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Are you hourly or production?

Posted By: sm on 2005-11-23
In Reply to: Transcend - Very happy employee

I have a lot of questions and I'd really rather ask an employee than a recruiter because recruiters sometimes don't give a complete answer.   Are the hourly jobs only with certain accounts.  If you work hourly do you still have to produce a certain amount to qualify for benefits?  Please email me if you don't feel comfortable posting here.


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Hourly vs production
It's always been true for me too.  I personally wouldn't ever go back to per hour pay.  When I started OTJ training back in 1965, I was paid $1.00 per hour!!  Was a happy camper in the 70's when we went to production pay.  At the time I quit the hospital and went to work for an MT service, I jumped from, if memory serves me correctly, about $3.35 per hour to $10.00.  My biggest year ever was close to $100,000.00 in the 80s.  Yes, I intended all those zeros to be there.  I think that was 6 or 7 cents per GROSS line with very generous incentive tiers and not using a computer but I believe it was an IBM selectric TYPEWRITER.  Unfortunately those days are gone forever <sigh>.  I credit AAMT (or whatever they're called these days) for selling us out to the 65 cpl deal.  Still, I think most of us make more working on production than we could ever hope to be paid hourly.
If you get an hourly job, you can. But alone, on production as a newbie, sm

half that if you have a real aptitude, bordering on genius, for this VERY DIFFICULT WORK!!


I don't know why people think this is an easy way to make a living.  I just don't get it.


Sigh.


Do they pay hourly or production for QA? Is it good pay? nm
x
Hospital hourly PLUS production
I worked in-house (then later from home) for a hospital. We had hourly pay (but couldn't slack off because we had a minimum number of lines we HAD to transcribe) if we wanted to keep our jobs. We also had incentives in the form of tiered bonuses for all lines over the minimum required, so the more we typed, the more we made. We had to have at least 98% on our monthly QA. Yes, the benefits were much, much better.
HOURLY VERSUS PRODUCTION..sm

You point is well-taken.  But not all hourly hospital workers are 'slackers'.  (True about the petty office politics, though).  I spent years as MT in various big-city hospital settings, a lot on a contractural or 'temp' basis, and the client (hospital) usually made sure they got every penny's worth that they're paying out of you when they pay you to transcribe.  I had little time to slack off, as I saw so many of the other (non MTs) were able to do.


As for applauding production work over hourly work, the only advantage I see is that, transcribing for a national company, you're able to do it at home.  We forget about all the NONPAID work (but very profitable for companies) that virtually all MTs are required to do there (demographics, looking up names... Dr. ?*%#??...who??, studying account specifics ad nauseum, daily emails to/from management, QA, downtime).  I could go on and on, but my favorite peeve is the constant, unpaid BS about demographics, but often the 1st thing critized by both QA and the client hospital/dictator.


QA $16 hourly, MT same place $35 on production sm
I do the QA for a couple of reasons. It is a favor to the gal I work for and I want it on my resume, in case my hands DO give out.

I'd rather MT right now and make that kind of money, but I made a choice for other reasons.
All Type pay production or hourly for QA? Thanks! nmsg
ss
They have created a new position that pays hourly. Anyone know what the hourly rate range is? NM
xx
A combo hourly/incentive or straight hourly rate based on
A platform where MTs have had major input in developing it.

10 annual days of PTO, at average hourly rate.

Affordable, decent health insurance.

QA done by very experienced high-level MTs, with open and respectful communication between QA and the MTs.
Hourly?? Where does one get an hourly editing job?
I'm at 5 for VR/8.5 for straight typing.  I know we aren't to mention names, but I'm curious how hourly VR jobs are located. 
Go for production
I currently get 8 cents a line and I certainly make more than $15/hour. I guess it would depend on your speed now. Good luck!
production !
Typing only 167 lines an hour would get you $15.00 - I would definitely go production.
it's better than production
$12/hr is better than 2-4 cents per line!!!
Production QA
Companies perhaps choose to pay per line for editing because when some editors work hoursly perhaps they do not do their work? Maybe run errands to often, don't stick to their schedules. As an editor, I would make more money per line. I've had experience with quite a few other QA who don't do their 8 hours a day but they bill for it.
VR production
To NM - VR lover: You responded to my question about increased production expection when going from transcription to VR. You inquired to as which platform. We use Editscript.
Will not do QA on production. I have been

paid anywhere from $14-$16.50 per hour.  With present company making $16.50.


You will get along great with the MTs if you give them feedback in a positive constructive way and not come off as you are better than them.  No need to be arrogant and snotty when giving feedback.  When doing QA you also need to be willing to mentor.


 


MQ does, but it is on production.
sadddd
...production. nm
b
The new ones are production only, believe me. nm
vvv
Can I ask what your production is like?
As in how many lines you can do per hour etc or what the requirements are for Transcend on these accounts that use Beyond Text. I know with Escription I averaged 400 lph. Is this similar?
production
I can easily do 400+, which is what I was able to do with Editscript but not so much with EXText.
production
I use SR and I'm averaging 550 to 600 lph, with 99% accuracy.
Production pay...
...took the career out of the MT's hands and put it into the hands of greedy, money-hungry owners and managers who have quite capably learned out to use and abuse those who CAN actually perform quality medical transcription to make them hordes of money. If they had to work in the trenches they'd likely drown.

Sad, sad, sad.
Production
I have had a terrible time with production ~ same amount of experience as you. I have tried saving some things said repeatedly, but my accounts don't really do that either and I'm always getting new people. On one account I have to go in and change the voice speed each time I get one of theirs. I have a folder I've tried to make some macros with, but they change all the time. I am now a part timer, as I could not keep my line count where it needed to be. So, I have no solution, just verification that I have problems too. We also don't get paid for headers or footers any longer, it seems, in this business. I feel if we have to check information and verify the patient, as much as we do, we should be credited for that, as the doctors certainly don't make the greatest efforts (not on my accounts anyway). Hang in there ... lol.
I just put my production up, I am sm
ashamed to do it, but I really want people to see what lies they have told. 
I am paid production only. Believe me, SM

I am not taking my time with these documents.  The problem is that even when the system is trained, you have to read EVERY LITTLE WORD and fix really stupid things like the dictator said "are" but the VR typed "were"---that kind of stuff.  It's horrible with things like that.


 


Production benefits? What are those?

Raises?  What are those?  Thank you?  What does that mean?  An answer?  The only one you will get is "I don't know".  Training?  Forget it. 


Well I did that kind of production too.....
Until going on the VA account. It's a whole other ball game and a totally different story.
JLG shift/production
Not sure what you mean by work by the shift versus production. JLG has several different software platforms and some c-phone accounts as well and pay scale and other account requirements vary. As for the accts I have, we are paid by production, 65-character line NO SPACES. I noticed that recently they posted an ad where they were offering to pay spaces for whatever account they were trying to staff, so even that is not uniform.

They say they pay a shift differential. I can tell you that when I hired I had to negotiate that with them specifically...otherwise they were not voluntarily forthcoming in specifying exactly what the shift differential is. Also, about four months later, they adjusted my pay rate DOWN, claiming that everyone in the company was taking the same hit...no way to know for sure. I still make a decent line rate, but it seems to me that my shift differential dried up when the reduction was made and the reduction has never been restored.

With regard to shift, when I hired, there was no universal requirement to work weekends (I hired as an IC). I was told I could work as much or as little as I wanted to. However, later on they did REQUIRE that we all work at least one weekend day (including ICs). Of course, again, I have no way of knowing if that has been enforced across the board.

Beyond that, at least in my case, they have been very flexible with my hours and days, just as long as I put in eight hours on the weekend. That eight hours does not necessarily have to be on the same day...can be split between Saturday and Sunday if you like. I don't work 5 days straight (Tuesday through Saturday or Sunday through Thursday). I like 2 days on, 1 day off, 3 days on, 1 day off...and that has been no problem. From time to time, I switch my day off and that has also never been a problem.

I am not sure how this works for fulltime employees and keep in mind, this may not apply to other accounts.
They don't pay production incentive?
The hospital I used to work for did. We had one gal who could type double what the rest of us could, so she got more pay. She used to work part-time for a national, too, because she could never find a national with benefits comparable to the hospital. I don't think you're going to find a national with decent benefits. You also run into their lousy platforms affecting production, low pay, demo screens, ESLs, poor sound quality, etc. I wish I had stayed at my hospital. I thought I could make more working for a national but I haven't been able to yet. Chalk that up to another stupid career decision on my part.
SInce production can vary
depending on the dictator, available work, your energy level, etc., I would take the $15.00/hour. Good luck to you.
Webmedx production
Let me start by saying that I love working for Webmedx.  I feel like I have a great supervisor and I generally like the work.  However, lately I am on multiple accounts and my production is really going down.  Is anybody else experiencing this?
I work there also and my production is low but.. sm...
I've always thought it was due to the high ESLs on my account.  Seems like 80% of them are ESL. 
Same here -- my production is low, too, because of that very reason!

What also makes me almost ill is the careless/thoughtless dictators who are dictating in the ICU and all those bells going off, banging their pipe on the table, their cells phones ringing right in my ear, the overhead paging system louder than the dictator, and on and on. I will be so very intense on hearing/interpreting what this horrible dictator is saying and those MONSTROUS NOISES hit me in the ear so loud that it literally gives me a headache. It seems that every night I am working with a terrible headache caused from the dictators. I am totally in a stress wad during my entire shift. When working inhouse, the supervisors will go to the dictator and call them on the carpet, but not these nationals. They are SO afraid of losing an account or irritating someone at the hospital, that we MT's catch all the flack.


I know, I know, I am obviously in the wrong profession now. BUT when I started in this field, the profession was not like this -- and I have been in the field for many years now! Other suggestions welcome.


there are no raises in production, you
negotiate your rate on the way in and that is it. Need more money? do more work.

your way of thinking is hourly employee. That will hurt you. You are now a professional - big difference.
Pay is based on production.
They have a few different levels. Maximum pay rate is for 225 lph minimum. That schedule is in the process of being revised and s/b finished within the next few weeks, most likely upward to our advantage and to include shift differential. For more details on the current pay rates, you may want to speak to a recruiter since I don't want to give incorrect details. I'm at the top pay level, and I make good money there, but there are other programs as well (like Star team). There is also weekend differential. Pay on holidays is time and a half if you work plus straight holiday time, which is why I almost always volunteer to work holidays if my daughter is with her dad.
I have also doubled my production
since working on the Extext platform where session statistics are available. Other places where Extext platforms where these stats were disabled --- I could not make lines worth a crap!
Could someone tell me how the TT production bonus...sm
works?  Where are the breaks and how much per level?  Thanks. 
Yes production will take a dive, at least

temporarily.  You might be lucky to get docs whose ROS and PE you can create as a normal, which will help, but with these other work types there are more headings, more hard returns, the dreaded labs.


I find that the terminology is different too.  Where we don't get lots of meds in Ops, we do in the other work types and we may have to look some up, and there may be other terminology that isn't used in Ops that may be unfamiliar.


I have done pretty much all Ops for years too and an occasional DS or ER note is okay, but I despise consults.


Of yea, with other work types lots of times they are dictated by a PA or NP, so you will have dictators that are new to you.  I have had accounts where the PA/NP had their own dictating number and other accounts where they dictated under their sponsoring physician, so you see Dr. Joe Smith come up and he is a wonderful dictator, but it is his fat-headed, *od's gift to women, speedy PA dictating. 


 


Many at home will be on production...
which may be harder to compare. It would really depend on your production in those cases. I average around 300 lph, but that is pretty high production. Of course, if you start on a new account or get accounts you're not familiar with..that number really drops. I think $17 an hour is fairly reasonable and seems to be along the lines of QA pay at MQ.
Production Rate QA pay
Does anyone know the average per line rate for QA pay? Thanks!
It's not worth doing QA on production IMO.
You can't make any money & do a full edit, provide feedback, etc., if you're only paid a few cents per line.  To answer your question, I think the average is about 3-4 cpl, and you just can't make a living on that, especially if the company hires new MTs or offshores.  You'd be basically re-doing the entire report & then providing feedback to the MT for less than half of what you'd be making just straight typing as an MT.  Hourly is the only fair way to provide effective QA, and I wish some of these companies would open their eyes & see that.
Yes, but you also get paid for your production..
better than nothing
I won't do production editing
And I won't work for less than $15/hour. $800 every 2 weeks would only be $10/hour, so that's on the low side.
Just to get an indication of production on VR, (sm)

Please state your average production on VR, your average production on straight typing, and the platforms used for both.  Companies too, if you wish to share.  You don't have to give your line compensation rate (unless you want to).  I'd rather compare the production on different platforms.


I haven't started VR and there are so many different variables.  I'm really curious if I stand a chance or not since I can type about 200 lines per hour straight typing. 


But then they posted everyone's production, and
one look at that, and there went any notion I may have had that it was just me having trouble. It clearly isn't. It's also plain that the 400-500 lph-ers are the exception, not the rule.

I agree with you that this is why they try to isolate us from each other, though. Also why they flood the boards with suits when they make unpopular decisions.
High production isn't the problem.
The problem is not getting everything you just said you'd expect from a company if you're a high producer and working extra. Sorry, but I'm sick and tired of hearing that my wages are my reward.  I'm a high producer and my wages shouldn't have to be my reward when someone else is getting the same for giving less and having less skill. That's the problem. You're new, let's see what you're posting in 3 years when you're earning half of what you earn now. High producers don't produce as much in VR as average producers and that's a fact.
Well I gave notice, had no production
or quality warnings, worked my shift plus lots of OT. Had a great supervisor when starting and a not so good one when I left, reason for which I left. She was aware of that so because of her I can't get rehired! She just didn't like me. It happens but as far as my work ethic and quality, no issues there. It doesn't matter anyway, it was a lapse in judgement on my part when I re-applied.
production pay is NOT a slap in the face if you are
and a professional. To me, it is an opportunity to make as much money as i feel like pushing for. I don't feel locked-in to a certain amount of a paycheck.
20% increase in production - haha!
haven't they been repeating over and over to you that you WILL see a 20% increase in production RIGHT AWAY!! after you conquer DQS then they're going to throw ASR at you and swear up and down that you'll have a 25% in production and they're going to cut your baseline rate by 20% to become a Medical Editor -- doesn't that sound just peachy!! i recalculated my last check with my MT work and my ME work and it came out to be $50 less because of the 20% decrease on my baseline rate for the honor of doing ME work (i have until 10/1/05 before the cut takes place). Oh, but you have your choice of doing 100% MT work and keeping your baseline rate, but guess what you'll be getting the docs that the voice recognition system can't do, therefore, you will probably see a 25% decrease in production. Heck, now as it is, the VR program can't pick up the little words like an, and, in, etc right and it's even leaving out very, very clear words that a very, very clear dictator is saying, so you figure how you're going to have a 25% increase on production when you're pecking nonstop on the keyboard like when you first started typing on a manual typewriter?? Tell me again, how grateful we're supposed to be for working at MQ? And, yes, I know I can go to MTJobs.com and find another job, but you know what, there's principles and if we just walk away from how we're being treated we're just going to be treated like that at another MQ-like company. Something needs to be done so they know that we don't appreciate being treated like someone with a 5th grade education.
This person obviously isn't paid production
Which means it's someone from mgmt who gets paid a salary and doesn't have to work much except to do damage control on here.