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I must agree with you. Seems harder the older you get.sm

Posted By: Otis on 2007-05-01
In Reply to: lines per day - chinamom

When I was in my 20s, sure I could do 1800+ a day, but it's a different story now that I'm in my 40s. Sore wrist and fingers. Forearms tight and painful.
IT SUCKS!!

PS: Chinamom, sorry, I didn't mean to reply by email. Clicked the wrong thing by mistake. I must be getting old!!


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I agree that it is an easy platform, but compared to other platforms I have used, lines are harder
to get, probably counted or weighted differently.
It's harder to get your own accounts
Most guys don't have a choice but to work for nationals in this business or own their own business.  Would like some input into how guys work at making that much money in MT.  Thanks.
I was doing VR, too. For me, the work is just harder to come by.
I work second shift, and it used to be early evening the OPs would start coming in. I could really roll on those, but they have all but disappeared. I now only get handful per shift and mostly EGDs or I&Ds. I also worked Fridays and Saturdays, which were great for work, but even those days are depleted now.

I think now I just am bummed out thinking I worked my butt off to get to the 5 to 6-year mark where I could apply with the better companies, and there just is no work. My daughter is almost done with her transcription course, and it is scary to me that she has to work for 3 cpl but even scarier that I might have to pretty soon :(


Seems like they are just making their job harder.
They should be taking the time to do the job correct the first time. How is rushing through going to help them in the long run? The reports are just going to come back for corrections, which is then going to take them longer to fix in the end then just editing them properly the first time through. I understand not wanting to get pay docked, but it seems they are only making things worse for themselves in the end.
Working harder for less pay.........
to achieve the same figure on one's paycheck is circular reasoning.

As has been stated before here, it is a pretty sure bet that the clients are being charged the same for their reports whether an MT physically transcribes it or whether a speech engine translates it and an MT cleans it up. That being the case, with the MT being paid even less for speech recognition, the middle man (management) is making way more money off the MTs back and will continue to make more as the MT is pushed to turn out more production.

As for adapting to more coming technilogical changes, you'd better prepare to adapt yourself to another line of work because the MT field will become obsolete as we know it even today. There will be fewer MT positions needed as speech recognition becomes more and more proficient at creating a medical document that is within acceptable limits.
Work Smarter, Not Harder...
Exactly! Go to work for a company that pays for ALL of your work, not just what is reflected in your typed reports. What about time spent looking up physicians out of a data base of 50,000! Trying to figure out what in God's name the doc is saying when pronouncing some foreigner's name, and wasting 10 minutes doing so...with no pay! ALL of my expertise is worth compensation, not just what they see on the final report. How many times do you type an entire report, just to hear at the end, Erase this, I'll redictate! No credit! What a waste of time and I deserve to be paid for the work I did, even though the DOCTOR screwed up and screwed me out of earning my pay for those lines! What a bunch of BS!!!
Yes, for some reason Bayscribe does seem harder (sm)

Harder to make your lines, that is.  The only time that Bayscribe will not add demographics (or autopopulated info) to your character count is if you mark the report as a No Report.  Otherwise, on all reports, including the ones marked Incomplete Report, it will count all the demographic info too.


They say that Bayscribe is Word-based, but personally, I haven't seen much simularity at all between Word and Bayscribe.  I do know that when I switched from using Word to using the Bayscribe platform, my average lines-per-hour production dropped somewhere around 25%.


So yes, with Bayscribe, I do find myself working longer hours in order to make the same line counts that I used to make.  I'm not really sure what the answer is, but I don't think that it's the accounts.


Sometimes the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Lots of these big MTSO co's are in bed with AHDI, and I have a hunch the whole kit-n-kaboodle of 'em are ridin' for a fall. Or a public hangin'.
Even if some of them aren't harder to manipulate,
it's just assumed that they are. I've found that the few guys I worked with on-site in the past WERE fairly woman-like in their willingness to be manipulated and taken advantage of. Which is probably why they got into, and stuck with, MT in the first place. Those guys who won't stand for that sort of thing never got into MT at all. Which is probably about 99.999% of them.

The benefits to the MTSO for having at-home MTs is not only the savings of NOT having to run, maintain, insure, heat, cool, and clean a brick-and-mortar building for their workers, but more importantly, the physical and social ISOLATION of those workers by basically chaining them to their desks at home. The isolation makes it far easier for us to be lied to, intimidated, cheated and overworked because NO ONE ELSE SEES IT HAPPENING.

The internet, and forums like this one, have broken us out of that isolation to some degree, but obviously not enough of a degree for change to happen. It's likely that for every MT that knows of this, or other MT forums, there are 10 who don't.

Further compounding the trouble those of us who DO use online forums to communicate with each other have, is the fact that we all know the MTSO suits cruise these boards, and we have to be careful about what we say, and to not reveal our identities, or else we'd most likely find our little selves fired.

So to date, medical transcription, and the sweatshop conditions it's done under, is the healthcare industry's best-kept 'dirty little secret'.
Is it getting harder for anyone to get jobs now with all the people applying for them. How does
this seem to be going for most MTs looking for jobs.  What seems to be the one factor that gets MTs a job before all the other 100 or so looking for the same job and what are the most desired qualities today that companies are looking for.
Anyone else going from DQS to ExText and noticing lines are harder to get? (sm)

Both accounts are about the same difficulty, just find ExText more cumbersome and where I used to do 1200 lines in 6 hours on DQS I now take every bit of 8 hours and sometimes that doesn't do it. Am i just getting slow to learn new things or has anyone else noticed this same thing?


Definitely harder and I've given it a lot of time. I'm thinking about
nm
You have it all wrong. I work SMARTER, not harder.

I will take on any acct. After months of getting used to it, I see what I am making an hour. If it is worth the work required to do that acct, great. If it isnt, I ask to be taken off acct and so far, have never been refused. Sometimes takes little while for them to get another MT for acct but have never been refused. Company is not working for the prestige, loyalty to an acct, or ME for that matter, or for the good of mankind. Why should I? I am in this for the money, just like the company. I am very much a pro, which is probably why companies would rather have me on another acct, than to quit giving me work all together. They know many companies are always looking for a good MT.   Like other posters, I dont understand why someone would work below their worth. There are too many companies out there to try. I have tried several, staying with the ones where I could make good money.


Acute care is quite a bit harder than clinic.
Definitely. Never a good idea to lie. You won't find anyone at most big companies to ask beginner questions to, on ops or otherwise.
Yes. I used an older ad that they had up. nm
xx
Older MTs
I don't think any MTs are held in very high regard these days, old or young.  I think that most companies take the attitude that if we want to leave we should stick our finger in a bucket of water and pull it out, that'll show us how much we'll be missed.  Used to be there was truly a shortage of MTs.  Now we hear that the companies must offshore because there aren't enough qualified MTs.  But look on these boards and on the jobs board and check out the number of MTs literally begging for work and that includes those who are employed but can't get enough work to make a living.  Sad indeed.
You may be right. I'm older myself SM

and the picture I get of myself or any of my MT friends out robbing banks or such is pretty darn funny. :).


Seriously, I  know the issue with women committing crimes is mainly due to drugs, but I feel everyone is due a second chance.   


older TT MT
Really how nice!
All Older MTs with 25+ Y sm

Anybody out there have any experience with Diskriter?  I have 35 Y experience and am a 23 Y veteran of MQ.......left in 2006.  I was there when it was Transcriptions Limited and then went to MQ and things were GREAT.  But,,,,,,,we all know what happened.


The reason I ask opinons of experienced MTs is because it makes a difference.  I do not mind major medical centers, I do not mind ESLs, OP reports and all the rest.  Its part of the job.


This company has interviewed me for a full time position, NO VR, plenty of work, etc. etc.  Sounds like what I was use to.  Anybody have any experience with them?


I don't want to hear about how all you get is ESLs, OP reports, crap work, etc.  I already know about all that and to me its part of the job always has been and always will be.  Just general info if you have it.


If you have less than 25 Y I want to hear your experience too.  I just put that number in because after that many years, we have done it all and seen it all and know that ESLs, OPs, major medical center crap goes with the territory!


 


 


I, too, went from MQ to TT, and line counts are much harder to get at TT with Dictaphone ExText.

I have always been called *firey fingers*, so know it is not me, as I am very fast and accurate on the keyboard.  Line count continually gets harder to achieve.  I know it depends on how the company has Dictaphone set the line count parameters -- whether to pay headers, footers, spaces, demos, normals, expanders, etc.


Also speech recognition using ExSpeech at TT is so cumbersome and awful.  Really made good money and line count with DQS speech editing.  Just must my opinion.  Other comments would be interesting.


The requirement is 50% participation. It is actually harder for a larger company sm
than a small company if they are national to get good rates. Once in, they will have it easy after that. I dealt with it personally for another company and it was a nightmare. Insurance is crazy and once national, it is harder to get the insurance. They should have gone with BC/BS when smaller but chose Unicare for some reason. Now they are regretting it.
Burnout...wanted to work smarter, not harder.

It seemed like I was sitting at my desk for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, just trying to pull the bare minimum.  I had to hop around from one hospitals operating system to another and to another constantly...and if you've ever had the pleasure of doing that, you know that lines don't come easy that way because you spend all your time waiting for things to load and what not.  There just wasn't enough work to stay on one account all the time, the way I think it should be, so instead of becoming an angry and bitter employee, I left.


They really did try to make me happy, but all they could offer were more hours, or more accounts, and like I told them, I simply wanted to work my 8 hours and make a decent living.  Had a really hard time doing that over the winter.  I think they overhired but I never asked that question head on.  It was a great company when they first started out, but then got really big really fast.  Great benefits though, if you can make the lines.


If I needed to get my foot in the door, I'd work for them, get the experience, and move on.  It's that kind of place.  But during a moonlighting gig I tasted freedom, more money due to a more efficient way to work, and better overall work environment, surrounded by people who truly loved their jobs, and when I was happy to log on for THAT job, and got sick to my stomach when I had to log on at DVHP, well that's when I knew it was time to be on my way.



Who were they? Was it a MT company older

than 12 years ago?


I'm curious. I'd like to learn a lot more about TT. As I read these boards, I wonder and pray that TT never outsources AND is never bought out by another company-- at least not until I retire.


I'm older than the AAMT by 5, they were
pitching at start their aim was to get us recognized (and paid) as professionals within the medical community. In turn we could network, and keep abreast medically through continuing education materials, seminars, classes, etc., to ensure we were worthy of same, and respected.

That was 1981, if you know what I mean. At this point, I'd be happy with the labor board taking some initiative here.
I know this is an older post....

but I can answer your questions the best I can. I work for Spheris, but I've only worked there for a few months.


1.  As far as I know, they only hire employee status. Like I said, I've only worked there a few months, so I don't know every little thing about the company.


2.  They give you a primary account, and you can have secondary and terciary accounts for when work gets thin in your primary. I personally have never had to work my secondary or terciary accounts yet. There has always been work on my primary.


3.  Yes they have a minimum. 10,200 per 2 week pay period.


4. You HAVE to use their equipment. They have their own platforms and computers that they send to you. They come with the whole 9 yards (footpedal, headphones, Shorthand, keyboard, etc.).


5. As for the starting pay, I think it's 6 cpl. Don't quote me on that though. It gets updated all the time. It also depends on what level you get hired on on, i.e., acute care, clinic work, etc.


Hope I helped a little!!


To Older but maybe not wiser
I don't know where you have been working but most companies require the MTs to look up ADT and names of physicians. I have yet to find one that pays extra for this. Besides, if you are good, this doesn't take that much time!

Also, I think Transcend's QA does a darn good job with feedback, and yes, they are able to decipher the more difficult dictators!

I sure am glad you no longer work at Transcend with your lousy attitude! I hear Medquist and Spheris are hiring. I'm sure they would love to have you and MGR there, LOL.
Older and wiser than you by
16 years, is that ok now? I learned long ago you either suck some things up or no job. I learn well.
All of a sudden I wish I was/were? older???
Too long to retirement, too old to go back to school.

Better dust off the exercise equipment and find a new husband

LOL ROFLOL
Sometimes you get spelling and abbrvns over the phone, typing later on. Bone up on your harder
s
They pay older longtimers 8CPL and

Also, you will be paid only half that when you are switched over to VR, which all accounts will be in the coming months.  Also, no incentives for hiring date after November. 


Older posts were negative. Not sure why. nm
s
Ok, I guess you are older that you forgot
but you bet me $1.00 that you were older. You, not me, did that. No, you shouldn’t care about my age, you were being sorta rude above in the fact you first said about betting $1.00. I will try to refresh your memory since Alzheimers seems to be kicking in some- the post was about how folks scared about 9/11 and you came in with a post on that, on the main board. Take it easy, dearie.
dear older and wiser
a GROSS line is not counted by character.  geez.  what kind of people am i dealing with on this board.
Were the MTs let go older/higher-paid, and
.
It is much harder on the wrist to constanly use the mouse to jump around the report to edit, rather
x
Older post says they didn't pay for spaces. nm
s
Looked in archives for eTrans Plus but most were older
But I was wanting to find out if it's possible to do about 1500 lines a day consistently, also if the work is pooled (do you get pretty much same docs on same account every day or are there hundreds of different docs)?

For those who work there, do you like it?

For those who worked there but quit, how long did you last and why did you quit?

Just trying to do my research :)

Thanks for any info
My line count suffers the older I get -
I used to be a high producer consistently hour after hour, but as I near 40 and have been doing this for 15+ years, I notice my production even when the work is there is not quite what it used to be.

I think that we just naturally slow down as we age and cannot physically do what we can at that young age. People say that typing is not physical labor - but I beg to differ in some aspects. My bones and joints and muscles are just as worn out at the end of the day as they were when I was doing physical labor in a mill.

Now, I am not dead tired, but it does have a huge impact on our bodies to do this job and the wear and tear causes the slow down - Just my opinion!
Heed the messages in the older posts, not the ones planted by
management in the post below. That is all fairy tales about everything being so wonderful. It gets worse by the day at Transcend/MDI-FL.
Thanks. In the older posts, it looks like people were running out of work a lot...SM
Is this still the case? These posts are mostly from 2005 and 2006, so they are really old. Are the flexible with scheduling? Do they pay on time and treat their MTs well? I just want to know before I even think about applying! Thanks!
Just curious, what didn't you like about being statutory employee at older job? sm
I'm thinking of becoming one so I'd like a heads up on possible issues this causes!!! Thanks.
Well the one company uses an older version of DQS and has not upgraded to the last 1 or 2 upgrades.
That is my concern.  I am not sure where to look at the version I am on for the company with the lower version to see what it is.  I hope this works out okay. 
MT in Texas. I left you a message under your older post below
.
They're kind of new. Older posts had people having difficulty with them. nm
s
Older posts said the software was cumbersome and not MT friendly and that the pay was low. Hope
s
Older posts said they still use a DOS-based software and have a 1600 lpd requirement. nm
s
older and wiser, can you email me the name of your supervisor/acct you work on Thanks!
nm
Easy tests versus harder tests...
Having passed both and offered jobs at both, which company would you likely go for?  They both have the same basic benefits and line rates.  Would I be assuming that the harder testing will mean that the dictation is more difficult?  Any opinions on this would be greatly appreciated!
Older posts about them have the MTs bouncing from acct to acct and not being able to make
s
You work longer AND harder and the work is
??
I agree, absolutely agree
and I might say, this is keeping updated in ALLLL specialities and subspecialities, drugs, instruments, and on and on. It is not a good profession for sure and sadly it is the MTs who are being very definitely HAD