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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

40-year-olds tend to make much better students

Posted By: Misha on 2006-06-04
In Reply to: I am seriously thinking of going back to college at 38 - collegemom

than 20-year-olds!

In four years you will be 42 years old either way. Do you want to be 42 with or without your Batchelor's degree? :oD




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8 and 9 year olds do not have the maturity to make decisions like this. That's why they have pare
x
Agree, but some of those 60-year-olds are in
xx
Halloween party for 6 year olds
Any ideas for a Halloween party/slightly haunted house.  Food, games, spooky decorations?  Thanks in advance.
Quit acting like 5 year olds. Neither one
of you is exactly making a good impression. 
I'd make fellow VLC students aware, to
nm
how does one make 50K/year?

I mean really, please let me know your secrets. 


There is no other job where I could make 60K per year sm

and do it in my pajamas.  I love my job.  Hope you found something good.


Unfortunately, MT does not work for everyone.  If it didn't work for me, I would try something else, too.  You have to have certain skills, a certain mindset, etc., or you just cannot make it. 


I make about $24,000/year, and that's -
:(
I make about $6K more per year with my CMT.
:)

I will make just over $40K this year sm
Actual, I am typing, hands on the keyboard time is about 8 to 9 hours a day. I work as an employee at 8.5 cpl and as an IC for 10 cpl and I do some QA for $16 an hour. The QA is a courtesy to my IC company and really cuts into my typing time there where I can do $30 an hour or better. QA is only about 5 hours a week, except when I am training an MT, and I am training 2 right now. It was 8 hours so far this week.

You ask about normals and expanders. I use an Expander with a lot of shortcuts, as in many thousands. Normals, I have some. The system at my employee job has some in it, I have made a few (less than 50). The IC job I have made a few too (less than 25). Most of my normals are shells of headers and the few things they always say. All I do it is acute care, primarily OP notes and yes, I don't have that many normals. When your pool has about 2000 doctors in it, normals are a challenge to find and make.

I have oh, reasonable work habits. I take frequent short breaks because I have to. I do work a split shift, which really helps me make it through the day, and the IC is catch as catch can, and about 6000 lines every 2 weeks. I usually spend about 2 or 3 partial hours a day typing at top speed, like an athlete. The rest of the time I do the best I can. I have stellar days and days when I feel I like I need to eat every hour! And I do it too.

Yup, I do the laundry and the dishes while I am working. I always have the TV or a DVD in, but music on Saturday mornings.
I also make many gifts throughout the year....
and spend alittle on the grandkids. This year I'm making a collage of pictures of my mom and dad (both deceased) for my sister, and my 3 sons. Friends get baked goodies and candies.

Grandkids will each get a toy (yes "A" toy), and a couple of small books (I'm the "Book Gran"). I'll make stocking for my 3 sons, my DIL and my 3 grandkids, just trinkets, etc that I find at the dollar store, and fruit and candies (like M&M's). And that's it.

Christmas isn't about GIFTS, its about love, hope, and faith.
How much do you make per year doing MT and do you work PT/FT and
for a company or have your own clients?  Just wondering how I compare.  I work for both and made just over $24,000 last year.
Shut the h*** up. I make $75K a year doing this with BIG nationals.
I get full benefits. I'm not gutless in any way and I'm NOT having my "rights" taken away from me.

They're not doing anything to me I don't want them to do.

If that's YOUR situation, then make that STUPID statement about your own idiot self.

I'm doing just fine financially, Granny. I doubt YOU make the money I do. Not many do, they're not willing to sit their butts down and actually WORK for more than a few minutes at a time without running here and complain to all the other 'children' about 'school'.

I don't take s*** off anyone, not individuals and certainly not places I work -- there are too many of them out there to work for and if I don't want to do that, I can work for myself.

I kinda like the fact that I bring home more than THREE times what it takes for me to live, AND have insurance, AND a TSA, AND choose my work schedule.
Now you know why a lot of chefs make $75,000-100k a year!

It will be interesting to see the final episode tonight. 


KD, are you on crack - very few people make $50,000/year - sm
I make about $58,000, but I work my butt off doing it, have 18 years experience. You sound like a Sally Struthers ad when you make a comment like that! Next thing you know, you will be telling this woman that she can breastfeed her child while she is transcribing and have another one sitting on her lap!!

I do love this job, but I tell people to expect to make at least $25,000-$30,000/year.
are you the same Laura E who did not even make 12k last year? That doesn't
sound like plenty of work. It sounds like PT and that does not mean that there is enough for FT.
Right. You would have to be sicko to make $100K a year on 8 cpl.
x
Anybody make less than $12,000/year, part time - sm
I know at just part time (minimum 25 hrs a week) I won't be pulling in a ton of $, but I thought it would be a little more than that.  Am I alone?
Low wages? I make approx $60K a year at
nm
Who ARE these people who make this stuff up every year charge $ for it??
I could make one up every year myself.  Why do they think they are an authority.  I have never understood this, and will never buy another one.  I bought one in my life for $75.  What a waste of money to read someone's "made up rules for this year."
I LOVE freezer jam - make it every year with our berries!
NM
What about benefits? I make 50k a year working for a company
out of my home full time. No gas money, no traveling, no printing, faxing, and I get full benefits. How is making 50000 as an MTSO good money? I really just don't get it!
Basically, you make a projection of what you think you will clear for the year.
Then figure what the tax due on that amount would be and break it into four payments. There is a worksheet out there from the IRS the helps you to do this. Your state income and local taxes should also be paid quarterly and would be based on the same $$ amount.

The first year of IC is the hardest to guess because you will have deductions that you may not even be aware of but I would strongly encourage you to go IC!! I love it, despite the drawbacks as some posted below.

As a true IC, you decide when to work, how much you charge and don't let anyone else tell you that the clients you do work for have the right to dictate your work hours to you. Some have referred to working for a company or companies; if that's what you do and they dictate to you your hours, you're NOT an IC but an employee and therein lies the problem with scheduling.

There are way too many people out there who apparently think they are ICs when, in fact, they are employees. The companies that are telling them when to work, how much they will pay, are flat out wrong if they think they can call these people IC and then dictate the above parameters. Just make sure that the advice you are receiving regarding IC is actually from someone who really knows and understands what an IC is.
I make photo calendars featuring snapshots from last year
Birthday celebrants featured in each month; group photos for holidays. Made my files using the hp activity center, saved on my computer, then printed them using the recommended paper, which I ordered from the same site and was shipped overnight for free. Draw-back: time- and ink-consuming (good thing we refill our cartridges).
Well, ya can't make $50k a year unless you're willing to give up your life and be chained to S

you PC 12+ hours a day.  I can't recommend any particular school as I didn't go to one of the "online" schools.  I learned in an actual classroom which I recommend over any of these online schools.  Another thing I recommend is working in an office for at least six months, but more like a year, because there is a gigantic learning curve once you actually get a job.  There are just things that schools can't or don't teach, things that can only be learned on the job from other MTs who have been doing it longer than you.


Don't get me wrong.  It's great to be able to work from home.  Personally, I don't think newbies should be allowed to work at home right out of the gait.  There is some much they don't know.  They need help.  They need to be able to ask questions and one of the best things about working in the office as a newbie, is being able to ask the seasoned MT next to you to listen to something for you.


Having said all that, I think MT is slowly dying.  It's become difficult to make a decent living in this profession.  I'm one of the few lucky ones.  I work at-home for a hospital.  I get paid hourly, get incentive, and have all the benefits of being a FT employee.  Oh, and they can't take my benefits away if I don't make my quota.


You can't support a family on 7 or 8 cpl or even 9 cpl when the dictation is the crap they won't send to India.  I would suggest finding another profession.  The trend in medical coding is that all coders will be working from home soon what with everyone going to the Electronic Medical Record.  I would go into coding.  You may end up working in the office for a while, but I don't see coding being outsourced to India any time soon.  


Good Luck.


I *only* make $40K a year for full time work. Now I find that isn't decent is or fair?
nm
For students, not much.

I'd estimate from my own teaching experience that it will take them 6 minutes of transcribing time for every one minute of dictation time.  If you give them a 30 minute tape per week, that's approximately three hours of transcription homework per week.


For a real job at eight hours per day, 1,200+ lines per day is usually the minimum rquired.  (Which is why they don't hire newbies.)  People who do 200-350 lines per hour are very experienced, have the same accounts every day, and use a word expander.  It's not representative of the expectations from a student or newbie.


Do the MT schools lie to their students?

On another unrelated board someone asked about medical transcription.  I mentioned that pay goes down instead of up because of offshoring reports and isn't the most secure job.  She came back and said she asked her teacher about offshoring and she said:  "They used to do that but they are sending it back to us now because what the clinics would have to do, is hire someone to edit them and then redo them so it wasn't working out.  They talk about it at every advisory board meeting apparently."  Hmmmm, okay.   


 


Just wondering.


Hmmm. If the students are children,
maybe pretending they're naked isn't such a good idea. Telling anyone that you pretend they're naked is a really bad idea.
question - medical students
Is an MS 4 considered an MD?  TIA
Students get a hefty discount
If you're in continuing education, could you still call yourself a student?  I don't know, but when I bought it, I just had to tell them I was a student and I got a discount.
On my account the residents and students are better than

i would say a good experienced average is about 200 lph so students maybe 100 to 150 lph. nm
;
I have medical students spelling every third word, such as N-O-S-E, sometimes twice.
This is how they dictate. The patient's eyes, that is E-Y-E-S, eyes are round, R-O-U-N-D, reactive, and equal, -E-Q-A-U-, I mean E-Q-U-A-L to light. Nose, that is -N-O-S-E, nose, is patent, etc. Funny that these are the ones that usually misspell their names.
Parents of College Students..Any of your kids going on Spring Break?
Ugh!  I have a son going with a group of friends to Mexico for thier first "spring break."  They are all good kids, but I've seen the late-night Girls Gone Wild videos... They better be good. 
It's 18 pregnant staff members, not students (see link inside)
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/living/education/14306113.htm
I tend to do that
with the fast talkers. I notice that I type faster. Too funny about turning blue though....gotta remember to breathe. :-)
I tend to agree.
I am concerned because someone I know transcribes for the doctor I use. But then again, I know the entire office staff, and I have heard the receptionist talking about patients when she was having lunch in a restaurant. Although I hate outsourcing, and I do worry about terrorists sabataging the systems and causing information to be lost, I don't really worry as much about confidentiality as much as I do with local MTs.
DH will be right over. I tend to toss them out, myself.
zz
I tend to agree with you sm
I used to like her a lot too, but not anymore. Funny, she got rich in this country, courtesy of us.
I tend to agree with you

I agree.  When Angelina Jolie first started bringing to the forefront the terrible African situation, I think that changed the entire focus of this country.  Unfortunately, with that also came complacency.  At least, I give her kudos for bringing up subjects we, as human beings, didn't want to face.  But that was then and this is now.


So...I guess, as just a lowly humble human being, I will throw my hat in the ring and see where it falls.  For me alone, I will feel better just knowing I tried.


Have a great rest of your day!


 


Because surgeons tend to be
fast, succinct dictators. Because there are very few drugs to dictate, and the surgeon is familiar with all of them (as opposed to trying to dictate lists of meds as the patient wrote them in a history). Because surgeons tend to do the same sorts of procedures over and over, and the smart, efficient ones learn to dictate the same reports over and over so they won't leave anything out. That means an MT who gets him frequently can make normals to use over and over and save time. If an MT is fortunate and the software is very, very good, she can put jump codes in so she can jump from one particular spot to the next to fill in details that change. An example would be doing cataract surgery, where the main thing that changes is the IOL specific information. Because surgeons usually hate to dictate, so the reports are often as short and efficient as possible. Because it's not psych (or whatever the MT hates most, lol).
I tend to agree with you. sm
Many times, I was called in the wee hours of the morning to type a stat. This was years ago, and it could have been any time. I never questioned my employer's right to ask me to type a stat even when it was not my shift or even when I was not working that day or that weekend. If there was no one else available and the client was calling with a stat pre-op, then somebody had to type it.
Posture. How many of you tend to sit on one leg while working?

I cannot break this habit.  I do not think about it until my knee starts aching midday.  Do you practice good posture?


Unfortunately we as women tend to be raised to think that
our lives aren't complete unless we "have a man". Men, on the other hand, are raised to value their careers, educations and be as financially successful and independent as they can be. Therein lies the problem. We're supposed to dream of a big wedding, they're supposed to dream of being president of a huge corporation.

Moms, raise your daughters to be independent, educated and successful and if someone fits into their lives after they are, that's great; and if not, so what?
Yes, I tend to only respond to ads that list how

It seems like posts tend to disappear...
every once in a while. lol
No, I tend to hold grudges though I have become - nm
more tolerant in my old age (40, ha, ha). I told my husband only 2 things would ever make me divorce him, (1) he cheated, (2) he ever hit me/abuse. So far so good, though some verbal abuse has happened though much of it is due to circumstances at present but if it continues or grows worse I will seriously consider leaving and I suspect a nasty divorce would ensue (2 kids involved) and I'd be entitled to over $100K....money is what he loves most so it would get dirty I am sure. But hopefully it will never come to that.
My "on" days tend to be when I don't (sm)
have bills waiting to be paid, dishes needing washed, errands to be done or in-laws asking me to do things for them. Not that I stop and interrupt my shift to get up to do those things, but I think the underlying stress distracts me, no matter how hard I try to fight it.

I saw some postings on another board about listening to classical music helping them concentrate. I tried it and it doesn't work for me (I keep stopping to listen!) but that might be worth a shot.
I tend to agree with this. I was thinking this earlier--sm
when I read the OP, but everyone seemed to conclude that it was none of her business what the other employee did. However, in my opinion, if the MTSO found out about it from another source, and believe me, she would eventually, it could come back on the other MT as having known about it and said nothing. Everything in this world, these days, is a cover your butt situation. If you knew about it and said nothing, then you are just as much to blame as the one who was doing it....against the contract with the MTSO. Protect your own interests first, and do not worry about the one who is doing wrong. silence is condoning her wrong doing and that makes you (the other MT who knows about it) just as guilty. JMO. So, I guess I am on the side of the MTSO. Sorry.
I now work for an MTSO, but when I was inhouse we did tend
to send the difficult dictators out (our supervisor did this). That is just part of working for an outside service. We do not get to pick and choose we get what they choose to send.