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My fingers started hurting a few weeks back and I'm thinking, no big deal, goes with the territory.  Then my keyboard started leaving out "i" and "e" on occasion. I realized I have had the filthy old crumb ridden thing for almost a year and a half now, but was still to cheap to go buy a new one.

Finally dumped my coffee on the keyboard (sign from above?), but turned it over and tapped on it figuring it was good as new until the next morning when everytime I hit "r" I'd get rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

So I sped down to the local "pharmacy that has everything store" and bought a generic keyboard that was on sale for $8.99. I was amazed at the fact that all I have to do is touch the keys. No effort whatsoever and I was flying with my wpm..

I had no idea my keyboard had become so bad that I was basically pounding on the gunky old keys.  DUH! 

Finger pain is diminishing already and I've decided to stop being such a tightwad and replace my keyboard at least every six months.

I also invested in a coffee mug with a cover on it.

Hi, has anyone ever recorded files from a C-phone onto cassette tapes?  I have an account that is accessed via C-phone.  I am going to be going out of town for a couple days and wanted to record some work to take with me.  Can this be done?  I have a Lanier micro-cassette player and a Dictaphone C-phone.  Is there an attachment of some sort that could accomplish this?  Thanks for any help you can offer.

I've noticed some people complaining about MS new IE7 and having compatiblity problems with it.  I don't know if this has been brought up here before, but Microsoft has pulled a sneaky move and bundled the IE 7 upadte/upgrade in with their High-Priority Updates.  If you use  "Express" to update your system, only "critical updates" are listed, but this includes IE 7.  If you use "Custom", you can then uncheck the box next to the IE 7 update/upgrade so you don't inadvertently download it, and you can opt to not have that IE 7 update shown again if you so choose. Don't know wny MS decided to do that.  Warnings went out from my company not to download it because it is not compatible with the platform we use. 

What cpl rate, 65 character, should I go for w/9 years experience typing acute care and Associate Degree in HIM?  I'm at 8 cpl now and that is not paying the bills.  Thanks

I'm looking into getting VR software for some of my projects outside of MT work and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this software?  Is it really as good as they say as far as accuracy goes?  How long does it really take for it to "learn" a person's dictation style? Can I play recordings in ExpressScribe to be transcribed into Word? The site is not very helpful giving all the specifics as to how it REALLY works with other programs so I'm a bit hesitant. 

Again, this is not for MT work so it doesn't need to have a medical vocabulary or be able to work with EMRs or anything like that.

Hello everyone.  I wanted to sign in and thank everyone for all the info that has been posted on this board.  It was a very important web site for me during my short transcription career.

After being laid off from a company in Michigan 3 weeks ago, I have searched for and found an office manager position in a non-MT environment.  I'm going back to my routes in Admin.  I tried to make a career change a few years ago.  Maybe it was not the financial environment to make such a change or maybe it is just not for me.  What ever the case is, I'm leaving.  I have invested a large amount of time and money into this dream but sometimes you have to know when to "fold 'em."  Lucky for me hubby is on board and not making me feel bad about our investment or how this dream of mine drained our finances. 

So, again, thanks for all the help and good luck to everyone. 

I posted awhile back in January about needing hearing aids.  I was diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss back then and was sent for an MRI, which was clean.  I was told the next step would be hearing aids.

I had been having a lot of blanks through work and let the company I am an IC with know what was going on.  I received an e-mail today telling me not to turn in more work until they have a copy of my hearing test.  I am not sure what that means. 

Honestly, with the amount of blanks I have had, they could have let me go for not hitting whatever percentage of accuracy required. 

Anyway, I am just looking to see if anyone else out there has had to get hearing aids and what type they use that works best with being an MT.

Thanks for your help!

How do I get control of this white cat fur on my forest green furniture and stop him from clawing it up?

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.

Hi, all:  I've been getting my own small clients here and there, and I've had a request for a proposal to radiology reports for a small radiology group.  Their current vendor is charging them by report, not line.  Anyone have any idea what to charge by report?  I've done some calculating with regard to average lines per report, and I'm thinking of offering to do it for $3 per report.  Any idea if this is too high or too low???  Any input is appreciated........

I would so appreciate some help.  I just started an IC job.  I wasn't told I would need a word Expander and medical spellcheck.  Every other place I have worked for provided these.  I need to get something fast, i.e., in person now if possible!, as I am already working and not very productive without these two items.  There was a store I went to years ago in downtown Atlanta where I got some medical books near the Fox theater.  Does anyone know if it is still there and the name of it?  I don't have any yellow pages and I have not been able to pinpoint anything on Google.  Thanks so much!

It started with a mild sore throat, then went to a REALLY BAD sore throat, tickly throat so I coughed and couldn't sleep, started getting a runny nose, then sinuses stuffy/sinus headache, sore throat got worse - was starting to think it was strep.  Yesterday was the worst; felt like crap.  Last night - started to feel better!  Finally last night I was able to SLEEP.  Today I have felt SO much better.  Not back to normal, but at least I was able to drink a cup of coffee.  Every other day I have poured myself a cup and then it just sat on my desk all day.  My throat is MUCH better and althought I am getting twinges of pain in it from time to time, it's not constant like it has been the last several days.  I don't like this, whatever it is!

I would think it was strep except DD had it too and she got over it.  She said her teacher had it and the teacher said her doctor told her it's a viral thing.

Found a hard working young mom who desperately needs income.  Told her I'd pay her $12/hr to help me get my home spring cleaned.  But, I wonder about liability should she or her son (she needs to bring her 3 yr-old son with her) get hurt on my property.  Or, heaven forbid, she stoops to the low road and scams me.  I do not know her well and she seems relatively honest but I am paranoid.

Should I have her sign a waiver???

I took a test that was so long and involved that it was hardly worth the effort.  I got through the test and did well other than a couple of silly mistakes that I probably should have caught, nothing major, but I had listened to that long voice file and read and reread the report so many times I finally sent it on.  Anyway, I got the results back and wow, talk about PICKY!  Again, I had only missed a couple of small things, but I got reamed in email over it.  I should say that the dictator and the sound quality were absolutely horrendous.  The dictator spoke with an incredibly thick foreign accent and with the "far off distance" sound quality it was amazing that I could make out any of it.  This company should be thrilled that anyone bothered to even try to transcribe the test file, especially as long as it was, and I also can't imagine they have many people who want to work for them or stay with them.

I started using a split keyboard years ago.  I love them.  The first one I had was PC Concepts, I believe.  When I finally wore that one out and went to get another, I couldn't find that brand.  I got Microsoft's keyboard next.  It's okay, although the #6 key is on the left, which I found to be true of all the split keyboards.  My PC Concepts KB had the #6 on the right, which made more sense to me.  I was never able to adjust to this, so I constructed a "bridge" for the #6 key.  I have never been able to find a split keyboard with the #6 on the right.  Does anyone know of one?

Also, I use my mouse too much and I'm starting to get pains.  Yea!!  So, I'm wondering, does anyone use a split keyboard with a built-in mousepad-thingy on the bottom of the keyboard?  I was thinking about trying one of these next, but I hate to spend the $ w/o getting some opinions first.  If you use one, what brand; do you like it; does it really work; any suggestions? 

Thanks!!

Here is a question for you gals (and guys).  Where can I find a timer like the chess players use that you can hit the button and it stops, hit it again and it continues.  I would very much like to be able to track just how much time I actually spend on transcribing versus jumping up and down doing housework, answering the phone, door, etc.

Thanks!

Any advice on a laptop for transcribing would be greatly appreciated, like what type and do you need any special equipment to go with it.

Thanks,

tt

This web site has the listings for lots of major companies that we deal with every day.  It includes the numbers to actually speak to a human being and not a computer.  My daughter forwarded it to me, but I haven't actually had need to use it yet.  Thought it might take away a frown  or make someone's day a little better.

It is:  http://www.gethuman.com/us/

I cannot afford to buy this insurance. Am I jeopradizing my home, etc. 

I keep wondering if this career is worth it.  I seem to put in so many long hours and do not get paid what I really put into it.  On the other hand, I do get that freedom of completing the work when I choose and whether it is in my pj's or not. 

Just wondering. 

I came across this.  Looked like something that might come in handy.  Lots of things on here.  Thought I would pass it along.  Have a Happy New Year!

I just started with a national 2 weeks ago.  I took that because the place I really wanted to work didn't have an opening for many, many months and it was finally time to just find something, so I took the other.

Now yesterday an opening was posted at the local clinic, the one I'd been wishing for.  I'd normally apply, but I just started this other and I'd feel really bad.  I'd also have to work in-house for around 3 months to get used to the new system and the way they do things and then I'd be turned loose to work from home.  I'd also have to work more hours a week (28) then I presently do, but it's not an awful number. 

Has anybody had a similar dilemma or held a job only a short time before moving on? I never do things like this!  Any advice?

What are the flashing icons beside the job postings on the Job Seeker's Board?  Are they intended to indicate that the jobs have been filled or still open?  Thank you.