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Very difficult and they raised the minimum lines per wk. nm

Posted By: Yup! on 2006-12-13
In Reply to: Line count - MT looking




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Minimum lines for FT used to be 60,000 keystrokes a day, about 925 lines. Pay was good. Just not a
s
FT/PT? Minimum lines? Thank you. nm
nm
minimum lines for ICs
You have to watch it with MedScribe. I am not a lazy person, just a single dad, but when my production dropped a little low for just a short time last month they ended my contract like BAM! And no second chance. So after half a year of high quality Rad work for them now I am looking again.
Keystrokers do you find it difficult to make lines? Almost

a year ago I was offered a position with KS.  There were lots of rumors going around about my company so I started looking, but I fell for the lies my MTSO told and stayed put.  The rumors became fact and I had to find another job.  I just cannot make decent lines with new company.   I went from gross line to 65 characters, which by itself can make 100+ lines a day difference.  The platform is boggy and I prefer to do Ops only, but doing everything but due to my scheduled work time and the tight TAT of Ops and I'm just not happy.


I  was hired for an acute care account doing Ops at KS, but I can't remember any of the other details (other than of course pay).   I'm thinking about calling them to see what they may have to offer (they said call if I changed my mind), but don't want to have to start all over again only to find myself in the same situation I'm currently in with no able to make lines.


Also, what kind of Expander can you use.   New job uses SH and I really don't like it. 


 


 


Uhoh .. does that mean it is difficult to make the 1300 lines per day sm

required for the 10 cpl?  I was in high hopes ... sigh. 


Thanks so much for your help/input.


Question for anyone currently with DSG. Do you find it is difficult to get good lines there.
I started recently and seem to find it rather difficult to get a good line count for some reason.  Help appreciated.
Think it was a minimum of 60,000 keystrokes a day, equiv. to about 925 lines? That was a while ago.
s
With Transtech, how easy is it to get your minimum lines
nm
You pay more for insurance if you don't make minimum lines also sm
I left there because of this exact issue. I started having a harder and harder time getting my lines, meaning I got a reduced line rate and had an extra $95-100 on top of that taken out because they didn't pay the employer matching part of the insurance.
They have the accounts set up so that we can BARELY get our minimum lines required in.
If I want to camp out for 15 hours a day as I wait for work to trickle in I can make more. :-(
Low line counts - difficult to make 1200 lines in 8 hours. sm
25 years of experience as an Acute Care MT and I had a difficult time getting 200 lph with Bayscribe. Any other accounts with other companies, I could easily transcribe 350-400 lph. Not at MDI - very difficult. I loved the account, but again it was difficult to get a decent line count.

It doesn't matter if you pay me 11 cpl if I can't get a decent line count. Couldn't take the 3 x day e-mails either.
Bayscribe stinks!
Does anyone know the minimum lines required part time for Amphion? Thanks. nm
n
Told minimum PT was 3500 lines a week; requires 2 weekend days a month nm
xx
Incentives? What incentives? Lucky I can get the minimum lines.
nm
Yes I have children that I raised alone
and the last one grew up and left in 1994. Back then people did not take junk pay for work. They refused it and back then we got what we asked. Maybe you were not a QA person then (neither was I BTW), but when I decided to go for it, I got still only half what I earned as an MT with over 25 years of acute care experience, any work type. It's not the average wage in your town. It is national and I find that no matter who you work for, you can get a decent wage...well almost...if it weren't for you who take less money. It was easier two years ago.

It's all in how you learn to negotiate.

Please rethink that $14 and not a penny less than $15 bottom cuz if you do take $14, that makes them think the wage is ok.

I am on your side, but please think hard about this.
The fact that she said *raised*,

as if by taking them to daycare 6 or 8 hours a day 5 days a week is considered raising kids, was rather insulting to all moms who have ever had to take their children to daycare.  It's meant to cause guilt, which isn't what the OP needs right now. 


Daycare facilities do not raise children.  They care for them while their parents are working and trying their best to support them.  In the end, it's the parents who make sure that their children are raised, not daycare. 


What's wrong with that opinion?!


I was born and raised outside of Philly...sm
all my family is still there. Live in Oregon now, but would go back in a heartbeat! Nothing like being close to New York, AC, Washington DC, not to mention all the great food in Philly and the wonderful WaWa! Mmmm, TastyKakes and cheese steaks!
Medware raised premiums
Medware no longer has good benefits, at least as far as affordability goes. They recently increased the premiums and if you live in certain states, they are extremely high. Expect to pay between $100 to $200 a month in premiums depending on which state you live in.
Don't know if they've ever raised their pay above 7 and 8 cpl. It's been that rate for year
s
Bare minimum? I make over $50,000 a year in 40 hours a week. That is not bare minimum. sm
Bare minimum would be $8 an hour which is $16,640 a year or $10 an hour which is $20,800 a year. I make more than twice that and that is NOT bare minimum.

I worked to get my typing speed to 80 wpm. I worked to get my Expanders user-friendly and plentiful. I am not the fastest because I look up what I do not know, but I am lucky to have a very good memory so if I type it a few times, I do not have to look it up. I keep notes when I run across something I do not know. I am interested in my profession and read the magazines for our profession and network with other transcriptionists during my free time, devoting a minimum of 2 hours per week to networking and learning new things.

I am not the fastest MT, but I am accurate and boiled it down to simple math. I need to transcribe 250 lines per hour for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. At 10cpl, that is 2000 lines a day x 5 days per week x 50 weeks per year. I take 2 weeks off per year during July to visit my grandchildren (unpaid), 1 week a year to vacation with my husband (paid) and 1 week a year to spring clean (paid). I have worked for the same company for 4 years and 8 years for the one before this.

I treat my work hours as work hours and take 1/2 hour for lunch which I do not include in my 8 hours. I pretend that I am working outside the home and do not answer the door, get the mail, do laundry, etc. If I have a good day and go over the 2000, I bank it in my mind for days that are not as good and make sure that I get 10,000 lines each week.

My W2 each year is consistently $50,000. A few years it was higher, but I worked a few weekends, which I no longer do.

It IS possible.
They have at least 1 very difficult

account that is hard to get lines on.   They also have a weird platform.  There are 3 files for every dictation, 2 of which you have to open.  They supposedly give you a percentage of lines to allow for that, but I think it is a bunch of garbage.   I currently work where there is no platform, we type in Word or WordPerfect 5.1, whichever we are most comfortable with and we have a macro to put in all the demographics - all we have to type is patient's name.   I don't understand if my company can make it simple why the others can't.  


You didn't ask, but Precyse offshores, if they tell you something get it in writing because there is little truth in it.  Communication is very poor. 


Not too difficult
With someone with your mentality--like shooting fish in a barrel. (Do try to get over it.)
Very difficult to say unless
you know what the system is like, the dictators, the quality of the MTs, etc.  3.5 is not a great line rate but you can make some money if you are only filling in blanks and can get in and out of the reports pretty easy.  I was offered 5 cpl once but the dictators were so horrible and the MTs so horrible and the system so slow I went broke immediately and quit.  There is a learning curve obviously but sometimes you know immediately it won't get much better. Good luck!  The very best way is an hourly rate but most companies not willing to pay that.
I did it! It is not that difficult...
a lot of it will probably come back to you. Allow yourself a week or so to pick up speed, but I think you will be fine.
1800 lines is easily achieved. I average 300-340 lines per hour. nm
x
Same here. It's very difficult to get anymore than 200 lph
Am considering quitting also. Have averaged 300-400 lph at any other place I've worked. I also agree with you about the emailing bit. After every update about how much work is on the system, it's ALWAYS followed by an email from the owner about a minute later telling you to either stretch more or threatening you with their PRN Program or that you'll lose the work to offshoring, etc., etc...

Have nothing against anyone there, but I very rarely ever break 200 lph working on their hospital accounts. Bayscribe definitely gives low line counts.
If you only do 100 lph cause of a difficult doc then its a whole 8.80 an hour...
tt
Difficult dictators?
So MDI-FL and WebMedx both have decent health insurance for a decent price? And what do we have to do to get that? Are they all ESL? Or do they truly have decent dictators where you can make some money.  I have done very few ESL. What typing speed are they looking for?
it's difficult, but it comes down to self-discipline
Like you, I started at MT when I had my first newborn in the house. He's 18 now. All told, I have three boys, ages 18, 17 and 16 living in my house, and my husband. My home office is in my walk-thru pantry. We have a straight-thru house, so one has to walk through my work area to get into the kitchen, and all those growing males have to visit the kitchen often. In addition, I apparently have the hang out house, and there are usually a good number of other young people at my house most afternoons and weekends. That is one thing that I love, though. It's good to know what my boys and their friends are up to.
Over the years I've worked hard to establish boundaries. It WAS hard in the beginning to let the phone calls go. It was difficult to turn friends and family away from the door, but it had to be done. I had the same problems as you. I was up all night, production was low, etc.
I didn't resort to renting office space, I just got mean, I suppose. My answering machine message said that I was working and would return personal calls after business hours. These days, I have caller ID, so I can check the number of incoming calls. I answer calls from school, work or from my children and husband. That's it. Other calls go to voicemail. I changed the locks on the doors, and did not give keys to my family or neighbors. I had a few arguments with them, and used a very stern voice. I'm busy. I'm working. It's no different than anyone else who works in an office away from home.
I do, however, get up from my chair fairly often to avoid edema problems. I will throw in one load of laundry, wash a dish or two, run the vacuum in one room, or even scrub a toilet. But I get up and do only one quick chore at a time. No t.v., no radio, etc.
It's difficult, and it takes some perseverence and certainly self-control to establish boundaries and good at-home work habits.
Good luck with your new office. For me, though, I would not want to work to pay rent for an office when I have free office space at home.
I agree with you. It's not that difficult IF - sm
you TRULY are an experienced MT.  I am not talking about the I have 20 years doing neurology or I have been doing op notes for 15 years. MT.  I mean the MT who can, no matter what comes up next, DO THE WORK and do it well.  Everyone has to leave a blank every once in a while, but I believe there are a lot of people out there doing this job who cannot turn in even 1 job without a blank in it.  They have limited experience, trying to pass it off as acute care/teaching hospital experience and when they get the actual work, boy does it show.
I find this very difficult to believe.
//
I am with Axolotl. There is nothing difficult sm
about using Notes. They also have Speed Type with it for an expander.

Please apply! We have so much work! Seems so many places have been slow since Christmas and New Year, but it has been the exact opposite for us! The account I am on used to just be discharge summaries, but we have now taken over their consults and ops as well.
They are difficult accounts, and they have not
been able to hold anyone on these accounts for some reason. They've had these accounts for quite awhile, so I'm thinking that in order to keep the client happy, they must be offshoring the account again. They will do that from time to time. I'm glad I'm off of it. I was not making my lines on the Michigan account.
VR and difficult dictatoirs
I saw your post and would like to tell you and anyone else, do not get your hopes up high that VR will not work because of difficult doctors. I know for a fact. I work on VR and some straight and I would have never believed it but I personally think VR works even better sometimes with most of the difficult ones than with our better speaking dictators. Why, ? who knows. I myself was under the same thought when we were told were going on VR, oh, it will never work with so and so. It does and very efficiently on the VR I work with.
98.9% QA is NOT that difficult to attain -
Nor should it be if you are a quality-minded MT. I don't understand the negative about this company just over the QA. Their rate may seem low, but the 7 cpl rate is for clinic work, which in my opinion is much easier and deserves a lower rate! The acute-care rate is comparable with other companies nationwide.

I must point out that there are pros and cons to every company nationwide and that no company is a fit for all MTs. Compared to other nationals, however, this one is way above average, in my opinion. I'm sure I'll get bashed for this, but that's okay - I'm hauling money to the bank each and every paycheck!
not a difficult transition
Having trained MTs from DQS to ExText I can safely tell you that it is not a difficult transition. There are many similarities and it is doable. Never be afraid to take a leap of faith, it could change your life. It changed mine.
How difficult is it to get 100+ reports
for radiology on Meditech with ShortHand Expander in one shift?
I would think pretty difficult

IMO..... I think it would be pretty tough, unless the reports are very short (then hopefully you would get paid per report).  I used to work in Meditech and I spent more time filling in the demo screen than typing the reports!  I don't think MediTech is Radiology-friendly (IMO) unless the reports have some meat on them!  Also depends on the version of MediTech, some have the autofill and some you have to fill in every blasted box. 


So far they are fine and not that difficult

10 lines per minute = 1500 lines for 150 minutes - average. nm
x
I average 1200-1400 lines per day with a national, and am only getting around 600-800 lines per day.
It's been this way since the day before Thanksgiving. I've been doing this for almost 30 years now, and more often than from Thanksgiving until the new year is the slowest time of the year. I have some months where I am swamped with up to 2000 lines per day. I stash that little extra money, and take advantage of a handful of extremely slow days this time of the year to actually cook dinner, decorate for Christmas, or do Christmas shopping. I actually anticipate this slow time every year and have grown to enjoy the breathing time. Any time I have attempted to pick up extra work with another company to supplement these slow times, the minute I get adjusted to the new accounts, etc. I have no time to finish all of my work because my full time job with national gets slammed again. Hang in there if you can, and hopefully your work will pick up significantly around New Years.
They work with you to make sure you get the lines required or the amount of lines you want...
I have never had a problem getting more work
Minimum....
I was told the minimum for FT was 1000 and PT was 700.
Do you think they would have a minimum?
Why would companies state a minimum line requirement if they didn't expect MTs to reach it? 
I think she is just trying to set a minimum. If anyone
was unwilling to work for 8 cpl, they could always try to negotiate a higher wage with individual employers.  I think trying to get everyone to not take less than say 8 cpl is a very good idea.  Personally, I would not take 8 either.  I am currently getting 9, so it would be a decrease for me, but I believe she is trying to start a movement to get these 6 and 7 cpl wages to disappear.  She is on the right track.
Yes - sounds like you are the one having the difficult time -......
must be you who got the axe! Maybe you should spend your time looking for another job and praying you get one.
Thanks for the info.. Is your account difficult?
I read some earlier posts about a high turnover and the hospital being too picky..what do you think?
Was the test really difficult? How bad are their ESL dictators?
x
I tried it also..platform too difficult to navigate..nm

Is this what you mean by difficult or high maintenance? lol
:+
How easy or difficult is it to meet your
line requirements with their accounts and typing platform?