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Foot Pedals - Posted By: buying footpedals sm

Any idea why the MT companies are asking that you buy their foot pedal? I have several foot pedals I purchased from employers, and no one wants to use the one I already have. Each new job wants you to buy their foot pedal. I see an ad with MedScribe who is requiring the same thing.

Rheumatology web help sm - Posted By: Just me

I have a chance for a position doing rheumatology work and am looking for some good websites, etc., to be sure I am up to snuff on this subject. Have done critical care, etc., and never really honed in on this one practice. You could e-mail me as to sites and books which would help me in this particular area. Thanks in advance.

Need input on chiropractic account rate - Posted By: Wondering

Does anyone do a chiropractic account? I am wondering what is a proper rate to charge. The account is basically patient SOAP notes, fairly easy. He has just started dictating his notes. I don't want to overcharge him, but I want a decent rate too. I don't want to charge separate for paper and toner, just add it in to my line rate. Have to take into account the cost of gas for pickup and delivery as well, which is about 10 miles one-way for me usually once a week, but I do try to run other errands when I deliver work as well. I am in Michigan. I have no idea what the going rate is in my area, as I don't know of any local MTs here. I am sure there must be some here, but in my 10 years in this area, I have yet to run across another local MT, nor have any of the numerous people I've met been aware of any as well. I have made between .10 and .13, be it 65-char. or gross line, for at least several years now as a subcontractor. I have 15 years of experience, mostly in acute care, so am not well versed in the going rate for clinic notes. Any input is greatly appreciated!

IMAC compatibility - Posted By: Tired of being stuck on a PC

I would really LOVE to work on a Mac, but there have always been compatibility issues in the past. Anyone out there using a MAC and if so with what platforms?

Real Player - Posted By: justcurious

Does anyone know what Real Player is, or how it it used?

Insect bites, center water blister. - Posted By: sm

For an entire month maybe once or twice a week, I have been bitten by some unknown sneaky bug that leaves a center water blister and a huge red swollen area around the blister, maybe the size of a half dollar coin. I have been putting neosporin on it but would love to know what is biting me. I woke up this morning with 3 extra bites. I knew about the one on my wrist which has already started to blister. I am thinking of going to the doctor but don't want to look like a wacko going in for nothing. However, I absolutely hate insects and they seem to love me with the bites.

The itching seems to happen when I am in the backyard (lots of trees and bushes). So, might be getting bit there first then the bites get worse as time goes by. They leave scabby cicular scars. The skin looks healed but very dark.

Anyone else with this experience or should I just head to the doctor. Can't really afford it but tired of the bites and the scars they are leaving. Thanks.

VISTA Friendly Transcription Companies? - Posted By: type-type

I saw a post here within the last month for Vista-friendly companies. Please email me if you know who they are. Thanks so much!

Why is it... - Posted By: occasional poster. sm

some companies say no IC positions. In my opinion, there is no difference between IC and employee for online MTs. Can anyone please explain. The MT is still paid per line or per report. If the MT were paid per hour, then I could see the point in working as an employee. Now, you're talking. What are your thoughts on this? Do you feel it is worth it to be employee. Although, I must say pay for IC at some places is not that great.

Occasional poster...mostly looky-loo:)

Can you copy the patient names in - Posted By: MT2

the My Documents program in Windows XP? I would love to be able to print out the list to give to the doctors so that they have it to correlate with the reports I give them. I have no idea how to do this, or even if it is possible.

Thank you.

How to print out Shorthand list? - Posted By: MT mom of 3

I am trying to print off the words I have put in to shorthand, but I can't pull it up in Microsoft word. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? It is showing as a SPF file, whatever that is.

A very interesting website...sm - Posted By: middle child

This website was mentioned in my last Consumer Reports magazine. For anyone who does Op reports or anyone who just is interested in viewing actual surgical procedures, this is a great website. I've only sampled 2 videos so far, but they are extremely interesting and well-done. Give it a try! <http://www.medlineplus.gov> If you look to the right side of the home page, you'll see the place to click.

Maybe it's just me, but I hate my 19" widescreen - Posted By: anyone love their widescreen?

monitor. It is a ViewSonic. I have tried many different settings and changes but nothing seems to work for me. This puts a tremendous strain on my eyes. I actually have an older monitor that I love, a 17" Samsung and not a widescreen. Perhaps it is the widescreen that I cannot get used to. I have been struggling with the 19" for over a year. Bought it at Costco. Wonder if I can still return it?

Bill O'Reilly complaining of wanting medical records on net - Posted By: anona

Bill O'Reilly just stated on his show that Barack Obama wants all medical records put on net and he says that is outrageous and points to camera and says your medical records will be put on computer and someone will hack in, get in, and spread it around, also said more. It sounds like he has no idea they also are offshored and very vulnerable that way too.. He was really upset. Hope some of you can see this on his repeat broadcast on DirecTV or other.

What do the credentials FAAMT stand for? TIA - Posted By: curious george

x

Thanks ANON (see inside) - Posted By: SCMT

For bringing this publication to our attention - and giving us the opportunity to write to the editor. Our job in no way can be compared to any of those you listed - and I haven't made a profit in several years as an MT, much less ever been offered benefits, time off with pay, etc. I have been offered a minute amount of money extra to work holidays - but not ever company even offers that to ICs. I will definitely be sending in a letter to the Editor on this subject - we need to ban together and take our profession back from those who have taken it from us - or abandon it all together and let the big companies suffer through it - while trying to keep up the work with newbies. My motto has always been - if you can't resolve something with a phone call - you should then write a letter. Thanks again - for bringing this to our attention.

where's my post from today?? - Posted By: luv2type

I wrote a post regarding some QA issues. I saw it had a few 'views' - but now it's gone! Help me find it - thanks !

just some information for MTs in rural areas where high speed is not available - Posted By: Jest Lil Ole Me

Hi all,

Was just on the Sprint website a little bit ago and checking out wireless cards for my laptop since I will be moving to an area that doesn't even have landline service available yet. Sprint is now offering a wireless card that is a USB card and apparently will work with both a laptop and a desktop as long as you have an available USB port on your computer. Might be something to think about

Looking for an encryption program so I can send reports. - Posted By: any ideas ? TIA nm

What response do you get when you tell people you're an MT? - Posted By: Are the reactions you get like the ones I get?

I've been doing MT for a long time - 31 years this summer. "Back in the day", when somewhat you met asked you what you did for a living, the reaction was usually:

a) "What's a medical transcriber?"

b) "Wow - it must've taken you a long time to learn all that!"

c) or "Gee, that must be a really interesting job!

At least they PRETENDED to be impressed, anyway.

But have you told anyone lately what you do for a living? The reactions I get nowadays usually run the gamut from contempt to pity.

You're at a party, you've just met 3 new people, and each one tells what they do for a living:

"I'm a stockbroker." (People are impressed.)

"I'm an English Lit. professor." (Ditto)

"I'm currently between jobs." (People assume they're just waiting for the right offer.)

Then it's YOUR turn: "I'm medical transcriptionist." (First, dead silence.) Then someone nods their head knowingly and gives a rather condescending, "Oohhhhh...." You might just as well have told them you were dying of cancer or something.

what a nice gift on MT day !!!! - Posted By: JMK

Today I landed a hospital pathology transcription position; per diem, $22.50 an hour with possibilities of f/t down the road! They hired me on the spot - yippee! Happy MT Day, everyone !

Joanne

WORKING WITH KIDS - Posted By: TESS

I have an in home MT position with a company and I am required to work set hours pt. Does anyone have to work set hours and have an infant at home? Can this be done successfully?

Any Cajun out there with a good gumbo recipe? - Posted By: Sounds yummy!

What's for Dinner Tonight? - Posted By: Hungry MT

We are having pasta with steamed veggies and parmesan cheese, salad, garlic bread. Vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries for dessert. MMMMM

Moderator: VR board? I know it was mentioned ..sm - Posted By: MTforever

before but don't think it was addressed. It would be great to have a board for VR issues. With VR such a part of our industry now, whether we like it or not, it would be great to have a board we could visit for tips and tricks, and just general support.

Incentives for Editors - Posted By: Blue

Hello,

What are the kind of incentives provided for non-exempt employees paid by the hour - is it by number of reports or length (minutes) of reports edited?

Thanks,

Blue

Does anyone work for one than one company? - Posted By: just wondering

If so, do they know about it?

Congrats to Donetta from Virginia on winning a $20.00 TVPS gift cert! - Posted By: Administrator (nm)

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CONGRATS to WINNER Sharon A. of Lewisburg, PA on winning the $50. AmEx Gift Cert. - Posted By: courtesy of MetroScript! nm

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question about pre-employment tests - Posted By: Sarah1114

I'm a long-time IC, but new to applying to jobs from a forum like this and am hitting the employment trail! I've applied to jobs that I see on the Job Seekers forum just by submitting my resume on the board. When I visit their own websites, they often have pre-employment tests too. Do I go ahead and take these tests or am I supposed to be "invited" to test for them, like I hear people talking about on these forums? I don't want to take the test if I'm not supposed to yet, but I figure if it's on their main website it must not be private.

Any advice for this new job hunter? Thanks.

India and CMT - Posted By: US MT

Please tell me they are not only undercutting us in pricing, but they are also getting a break on the CMT exam? I am "saving up" to take it! � see below from MT India

"Moreover, with an aim to encourage experienced medical transcriptionists in India to align with global standards and broaden their career avenues, Prometric & AAMT have also announced a special price for the Certified Medical Transcription (CMT) certification exam, which will be available for USD 150 (reduced from previous available price of USD 275)."

Anyone on the high speed internet that has found it just crawling along for some reason. All of a - Posted By: MT

sudden my just goes into web sites at a crawl and my computer is fine and modem seems fine. No clue what is going on.

QA says per AAMT style guide non Hodgkin lymphoma not non-Hodgkin. sm - Posted By: Sarah

I have always used the dash and all my resource material uses the dash. Any thoughts out there?

Is it possible to pad line counts? - Posted By: Curious

Is there a way to pad line counts and actually get more than a person has actually typed? I have been with the same hospital account for 15 years and we have two girls that make just an ungodly amount of lines per day. The rest of us transcriptionists can't understand how they do it and why no one in management has questioned it. One of my coworkers said she thinks they pad their line count, but I don't see how they could. What do you all think?

Now I've seen it all! sm - Posted By: FrustratedQA

I just saw a QA position advertised on a website. Must have 15 years experience, must have QA experience, CMT preferred. And........are you ready? Compensation 14.00 to 16.50 per hour! Even worse, it's an IC position. I am really discouraged about what is happening in this field. Why do they continue to dumb-down this job and insist on turning it into something less than professional? And who do you think is going to take that job? Not somebody who is worth more, that's for sure. So, is it worth it? I'm so upset right now.

Anyone homeschool their children and do MT from home? NM - Posted By: if so, FT or PT

x

c-phone commands - Posted By: carol

my foot pedal died and i am needing to do transcription using the phone's numerical keypad commands all weekend (oh joy) until my new foot pedal gets expressed to me next week. does anyone have a list of commands to work using the keypad only? so far, i know 1 is stop, 4 is rewind, 4 is play, 6 is fast forward, 7 is close job, ## is job header info. i can't remember how to speed up the dictator's speed and slow it down, and those other handy dandy commands. any help is MUCH appreciated.

carol

CONGRATULATIONS! Cathy S. on winning $100 CASH courtesy of Meditec! - Posted By: Administrator (nm)

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let's talk expanders - Posted By: Snow Bunny

Everybody has their own personal favorites, just like football or baseball teams. What I'm trying to do is find the best Expander for me. Let me explain "the situation" and we'll take it from there.

I have a *really* bad memory. I mean ... REALLY bad memory. Sometimes, I can't even remember if I ate breakfast or lunch (and it's only 2 p.m.). That's pretty bad.

I've been using AutoCorrect since I started using Word (about 3 years ago). I've got about 18,000 entries, and I don't think I use 3000 of them. Why? I can't remember what's there. I think I designated "wp" for "was placed" about six months ago and I *still* can't remember that it's there. I've already typed it out by the time I remember it's in there. ---

I understand the concept for the ABCZ system. I also purchased the "Saving Keystrokes" book a couple of years ago. I find that both requires far too much memorization ... especially when you have word combos that are the same ... okay, which one did I add on the last letter? --- It always takes me less time to time the whole thing out than to stop tying and struggle to remember what's what, or to type an abbreviation, find it's wrong, and then erase it. I end up typing the whole thing out, anyway.

I've been to the Productivity web site. It's gorgeous, but it's too advanced for me. It still boils down to ... remember this and remember that.

Instant Text seems to be the #1 favorite. I tried using the product years ago (version III) and was dizzy after a short time. My eyes kept moving up and down between what I was typing and down to the bottom of the page to read the options. Plus, I have to stop typing to read the options, let my brain absorb the options <which one do I want?>, and then choose the option. Again, it's faster to type the whole thing out. --- Yes, I understand the rotation of choices ... but I don't remember which ones are more common than others. Beyond that, it's still lots and lots of memorizing. The more you remember, the less you have to look down at the bottom of the screen.

Smartype: I lasted 20 minutes with that product.

All of the other Expanders (i.e. Shorthand) seem to parallel Instant Text in terms of features. And they *all* require a lot of memorization (ultimately).

Dragon ... still my best tool for high production, but sometimes I just don't feel like using the product. At other times, Dragon's accuracy drops (it can sense tension in your voice) and it's better if I just type things. So, I don't use Dragon and I'm kicking out 225 lph on the keyboard (isn't that terrible?)

So, doctors, is there a cure or should I just resign myself to the situation? (BTW, gikgo biloba doesn't work)

I have a very loud hum when using my C-phone, but no hum when I'm using the regular phone. SM - Posted By: KYMT

Anyone else experience this problem with their C-phone? Is there a problem with my C-phone? At first I thought it was my telelphone line and called the phone company. They sent a technician out to replace the lines and check the house, but the hum is still there on the C-phone.

It's driving me batty!

Anyone have a good source for Alabama doctors, where you can find them by just last name or a few le - Posted By: WS

nt

foot pedal problems...sm - Posted By: MT in MI

I just bought a serial foot pedal through ebay and it doesn't work right. Rewind and forward work but play doesn't. You can get the sound to play but only if you tap the forward pedal. To get it to stop, you have to tap the rewind pedal. I e-mailed the girl and she said it worked for her just fine. Do I need to configure it or anything? I had a different serial pedal that I just plugged in and it worked and they seem to be the exact same pedal. Any ideas on how to make this pedal work right? Thanks!

Have I just completely lost it?... - Posted By: joanna

Sometimes when I am working if I get a doctor with a sexy voice I try googling him to see if I can find a picture. Every now and then I do find a picture but most of the time I am disappointed with how they look. Does anyone else do this?

transcription kits - Posted By: Katie Winter

Can anyone give me some feedback about the WAV pedal Transcription kit 7 or the Olympus AS-5000 PC Transcription kit?

Will Meditech work with cable based phone? - Posted By: Hopefully soon to be ex MQ

Hi all,

I have been offered a MT job with another company that requires me to call into the hospital's Meditech system. I have never worked on Meditech so I don't have the slightest idea how to use it. I am used to signing onto my computer and getting right into the system, not having to dial in anywhere. I'm sure I would get used to it but my phone may be the problem. I have my phone bundled in with my cable/high speed internet through Time Warner and the MTSO thinks this won't work, that I need something like Fair Point as a dedicated phone line. Does anyone out there in MT land know anything about this? The MTSO is anxious to hire and I'm anxious to start a job where I can finally make $ again and I don't want to miss out on this all because of the wrong phone!

Working PT and FT for 2 different companies. (Sm) - Posted By: Just asking

How do you all do it? I am trying out another company to see how I like it with anticipation to switch over. In the meantime, I am working 40 hours for one and 20 for another. There is still a home to maintain, meals to prepare, grand kids to take to and pickup from school (their mother is a single parent and a nurse so her hours are worse than mine).

I am only intending on doing this for another few weeks until I make my decision, then doing only 1 FT job.

I know there are those of you who do this on a regular, steady basis and I admire your fortitude. You are made of stronger stuff than I am.

How I got my links back (in the left, blue area!) - Posted By: At Home MT

I went to Tools, Internet Options and deleted Files and Cookies (although I don't know as though this had anything to do with it as I have done this MANY times in the past). I then experimented with my Norton Antivirus. You must do this at YOUR OWN RISK! Down in the right-hand corner of my screen, I chose "Disable Norton Internet Security" which when I reloaded the Main page here (after I had gone and done the above steps in Tools) it didn't make a difference. So, then I went back down to Norton Internet Security and chose "Disable Antivirus Auto-Protect" and reloaded the main page here and BINGO I had the links all back! I then Enabled all my NAV I had disabled, reloaded the page again and everything is still there! So, if this happens again, at least now I know how to get it back.

I thought I would share this info as I know there are others out there that has experienced this same problem and I have done everything the administration has suggested and it did not resolve the issue. So, apparently it has to do with Norton and I am not clear why Norton Antivirus (I would expect it more to be an Norton Internet Security issue) but in any event I am elated it worked! I hope it will work for someone else as well - again at your own risk. :)

I hope this might help administration/moderators to help others as well in the future. :)

This just made my day! :D

Sandi

FLASH word expander. - Posted By: camry

Is Flash word Expander a good one to use? I'm just trying to get my production up, so any comments would be great.

Thanks tonz!

Poll: If you could only pick one..... - Posted By: flutterby

If you could only pick one each of a medical book and an online reference, which would you choose? Mine would be Stedman's Medical Dictionary for the book and onelook.com for my online reference.

My Headache - Posted By: LG

Did anyone ever work three jobs just to try to make it as an MT? I have an office job during the day (NOT MT) work and I work as an IC and I just got a job working part time for another national. Until my speed work catches up with my accuracy what I'm I suppose to do? I'm so tired and so frustrated and i refuse to quit as I enjoy the MT work but I'm so tired...

Does anyone who has experience have any advice?

QA - Posted By: Jamie

Does anyone no the going rate for corporate QA?