Medical Transcription Discussion Forums:

• Main Board
• Job Seekers Board
• Company Board
• Word Help Board
• Classifieds
• Medquist
• New MTs / Students

General Discussion Forums:

• Gab Board
• Politics Board

Hi all....is $1.25 per report good for radiology?  It is $1.25 per report and any reports over 2 minutes are an additional $1.25.  So a 6 minute report would be billed as 3 reports.  Is this a good rate??  It is using Meditech and a Lanier.  Any info would be appreciated as I'm considering a position.  Thanks!

I work at home for a local medical facility that are calling some of the at-home girls to come in and work in-house.  This is a form of punishment they use when they claim our production is low.  I have one supervisor that says that I am doing a great job, production is great and to keep up the good work.  I have another supervisor that says it sucks, (okay not exactly how she phrased it) I think is what is going on is that they are losing work as some departments are going to VR and another is going to be its own separate enitity.  The in-house girls, when transcription is low, they work on other things in the dept.  This is just my guess, I don't know what is going on but bottom line is one day I get told one thing and next day I get told another and I don't want to drive back and fourth.  I did the math, with 2 kids in DC and the price of gas that would be $900 a month.       I applied for an on-line transcription company Friday and Monday (yesterday) morning this company called me and left a message on my answering machine to call them back. I had gone to talk to my supervisor and working in-house situation is only temporary she said. She said that we are going to get a big Christmas bonus this year (we have gotten anywhere from $200 to $500 in the past). I really don't know what to believe. There is another at-home girl that is getting "punished" too and has to work in-house. I am wondering if I should not stick it out with this place a little bit longer just to see. The problem is I don't know what to tell the other company. I certainly don't want to blow them off. It is just hard to decide on what to do.

  Have had the same ESL the last 2 days who mumbles incoherently until the end when he suddenly puts the phone near his face and rattles off the last sentence crystal clear before hanging up.  I would love to grab him by the _____ (pick a body part) and ask him very politely to please ennunciate and speak just a little bit louder. 

Thank you.  Done venting.  Carry on. 

Is it more beneficial to be an IC?  Any personal pros and cons on this subject would be extremely helpful and appreciated.

Thanks.

Does anyone else find it odd that the very select few of highly paid MTs, (making between 12 - 17 cpl)  are bold enough to write a post stating outright how much they make and how much they are worth.  But when questioned over and over about who these companies are that pay so well, no one volunteers even one name.

This bothers me for two reasons. 

1)  We're in a recession and many of your fellow MTs are struggling to feed their families and would benefit greatly from the same opportunity. 

2)  None of you are making these insane line rates and likely are just bored out of your mind because you are actually unemployed, which would explain why you have so much time to come here and fabricate things to post about.

No offense to anyone, but I find it incredibly frustrating to read your posts just to have my questions to you blatantly ignored.  If you aren't bold enough to answer, just have the common courtesy to say so.   I hope I'm dead wrong, but whether I am or not, the result is the same because none of you have the nads to speak up and give us some names!  If you aren't going to share information and make a difference, why bother?

I was noticing in looking at posts of folks who need word help that often they are stumped by the most BASIC words.  Sometimes I notice that words within the posts that the poster DOES know are even misspelled.  Don't mean to bash here, but how are these people qualified to do medical transcription?  Could this possibly be contributing to the decline in pay we are seeing?  Shouldn't QA be telling these folks to work in-house somewhere for more training? 

I remember when I first started I thought the dictator was saying "AT&T" when he was actually saying HEENT.  That's how green I was!!  That was 15 years ago and I worked for FOUR YEARS in-house full time before I tried ANYTHING at home.

I was wondering if there was a way to remap your keyboard so that the calculator number pad was actually among the keys that you would type with your right hand on the keyboard.  Can you change the way your keyboard types or do you have to buy a new keyboard for this?  If so, where and what kind? 

I am trying to find news ways to increase my line counts!!!!!!!! 

KMT

would greatly appeciate any advice as to why the start stop program will place the vox files but not the true speech even Iafter I told to associat wiht true speech and so on... The time flickers like it wantt to open the file but it never opens....  THe the error comes up file is too smlal to be a valid sound file or missing file"  Actually the start stop will place the Regan Speech sample audio  that is a true speech file so I would think it could play true speech files

find this especially annoying at the end of the sentence when I have to backspace to put in a period.  Do you just constantly backspace or do you know how to avoid this without typing in that command {@nospace}for each shortcut?  Sure would appreciate any help.  I am so tired of backspacing. 

http://www.scambusters.org/ScamBusters8.html

http://www.scambusters.org/809Scam.html

http://www.scambusters.org/ScamBusters9.html

Is a wav pedal the same as a USB port pedal?  Thank you for your help. (I have never worked IC before, and I have to purchase one.)

my computer or me that is going nuts. When I go on the job board to read the ads, at the bottom of each ad it says Link/url and then says "click here for more details." When I click the link/url most of the ads take me to the ad for Transcend. So far only one has taken me to the correct company ad. I had it happen on a couple of different companies like Accustat and a few others as I was testing to see if it was just a fluke the first time. I'm getting ready to reboot so please tell me it's my computer that going bonkers and not me.

At what point does delete that go to far?  It's an op note and I get the pre and post diagnosis, procedure, surgeon, asst, anesthesia, etc. Then she goes on to hpi, ros, fh, sh, meds, allergies, and exam.  After exam she realizes that she's doing an op note and tells me to delete that and start over from preop diagnosis.  Needles to say she was an extremely difficult to understand ESL, wasted about 20 minutes of typing time that I won't get paid for and I had to split my shift. 

Sorry y'all it was vent or scream.  I chose the vent to not wake up the family.

Hello,

What are the kind of incentives provided for non-exempt employees paid by the hour - is it by number of reports or length (minutes) of reports edited?

Thanks,

Blue

......... in Ohio?  If you are, are you happy with the way that the jobs have been "dealt-out" to guess where lately? 

When you get one job for one doctor, then have in your same queque one job from another doctor, then another job from another doctor, and they are almost under 1 minute in length, where else are they going to but overseas??  Yes, they do hire a good bit of U.S. transcriptionists, but I think we are being treated "substandardly" as far as jobs that we get, compared to those typing overseas for them.  They really get the "cream of the crop," and also a lot of cherrypicking goes on with this company also.  Seems some people just LOVE to look down their queque list, and send all those under 1 minute back, and I seem to be getting ALL of them!!  I have approached them about it, and just got told that they NEVER allow cherrpicking, but guess what, THAT IS JUST NOT SO!!!

They are saying the shooter in NY was "depressed over his poor English skills".  It sure doesn't seem to bother any of these ESL doctors who can't make a complete simple sentence yet expect us to come up with a perfect report.  Maybe this guy should have gone to medical school instead.

Yahoo had an article about careers that you can "do from home to earn $30K to $70K.....I KNEW the MT biz would be on there.    Although I don't agree with everything folks say regarding the eventual decline and demise of the profession, this particular snippet could be a reason why things are going in the downhill direction.  I'll highlight my favorite parts! 

Medical Transcriptionist

The job of medical Transcriptionist involves a lot of listening and typing. Medical transcriptionists listen to doctor's notes on a headset and type out the information, editing for clarity when necessary. Their duties might include medical discharge orders, autopsy reports, referral letters, consultation notes, and the like. The medical transcriptionist must have a good working knowledge of medical jargon and the ability to convey information with the utmost accuracy.

To become a medical transcriptionist, an associate's degree or one-year diploma from a medical transcriptionist training program is recommended. Being familiar with medical jargon is a plus.

Salary: Medical transcriptionists brought home a salary of $31,250 per year in 2007.

Hello all!  I was thinking of taking my CMT exam finally. Someone told me it is no longer given in 2 parts? ANd does not cost as much as it used to.  Is this true?

Also - have the contents of the test changed, i.e., is passing the test more difficult now, or less difficult, with the new format. 

How many of you are CMT?  How did you study for it?  I have 15 years of acute care MT experience.  What should I do first?

Thanks in advance - and Happy Mother's Day!

Joanne

When a physician rattles off the vital signs, blood pressure et al., and just states numbers, do we leave it like that or insert what they are for?

Physician:  "Vital Signs:  98.5, 84, 20, 138/64."

Leave as is, or type thusly:  "Vital Signs:  Temperature 98.5, pulse 84......"?