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I am so frustrated with how long it is taking me to get my quota every day.  Today is going to be rough because all the kids are home from school, but on most days, it is just myself and my 4-year-old son.  I do about 1000 lines per day and it takes at least 7 hours.  Is this normal or should I producing way more in this time frame?  I have been in this field for 16+ years now.   I work for a great company and most of the accounts I have are terrific with excellent dictators.  I am up and down a lot, but it just seems like forever! 

Oh - and I do not spend a lot of time on this board during my working day.  In fact, I haven't posted here in a long time!!

I'm just curious how long it takes other experienced MTs with normal work-day interruptions to complete about 1000 lines of transcription each day?

Hello everyone!

Can anyone help with a site for sample OR reports particularly diskectomy?

Thank you!

I posted this on the classifies, but thought I would post here as well to have a better chance at finding a copy.

I am interested in purchasing a copy of Instant Text V with license that can be transferred to me or where I can register it.

Thanks,

Vicki

In reading the news release posted below about Nuance buying escription, I was wondering how different SR platforms are working for us MTs.  I do ASR on DQS and have found that on my main account the ASR is pretty good, so I don't have to make tons of changes. 

I tend to like doing the speech recognition and here is why I think that is so in my case: 

If I get my primary account it recognizes pretty well and I don't get much junk to have to change. 

Also, I can usually turn the speed to the fastest whereas straight transcription is usually about the halfway point for me, so I think I am getting it done faster. 

Another thing is that I never did get into the habit of really tweaking my Expander the way a lot of other MTs have.  I have seen some say they put anything that takes more than 3 characters into an expander.  I am getting better about this but not to that degree, so I think SR is faster for me. 

I think I have some carpal tunnel issues starting up so I can't transcribe for as long a stretch as I can edit. 

All that being said, about 25% of my work still comes through as straight transcription and it is a good thing because that significantly affects my hourly rate for the better, so I am not losing lots of $, although I have lost some.

So my question is two-fold:  If you do SR, what system are you using?  What has things specifically have made it better/worse for you?

I typed:  CHIEF COMPLAINT:  "I was hallucinating."

I was corrected as:  CHIEF COMPLAINT:  "I was hallucinating".

Am I wrong here?

I have a question - I work for one doctor and they fax over a patient list and I make sure that there is a dictation for every single patient that signs in for that date. I will send them a list to let them know that these dictations are missing and sometimes that list will be sent over two or three times before I get a dictations completed. I got an Email from doc's wife asking that I be extra diligent with the missing dictations. 

Do you'll think it is my job to keep up all of their missing dictations each day. This doc sees about 65-75 patients per day including Saturdays!    

Hi!  I signed up, but need to edit it as I must have misunderstood and now my real first name is posting next to my avatar.  Guess it's no big deal, but would prefer that my board name post instead.  I keep trying to log in to change it, but it doesn't work.

Thanks for your advice,

Chickadee

One of the doctors that I work for gives a lot of details about his patient but this one really seemed a bit much. 

The patient is seeing him due to snoring. 

The patient states that she snores very loudly.  Her husband complains of her snoring.  She also has a dog that sleeps in her bedroom and the dog snores as well. 

Very important info LOL!

Don't be upset if we decline your offer of employment after being hired when...

1.  Your server is down the entire afternoon of our first day of training.

2.  You don't pay for headers, yet there are 4 different screens of demographic information we have to enter information into.

3.  Your recruiter tells us we are paid for headers and/or spaces and we find we are not.

4.  Your tech support can't seem to get your software up and running for us.

5.  You quote us a line rate and then tell us you didn't get the account we were supposed to be working on so we will have to accept a lower line rate.

6.  Calls and/or emails to support/supervisors/QA go unanswered.

7.  Your software is nowhere near as MT friendly as your recruiter and/or trainer portrayed it to be.

8.  The "more than enough work to keep you busy" fails to materialize.

With the deaths of three people that I grew up with on TV, and now with what I hard yesterday from  Dr. Phil yesterday he reminded us that if we have 20 years left in our life it -- and that sounds like a long time, but that equals out to only 1040 weeks which then makes you realize as the weeks go by so fasssssssssssssssst that it is not very long and we need to make the best of those weeks as we can.  So that made me stop and realize what is really important and what is not and what is worth fighting about and what is not.  This may not stay with me but I am going to keep thinking about those weeks instead of years and hopefully it will make me enjoy the weeks that I am here. 

Does anyone have any information on a contact for Meridian Transcription? I believe they are in Indianapolis. Email or phone would be greatly appreciated. TIA!

Hi Everyone,

I am not coming here to sound like I'm whining or complaining, but I am just completely burnt out, stressed, and an emotional wreck and need advice because I'm sure we've all been there.  No one understands our jobs.  I'm definitely not trying to say I have it *so bad and worse than anyone*  because I think we all have it exactly the same.  What do you do when you get burnt out like this?  Would it be a good idea to just take a *break* from transcription for a while? 

I have been doing this for 3 years and just can't seem to get ahead.  My motivation is there (most of the time) but my line counts just aren't.  Most of the time I am making less than minimum wage.  I struggle through 60 minutes of dictation, only to have a piddly 400 line count after about 8 hours.  My doctors seem to like to spout off partial or wrong company names that people work for (completely irrelevant to the report), activities, job titles, work equipment, street names (of all things), school names (out of state), impossible to find without at least 20-30 minute doctor name searches as much as they can (always mispronouncing or an out-of-state doctor because my accounts are basically on the border between 2 states).  Join the club... I know.   I definitely love transcription and who I work for..but I am just incredibly frustrated at my paychecks along with the amount of time and effort spent on a check amounting to $200 every 2 weeks.  I am always working/at the computer "on call" on my days off...as most of us are. 

I do have a daughter at home who has become VERY demanding (she is not the reason I decided on this career; I have a huge interest in the medical field and didn't want to be a nurse or secretary, anything like that).  She is in preschool, but my work has been coming later and later to the point where I have no choice but to do it while she is home.  Talk about adding to my stress. 

I actually just let it all out last night.  My eyes are all swollen today from bawling last night.  My husband asked *are you done yet* after me only trying to vent my frustrations to him for like 2 minutes (that just set it all off) - and was fed up with me and told me to *just quit because I don't want to work* that phrase skyrockets my blood pressure.  He doesn't get it.  The transcriptionists work is never done and we never get away from our jobs!! 

He is never home due to his job, which he loves and says is a cake walk.  To be honest, that actually makes me jealous and even more irritated.  I just wish he knew for one second what my life was like!  He has a 2 hour commute, gets the GI bill every month, and loves to work overtime and trust me he makes enough for us all to get by smoothly.  Still, EVERYTHING is on me...EVERYTHING...on a constant daily basis.  I have 3 dogs, 3 cats, 3 goats, and a daughter to take care of, along with the house, cooking, and all of the chores that go along with it...which I wouldn't trade for the world, don't get me wrong, I just feel like I don't have the time for anything other than my job and my daughter's attitude is really starting to reflect it and all of my family sees it, just not my husband. 

What gets me is...he and his parents can and are 100% willing to pay SOMEONE ELSE to take care of my daughter and do MY JOB with her...yet, here I am struggling to do a million things at once and only coming out $100 ahead of preschool.  Would they think about paying me?  Lol, I highly doubt it..and in fact when I brought it up to my husband last night, he laughed in my face and called me crazy.  Well, what is so crazy about it?  I taught her everything she knows!!  Yet his parents will still comment on what a great job preschool is doing for her.  It is the pressure from his parents (who both happen to be school teachers) and my husband would never go against their decisions.  Don't get me wrong, I would never expect/want to be paid, lol...it is just a hypothetical situation.  If it is good for someone else, why can't it be good for anyone else?

I think that was actually the start of my frustration..when he started his new job because he got lazy around the house and with our daughter!  When he gets a day off though, you better believe it's a day off!!!  He does whatever he wants with his buddies or whatever, while I sit at home and deal with the same things when he is working.  When he gets home from work, he has the nerve to ask me *what did you do all day* because my paychecks dont REFLECT the amount of time that I am actually in here working my butt off...and neither does the mess of my house. 

Any ideas on what I could tell my husband to help him understand at least partially what I, we all, go through in this field without him basically telling me to shut my mouth because him not listening to me is really getting old. 

I have a wisdom tooth that is coming in. I do NOT do well w/ dentists/anesthesia, etc...well a few months back i had an appointment to have this removed.  long story short even though the dentist knew I was freaked out about the local anesthesia he took so long to do the extraction my mouth was no longer numb when the hygenist tested my gum area.  I freaked out, left crying and vowed to never go back to him.  Well now that the tooth is slowly coming in more and more i have an ulcer that seems to be getting bigger from where i am more or less chewing the inside of my mouth. 

It doesn't really hurt or bother me that much, i would much rather deal with the ulcer than have another panic attack/heart racing event from the local at the dentist's office.  My concern is this:  Can you develop cancer from a chronic mouth ulcer? My aunt died of oral (tongue) cancer last year so i'm paranoid about it.

Any info you can give is welcom.  Thanks!

Hi,

 I was wondering if anyone out there who uses Escription can tell me if there is a way to save a document that is not yet completed?  Last night we had a planned power down to test the generator (we have one every month) and another MT and I were still in the middle of documents.  We just closed down figuring that it would do the autosave but it didn't save anything. My supervisor tells me it only does the save when the computer crashes or the power goes out. When we had Chartscript we could put the document on hold, but with Escription is it either upload it unfinished or lose it?  Is there any way to save an unfinshed report?

Thanks

Yesterday I went to my daughter's school to have lunch.  This was the first time the school did this so it was very disorganized and the schedule was running an hour behind.  There were all of these moms fretting because they had to get back to work, and some even had to leave before they were able to participate.  Seeing this made me very happy to be an MT (IC) because I didn't have to worry about getting back to work right away and got to enjoy the time without the anxiety of what kind of trouble I would be in with the boss. 

I know we all have complaints and things that are not fair in this profession, but that is one huge benefit that I am more than happy to take.

Any suggestions?  I have sent my STM multiple e-mails regarding various things (suggestions on how to improve things, questions regarding policies and procedures, etc.).  She never answers my e-mails.  How do you approach this?  I have been through this before and eventually ended up quitting my job because my STM treated me like crap after bringing up how I felt, so I am coming here in hopes that someone could give me an idea of how to approach this so I don't p*ss off my STM. 

Thanks.

Okay, I have a confession... I cannot understand accents.  Period.  So, when going to see a new physician, etc., I make sure to ask right off the bat whether the doctor speaks clear English, and if the answer is no, then I tell them that I am sorry for wasting their time and I go to the next doctor.

Just the same, when I was being considered for the accounts I have now, I told the lady I work for that I cannot do heavy accents or ESL doctors.  I know - - could have kept me out of work, but you know what?  I don't need the money that bad, because I would just be spending it on psych meds because trying to do the work would make me crazy! 

Doctor dictates:

"The patient takes Doxepin for insomnia.  He has been taking 25 mg four of them at time, but I am prescribing 100 mg tablets which is the same."

This just made me giggle...

I am an experienced Transcriptionist but I have always worked as an employee.  I now have the opportunity to pick up a side account as an IC. 

I really need some help and guidance on how to create a contract and what needs to be in that contract.  Can someone please give me some advice?

Thanks In Advance!!

Has anyone who has had Winscribe for their work ever encountereda a problem where it kept saying that either the URL was incorrect or to check my internet connection.  I cannot find a solution for the life of me. 

Does anybody know anything good or bad about this company?  I am looking for a good MT employment position, and I have been burned before (by Voice Systems--they don't pay!). 

SPI Healthcare Documentation
Contact: Barb Batchelder
417 Welshwood Drive, Suite 201, Nashville, Tennessee 37211
SPI_MTUS@spitech.com
Telephone: 866-624-7672, Fax: 615-301-8423

  http://mtfiles.blogspot.com/

NM

It does state this on their web site.  I was curious if anyone has used this option, and if so, does it really work? 

Thanks again~

Just thought I would ask my fellow MT's - have I been done wrong?  Another MT got sick Thursday before the start of my weekend to rotate.  No one told me there was work from Thursday on that account till Friday evening.  That and another account I had to watch for the weekend were both backed up.  I had one other MT help me and both of us could not get it caught up.

As for the MT who got sick, her primary account during the week was backed up so bad that they complained wanting a refund.  The refund (only $21 or so) was taken out of my check.  I was docked.  When I complained to the manager who did this she said the other MT being sick "had nothing to do with the situation" and I should have let my supervisor know that it was backed up.  The thing is, my supervisor showed me the job browser that Friday evening which is when I found out that account was backed up.  SHE KNEW ABOUT IT.  I explained this to no avail.  Am I right to be mad?!

I have since quit this company due to the blatant favoritism that was always given to that MT who got "sick" and one other MT.  I have given up this local rag and gone on to work for a decent national company that doesn't play favorites.

I can only wonder why there are not more support groups for the Baby Boomer mid life females who surely are suffering with the fun of the "change."  This is very interesting to say the least! 

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