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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Hard to get your hours in and keep productivity up

Posted By: MT on 2006-01-22
In Reply to: MT Productivity of system used by Wedmedx - NeedInfo

To get a decent line count, you have to clock out when you're not transcribing. That means clock out for EVERYTHING not transcribing.

The result is you're writing/responding to email off the clock, studying account specifics off the clock, etc.--in other words, doing a lot of work off the clock.

This keeps your line count okay, but it also makes for a very long day. It's a real catch-22. If you get a good lph, you probably didn't make the hours or put in way more than your required hours to get there. If you made the hours, you probably didn't make the lph.

Sound quality varies. Have some lousier ESLs with Webmedx than a lot of places.

Software is good, aimed toward MT productivity, but for the reasons mentioned above, this may be a moot point anyway.

Look at the archives. It's interesting to see the wave of interest over various companies. Seems Webmedx is rising in interest once again. Take a look at the opinions a while back, though. You'll get a clearer picture if you don't just go with whomever is popular at the moment.


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Productivity
I work on Bayscribe and do 2000 lines per day routinely, sometimes 2500. I know many MTs who do this on various platforms. I think it has more to do with years of experience than with platform used (although I must admit I loathe DQS). Please don't worry, your productivity will increase over time.
Productivity of MedRite
Anyone experienced with MedRite?  Is this productive for the MT or time-consuming.  Thanks
Softscript productivity, etc.
I was looking on here to see if anyone had any suggestions about improving productivity with Softscript.  I have been there 3 months and am now literally working 12 hours a day because of the things that have been mentioned; the time spent looking up account specifics and physician names, or trying to get a question answered.  There are a few good people there though, and I was hoping with the addition of Brenda Hurley maybe things will get better.  I am an ex-MQ'r and the biggest advantage I see with SoftScript is that they do not change your accounts from week to week.  I have had the same 2 for 3 months.  I have 13 years experience and they did give me a little better wage, but NOTHING CLOSE to the 12 cpl I got with the first MSTO I signed on with many, many years ago.  I'm afraid those days are gone. 
escription productivity
How well eScription works for you has a little to do with how efficiently you navigate around in the report and a lot to do with the dictators and how well the program types up the report in the first place (meaning, does the report need few corrections or a lot?). This depends on how well it was trained on the account in the first place. If it was trained on the account by a relatively small group of good MTs then it should work pretty good. Productivitiy also has a lot to do with the dictators themselves. If you have a super slow talking doctor that you could type as fast as listening to, then that will hurt your VR productivity. If you have a doctor that jumps around a lot and confuses the program, that will hurt your VR productivity. If you have a clear doctor who speaks fast and eScription spits out a pretty clean report, then that will help your VR productivity. How well eScription does with any particular accent of any particular doctor depends a lot on how well it was trained in the first place by the MTs. If the MTs were able to understand the doctor and give a solid report then the program will learn well and probably do well. If not... well, you get the idea.
productivity takes time

start with easy stuff


a history of   aho


ti  there is


tin there is no


tine there is no evidence


tineo there is no evidence of


neo no evidence of


grno grossly normal


geo gross evidence of


radh  radiograph


 


MT Productivity of system used by Wedmedx

MTs currently working with Webmedx, please respond on your productivity with the Webmedx system.  I would greatly appreciate your response. 


Also, would like response on sound quality.


Thank you very much.


How 's productivity working in this compnay?
xxxxx
I did ask that, it would increase accuracy, productivity, TAT....sm
She took me off one of the two clinics so now I only have about 35 docs and maybe 10 specialities, but I believe this is only temporary since I am having trouble familiarizing.  I just get the impression that I am not up to par where I should be and I'm surprised, as I'm a quick study.  And to pour salt in it, my two QA people on our Messenger List notated next to their names yesterday that they were typing ___ and listed my account name.  These ladies only type when backed up.  So I think I'm bogging them down:(   I feel so inadequate, and for less than 8 cpl.  Oy.
productivity...long message sm
Wow, congrats on 10 years of experience, a great schedule, rare interruptions and very good work habits! Sounds like you should have no problem being more productive! It also sounds like you just need to work smarter not harder. Let Word do more of the work for you--use simple macros (page setups and jumps), autotext (templates and normals), autocorrect (long strings of text, single words with suffixes, special function codes e.g. semicolon and the ALT+ keys), autoformat (quick bold/underline), try to stay away from the mouse (use KB shortcuts), resist the temptation to go back to fix typos on the fly (but remember to spellcheck!), take a quick break every hour to stretch and drink water, set two timers--one for how long you plan to transcribe before your next break and the other to limit your referencing time or Internet playtime--5-10 minutes max? (i use CoolTimer freeware), set payroll/weekly/daily goals, temp save frequently, proof 1x, leave blanks if you must (you have nothing to prove and nothing to gain by dwelling on the difficult!) Hope this helps! =)
Here's the productivity tools site

https://secure.bayscribe.com/expander/


I wish I could help you with transferring the expander, but I can't.  MIne doesn't work in Bayscribe (I use Stedman's Smartype) so I type it in Word and then cut and paste into Bayscribe.


Good luck with your expander!


Question re: your amazing productivity
I have read a couple of posts now which stated that working with Chartscript decreased their productivity tremendously. In all my years as in the biz, Chartscript is all I've ever used and it makes me wonder if that is contributing to my lack of productivity. Also, I am interested as to where you can work to make the type of line count you have - I think I'd throw myself a party every day if I reached levels such as that!!
How is MW's MeriT program as far as productivity goes? just curious

easy to learn, but not good for productivity
.
Sorry, I work 15 hours a day 5 days a week and 5 hours the other 2, when I come here I dont proof.
nm
Why would they give you a choice of 16 or 24 hours. Usually part time is anything under 37 hours.

That is extremely odd. Well they must have something up their sleeves. Well I will be working elsewhere part time as well as with MQ as I have no intention of sitting 40 hours with no work from Amherst and be expected to have 150 lph with no work. What is all this window of work time they said they would be giving everyone. I figured all along they would do away with SE. I have already been looking around and ordered a new computer  to send theirs back.


 


Any companies that allow line count rather than hours or less than 20 hours per week? (sm)

Wouldn't mind having something extra especially with Christmas and general winter expenses coming up but working a FT job and really don't want to do another 20 hours on top of that. 


 


the day has 24 hours, I work only 6-8 hours, so, lots of time to post...nm
nm
Must we choose either 8, 16 or 24 hours. Why would they want someone only working 8 hours a week.
That is less than SE are required now.
MDI-FL. Approximately 7 hours a month x12 months =84 hours
And your PTO acrues from day 1. You are just unable to utilize it until after 90 days. They have excellent benefits.
You can have insurance at 30 hours with Encompass, 32 hours with eTransPlus. nm

10-15 an hour for 8 hours is better than nothing for 8 hours when there is no work.
x
You do not get PTO for 16 hours a week. 24 hours or more for the PTO. nm
:
That's exactly what I was going to say. Yes, I work at least 12 hours a day, sometimes 15 hours
to get all of my line count in because I have so many interruptions in my day.  There is no way I would tell my company this nor expect them to pay me OT that they never asked you to do. Unless, I was called by my supervisor and asked to work extra for OT, I would never just take it upon myself to work and expect to be paid.  If you were not authorized to work OT, then your not getting paid. Point blank. I do not work at TT, but I have worked at enough jobs, at home as an MT and otherwise outside of home, that all have the same policy, your paid OT when your asked to work it. It's it is just a case of not being able to get your required line count in 8 hours, then maybe your in the wrong profession or possibly just the wrong company/account for you. This just seems bizarre to me. Just tell yourself, your not getting paid for OT because they aren't approving it so don't work it. Again, if you were asked to work OT, told it would be OT, and then they ask you not to record it, I'd pitch a fit, but from what I see, you've done this on your own.
? 13.33 for 3 hours ($4.44 hours) am I doing it right. Geez!!!!!i
.
Why would anyone work 8 hours a week. The poster above said 16 or 24 hours a week.
:
Hard to say...
In my experience, one minute of dictation is roughly equivalent to 10 lines of transcription, so, approximately 180 minutes of dictation, and figuring an average length of a report at around 3 minutes, that's probably around 60 reports.
Hard to say
what the situation is.  It is fairly common to have times here and there where there is no work in this business due to many different things.  The company may have over hired and don't have enough work.  Do you work on clinic or acute care.  If clinic and you work on only one account, is it possible a doctor is out of town?  There could be many different reasons, although I think it is somewhat strange that they can predict that there will be no work at all for you for several days (this might make me a little suspicious).  Might not hurt to try to find another part-time position to fill in the gaps.         
it is hard
to say that our profession is not going to exist. I see a high demand for experienced MTs. If you look on the occupational outlook handbook, it even says that there is going to be greater than average demand for MTs. I copied and pasted below what it says.

Contracting out transcription work overseas and advancements in speech recognition technology are not expected to significantly reduce the need for well-trained medical transcriptionists. Outsourcing transcription work abroad—to countries such as India, Pakistan, Philippines, and the Caribbean—has grown more popular as transmitting confidential health information over the Internet has become more secure; however, the demand for overseas transcription services is expected only to supplement the demand for well-trained domestic medical transcriptionists. In addition, reports transcribed by overseas medical transcription services usually require editing for accuracy by domestic medical transcriptionists before they meet domestic quality standards. Speech-recognition technology allows physicians and other health professionals to dictate medical reports to a computer that immediately creates an electronic document. In spite of the advances in this technology, the software has been slow to grasp and analyze the human voice and the English language, and the medical vernacular with all its diversity. As a result, there will continue to be a need for skilled medical transcriptionists to identify and appropriately edit the inevitable errors created by speech recognition systems, and to create a final document.



JLG hard?
If you thought the JLG phone test was hard, you are in for a rude awakening in the MT field. They are standard questions you would know if you have any experience.
Trying hard
I'm trying to like Amphion, but the platform is awful.  If I could ever get the chance to type, I could really get a good line count, but the filling in the DI screen and constant looking up physicians is killing me.  I kept track over one hour, and I had to look up 14 doctors' names and numbers and cc them.  And this is going into a separate window and then coming back to the chart, not using just a keystroke to look them up.  I love the dictators.  They're very clear, and the supervisors are adequate, not overly helpful, but pretty nice.  Right now, I'm struggling to make $10 an hour.
Yes, hard at first but
you get used to it. I dropped 2 cents a line, but the company part of the taxes worked out equally. At least I don't have to pay in the quarterly taxes anymore! Not as much freedom but if you are with a good company it helps.
Not that hard
I do the acute care on 2 accounts. What I find with Keystrokes is the accounts I do are not 50/50 ESL. I don't mind ESLs but something is fishy with other companies I have worked for when I get over 50% ESL. I am not making a good living. I can't do it with 90% ESLs and I have 17 years experience.

I am now making a GOOD living and enjoy going to work every day. I have ESLs but they are the average ESLs, not every other dictation and the accent so thick I despair.

I have some hard dictators but I am making a good living and I haven't for over 5 years. I am also not the fastest typist but I am picky, and I am still making a good living. I work on Ex-Text and the Control I is not blocked. That being the case I can check constantly if I want. I am averagin between 1500 and 1700 lines if I turn the TV off, concentrate and work. Like I said, I am not the fastest typist, but I can live with those lines.
Don't be too hard on yourself, we
spend a lot of time researching words/equipment, looking up CC docs, checking old reports to get proper dictation, etc. You have to figure that in.
It really is hard to believe...
I have been gone now for at least a month, and I cant believe how unaffected my life has been. I mean, I wouldnt leave MQ because I was afraid that I would have to start all over again and worry more about income, etc., etc. Well, stupid me, I shoulda, shoulda, ad. infinitum...
Hard to believe.
nm
not hard
The test was just a general test but beware. I took it along with two friends of mine and they told all of us we failed (we took it for QA/QC) and offered us by line VR jobs instead of hourly.  Then a month later, got called back for an interview for QA, then the next week told they hired somebody else.  Then I got an email asking if I was still interested in a position. I didn't even bother to answer.  There's got to be a reason they are always hiring for every position.
I tried really hard to believe this, but SM

I'm still trying to get past why anyone there would spend all that time and energy doing something like this when they could have just let you go.  They don't have to have cause to let you go.  


Before you call me a cheerleader for All Type, know that I have my own not-so-pleasant experience with them.  I just don't believe they (or any company) has the amount of time to do something like this.  Bottom line.  If you are as good as you say you are, then you should be employed by the beginning of next week.  Don't waste any more time on this, just apply to some companies. 


What is so hard to think out?
OP said people letting work go VR WITHOUT correcting it because otherwise they would be DOCKED. Again, I would not work at any place that wanted to dock my money and secondly you are not much of an MT to just let any and all mistakes go thru so you can make the $$. Oh, by the way hubby NEVER tells me or else.
It is hard!

My first two children, who are 11 months apart, made it very difficult to work at home.  They are 8 and 9 now... and they are SO easy now... because they play with their neighborhood kids a lot and dont really bother me much.  however, I just had a baby and she is very demanding, of course, like all babies are.  You cant neglect them.... so you have to squeeze in your time here and there... Sometimes I do 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there, as much as I can throughout the day.  Then when my hsuband is home I will work a pretty long stretch... I also work at night to finish up my work for the day.  It is hard, very hard.  I feel like I am working ALL the time... Because even when you are not working, it is hanging over your head and you end up being stressed, wondering if you will be able to get the work done on time. 


My first two children will always remember their childhood as their mom working all the time.. because that is how it feels.


My husband goes to work, puts in his nine hours and comes home and it is all over... 


If I could afford day care they would definitely be enrolled. 


Hard to believe . . .
I believe you hit the proverbial nail on the head there when you asked if Larry deliberately minimized the percentage to be deceptive . . .
Hard to get a job now, only very low sm
paying companies hiring.
It's going to be hard to believe this since they've already
Or they'll change it again once it suits their purpose. 
Think long and hard.

Do you want to work for a company that doesn't pay any down time for a platform that goes down almost every day? Even when it's working, it has significant sound quality problems.  Do you want to wait an entire year before getting even one minute of PTO?  Account instructions that are pages and pages long, very confusing and poorly written?  Do you want to do VR or transcribe?  Did they mention their goal of getting most if not all accounts on voice recognition, and then they're going to pay you roughly half of what they promised you now?


A higher line rate is only good if you can get lines, don't run out of work and work a platform that's Transcriptionist friendly and doesn't go down every other hour.  Unfortunately, you're not going to find those things at Transcend.  Maybe they're hiring you to replace me because I couldn't take it any longer and accepted a job offer for what seemed like less money, but I feel I'll wind up making more if I don't have to deal with all the problems I just mentioned.


They pay every other Friday. How hard is that
duh!
A LITTLE hard to understand????
Did you ever figure out how much you would have been paid on the report you just edited and ALMOST COMPLETELY RETYPED compared to your editing pay????
Why is it so hard to get speed
with that company, are they on a slow system or something?
the lines are hard
x
So easy to say, so hard to do. If you were going to do
it, you would have already. It is so much easier to bash companies and service owners than to do it yourself. Just like armchair quarterbacks. If you had the time and talent to do it better yourself, wouldn't you?

I don't think they are hard to learn, but they are much more

technical in the terminology, lots of equipment and procedure names that change all the time.  It seems that each time a new batch of doctors come in that the terminology is different.  They come from other parts of the country/world and they used different equipment or different techniques.  Lots of stuff to look up - just like the new drugs. 


 


JLG did, but it was so ridiculously hard that
I turned them down flat. Some places expect you to know things only a dr would!
Many posts about it being very hard to get
lines because of the way they count them, supposed deducts for low QA, frequently switched from one account to another, they are in the process of training MTs in Trinidad, so obviously they support offshoring.