your work is looking so good that they're giving you more already is a GREAT sign that you have what it takes to succeed! I'm much more concerned about people who sacrifice quality for speed.
Keep it up! You'll get there!
Need a Job! Experience in clinic and radiology
I am a new medical transcriptionist, I have some minimal experience, I have over $500 into books from stedman and also $300 in computer software! I have every single thing needed except the job! Please I need someone willing to work with me, and someone to understand that I am looking for something LONG TERM! I have experience with radiology and clinic specially. But also a dabble of others as well.
Please contact me via email. I will send you my resume. Blessings, Marilyn
RE: Need a Job! Experience in clinic and radiology
Look on the job board for OSi who posted today looking for cardiology transcriptionists.
clinic versus acute
acute care consists of patient care in the hospital from the time they are admitted until they are discharged (emergency room, history/physical, consultations, progress notes, lab/imaging data, transfers, and discharges are the most common). clinic notes are office visits (sometimes include consultations and maybe lab/imaging data). these are usually shorter dictations than the acute care.
and lots of grammar errors.
It is always good to have dreams.....
Is Multispecialty Clinic paid the same?
Or is it less? I've done H&P, Consultation, and Discharge Summaries. Just no Op notes.
Thanks for you help.
Apply for clinic positions & then ask if any GE/GI is available. Otherwise, you get hit with a
s
my multispeciality clinic has 28 specialties
GI, GU, cardio, ortho, derm, ENT, surgery, endocrine, plastics, audio, ophtho, podiatry, physical therapy, OB-GYN, internal medicine, pulmonary, sleep center, oncology, infectious disease, pediatrics, urology, nephrology, allergy, rheumatology. Those are all the different specialties you can learn in clinic.
No, lots of transcription work available, though
ASR and the like are becoming more prominent.
The newbies working on clinic accounts for me..... s.m.
leave one blank every other report or so. Usually it's due to some random phrase they're not used to hearing. It's rarely an actual medical term.
Lots of stress and long hours doing MT especially - sm
when you are first starting out. If you have to live on this, then in the beginning it is not a good choice. But if you are married and have a spouse income to live on and yours is just supplemental then that will work. When I first started 5 years ago I made $5K the first year, granted that was PT but I worked FT hours basically. I still work PT but practically FT, 30+ hours a week. I made about $16k this in 2006. Now I am not a fast typist (100-160 lph depending on dictator), and I find it hard to sit here and type for a solid 6 hours so I get easily distracted and goof off instead of working or else I am sure I could do $20K+ easy as I have more good than bad dictators. But some companies have mostly ESL and it is very hard to make money that way especially starting out. So many factors factor into to your income, your ability and typing speed, the ease of dictators, and if you can be dedicated and not get distracted. Obviously the more you can dedicate yourself and work consistently the more money you can make, just depends on your personal goals. Good Luck.
Tiger Direct and New Egg....lots of computers
xx
lots of links provided at the angelfire link.
http://www.orthoguide.com/ortho/
http://www.angelfire.com/ga2/transcription/translinks.html
what is the difference between clinic and acute care reports?
----
Would the open positions be for acute care or clinic? FT or PT? Thx! nm
s
lots of good info at M-TEC and Andrews web sites - nm
x
I find that lots of companies are using ShortHand these days.
They have a 30-day trial.
Still lots of in-house jobs on the big job search sites. The at-home US MT is going the way
s
you have to call the hospital/clinic line to connect with the dictation machine on their end
so you get a dial tone, that means it is working. Next you dial the number of the dictation system, and it says something like "welcome to bla-bla hospital. Please enter your user ID followed by the pound sign." Then you enter your ID and it starts giving you work in your queue or asks for job type or whatever.
Don't know TTS, but if the program has errors due to lots of ESLs, sloppy docs, etc. you'll ha
s
Just type what you hear. Lots of things are repeated in differnent notes.
s
What program is not teaching the difference between acute care and clinic work?
I have seen quite a few questions about this lately and was just wondering.
TAKE THE TESTS!
Most places will let you take there tests, then they can determine if they feel like you have the experience to work for them. The worst they can do is turn you down. As for entry level johs, search the boards. There are usually a few on there all the time. You might start out with a low pay rate, but it will give you the experience that you can use for the better paying jobs in time.
Thanks!
tests
No I do not need help on the tests. I was stuck on a word in a transcription assignment. I had researched it but came up empty. I just needed to know where else to look or anything.
I do not need help with tests.
typing tests
Don't understand the reason either.....I just take the test...
Taking Tests
I am considering MT as an at-home career also and I wanted to know what is the procedure to sending in resumes, taking the tests, etc.? Also, are you hired on an hourly basis or by the amount of lines you can produce in a certain time? Any help and advice you can send my way is very much appreciated.
Employment tests
Most services want to see 98%, or at the least 97%, on an employment test. Anything less than that is "failing" in their eyes.
Think about it from their perspective. If their clients expect 98% accuracy, you need to be able to produce 98% accuracy. If you can't do that while being tested, which they assume is your best effort, you're not likely to do it on the job later.
Not saying this is a great thing or not, just that it's what they may think.
online tests
I also took the Medquist exam after they sent me an email requesting that I take it. I felt very confident that I did well but was told I did not pass. They said to take it again in three months, which is now.... and now I have no confidence at all to do it.
Passing tests but . . .
Is anyone else having this problem? I am passing tests and being told that though I passed, I don't have the experience required for the position I applied for. They then tell me that they will keep my application on file until some thing opens up that I do qualify for. How often do we see a position listed that doesn't require experience? I know I did well, so I don't think that they are lying to me, but it is frustrating. The only skill I lack is speed, but that will only come with experience. I guess I'm just writing this to vent. Why won't anyone give me a chance?! Ok, now I'm off to take another test.
If you can't pass the tests. . .
If you can't pass the tests, that is an indication that your knowledge and/or ability isn't what it needs to be to do the job.
If you're getting a chance to test, they ARE giving you a chance. THE TEST is the chance.
You can improve your chances by learning more. Get some materials that Allied didn't use and study with them. Get the BOS and learn it by heart and be able to apply it. Get some HPI training materials and transcribe them. Then try testing again.
The one thing that won't help is begging for "a chance." Employers can't afford to spend money on that chance--they have a job that needs doing at 98% accuracy. If you can't show them you can do that, they're not going to give you a job.
Typing tests
I've never seen a typing test, timed or untimed, as part of any medical transcription application process. Transcription tests, yes, but not TYPING tests.
If I had ever been asked to take one, I'm afraid I would have gotten up and walked out. I would have assumed that the employer didn't understand the nature of the work they were calling "medical transcription." If they didn't understand that, they wouldn't be likely to understand much else about it, either, and that would be unfortunate for everyone.
If you're applying to legitimate MT employers, I don't think they will ask you to take a typing test. I do not believe our students have reported having to take a typing test, either.
You might want to check what MT services actually require.
That being said, you should . . . of course . . . improve your keyboard speed. That isn't achieved by going faster, but by keying slowly enough that you don't make any typos, but just keep going on and on. Eventually, you'll speed up. Try keying medical reports and books. There are lots of them on the internet.
In order for you to work comfortably as an MT, you'll need to be able to keyboard a whole shift, or about 7 hours with a 10 minute break every hour and a half-hour to an hour break in the middle.
You can do this if you start now and work at it gradually and without causing yourself stress. :)
Typing Tests
I have applied to several online companies and I haven't found any that don't require a typing test. Do you know of any? Also, as a newbie with no working experience, it's extremely to get my foot in the door anywhere. Thanks.
The timed tests are a test of how well you know
your stuff. Some of comes from education, most comes from experience. If you are unable complete the test without it timing out then you know you still have lots to learn. No 2 tests are the same so you can't take it enough times to get all the answers, but it gives you an idea on what kinds of things they are looking for and shows you your areas of weakness, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I have nearly 20 years of experience and I have some across questions on testing that I had to look up. Not all tests are timed, but I did take one test that was timed and it timed out on me too; more probably because I was rereading everything and didn't realize it was a timed test, but I was still offered a position. You just might get started on clinic notes rather than acute care and your pay rate will most definitely be lower than if you had scored better.
I flunk many tests at first, but I learned from each one - sm
that is what you must do. I used to joke that I learned more from the tests than I did from my course. Not quite the case but I did learn a lot from the tests too, they were certainly eye-opening some of them. All you can do is keep trying, what is the saying you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince, well finding a MT job is sort of the same thing, in both finding a job and finding one you like. Try again at Transolutions when they say you can try again (usually 6 months) and in the meantime apply anywhere and everywhere that you can. Good Luck.
Are you not passing the hiring tests or isn't
s
You can leave blanks and some tests even have
instructions on how to notate a blank. I have 20 years of experience and I have only had one test in my career that I have had to leave a blank, but there are usually different levels of reports. One report may be very clearly dictated, clinic type work where there really isn't a lot of medical terminology. Another may be an acute care report, possibly an Op, and then one may be a report there the sound quality is bad, an ESL dictator, or a fast talking US dictator.
The company is trying to get an idea of your skill level. If you do very well on the first report but not so well on the second and horrible on the third, then they will probably offer you a clinic account and start you off at the bottom of the pay scale.
Leaving a blank wouldn't count against you as much as guessing at something and getting it wrong. I don't think leaving a blank will stop you from being offered a position, but excessive blanks would probably would.
trouble with online tests?
Anyone else applied to Medquist or FocusInfomatics and have trouble passing the test?? I cannot figure out why I did not pass the transcription test and they can't tell me...just hoping I'm not alone...thanks
Sorry, meant pre-employment MT tests.
nm
Are you taking tests and failing or not even getting responses? nm
s
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