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MT salary [2008-08-19]
Greeting everyone!
There was a recent post form someone inquiring about salary etc. Many replied you may even start below minimum wage. I can confirm that because that is what I am making. I am not complaining........few expenses involved and myfamily situation forces me to be home, which I am blessed to be ableto do. The company I am with has also been great up until this point but now getting stricter. (Do not blame them.)
How long does it usually take to get up to say 150 lph? On pirmary account dictators are the same. On secondary acoout you may get dermatology, ortho, psych, neuro, OB etc. Enjoy the variety but hard to develop speed.
Thanks for any and all advice!
MT salary [2008-08-18]
What is the average salary of someone starting out being a MT, and what type of raises do you get. Is it a good career for someone young to get into?
They can also verify salary and eligibility for rehire. nm [2008-08-06]
Calif is attempting to revoke the "employee shares salary info with another employee" penalty. [2008-08-05]
dd
Interesting Survey! [2008-07-25]
I hope I posted this in the right spot! Kind of new to this forum, especially with posting messages. I downloaded a medical transcription survey from 2007 from the MTIA web sitewhich I thought was very interesting and would like to share it with you all if you have not read it.
I loved the summary point stating Doctors do not generate revenue, documents do. Accurate and complete healthcare documents are essential to a doctor's and institution's revenue cycle.
I remain hopeful and optimistic that in the future that we will once again be recognized for how important our jobs really are. All of us can go out and get ourselves a medical secretarial position or other positions in the medical field, but it takes a special talent to do the job we do, and I think many people who think our jobs are not worth the money we deserve, possibly can't do OUR jobs.
This is the link and if it does not work, go to the MTIA.com web site, search under press releases and it is the Bentley MT survey for 2007. Hope you find it interesting.
http://www.mtia.com/Downloads/MTSurveyReport-Preliminary.pdf
I am doing a survey on radiology rates of pay. If you would like to [2008-06-09]
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Free webinar to discuss Bentley College MT survey [2008-05-16]
This afternoon, May 16, at 1 p.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Mountain/3 p.m. Central/4 p.m. Eastern, Vance Digital/Webstream Information On Demand is hosting a free webinar to discuss the preliminary findings of the Bentley Report. This will be a round-table type meeting and anyone who wishes to comment or ask questions will be welcome to do so. The webinar will be recorded and will be available for purchase. If there is sufficient demand, we'll offer more of these webinars in the near future.
To join the webinar, visit http://www.conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs34fe20e1c1ac and download the tcConference plugin. Log in with a username of your choice and use guest as the password. You'll need PC speakers to hear others speak, and a PC microphone if you wish to speak. A microphone is not required to participate, as the webinar room has text chat capabilities also.
This session will be limited to 100 participants on a first-come, first-served basis.
Please contact me by email at jaysvance at yahoo dot com if you have any questions.
The report can be downloaded from http://www.webstream.us/downloads/Bentley_MT_Survey_Preliminary_Report.pdf
MT salary survey [2008-05-16]
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Medical_Transcriptionist/Salary/by_Industry
How about..in variation of hrly salary, commense at $10.00 for first year up to 10, then [2008-05-15]
for every year of service thereafter, by years served. If you've got over 25 yrs of service....like many of us do....maybe 'things' wouldn't look so bleak to any of us.??
Please let me know your thoughts.
Some thing HAS to change. Someway, somehow.
2007 survey [2007-12-30]
Says MTs make an average of $27K a year.
Remember pay is production based. If you don't have experience, you're going to be slow.
I would advise you to enroll in one of the better schools. You're going to have a very difficult time getting a job otherwise.
Survey on IC's vs. Employee [2007-10-09]
Could anyone tell me if they are an IC or an employee and who they work for? I am trying to find out if I should change all of our IC's to employees or not. Also, could you tell me which one you like better?
Thanks
salary [2007-09-10]
Worked in rural hospital at low end of #1 for 6 six years.
Not unless you want to make a low salary. [2007-07-26]
this point. Many with years and years of experience are not making what they should.
Hold on before you take that survey! [2007-06-18]
I have seen this lady before. I could swear when we first checked out her pay me to take surveys MLM scam site before she had previously worked at Bloomingdale's, but I do not recall that she had worked there for 20 years or had worked anywhere for 20 years. Seems to me she had references from several people she had supposedly worked with from several different places all swearing up and down what a wonderful and qualified employee she was (too much so, if you get my drift). I don't recall ANY of those said jobs being QA positions, more like sales or clerical. She seems to have had a lot of jobs for someone her age who worked for 1 company for 20+ years.
My point here is that this gal was operating a pyramid scheme just a couple months ago. Her original site was Join here and pay $20 to take survey's about our MT business, and then refer people to me and you will get $5.00 per person who signs up under your name. I don't believe she is interested in any of this information being factual, she just wants to collect it (along with our personal data) so she can make money by selling it to God only knows whom, probably costing us our jobs or at the very least a whole lot of aggravation with e-mail boxes being filled with spam from other companies. Her only goal (in my opinion) is to make money in a marketing scheme. I guess she thinks the national MT companies are going to pay her for this data just because she collected it? She will claim its accuracy because she did a survey? I also find it odd that while she talks about QA this and QA that, it seems to me what she really means is quality control - and that is a big difference, odd she would not know the difference, isn't it?
Being a former Spheris employee myself, if she was as all that in the QA field, she should have started with them. I do wonder if she is still with them and, if not, then my guess is this is how she thinks she can make a living since, apparently, no other companies will have her?
One thing we all noted before, and it is rather apparent on her new site too, is that for someone who has been an MT for 3+ years and is supposedly as good as she claims herself to be, she sure makes a whole lot of errors.
Umm, I took the survey and it had no questions that [2007-06-18]
^
Ok, but what kind of salary do you think you will make [2007-06-03]
As say, opposed to working in the doctors office? The salary in the MTing field has gone down dramatically over the past years. I trained inhospital for over a year and have seen the salary drop and drop and drop. It probably is not a good field with out the outsourcing that is going on to try to make a decent living anymore- What kind of speed do you have with typing? I think loads of trancriptionists unhappy with where we are now days. I got into transcribing because my speed was excessive (130-140) and always was good at spelling and loved the medical field. I thought with my working in the field for so long would be a breeze when I started this. Was I in for a BIG surprise! I certainly never considered this job because of being able to stay at home because when I first started spent years and years in the office. Having said that, I, if I wanted to support a family and knowing what I do now, would certainly not recommend to others as a way to make a living.
Lots seem to be afraid of VR and the salary they think they will make but [2007-05-27]
I posted below asking with the drop in pay per line, just what does anyone think they might make as compared to now. I work on VR and work partime and would just like an overall consensus about how a person thinks their salary will be, say pre- and post VR. I think maybe the unknown about this hasMTs worried about will they even be needed once VR is up and running or whether they will be able to make enough to pay their bills. Give me some feedback on this- would love to get others ideas and maybe I can tell you from my standpoint about VR. Thanks!
Survey Notebook Vs Desktop (sm) [2007-05-16]
Which is preferred, Notebook or Desktop for working 8+ hours per day doing MT? Any specifics you'd like to share about processor/memory would be helpful. Upgrading my computer and deciding which would work best for me.
Well, is this new job a salary position, hourly, etcetera? [2007-02-25]
If you are guaranteed a certain income each pay period, I wouldn't see the problem with jumping right into it and not trying to juggle both at once.
What's the survey for? [2007-02-11]
We have this one, and it works just great.....
I think it is kind of odd that this survey showed [2007-02-11]
posts were on here this morning telling people they'd pay $5.00 for every e-mail address you sell them. I'd be very careful when you are dropping your e-mail address. The survey does not seem to have any company name or anyone's name attached to it for that matter.
Salary range [2006-12-04]
The 2-year assistant degree salary starts at around $30,000 here (the same as abeginning teacher).The PT master's degree starts at around $60,000 per yearhere; other areas of the country, of course, are likely to vary.I already have a bachelor's degree; I'm goingfor the master's, but I don't know how long the waiting list is.
All our hospitals have posted salary ranges [2006-11-30]
Here in Portland, OR all of the hospitals have posted salary ranges and do not even ask. That is surprising for a large hospital as that is how the majority of them work. Go back to the job posting and see if there is a salary range posted. Other than that, write a short note and mail it to HR and tell them you really want to work for the hospital and are negotiable on salary. But out here that is not too low, goes from $18 to $23.
I "work" for an online survey place [2006-09-18]
I do surveys for PineCone Research and that is the only one I know of that is legit. I get products before they come out in the store a lot, too. With each survey I get chosen for (not much, maybe one or two a month so you can't make a living off it, lol), I get a $5 check in the mail. Sometimes, I get chosen to do an online brainstorming session about some new product a company wants to put out, but that has only happened twice in the two or three years I've done it. It's a nice little bonus, and you get to see some new products before anyone else does but you definitely couldn't make a living off it. :) Just thought I'd share. I usually just read here the past few months.
QA/editor salary? [2006-09-03]
What is an average salary to expect for QA/editor with 10 yrs. experience? I'm in the process ofswitching companies and havebeen offered 3 to 4 cents per line or between $24-26,000 salary. At that rate,I will either have to stay where I'm at workingunderunrealisticconditionsor go back to being a Transcriptionist (which isn't such a bad idea).I'm not asking for specific companies, names, etc.,but can other editors tell me, do companies offer a higher salary range such as $32-34,000 any more? The last time I was out there looking for a job, QA/editors were getting a decent salary. Now I'm finding they are getting less than MTs (and of course MTs are getting far less as well these days too).Any input is appreciated. Thanks.
THIS DRIVES ME NUTS [2008-08-25]
why are we so concerned with sending work overseas??
This nation is so concerned with fixing problems everywhere else in the world and not focusing on our own!
Why do we constantly send work, money, military, etc etc etc overseas when we have homeless, starving, children (and adults!) here in the USA? We have students who can't go to college because they can't afford it and the federal government won't help because they are not a minority! We have people who can't get jobs for the same reason!
How about this?! Why don't we stop looking at race, background, and gender, and start looking at qualifications? Why don't we stop judging what people need based on color?
But i'm getting off track...
This country has a serious issue, and it starts with companies like AHDI. Rather than lobby for a standard they need to lobby for our work staying right here. When there is such an over abundance of work here that no one goes hungry and everyone has a roof over there head, then we can send it over there. I know there is such a romanticism about helping foreign areas. We see it everywhere. Celebrities adopting foreign children, missionaries wanting to go to China but not bothering to minister to people in their own back yard. Yes, we need to help, but we need to take care of our own also!
There is something wrong when a basketball player makes millions and a teacher barely can get by on his or her salary. What kind of country have we become? We place more value on entertainment then on morals and education.
When will it stop? We are going to dig ourselves in to such a hole and we are going to pull down all of our greed, immorality, conceitedness and every other vile thing we have become down on our heads!
I'm sorry I just don't understand what is so great about our country anymore. It seems we've got it pretty twisted. It won't be long before we start to reap what we sow. And I promise you, in the healthcare world, if all of our transcription goes overseas, and the documentation process becomes sub par, next thing you know the lawsuits will quadruple, which will raise the cost of healthcare, which will mean absolutely no healthcare for some, and so on and so on.
But hey, all in pursuit of the almighty dollar, right???
opinions, please [2008-08-25]
Do the majority here think that our supervisors and managers are out of touch? Before you laugh, this is a serious question.
As we type all these crappy soundfiles, static, ESLs, Christmas carols in August, and on and on, do you think that our managers who were MTs xyears ago would really be able to produce as much as they expect us to do day in and day out? What they did in the past isn't an apples-to-apples comparison any more than if we do that. This is a today survey of sorts.
The main reason I ask this is naturally as above (the out of touch/too far removed thing), but beyond that,now thatwehave all the perks of the digital age, why do we still have all these audio problems and everything else we endure on a daily basis? Why have those problems yet to be resolved, seriously?
I thought about this over the weekend as I had an entire shift of one doc, who always uses a horrible phone or something. The end result is always leaving quite a few blanks--and that's after QA goes over it.
This isn't a diss session. It's more a fact-finding one.
Thanks for reading this and adding comments.
What a steaming pile of manure! SM [2008-08-22]
So am I to assume that anyone who is not a CMT or does not wish to be a CMT are the “imposters” of whom she speaks? She worry’s less about where her records are being transcribed and more about who is doing the transcription. I have a question. Would it be easier for her to run a background check on an MT in India versus an MT in the United States? Where your medical records are being transcribed directly correlates to who is transcribing your records! Also, how on earth can the “Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity” keep a watchful eye on the integrity of a person’s medical records when the very HIPAA laws created to insure integrity cannot be enforced on offshore MTs?
Here’s the deal, if the AHDI wants to make credentialing mandatory for MTs, then they need to insure that the American MT salary range is increased to reflect requirement of credentials. They also need to disavow offshoring in any and every form, and bring the work back to the U.S. where it belongs and where it is protected by HIPAA. When the AHDI can secure a fair pay range that reflects mandatory credentialing, education, and required HIPAA knowledge and adherence, THEN I will become a CMT again.
You took a terminology course and some [2008-08-21]
No you are not worth 75,000 a year. Look up the salary for an MT honey, it's not $75,000 a year. You can think you are glorified and all that, but please get over yourself. You can be an MTSO and make that but you still have to sub out the work... Please calm down; we know you're an MT (wanna be doctor); I've come across those types before. Even x-ray techs think they are doctors. What a joke! If it walks like a duck, it's a duck, not a peacock!
Me 2, 15-20 years ago I was making about $70,000 a year [2008-08-21]
Now it seems, I'm just scraping by, juggling the utility bills and paying whichever one has sent me the 24-hour disconnect notice this month; it's become a grim miserable job compared to what it was. I'm nearing retirement age, but I doubt retirement is going to be in my future for a very long time.
Thesingle worst thing that ever happened to us was going from the gross line count to the character count, and not adjusting the line rate upward to parity -- not to mention the adjustments that should have been made to accommodate all the extra time spent struggling to make sense of huge increase in ESL dictations that has occurred over the last 15 years, and of course there should have been COLAs as well, which we all know has not happened.
In the 1980s, with the advent of powerful and affordable PCs, free lance transcription became much more common. So if you were experienced, disciplined and organized, you could be much better off economically by working for yourself -- although there were definitely advantages to working in-hospital. There were great benefits and the salary was indeed enough to support a small family (albeit very modestly.)
For a number of years during that time,many of us worked part time in the hospital for benefits, but made our real money at home.
But in my case, the time came when it just made no economic sense to work in-housel, I was better buying off buying private insurance for major medical care, tax-deferred annuities, and self-insuring the little stuff.
I would just pick up tapes from the hospital every morning, and drop off the work (whichI printed out) from the day before.
I usually had 24 hours to transcribe tapes which I did during school hours, when things were peaceful and quiet.
I transcribed a couple thousand GROSS lines day. Every single character line counted, so by taking advantageof headers/footers,creative macros, word expansions,etc., I really boosted my productivity far beyond to what I could do in-house on the self-correcting Selectric, Wang or Mag Card, or whatever 10-years behind technology was currently being used, plus all the office distractions and politics, and I definitely did not to have to work 24/7 to earn a good living. (Oh how I loved WP5.1!)
In fact, 2000 gross lines a day, 5 days a week at 10 cents a line (courier 10-pitch font, one-inch margins)was very very do-able for an experienced productive acute-care MT, provided she had good equipment, good reference books, and stayed focused. It would take about 5-6 hours a day to get that amount of work done. So figure the math out for yourselves, that's just a tad under $50,000 a year, certainly not a high standard of living in those days but adequate when it meant you could stay home and be actually be a full time parent when your children were home from school, and very comfortable, if you were married with a working spouse,or had rerliable child support, or social security for your children (if you were widowed.)
If you chose to work some weekends and evenings, it was not that all that difficult to hit that $75,000 a year mark, which I did for a couple of years so I was able to pay the tuition at a good boarding school -- and cruelly thwarted my teen-aged son's only ambition in life, which was to become a high schooldrop-out.
Things have gotten bad, no doubt about that, and the worst part of it is, is that most of the big MTSOs are still charging the hospitals as much as we used to earn, and sometimes even more, but the MT is no longer earning it, and often can't get enough work to meet the line counts required by the MTSOs for benefits (although the cost of those benefits are reflected in the cost charged to the hospital.)
I don't know what the answer is, as the electronic immigrant is such a huge threat.
It's pretty darn awful, and I feel very very bad for those of you starting out in this field, and I do hope things change for you (and that someday soon I can retire.)
And the point that the person made is that that she was worth $75,000 a year, not necessarily that she was getting it or could get it, and I absolutely agree with her. This is a hard tough job if it's done right --it's mentally tiring, it's hard on your back, your hands, your neck (and your behind.)
It requires a lot of time -- it requires focus, you must stay alert, and must give 100% of your attention to what you are doing 100% of the time, it takes education and brains -- and now a word of truth which my 35+ years experience gives me the right to say aloud -- it's not fulfilling, wonderful,lovable and enjoyable, it's often as repetitious and tedious as an assembly line but infinitely more frustrating.
PS:I recall one of my colleagues from those early years of my career, now gone from this earth, telling me that the 1960s were really the fat years, that things actually began to decline salary-wise, in real dollars, in the 1970s.
Uhem, I took and passed the CMT exam back in the day... SM [2008-08-20]
when it was a two part exam -- the first part a subjective, 120-questioncomputerized examand the second part, a practical transcription test administered by a proctor of my choosing and approved by the AAMT who oversaw me transcribing several COMPLETE reports (not little snippets of digital dictation listened through the computer), ACTUAL tapes that were sent to my proctor. My proctor called the AAMT out in California when the test began and called them when I was finished and immediately faxed my completed reports.
So do not for one minute call me a do-nothing MT who could not pass the test. When the AAMT changed their name, they dumbed down their test so that EVERYBODY could pass it (Indians, Fillipinos, YOU, etc.). If everyone can pass it, more people will take it, and that means more money in their pocket!
I held my credentials for a while, but found that they meant absolutely nothing, especially when I worked directly as a hospital employee. The HIM directors I worked for in my career had no idea there was an AAMT let alone transcription credentials! It made no difference in the salary I was offered. What made a difference were my years of experience and how well I did on their test during the interview!
I gave up my credentials when I realized that the organization did absolutely nothing for me. Did it improve my wages? NO! Did it improve my status within the healthcare industry? NO! Transcription still is and always will be the red-headed stepchild of the HIM department which is why it has so easily been outsourced and then so easily offshored.
This organization should have championed medical transcription within the healthcare industry. This organization should have shown hospital administrators, physicians, and HIM managers just how important the MT is to the healthcare machine. This organization should have elevated our status. That is what the AHIMA did for coders and that is what the AAMT/AHDI should have done for us, but they dropped the ball! And now that they have embraced offshoring and even extended a helping hand to our offshore competitors, they have flushed any respect we might have received down the toilet.
I had high hopes for the AAMT/AHDI and they let me down miserably. We are viewed as glorified secretaries by physicians and management. So you go ahead and right your high horse, Ms. CMT! You're still a big fat nothing in the mind of the doctors you hear in your ears every day and that's how we'll stay if the AHDI has anything to do with it.
MT salary [2008-08-19]
Greeting everyone!
There was a recent post form someone inquiring about salary etc. Many replied you may even start below minimum wage. I can confirm that because that is what I am making. I am not complaining........few expenses involved and myfamily situation forces me to be home, which I am blessed to be ableto do. The company I am with has also been great up until this point but now getting stricter. (Do not blame them.)
How long does it usually take to get up to say 150 lph? On pirmary account dictators are the same. On secondary acoout you may get dermatology, ortho, psych, neuro, OB etc. Enjoy the variety but hard to develop speed.
Thanks for any and all advice!
it's not my fault, the darn quote mark just doesn't post for some reason. [2008-08-19]
Okay, for some reason, the first quote at the front of qldc does not show up, but in the line autocorrect.entries.add name:=qldc there needs to be a quote mark around each side of qldc, not just at the end.
If you want to use this macro -- and find it won't work and are confused my instructions, please write me and I will e-mail the macro to you.
I really don't like the idea of people having to spend their meager pittance of a salary on expensive software to do such a simple thing.
geography matters too! [2008-08-19]
I think where you live/work plays a lot into that. I live in a very large metropolitan area and our pay in-house is higher than that for sure. If you check AHIMA's salary survey for 2007, the median salary for MTs nationwide is about $36,000, which is roughly $18 per hour. Again, this will depend on your area. When I taught MT a couple of years ago we told our students not to consider anything under $13 to $14, and that was for our new grads. With experience here you would be starting at a minimum of $16 or $17 per hour.
Correct - a few bucks a year. [2008-08-19]
That's correct; it costs a few bucks a year to keep up the CMT. I pay exactly 1/3 the renewal fee every year plus postage for an envelope. Compare that to a $6000 salary increase. (If your employer doesn't pay that, go to work for one who does.)
$20 webinars are not the only way to get CEUs!
You can meet your CEU requirements at NO COST WHATSOEVER if you wish. You can do it by reading journal articles (readily available online) and writing a short synopsis, attending free online webinars or presentations offered by other professional organizations, going to local hospital grand rounds and anything else that gives physicians CMEs (usually free), doing free CEU activities offered by some free publications, and a variety of other things.
Yes, there is some time involved, but it is time spent learning something, so it's not wasted.
If you do not have the credential, you should not be offering advice on it, because you do not know what is required.
The low salaries in MT are, in part, linked to the failure of MTs to band together enough to make the CMT a respected and required credential among employers. AHIMA did this with the RHIA and RHIT, then did it with coding credentials. Those professions now enjoy higher salaries because of it.
MT salary [2008-08-18]
What is the average salary of someone starting out being a MT, and what type of raises do you get. Is it a good career for someone young to get into?
Under the summary points [2008-07-26]
This statement was my favorite, and I do hope a lot of companies read this survey and learn from it!
Speech-recognition technology is only a transcription tool, and not a transcription replacement. The job involves too much professional intelligence and sense-making ability to have it migrate completely to speech recognition.
I honestly don't think a company should be able to lower our rate of pay because of VR...We are still responsible for sitting and listening and correcting mistakes...although I have been fortunate enough not to have my company have any accounts that use VR yet...but I have a friend and her company is doing VR, and her rate of pay is ridiculous!
Interesting Survey! [2008-07-25]
I hope I posted this in the right spot! Kind of new to this forum, especially with posting messages. I downloaded a medical transcription survey from 2007 from the MTIA web sitewhich I thought was very interesting and would like to share it with you all if you have not read it.
I loved the summary point stating Doctors do not generate revenue, documents do. Accurate and complete healthcare documents are essential to a doctor's and institution's revenue cycle.
I remain hopeful and optimistic that in the future that we will once again be recognized for how important our jobs really are. All of us can go out and get ourselves a medical secretarial position or other positions in the medical field, but it takes a special talent to do the job we do, and I think many people who think our jobs are not worth the money we deserve, possibly can't do OUR jobs.
This is the link and if it does not work, go to the MTIA.com web site, search under press releases and it is the Bentley MT survey for 2007. Hope you find it interesting.
http://www.mtia.com/Downloads/MTSurveyReport-Preliminary.pdf
same with me [2008-07-24]
yeah, the same thing is happening to me, I have gone from a net monthly salary of $2800down to$600 and it is killing me. My situation was a little different though, as I was being paid by the gross line before, now am on the 65 character thing. This is all in the last couple years, I worked inhouse for 20 years getting paid by the hour -- and those were the days.....................
Advice please, job hunting. [2008-07-08]
I recently left a hospital job 6 months ago because of climbing gas prices and started working for a MTSO. After the six months, I cannot seem to get the correct line count to be eligable for benefits and I need benefits. I can work for hours and it is like my line count barely moves.I worked the same way at the hospital and made twice as much so I know I can do it but for some reason with this MTSO I cannot seem to make it move. I thought I would try another MTSO. I applied and they offered me a job and as soon as I got my new hire paperwork in they would ship me my foot pedal and what I need to get started. Well, the next day after talking to that recruiter, I noticed an ad in the paper from a local hospital, just a block away, stating they wanted a medical records clerk, FT with benefits. I jumped up and applied. They called me in for aninterviewed today and told me what the job entails, which has nothing to do with MT,gave me a tour of the hospital and they said will call me Thursday with their decision. Oh best part is no weekends or holidays.
What I am wondering is should I go ahead and fax that new hire paper work as if I don't have that hospital job or should I wait. I told the MTSO I would have it in today and I would hate for them to go through the expense to send my stuff for me to send it back if I did get that job, but on the other hand I don't want to keep them waiting. Also, I am not sure yet as for what the salary would be with the hospital as when I asked they said they would let me know by Thursday. I have2 in daycare so the jobwould have to cover that and I am not sure if it will.
They are transitioning to EMR. They have paper MR now and they are trying to get ready for EMR and they need help filing. I have a feeling I would bewalking in on a mess.I think the MTs still use tapes.
I don't hate my job but... [2008-07-07]
I will be so glad when I can retire. I hate some of the changes that have taken place over the years in my profession for sure. But all in all, I'm grateful to be able to stay home and work for a living. I'm not getting any younger. I feel like I'm working harder at this point than I ever have. My salary has not changed in years though I manage fine on what I'm paid. No, overall, I realize I have it pretty good.
I agree with the other poster - not [2008-06-28]
not worth the headache and expense involved. A few years ago probably was a better idea but now with all the VR coming into play it's just not worth the hassle. I think the biggest obstacle now is you won't be able to charge a high enough rate to break even afteryour expenses and your salary on top of that.
You might consider starting with a few local physicians and trying it out though. Plan on working 24/7 though if you do take it on. Vacation? Forget about it. When all is said and done you might have more control being on your own but I think the hassle isn't worth that perk.
Ugh [2008-06-23]
I was fortunate enough to work an at-home salaried position for almost nine years in which I had the freedom to format and complete the reports as I felt was correct. I am a long-time veteran in MT and the medical field in general and have about 35 years of experience. The radiologists I worked with knew that I knew my stuff and they were grateful that I made them sound intelligent and better than they really were in terms of punctuation, grammar and composition. I was paid a very handsome salary, though I did work myself to the bone for that salary. I was making almost $72,000.00 per year when I left the position. I received a check on the 1st and 15th without fail and was an employee with all the perks that come with it. The economy and saturation in the imaging field in my area forced the closing of my employer's three imaging centers. Now, I'm working in an hourly at-home position and the pay is good, but it is driving me mad to have to type what the doctors say (right or wrong). They also have the freedom to change something when they electronically sign the reports and I have one particular doctor that changes verb tenses from the right tense that I corrected back to the wrong tense that he dictated. So, I completely understand your frustration. I hate having my initials at the bottom of a report that makes me look stupid!
Your post re. DOCTORS HAVE NO RESPECT...SM [2008-06-12]
for us MTs because we have sunk to the lowest of low? SPEAK FOR YOURSELF. The majority of MTs are reputable, honorable in their work practices and only trying to do for pennies what the MDs get $000,000 (6 figure-salary) to do. You seem like one of 2 individuals: The _ _ _-kissing MTSO who'll sell themselves and their employes to the small minority of holier than thou docs who are allowed to get by with whatever just because they can,or the MT who does not respect him-/herself. At any rate, it's attitudes like yours that would tend to make a doctor disrespect us and our profession. The majority of MDs DO have a respect for us and the work we do...we are the mainstay of medical records, and they know it.
AMEN SISTA! [2008-06-10]
What I'm seeing though is must be willing to obtain CMT, CMT preferred, and all that kind of stuff.
Interestingly, I got my social security statement in yesterday and it showed the yearly pay I've received since I started working in 1977, and I made more in the 90s than now, even though I've acquired new skills and done so much more. It's really disheartening that the pay keeps going down down down. As a QA person, I absolutely will not work for 3-4 cpl. I've been a supervisor over people working by the line and they just push reports through to try and make a living and management just doesn't wise up and pay a decent salary. For what we all have to know, it's just absolutely ridiculous.
Help [2008-06-04]
Inernal med - 30 HP at 1.5-2.0 pages per week and 40 progress notes per day at .5-1.0 page each(two doc dictatin) and this is total for both docs.
If they want to pay me salary what would be areasonable rate?
Why do they expect perfection for pennies?... [2008-05-29]
When you work on production to make a decent check you have to push it, and you have all these horrible accents, why, then, do they expect miracles? Maybe if I had an hourly salary.
line count [2008-05-28]
You want to know what people with 20 years experience as a Transcriptionist are getting when they start with a new company? or when they run their own at home transcription business? or the pay for a transcriptionist who works at, for instance, a hospital? At a hospital, normally you are paid a salary and required to type a certain amount of minutes of dictation in the time you are on the clock, depends on the facility how much you are paid yearly. Your own company, you set the rate, by page.. by lines .. or by characters. For the outsourcing companies, it depends on whether or not they supply your equipment and things like that. Usually, you are expected to type 60,000-70,000 characters or 1000-1200 lines per day..... approximately 6000 lines in a 5 day period. There are incentives to get you to type more, usually they start at 4000-5000 lines. Then when you get to that target,5000or 6000, for the next 1000 lines typed, you get an additional amount per line up to the next figure, then the incentive gets higher.........example...... say you are making8 cents base per line up to 5000. Then when you get to 5001 up to 6000, you will be making for instance,2 cents more a line, so that would be10 cents per line, then at 6001-7000, an additional 4 cents a line, making those lines pay you 14 cents per line............ comes to a pretty good chunk. If you type 7000 lines a week, for example, youd make about 640 a week.
5000 @ 8 cents, next 1000 @ 10 cents, next 1000 @ 14 cents........
Hope I added all that correctly. Just got through with 12 hour shift. The long and short of it is this........ it really doesnt make any difference what experience you have over 10 years because they dont even look at anything back further than 10 years usually. You usually get a lil more for the first 5000 lines because you are experienced, but not much. We usually end up making the same amount of money per line as the new grads.
I'm in the same boat sorta (sm) [2008-05-27]
I was going to go back to school but realized that by the time I finished another degree (2-3 years) I'd be competing with 25 year olds and I'd be 50. I love MT, love working at home and am trying to rebuild my client base after some relocations which is hard and expensive. Meanwhile I have taken some work with a MTSO but it's not enough to pay the bills.
However, I'm not ready to pull the plug yet and work outside the home but if I was, I'd love to be a florist or a photographer, neither of which I have any formal training for, so I stick with MT for now.
Have you checked Yahoo Jobs? Googled career interest survey? I took one of those and it gave me a range of potential jobs. How about starting a home-based secretarial service that isn't strictly medical?
What are YOU interested in? Make a list of things you might like and you might be surprised at what kinds of jobs are available. Unless you're in a small rural area like I am that is but I'm sure you'll come up with something. I'd love to hear what you do decide! :)
I agree ! [2008-05-26]
Yes, I did hospital work where we ran one long document for each day and logged it. We used the dictation system to find the date the reportt was transcribed and pulled that day's work to find particualr reprints. That was in the 1980s/early 1990s.
The one file method is more commonly used for office/clinic work. I in fact still have some local accounts that I do that. It is faster, definitely. Just transcribe, spell check one time, save one time, and print.
I think the transcription platform that you are transcribing on makes a lot of difference with online work, as does the accuracy with which the doctor puts in the pt. #s for automatic information insertion. It can take a lot of time to try to find a patient, and most companies don't even pay for it at all anymore.
All of these things add up -- it IS harder to make the same salary, at least for me anyway. But, I really enjoy it and it still pays more than most of the other jobs I'm qualified to do.
I would not say it is worse, just different. I have only done acute hospital work on the internet, but I find all the different dictators (and the poor quality of some of it) definitely really lowers the amount of lph I do. I make less than half online than I do transcribing from my old tapes and my WP5.1 with PDR .. :(
There are positives too with the new online systems; it especially benefits for the patients in record retreival, etc. with the EMR; it also allows us to access the work remotely, a benefit to both the dictators and the transcriptionist.
Hang in there. I hope you find the right fit. Perhaps you should try to get some local accounts yourself??
Maybe the other poster was just a youngster .. LOL ... still trying to convince my teenage son he doesn't know everything and the post sounded like something he would say!
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