Medical Transcription Discussion Forums:
General Discussion Forums:
Recently Viewed Messages: (An archive of over 1 million messages related to medical transcription industry) Express Scribe -
Posted By: MT
Does anyone use Express Scribe with voice recognition software to help transcribe? If so, how well does it work? Looking for a means to help with dictation overload! Thanks!
What is recommended to study for CMT? -
Posted By: TIA nm
xx
Sample oncology reports?? -
Posted By: sunnyMT
Looking for a good web site to help with oncology; chemo meds and such.
TIA!! -have a good weekend
On-Time Transcription -
Posted By: Lynne
Anyone have work experience with On-Time Transcription Company? Thanks.
ZyloMed 1099 form -
Posted By: Barbara
Ex-ZyloMed IC wondering if there are others out there that still have not received their 1099 form in the mail. Wondering if mine got lost in the shuffle somewhere. 
Posture -
Posted By: jbmt
Just wondering if anyone happens to use a back brace when typing. I have a problem with T7 area and am looking for something to help with slouching. Any ideas?
I need a sample hip replacement...thanks nm -
Posted By: gto
x
Anyone heard of Klaar? -
Posted By: Fasttype
Good or bad?
MS word dictionary - removal of word - sm -
Posted By: anon
Anyone out there able to give me step-by-step instructions on how to enter the dictionary for MS Word to remove a word I entered incorrectly? I'd appreciate any help at all. I know this can be done, because I did it myself years ago, but cannot remember how I did it. TIA.
Ok! I'm on a 15-minute break, but just wanted to share-- -
Posted By: MT
Below, I have read several posts about being productive and increasing line counts. This morning, I purposely closed down my e-mail (where usually it is running in the background and when incoming mail arrives, it notifies me and I'm checking it throughout the day), and I purposely did not come to this forum (which as my routine, throughout the day I'm going back and forth reading and posting). I actually started typing at 6:15 a.m. At 10:00 a.m. I have 1090 lines already. I know now where my time has been going, and will from this point on try and discipline myself as to checking e-mails and getting on-line wasting time. Just thought I'd share that bit of info.
Santa's House -
Posted By: MOMT
Is anyone else getting an error message when trying to make a donation to Santa's House? I have been getting an error page since yesterday evening.
Not paid for work done... -
Posted By: Holly Lode
Hi> I am seeking any advice on what to do about not being paid for work done. I have not received a paycheck from the company for two months, 4 payperiods. Now, they will not return my emails and have stopped sending work. Any ideas on how to handle this situation or what to do? Thanks.
Is Yahoo mail down? nm -
Posted By: can't get in on any computer
nm
Happy Father's Day to ALL including...nm -
Posted By: ones who are both Dad & Mom!!!..nm
Abbreviations -
Posted By: Kathy
What is proper abbreviation for A Fib?
Why is there nothing but negativity on this board? -
Posted By: sm
Do all of you hate your jobs? Does anyone actually enjoy and like medical transcription? With every post I read, all I see is complaining about how horrible this field is and that it is getting worse and worse. All of you make me feel like suicide. I can be in the best mood ever and then come to this depressing board and feel so depressed b/c of all the negativity. If you hate MTing so bad, then do something else. Quit complaining! Does anyone agree with me on this?
digital - Stacy -
Posted By: Patti
Stacy, thanks for answering, it would not allow me to E-mail you so please E-mail me at pjsword@aol.com as I do have some questions.
Thx -- Patti
Does anyone use Vonage with a C-phone. Any info please. Att wants to change me 10 c/minute. nm -
Posted By: sk
nm
Breitner's anyone? Lookin for advice.... -
Posted By: christopherskitty
Wondering if there are any long-term Breitner's Transcription Services employees or ICs out there...
What should an MT make with 10 years -
Posted By: MT4eight
experience? I'm afraid I shorted myself when I started my most recent job and am just curious to see what I should have asked for. Anyone willing to share?
Who is FREEDOMTYPE and are the in the United States? Thanks for any info. -
Posted By: Cindy
Help on word board please!! -
Posted By: Dog spelling
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Any knitters out there??? -
Posted By: Just started out and love it!
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To those with cheap headsets -
Posted By: Liv
Just wondering if any of you have tried the "quality" sets? I only ask because if you have not compared, you might not know what you are missing.
I keep bugging you all because it seems when I make investments that are supposed to help, it is about a 50/50 success. Some help; some were not worth the money.
I need to get faster. I am okay with certain accounts, but others slow me way down, so I need to make every improvement I can to make the slow accounts a moot point (at least).
Thanks again for all the help! 
InstantText question -
Posted By: Rita
I just recently started using InstantText and now have to switch to a different computer. I have studied the manual front to back and can't seem to find where it tells me how to backup what I've created in Instant Text and move it to another computer. I am a new user, so I'm hoping it's easy - just that I don't know the program well enough to understand. Can anyone help me?
PT word list -
Posted By: bj
Is there anyone out there that could give me a website with a good terminology list for Physical Therapy? Thanks a bunch!
My function keys do not work on my Logitech keyboard, sm -
Posted By: function keys
I bought a new keyboard, does anyone know how to test function keys?
Part-timers or IC with Spheris? -
Posted By: Part-timer
I wondered if Spheris hires part-timers and how many hours they can work. Or if anyone works IC for Spheris? What is the difference between IC and part time? I would like to work between 20 to 30 hours a week, maybe a few more but couldn't guarantee 40.
Thanks.
Background noise! -
Posted By: Fastball
Have to voice my very, very most reviled pet peeve about transcription, and it seems to be getting worse. The nurses gabbing, cackling, gossiping, laughing in the background. Makes me crazy. Thankx
Please help on Word Board. TIA -
Posted By: (nm)
xx
Tapes -
Posted By: MTMommy
Can you reuse the same tapes (standard size) over and over? I have been for a while and I was wondering if they eventually get bad.
Thanks!
Question for VR users... -
Posted By: MT
Just a quick question for everyone who is willing to respond: When doing VR reports, do you listen, read/proof and upload or do you listen, read/proof, proof again and upload? I am just trying to figure out what everyone else is doing. Thanks .
IC Status - Need Info sm -
Posted By: Ellen
Can anyone tell me what is the best place to look to find out info. regarding being an IC. I don't necessarily mean equipment, etc., I'm more interested in the legalities regarding taxes, do I need a business license, etc. Any info will be appreciated. I tried archives but my question seems to be too broad -- maybe someone can help me narrow it down.
TIA!!! 
Regarding Walmart vs grocery store prices -
Posted By: see message
This got buried on the second page, but I pointed out that Bounty paper towels are more at Walmart than my local grocer. Someone replied back saying that overall the grocery store is more. Nope. This is my reply:
The paper towel price increase is not a momentary thing. I started comparing prices a few years ago between Walmart and the grocery store. I used to buy food at the grocery store and everything else at Walmart. Until Walmart got to be just as expensive or MORE expensive in some cases than the grocery store. It is NOT just paper towels. Same with Era detergent. Same with a multitude of other products. Walmart has gotten GREEDY.
Now I clip coupons for the paper goods, cleaners and what not and the grocery store doubles any coupons 50 cents or less (I don't use them if they don't double). So with the prices being less than Walmart to begin with, plus using coupons, I come out WAY ahead. So I don't even make a Walmart trip at all anymore. Might as well just buy everything at the grocery store. It's closer, more convenient, and CHEAPER.
ventricular s/l bi-gin-a-vee? -
Posted By: Tula
Anybody know what this is? I have researched but only to come to dead ends :(
AHDI -
Posted By: Boogie MT
I started a thread below about the government stepping in and making the MTSO companies step up to the plate and conform to a standard form of counting lines for US based medical transcriptionists and to perhaps have a baseline pay so that MTs are not sitting all day long waiting on one more report to try to make a count that is making the MTSOs richer. While not everybody agreed with my points, let me say that there are probably far more MTs in this country who are not independent contractors and who are trying to support themselves than not. ICs would almost be classified as (mini) MTSOs. Not everybody has the luxury of negotiating what they will work for. That whole conversation is moot when we are talking about the industry as a whole. ADHI has spoken for years that they support standardization but when they were recently asked about "policing" the MTSOs methods of counting lines, they dropped the ball. This is just my opinion, but there definitely needs to be an accountability to the U.S. worker concerning this industry. While on one hand we are described as highly skilled workers with a wide base of knowledge, we are then described as home-based, bunny-slippered, pajama mamas. It cannot be both ways. We are highly skilled and do have a wide base of knowledge and we need to band together. I do like the name United States Medical Transcription Association. Works for me.
Hospital at-home job vs. service -
Posted By: Help
Here is the scoop: I work for a service now, but was offered an at-home position with a local hospital at $14.70 per hour with benes. WHAT SHOULD I DO???????
pulses -
Posted By: Shiva
Doctor dictates what s/l "pulses 1 and 4" in the lower extremities. Should it be "pulses 1/4"? Can anyone help me out?
Just need to vent... -
Posted By: Carol
I was just recently laid off from my job due to lack of work. Ok if that was true, then I would understand why I was laid off. The truth is, we had more than enough work at the office I worked at. The company I worked at decided pooling would be better for them due to the fact that their other typist didn't have enough work in their state. What angers me here is that they use the word typist to describe our profession. I trained to be a transcriptionist, not a typist. Transcription in my book is a technical job, one where you must learn medical terminology, formatting, and be able to assist the doctor if he/she dictates something wrong you can point it out to him/her. Bottom line you must be trained and/or certified to do the job. Anyone can be a typist; it takes training to become a transcriptionist.
The other thing I am angry about is that 3 months ago they let us know that pooling was going to happened and assured us that we would have plenty of work and our jobs were safe. Well that was a lie. They knew all along that there wouldn't be enough work and they felt that we made too much money. So they came to us last week to say that we were all no longer needed and it was our last day due to the fact of no work for us.
Bottom line here is what is happening to our profession? It seems to me that our profession is going to the lowest bidder, companies are trying to turn our profession into a job in which they can pull anyone off the street to do at a lower price, and trying to make Transcriptionist compete with offshore transcriptionist. I take pride in what I do and worked very hard to produce quality reports. My hopes for the company that laid me off is that they fall flat on their faces going with just typist. After all you get what you pay for.
Wish me luck off to find a new job.
Word 2003 question sm -
Posted By: MT30+
This probably seems like a silly question, but do any of you know if there is anyway in Word 2003 to turn on "keyboard sound?" I know some programs you can do this to but have never thought about it for word.
I just downloaded a new e-mail program and it has sound on it. To tell you the truth, to me its relaxing and I thought if there were a way to put sound on the keyboard it might break up some of the monotony. My last IBM "clacker keyboard" (all you "oldtimers" know what I am talking about") broke and I don't like the silent keyboards.
Just wondering if anyone has any ideas!
Thanks!
some info on spheris...from nov 2005... -
Posted By: waningMT
If you go to the site, check out the picture of the India facility (how nice it is), and the 1500 employees to be hired there, if not already, as this was from Nov 2005.
What a company, huh? It is like it is there GOAL to take over all transcription, and ship it to India for cheap labor. They are the 'walmart' of MT...
Friday, 11/25/05
Spheris hopes boomers help it become tops in industry
Medical transcription company adding second office in India to help with expected work increase. By TODD PACK
Staff Writer
Taking note of the aging population's need for more health care and a marketplace that is wildly fragmented, Spheris Inc. is taking aim at becoming the country's largest medical transcription company.
With the oldest wave of baby boomers about to turn 60, the number of checkups, outpatient surgeries and hospital stays is going to rise steadily over the next few years, so there's likely to be more doctors' notes to transcribe, said Steve Simpson, president and chief executive of the privately held company.
Doctors often need their recorded notes written out in a matter of hours, even in the middle of the night, so last month the Franklin-based company said it would increase the size of its work force by about a third.
Of the 1,700 people it planned to hire, 700 would be based in a new office in the southern India city of Coimbatore. It already has offices in the larger city of Bangalore.
Simpson said recently that the decision to open a second facility in India was more about making it easier for Spheris to offer its services 24 hours a day and less about saving any money on salaries. When it's midnight in Williamson County, for example, it's 11:30 a.m. in Bangalore.
"The goal, really, is just to lead the market," Simpson said.
Spheris wouldn't disclose earnings, but Inc. magazine this month named Spheris the country's fastest-growing health-care IT company, listing its revenue as $152.7 million. Spheris was 16th on the magazine's overall list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies, with three-year growth of 2,710.8%.
Created two years ago when Total eMed, a Franklin-based provider of electronic medical transcription services, bought the larger EDiX, based in St. Petersburg, Fla., Spheris is the country's second-largest medical transcription company after Medquist Inc., a publicly traded company whose shares are held mostly by the Dutch electronics giant Philips.
MedQuist hasn't reported earnings in more than two years because of a probe into its billing practices. It reported 2002 revenue of $486 million.
"In the medical transcription industry, you could range (in size) from David to Goliath," but there aren't many companies approaching the size of MedQuist and Spheris, said Elaine Olson, executive director of the Medical Transcription Industry Association, based in Chicago.
Last year, Spheris bought one of its closest competitors, Avicis Inc., for an undisclosed sum, but executives said the company doesn't plan to grow by buying smaller rivals.
Rather, it intends to grow one client at a time.
"Clearly, the best opportunity for us to grow is to grow organically," said Jim Panoff, Spheris' executive vice president. "We're telling our story, which is a story of partnership, which is a story of balancing service and technology to create a solution."
Doctors dictate their medical notes by phone or computer. Spheris employees download a recording of the notes from a secure Web site and transcribe the notes, which can then be printed out or added to a patient's electronic medical record.
Simpson said there's no shortage of potential customers. He estimates that companies such as Spheris provide only about 48% of all medical transcriptions, while most are still done in-house by someone on the payroll of a doctors' office, surgery center or hospital.
"I think the decision to outsource is the easiest part, because that's usually being driven by pure economics," Panoff said. "It comes down to (health-care providers asking themselves), 'Do we have the ability internally to continue to provide this service? The dollars we're spending, are they going up or going down?' "
When competing for a big hospital's business, there are usually only a handful of companies large enough to handle the account, but because so many different departments have a say in the final decision, it can take months to win a contract and weeks longer to close the deal, Panoff said.
With sales expected to keep growing, Simpson is considering taking Spheris public in a year or two.
"The focus really isn't going public," he said. "I just see that as a vehicle to really help offset some of the debt the company has incurred in its acquisition and recapitalization — and give it currency for growth if acquisitions were to come up on the technology side or even the work force side."
In November 2004, two private equity investors, Warburg Pincus and Soros Private Equity, acquired ownership of the company from Parthenon Capital. Simpson and other Spheris executives also invested in the recapitalized company.
Simpson said, "There's plenty of opportunity for a company that can meet the customers' expectations and continue to improve service and turn-around time and quality." •
Hospital fined for breach of octuplet mom's privacy -
Posted By: LMT
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/15/octuplet.mom.hospital/index.html
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The hospital where a California woman gave birth to octuplets in January has been fined $250,000 by the state because nearly two dozen medical workers, including doctors, illegally viewed her medical records, according to state health officials.
Nadya Suleman was the subject of controversy after giving birth to octuplets in January.
Kaiser Permanente's Bellflower hospital, where Nadya Suleman's eight babies were born, revealed in March that 15 employees lost their jobs and eight others were disciplined for improperly accessing her computerized medical records.
There was no evidence that information from the medical files was leaked to the news media, which has intensely covered Suleman's story, according to Kathleen Billingsley, deputy director of the California Public Health Department's Center for Health Care Quality.
Six of the privacy breaches happened at other Kaiser Permanente facilities, which are linked into the same computer system housing medical records.
Suleman -- already a single mother with six children -- gave birth to octuplets conceived through in vitro fertilization, fueling controversy. News of her collecting public assistance for some of her children outraged many taxpayers.
How do you turn off the return symbols in a Word document?...nm -
Posted By: thank you
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Need feedback on getting paid for spaces vs not.... -
Posted By: Carly d
have an offer from AccuScribe in South Carolina, 9 cpl, but no spaces. Would like to hear opinions please, whether good or bad! TIA!
Stuff for sale on the Equipment Board nm -
Posted By: Marcy
b
Any info about Murad products for acne? nm -
Posted By: Mimi
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Instant Text opinions -
Posted By: mtmomma
I know everyone has their favorite, but I ordered IT and found it really difficult to use. I am coming off a VR job and am looking for ways to help increase my speed. With IT, I feel like I am spending more time looking at the bottom of my screen instead of the report, and I really would like to start working on editing and proofing as I type. Is IT really worth it or would it be better to work on increasing my ShortHand commands? Thanks!
IE 7 problem -
Posted By: laur
I've been having my QLDB freeze up on me while using IE7. I know it's a compatibility problem (I contacted Stedmans), but I don't want to go back to IE6 like Stedmans suggested, and I can't use any other browser for the company I work for.
Can anyone recommend another electronic drug reference that they know is compatible with IE7?
Thank you!
paycuts -
Posted By: Jasper
anyone else get slapped with a 30 percent pay cut today besides me? and yes, that is 3-0, THIRTY.
AAMT Book of Style... -
Posted By: Can someone tell me?
What changed in the newer version that is of great importance? Can anyone tell me briefly? Thanks!
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