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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

I am a slower but accurate producer, around 1000 sm

Posted By: pokey on 2005-11-02
In Reply to:

lines in 8 hours. Are there any companies out there that would value me as an employee?  Seems like everyone wants 1200 lines or better or you are out the door.


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The only thing I noticed was counts slower to post - but accurate,I think
nm
If you are a high producer (400+ lph) do you have to
even after you make your line count at Spheris?
Well, I was a high producer when given accounts that -sm
were easy to build lots of large templates for. Although I must say that was rather boring. Now I have more challenging work that I really like, keeps my mind stimulated, but alot of it is state-of-the-art oncology for a couple different clients, and their work just doesn't lend itself to templates, or even very many macros. Also more time is spent finding info. on drugs & equipment that is often too new to be in the Stedman's books.

Although I'm sticking to my production commitment, on this type of work I need more lines/day to live on. So although I'm supposed to work an 8-hour day, 5 days a week, lately it's turned into a 10-12 hour day, 6 days a week.

I AM interested in learning new things, the more specialties I'm doing, the happier and more well-rounded an MT I am. But I think if that variety results in slowing me down, if my work is still coming in accurately transcribed, it should pay better.

I think that as a supervisor, you would find more people interested in taking on more challenges if they were REWARDED for doing so, instead of PENALIZED by a reduction in take-home pay.

JMHO
yikes. i am a high producer. with the changes at Q,
my pay has taken a HUGE cut, so I hate to jump from the frying pain into the fire. I transcribe and edit, and I am definitely feeling the pinch and have to decide this weekend. Thanks for the info...much appreciated
Their pay is the pits unless you're a heavy producer. nm
s
That "better producer" phrase sounds like -
Moo.
That is way low! I also transcribe for a producer, verbatim, non-medical,
any typist could do it (unlike MTing) and I get $100 per 1 hour of dictation. That's ridiculous.
What is considered a "high producer" at Transcend? Everyone has talked so much about it, what
nn
if your a slower typist, go for the $15, but.....
If you have speed and can utilize your normals, definitely take production. There are hours where I make $40 an hour at 9 cents per line. I would never go hourly.


Yes, that is another reason why I am going slower. Although
I have just made the 11K, and trending upward, I still make the QA bonus every time. I have been in the business a long time, and perhaps that is why I stopped a consistent over 20K a payperiod. Over the years the patient care meant more to me than the extra 100 bucks a payperiod. I know some may think that is ridiculous, but it kicked in when I hit 40 years old. Maybe my conscience, or just wanting to do a quality job and a good line count. Again, Expanders will help with typos but research needs to be done before leaving blanks too and that takes time sometimes. I don't mind researching 4 sources but then I will put a blank if I am not sure because of an accent. So that is correct 2K is no good if it is not a quality 2K. Better make less lines and 99% QA and trend slowly upward, which can be done with your own canned text and their normals. Good luck!
Need detailed info on DSG. It is stable work for a high producer? nm
nm
You will. Some people's mail is slower.
nm
Maybe you ought to read my post a little slower
I had several e mails with Keystrokes and was PROMISED a phone call. One thing I neglected to mention in my OP is that they stated late last night that they HAD called me, with no answer. My phone NEVER rang Monday OR Tuesday. I have caller ID, nothing there either. I checked my telephone calls online, nothing there either. They did not call and they do not get a second chance with me.
Bayscribe slower than DocQscribe
Bayscribe is slower than DocQscribe. One thing is you have to chose which report type you want to transcribe next after each report and then wait for the screen to reload whereas in DQS it is already filled in and no waiting. Their doctor roster is not as user friendly as DQS. You do get credit for filling in demographics which amounts to about 1 line per report.
I find it idiotic to even say a slower
person could do better on VR. You CANNOT be slow and go through VR as fast as you need to make a decent salary, just cannot be done. Typing straight I could do over 2000 a day, now with VR I do over 3000 a day but it has nothing to do with being slow norr a newbie, heard that before too. Both things are really laughable.
I think it's a lot slower. I'm having a hard time getting lines, but I'm
nm
It has been a little slower this week but depends on the account your on.

The escription accounts seem to be really slow. You may need to ask for a backup account if you don't have one so I'd get ahold of your account manager.


That doesnt sound too slow to me.. I would probably be slower, I am tired and old too.
 Wish it were just my fingers though.
Just a little slower than DQS in bringing jobs up, filling out screen. (sm)
Not a lot really, and the plus side of being able to research other documents by a particular physician or patient pretty much makes up for it.

Just thought I had heard something and was hoping there was an even better system coming about.


No we won't. I said slow, meaning slower than usual, should have clarified.
.
It's more accurate......nm
xx
But it is not accurate!
nm
not accurate
They have never said I needed to complete my shift.  I make my 1600 goal before my 8 hour shift is over.  They care about production, not hours.  You do need to put on your time sheet FT hours though and not go over 40 but I think FT is 35 if I remember correct.  They have never chased me down after I am done for the day!!
not accurate
its not strange
it happens all the time at these companies
the whole teams let go where houly QC people getting paid too much
No, that's not entirely accurate.
What they require is 100 lph unless you are full time with full benefits and then it is 150 lph. It will depend on the number of hours in a day you work as to how many lines that day you need. And it will depend on where the payperiod falls as to how many payperiod lines that is.

You're on the losing end and don't even understand your own requirements if you think it is a flat 1200 lines a day and 12K lines a payperiod.


You are 100% accurate, VR on my end
has everyone on it, no exceptions. We have tons of ESLs with English. I know of no one who is exempt from being on there. I read others here who say their company does not allow this or that dictator to be on, not on this end, all the same and the ESLs, thank goodness, are on there, I am not pulling out the few hairs on my head I have left because does a really good job.
Do you want quick or accurate?
Why go to a board like this for a question to do with your company's benefits? Actually, you would probably get a pretty quick answer by e-mailing your HR rep, and it would have a much higher probability of being correct!
Accurate Transcription -
Any info anyone?
IS accurate with my company
**
Very accurate post
I work for another national company, but you are absolutely correct. I, too, am always willing to help wherever I can. Too many days, though, I find myself working 9 or 10 hours just to get my minimum daily line requirement in. Looking up new drugs, procedures, etc., as well as having no templates to work with, I find my hourly line rate zooming down to 100-125 lines an hour. The worst of it is, as the poster correctly stated, we are seeing a decrease in pay for helping on these other accounts, so to what benefit is it to us?

Good post, and valid points!
more accurate info here

The letter stated they will ALWAYS need MTs to do transcription, VR can't do everything.  They also stated that the are evaluating the line rates for when we are on full VR accounts.  Honestly, do you expect to make the same to sit and read through these reports and make a few changes and send on their way as you do to type the whole thing?  I've seen a few VR jobs personally and the software doesn't miss much, so we should be able to pump these jobs out like crazy so a difference in like rate for editing is going to be offset by the fact that we can edit more jobs in a day than we can transcribe.  Industry is going this way and we all have to quit complaining or move on, this isn't new news has been happening over the years with all the bigger companies.


You can't get accurate OSI info
The accurate info is so damaging that is always deleted, you will have to depend on the archives if there are any left that have not been deleted.
Well said. I find this to be accurate. nm
nm
Really, you find this accurate? SM
There is no deduction in pay if you do not hit bonus or minimum numbers. Platform is much better than it was 2 or 3 years ago, faster with every upgrade. You do not spend 2 weeks on 100% QA review, I think it is 2 days to a week if you need it.
Mine is actually very accurate
I have compared my own line counts to the ones in ExText, and they have always been accurate. It may have something to do with how the company counts your lines, but I have never had a problem with it.
I do not think there is an accurate answer (sm)
to this question.  I generally transcribe 70-90 minutes daily, and I average 2,000+ lines per day from those minutes.
she is totally accurate on MDI. I just
got emailed for an interview and was told when I had to work. I was blown away because I told her that I needed M-F which is what I have always gotten. I need M-F for personal reasons but still would not work weekends anyway! They are no longer flexible which is insane when they are SE and IC. I also felt C was condescending after I had told her that I had wanted to work there for quite a long time. They USED TO seem like a great place to work. I have decided I am going back to a small MTSO and maybe even taking less to do clinic work instead of AC. I was happy and made good money back then but the 2 companies I had worked for had most of their accounts taken by the large MTSOs! I can't even imagine still being a single mother of 2 now. I supported them and had a mortgage, made 42-47K a year. Thank God I am remarried or I would have lost my home on the scraps I make now! I am only talking about 4 years ago on back! I could go on and on about how this field has gone to pot!
The above info is either old or not accurate. sm
I work there currently and do not find any of this to be true. We are not penalized for sending any blanks to QA.

Pay is a little on the lower side but I have no ESLs on my account at all. I believe it is 0.07 per 65-character with spaces employee or 0.08 as IC. Pay has always been on time and I have been there 4 months. I am on Scribe platform, which I have no complaints about. I know not all accounts are on this platform though so I can only speak from my experience. Feel free to email me if you would like more details.


I'll tell you right now that's not very accurate way to sm
guess-timate the revenue. Webmedx may have *800 employees* but not even close to that number are MTs, so 47K as revenue per MT would not be correct. Webmedx also sells its platform to radiology clients and technology client, so some of that money is from them.

Just an FYI.
Maybe so, but it was right on the money accurate nonetheless!

Most news flashes are accurate.

Granted maybe "many" people can make more while editing, but you explained it quite well in your post about the money you earned straight transcribing to the money you make editing.  I'm left wondering if you are new to the field of medical transcription.  There was a time (a year ago) when I could make $22 an hour straight transcribing.  Even on a bad day with lots of interruptions and a queue full of difficult ESLs I was averaging $18 an hour.  Until VR came along. After a year of working on VR, my earnings then dropped from $22 to $9 an hour, and finally averaged at $14 an hour with VR.  That isn't even mentioning the quality of the reports and what we were told to overlook and let go through so that we weren't "over-editing".   I also know that I am not the only one this has happened to. While the money you may make pays YOUR bills a lot faster, it isn't the same for everyone, and that's what we've been saying.


You're also not thinking through your comment about the copier and the PC.  Although we no longer have to do carbon copies manually anymore when the copier came along, WE still made the copies.  The same with the PC.  We may not have had to use the Selectric typewriter anymore, but WE still had to enter the data and text into the PC and produce a professional document from scratch.  WE are not doing that with the VR.  If you want to use an illustration, at least use one that is more accurate.  The more accurate picture is to have the invention of a copier that did absolutely everything and a PC that needed no data entry.  The only manual job left in that office is the cleaning lady.   THAT's how the field has changed.  So why wouldn't some be upset to go from a medical Transcriptionist that took years and years of developing skill and educating to cleaning up after a machine?  After all these years of college, on-the-job training, and continuing education why should I feel happy in my job as a "cleaning lady" at half my wages to the copier that does everything and the PC that can run the office itself?  Just to make those with fewer skills and less experience happy because THEY don't have to work as hard and they're happy being the "cleaning ladies"? 


It's funny you should mention "not fussing" over using expanders.  Even the entries that go into the expanders were created by us, manually programmed by us, and implemented by us.  Someone may have invented the software, but all the data in it for future use was developed by US.  Do you know how long it takes to develop, maintain, and remember tens of thousands of shortcut entries?  It doesn't happen overnight.  So while we may use the expander that doesn't actually "type" each and every entry we now use, we DID type those and did a whole lot more into our expander software.  Furthermore, carpenters use electric nailers now.  Painters use electric air-painters now.  They still get paid the same amount for their work.  Why are we any different?  You use the expanders as a means to bolster your opinion, but just as in the big picture of VR, you haven't quite thought things through to completion.  I have more pride in my profession and my skills to be relegated "cleaning lady" with a false title of editor.  Truthfully if you look at the big picture, if not for VR you wouldn't even have the qualifications of Editor if you're only making $12 an hour straight typing.  THAT's why so many people are upset about what you feel is the future of this profession.  It isn't the technology, it's the fact that those relatively new to the field and lacking the skills will be turning out unprofessional, sloppy, and often incorrect medical documents that will effect EVERY medical transcriptionist and the field as a whole and thinking they've won the jackpot because they're making $13.50 an hour. There was a time when a minimum of 5 years' in-house experience was required to be considered for at-home medical transcription.  Now apparently all it takes is a willingness to be a "cleaning lady".


 



Just because someone posts that VR is the wave of the future doesn't mean they're in management - they're just being realistic about what is happening in this industry (just as they referred to the copier and PCs).  



Of course if you think it's really going to hurt you to do VR then perhaps you should go back to an IBM typewriter and get your own accounts.  After all - using a PC and expanders is helping you get paid for work you're not actually transcribing (yup, think about those expanders - I bet you're not fussing over getting paid to have those kick in instead of having to type out those words, or consider the header information that blows in for you from an ADT feed that you're not having to manually type). 


These boards should be for accurate information
and not for speculation.  Zylomed did at one point, several years ago, offshore a small amount of work to Indian because they could not find American MTs who could/would do the very difficult doctors.  This work was eventually ALL given to American MTs - I know because I trained the MTs to do this work.  Zylomed DOES NOT outsource any work.
Which ones? I really want an accurate list before I start looking. nm
nm
Accurate line count
I just did a quick report and checked the lines 3 ways. In Word it was 23.99, in iChart 23.87 and in session statistics it was 27.57. Not a big discrepancy. The thing is, Transtech is not going to cheat their MTs who make them what they are. It just doesn't make sense.
if you are fast and accurate, @ 10 cpl, you will make sm
way more than $17 per hour! Not a bad thing.
Anyone working for Accurate Transcription out of TX?
Thanks for any info
Line counts are accurate - SM
A previous poster was erroneous in stating how AcuSuite users were paid.

FACT: US Santa Clara AcuSuite MTs transcribing US Santa Clara accounts are paid for ALL spaces, ALL visual black characters, and input demographic information. US Santa Clara MTs transcribing non-Santa Clara accounts are compensated for platform differences.

If any US Acusis MT has any questions at all they can contact the transcription managers, editing managers, or trainers with any questions. We all stand behind the above statement. We are all working with this platform with our MTs best interests in mind.

My personal opinion of the new platform is that is different but not more difficult than what we are coming from. There are advantages to the new platform. The disadvantages are few, in my opinion, and not too difficult to work around. While this transition may be difficult, as always, we are here to help you with your questions and make your transition as smooth as possible.

Allison Hillyer
Trans. Mgr., QA/QI, Trainer

But are your 2000 lines per day ACCURATE?
If you expect to work at TT and shoot off 2000 lines per day that have a lot of errors you have just moved to the wrong company. You will be admonished about that. And you should be. Flying fingers don't cut it at TT unless the work is accurate. If you have a lot of Expanders and produce a lot of quality work you will be an asset. I have never made 2000 lines a day at TT but my work is accurate and they are a great company.
right, regarding VR, because I guess that to create accurate
VR draft documents for MTing is the most demanding on the VR systems as it has the most difficult vocabulary and terminology.
The vocabulary of general and legal transcription is MUCH easier than the MTing's.

But I am not so sure that the EMR system would work well for legal transcription as each case is really unique and the usage of EMR (templates and macros etc...)would not be quite practical.
Maybe more for the demographics.

I guess EMR is most fitting for coding and billing.
Accurate Word Counts
I would like to know how to check my line counts independently, to make sure that I am getting paid accurately for all lines, spaces, characters, etc. Currently I use Medrite and have always taken my line count from the system as it gives it to me. It runs with Microsoft Word 2003.

Since I am a high producer, after reading comments from others, I think even minor differences could make a substantial difference in my paycheck. An upgrade might be coming at the end of the year, and I wonder if this could affect counts in their favor. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


I think the points you raise here are valid, and perhaps even accurate, but...SM
I also think reasonable rebuttals to these arguments have already been posted. I am no longer willing to buy into the idea that nothing can be done and that there is nothing left to do but go down with the ship or just go wherever it happens to take us.

My decision has already been made. Maybe it's a losing battle, maybe it's not. But it's a battle that I am at least willing to fight. In this battle, I see the sword coming at me, and I for one intend to at least try to get out of the way.

Our jobs don't have to be as different as all that. I don't care what everyone else is going to do. I take the stand I do because I refuse to just lay down and be run over by the "wheels of progress," especially when it doesn't have to be that way. If everyone will stand together, we still have the ability to have a significant impact on what our collective future will be. If, on the other hand, everyone buys into the idea that it's "a losing battle," then your right, we're all just along for the ride in whatever direction the vehicle chooses to take us.

With an it-can't-be-done attitude, you know what we are? We're the elephant chained to the stake that's hammered only a few inches into the ground. We have the power to pull it up and move at will, but because we have been trained to believe that the anchor is stronger than we are, we eventually quit trying because we're convinced it's "a losing battle." Again, maybe it is and maybe it isn't, but I think we should all give the chain a good, healthy tug and find out for sure. It can't hurt.

By the way, I'm not saying stop working. I'm just advocating we become more particular about who we work for.