Medical Transcription Discussion Forums:

• Main Board
• Job Seekers Board
• Company Board
• Word Help Board
• Classifieds
• Medquist
• New MTs / Students

General Discussion Forums:

• Gab Board
• Politics Board

Paid by minute. what is the going rate?

I am typing up a SOAP note template for a new PT.  He gave me his credentials, plus his "number," which is his license number for his signature title.  He did not say to put License in front of the number, but I think it looks funny without it. Has anyone ever done this before?  Is it appropriate to put the word "License" before the number?  He is away from the office, otherwise I would ask him myself.   

Thank you!  

Ok, I have seen all the bad info about them in the Archives...  and I can't seem to type the name of this company; I get a message that I've used a "bad word!"  (Initials are TA -- sounds like a car name)  LOL 

I wish I had known about this site before my dealings with them.  Anyway, I finished trning w/them and have been a paid IC for them for some time now.  But I'm working way too hard for too little money.  I do MT, QC, and file managing for them, and I'm chained to my computer for very little return.  The good thing:  I AM working, and I now have experience with rheumatology, cardiology, vascular, chronic pain mgmt, pulmonology, psych, etc.  The experience has been great.

My question:  the only certification I have for MT is their course completion.  Anyone out there have experience with looking for another job with *only* a certificate like that? 

Just wondering...  I'll sit back now and wait for you all to tell me I'm foolish.

Hi all...

For those of you who have been doing this awhile, what have you found to be the best practice for avoiding back pain while sitting? Should your arms be resting while you type, or should they dangle by your sides?

Also, can anyone recommend a good chair for sitting for long periods of time?

TIA 

I am wondering if anyone knows this- there is supposed to be a shortcut key that you can circumvent an Expander with.  Say I want to type the name Lee and lee is my expander for lower extremity edema, is there something I can hit that would keep it from expanding just when I typed the name?  I swear I remember someone telling me this once but now nobody in our entire facility seems to know what that would be.  Thanks!

I am soooo very anxious right now.  I have cried all morning and cannot seem to console myself or come up with a solution.  I have been doing transcription for over 12 years and have been home for the last four.  Through those four years, though I love being at home, I have come up with generally zip as far as contentment in my job goes.  I have been an employee status, as well as an independent contractor.  I have worked for places that seemed 'ideal' until 3 months or so were up, then they'd switch accounts on me (starting out on great accounts and leaving me struggling with a bunch of crud nobody in their right minds would want to do), dealing with owners or supervisors who lay out the 'heavy hand' and do nothing but tell you what you DO WRONG (one who comes to mind nearly gave me a nervous collapse--never could please her and who'd want to the way she treated you, sarcastic, mightier than thou approach).. ugh!  I have done basic four hospital transcription, clinic transcription, ER transcription, and I just am not finding 'THE BEST' place to be.  I don't know.. maybe I'm SUPER BURNED OUT.  I never make enough money, don't have benefits, and I'm getting to the point where I feel I'm just finished with this 'career.'  If I find a place where I make a decent amount of cash, I either have to put up with an idiot for a manager/ boss/ supervisor/owner or hideous dictation.  If I go to a place that seems good as far as dictation/accounts go, and the management is decent, I wind up making next to nothing in pay.  Most places I've experienced give you a come-on to begin with, give you a decent account and after two to three months, they switch you to the crap work.  Still, they give you no pay raises for even attempting to do these reports, not like they would anyway.  I think I have worked for at least six different companies since being at home in the last four years.  I am sick of making no money, not enjoying my job anymore and dealing with all the crap nobody else wants to do.  Sorry, I had to vent.. I'm ready to give up and find a job that actually PAYS in more ways than one. 

On my personal computer, I seem to have picked up some kind of virus.  I keep getting popups all over the place and one of them is telling me that I have viruses and I should purchase their program to remove them, which I don't want to do because that program is likely a virus in sheep's clothing.  I was running AVG (the free program) but apparently it did not stop whatever bug I picked up. 

My questions are: 
1.  If I purchase an antivirus program (from Walmart or Staples, for example), will this remove whatever has already taken up residence on my PC? 

2.  What is the best virus program for the money on the market? 

Thanks in advance! 

I am thinking of going back to school now, while I have a reasonably good job.  Problem is, because of medical concerns, I have to be able to work from home.  What other options are there for folks like me who find it a requirement to work from home?

Any advice appreciated. 

Thanks.

Is this decent pay? I'm a little lost in the calculations.

The per line pay rate for editing of our Editscript accounts is 0.4 cpl.  When transcribing reports, the pay rate is paid per word (per 65 ksl spaces and returns included).  The pay rate depends on the hours an MT works: 7a-3p is 0.0056 per word; 3p-11p is 0.0061 per word; and 11p-7a is 0.00692 per word.

To calculate pay per word, you would do:
Line x 65 = Keystrokes
Keystrokes divided by 5 = words
Word x pay rate (see above).

milliondollarhomepage.com  This 21-year-old kid has made nearly a million $$ from selling pixel space on his internet site.

Let's not forget savekaryn.com (http://www.savekaryn-originalsite.com/)  She now has a published book and a website hawking her wares all before her 30th birthday.

or brought it to day camp. One way or the other, this stinks.

Other than the usual shampoo; comb with a good metal nit comb; clean, spray, bug, and/or bag everything in the house, any other suggestions? I even bought a steam cleaner for the furniture and rugs.

I'm getting dirty looks at work. The kids want to go back to camp, but I'm worried about what the other kids are going to do/say. I'm keeping them home until next week. Need advice reassurance from mom who have been here.

I bought a new keyboard, does anyone know how to test function keys?

I use templates for my reports and charge by the page, but I have been interested in charging by the line.  Do you include the template lines with your line count or minus that?  I am completely confused with this, still.  Thanks again~  

Is this the correct way to transcribe two plus iron in the liver: 2+ iron in the liver?

thanks! 

I am a newbie, have been doing this for a few months.  I work for this company, Sten-Tel.  They only send out QA'd reports every once in a while.  Their QA sucks.  One QA will say this and another will say that and all the time, it looks like you are the one making all the mistakes.  The QA supervisor does nothing but send you the corrected reports in an email and if you email her about something you are questioning, she does nothing about it.  I get an email from her today and all it states is "We need to have you out of editing by July 18.  Please review account specifics and thoroughly check your work before sending to QA."  What does that mean?  I do thoroughly check my work!  I sent her an email asking her to clarify what she is saying.  I mean, am I doing a sucky job or what?  I am confused.  I thought I was doing good.  How am I supposed to know when I don't hear anything from anybody?  Now I feel depressed.  I guess I am going to get fired.  I am not good at anything it seems like.  Are there any good companies to work for?

I got an offer;  they pay 0.5 cent per word.

A line has an average of 15 words?   This would be 7.5 cents for a line.

Am I correct?

It is straight transcription.

Shall I take it?

Thanks for you answers, 

TIA.

I am a single mother of one and am thinking about going into MT, but with all the downsizing that is going on do you think it is worth it?  I've seen a lot of posts lately about veteran MTs being worried about their jobs.  I don't expect to get rich, but right now i'm umemployed and have been making a living selling on ebay.  I would like a career with more consistency and benefits.

Thanks for any input!!

Kelly

What did you decide?  

My grandmother died last week and  I let my 6-year-old attend the funeral.   A child psychologist friend had advised that I should let her do as much as she wanted to do - i.e. if she wanted to see the body in the open casket then let her but if she was scared then don't.  A year ago we buried a cat and I was able to relate to her that my grandmother's spirit has moved on to heaven while her body is here on earth, just like with our old cat and she related to that very well.   She ended up insisting on seeing the body in the casket.  Overall she did very well with the funeral experience. This was her first funeral to attend where she was old enough to have a clue what was going on.

While at the funeral home  I read a pamphlet they had for talking to kids about death.  It made suggestions of letting a child mourn the way they desire and said that it's helpful for kids to draw pictures about their feelings.  I agree with this totally as play/art is what I do with my daughter when she's upset about something and it helps her to talk about it while we're making something artistic. 

If you don't mind sharing, what is your skin care regimen like?

I am only asking because my husband and I have been going round and round about the fact that I buy Oil of Olay Total Effects and the Total Effects eye gel, plus the night cream.  He thinks I'm crazy, that they don't work. I say why take the chance that they DO work and miss out on the benefits.

I'm going on 37, but think I look pretty good for my age. Just wondering if anyone else buys into these notions that these products can help us *age gracefully*. I don't want to look like I'm in my 20s cause I'm not...I have a son who's almost 19...so I'm proud of my age, just don't necessarily want to look quite as old as I am....thanks and have a wonderful day!

I've been transcribing for nearly 10 years, so I'm no longer considered a *newbie,* but there are still a few things I don't know about, so I'm hitting this board to see if anyone can offer up some advice...

Does anyone out there work for more than one company as an independent contractor?

I already hold one IC position and I am considering taking on a couple of more.  I have to commit to a certain amount of lines for each, but no set schedule.  They all are paying the same primo-rate with no incentive scale, so it doesn't pay extra to put all my lines in with one company.

You might ask, *Why don't you just increase how much you are working with your first company?*  Well, my answer is that I don't like having a primary and then having my backup account constantly changing in order to provide me with work.  I am thinking that it would work better to work for a couple of different places, each giving me just one primary account (and yes, there are still companies who do that!), and then just sign off of one and onto another when the first one runs out of work...

In my mind, this works out beautifully, but since I have never done it before, I'm hoping to get some pointers for those of you who have.

   Can anyone out there explain to me why when taking a test for a national company they would tell you, Note: The audio is bad and that is part of the test.  Why in the world would a company want to give you a bad audio tape to test on?  Is this a Joke?  I feel this is very humiliating to a transcriptionist.  Just give a decent test.  How is anyone supposed to pass it if the audio is bad?  I do not care who you are and how many years experience, if the audio is bad, then no one is going to pass.  This is totally ridiculous.  I am glad I am starting to look into coding for a new profession because these National companies are making a mockery of this field, which was once respected.

I'm fairly new to this site, and all of you seem to have so much knowledge and experience.  Next month, I will be eligible to take the CMT exam.  Currently I work in-house at a hospital.  Certification is not a requirement, and I am not even sure if it is recognized.  I'm considering certification because of the possible benefit to me if I do need a job elsewhere.  In your opinion/experience, is it worth it? 

Found this awesome link on Productivity Talk. It is a Google search engine that has a list of MT websites included. Have used it for a month now and its fantastic. The search results are more relevant and I find what I am looking for much faster compared to Google.  The other cool thing about this is that you can add it to your website or blog and use it. You can also add it to your Google homepage and access it from there. See link below "Medical Transcription Word Seeker."

I have been trying to locate some people form my old High School - Figured with all of you out there someone might know someone and pass this on. I went to Garrett Hign School during 1977 thru 1981.

Sonia Suppan Bugher and Carissa Babson Snyder

Lost track of them many years ago, and there are so many people looking for them now - we were all concerned when they disappeared. Last I heard Carissa was in NC and Sonia in Oklahoma. Tried classmates.com and theya r elisted as "missing" LOL. Who knows maybe they are MT's too.

Unfortunately, I have to sell everything in my apartment and am being forced to move. I plan on having a moving sale, but I really want to keep my rocking chair and a small endtable that belongs in my family.  I can pack quite a bit in my car and drive across country with everything, but I know I will have at least three boxes that will probably not fit in the car.

My question - I cannot afford a moving company, or a moving van, and I had looked into getting a little trailer to put on the back of my car, but apparently that is not an option on my car.

So that being said, how can I get my rocking chair and family end table to my next destination the cheapest and safest way?  How do I wrap up a rocking chair and table??  Would Mail Box Etc cost a fortune?  The post office makes you do your own wrapping and boxing.  Should I just let the chair and table go?

Any suggestions?