Home     Contact Us    
Main Board Job Seeker's Board Job Wanted Board Resume Bank Company Board Word Help Medquist New MTs Classifieds Offshore Concerns VR/Speech Recognition Tech Help Coding/Medical Billing
Gab Board Politics Comedy Stop Health Issues
ADVERTISEMENT




Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Better yet, if it's REALLY good, make an expansion for it. sm

Posted By: ChuckM on 2009-03-26
In Reply to: And once you have a "good" sample, - CrankyBeach

Especially with op notes ... once you get a feel for a dictator's normal patter, whether that be an operative procedure, ROS, PE section, closing, or whatever, make a shortcut/expansion for it ...

I do the same thing for letter addresses, since the same addressees seem to keep popping up over and over (i.e., docsmitha would bring up all of the Smiths I have saved with a first name starting with an A) -- saves a lot of time in the long run.

Wow, getting far afield from the original question here; I must need that first cup of coffee.


Complete Discussion Below: marks the location of current message within thread

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu


Other related messages found in our database

On 2nd thought, if you're NOT a good Italian style cook, make something you ARE good at. Leave th
s
Good work. I like your site. Make Pair is very good Grass: http://www.cbsnews.com/ , Mistery can Per
Very informative site. Good job. right Plane will Kill TV without any questions , Astonishing Game Hedge or not when Soldier Make Tournament Increase , Universal TV is always Big Circle Double TV is very good Gnome
I actually do make good $, but....
I don't care for VR. When you are a fast and accurate Transcriptionist you are already topped out when you start editing. My QA averages 99% and the institution I work for is REALLY strict with QAs. We have an average of 10-12 per year and they look at 20+ reports each time. I would rather do straight transcription, but I have good benefits so I suck it up and work. I fear eventually our work will go completely to an outside agency and our dept will be eliminated, saving the institution $$ for not having to pay salaries, insurance, etc. It also depends on what VR system; we use eScription.
I make between $14 and $20 but good accts. sm

Been at it for almost 20 years too.  Lots of templates, shortcuts, etc.  Depends on who I'm transcribing.  With some ESLs I would only make about $7 an hour if I had to do them all day.  My average is right around $17.  With some of my local work (on tapes) my templates are so huge, and I'm so used to what they are going to say, I've made $23.  But that's onlywith certain dictators.  It all varies and some dictators are sooooooo bad, you just lose money.


For example, if I had the $23 dollar an hour guy from my local and then did the $7 ESL from my national and combined 8 hours of work for both, I'm down to $15 an hour.  If I get stupid dicators all day from both sides, sometimes I can only average $12.  I guess it's the luck of the draw, if you know what I mean.


That's definitely good money. I wish I could make that much.
I'm making about $1,400 a MONTH working 25-30 hours per week. ESLs, run out of work often, lousy platform. What's the point any more? I definitely need to pick up some local accounts and never work for another national.
Oh man....that is NOT good...how do you make any money?

You make some good points.
.
Four. And they make very good money.
But I get your point. But you asked!
Oh, but I make really good money
so I did not understand where this was coming from. You see, I have no children at home, only 2 of us, no bills, I only work part because that is all I want but still bring home about $1500.00 every 2 weeks, so no need to feel sorry. I said I type fast.
you make some good points

Your post is encouraging.  Maybe we need to study these people you mention and learn the ropes from them. 


Yes, I've seen the pictures of the MTs in India.  Reminds me of typing class in high school.  And that's what I'm saying, just like you -- how long can this last?  You question how long before they get carpal tunnel.  Great point!  How long before they get burned out?  You can't work people like that, not at this job where you have to listen so intently and be so absolutely correct.  Transcribing a difficult dictation is akin to doing a hard math problem.  The brain can only take so much at a time.  Couple that with trying to understand a dictator whose language is not your primary one and speaks in slang or idioms you never heard.  If they work the overseas MTs like that, there's going to come a point where something has to give.  The quality of their work might suffer, even the good ones, due to burnout.  Will the American companies still want them?  How desperate are they for our work?  Desperate enough to endure those conditions?  Do they have other choices?  We see them as the foe, and yet as you say, we are turning into that kind of situation with many of our companies but we do have other options, fortunately for those who want to pursue another career. 


The medical record must endure.  There must be good MTs.  You can't work people to burnout either here or overseas.  In this country, you need to make the job inviting in order to keep the workforce up.  Lowering salaries here is not how to do that.  Running sweatshops there is not how to do it either.  Something has to give at some point.  Then maybe people will take us seriously again and this job will be what so many of us want and need it to be. 


You're right about the middle class.  Something has to happen -- this is affecting too many jobs, too many sectors of society.   


Good for you, too bad you won't make anymore than you already do,
your own self satisfaction.  Jamie
it asked what you think is good, not what you make
nm
You make a good point
Keeping track was doable but you have to keep track. I still am not making that much hourly counting lines though. I'd better invest in some new tools.
AHDI is just trying to make MT look good, so

Good for you. Did it make you feel better?

MAKE GOOD $$ AT THE MOMENT BUT I WANT OUT
Have just landed a great job.  Good $$.  No nights, weekends, or holidays.  How long do you think that is going to last?  Look at the trend 6 months ago, now, and 6 months from now - or a year from now.  The face of the MT business is changing.  No one is secure and one thing is for sure - we can not all stay.  I have a good client in a specialty I love now.  I guarantee you, this client is going to obtain a cheaper source than me in the next 12-18 months.  I am at the age where I need steady, secure, decent paying work.  When this one goes, I am hanging up my headphones too.  Hope to get my social security figure up first though.
I used to make really good money.
Anywhere from $28-50 per hour. Same few dictators, lots of templates and Expander usage, pay averaged out to be $.12 per line. I only wanted to work part-time, but the company would have worked me full-time. One particular doctor was so easy, I could do 400+ lph for him. He only had maybe an hour of work per day. Voice recognition has my job now. I've been unemployed for the past six months. But 537 lph consistently? I don't know about that. It would have to be the same pool of dictators and the MT's expander stats would have to be HIGH!
I would please like to know how you make good money at it.

Would you care to share your cents-per-line and lines-per-hour with us?  Roughly?


It would help alleviate the anxiety about it for some of us if we can hear from the horse's mouth (no insult intended) how this can be a good living for us.  Especially when there are so many things to slow us down like ESLs and poor dictators and bad sound. 


Thank you.


It's only when I use an expansion
at the beginning of the sentence that I can't get it to automatically capitalize the first letter. I have the auto-cap option checked and it works for regular typing. I have been planning on getting Instant Text forever now and just keep putting it off. Probably going to do it soon because this is driving me crazy. Thanks.
expansion, expansion, expansion
Use your expansion tools. I have just about every acronym under the sun set up into my expansions. It really helps.
Expansion help
I have a great primary account, make usually more than 2000 lines a day, and I have several of the same docs who say the same things repeatedly, so I have their "normal" ROS or PE set up as an expansion.  I make sure to proof those really well for changes.  And I have any phrase that is three words long as an expansion.  Like ctax for clear to auscultation, rrrx for regular rate and rhythm, etc.  And if a word is long, like hepatosplenomegaly, I make an expansion for it with hsmx.  You just need to play around and see what you come up with...
not true, I make good $$$ and manage to come
nm
It is "speed" and yes, it will make you very moody, not in a good way either! nm
x
Elvis? LOL! Did he ever make a good movie?
x
You can make more than that per line, but at 125 lph, not a good living. Have to do at least 300 lp
x
Is it possible to make good money working for someone else?
.
I think that is all attitude. I make very good money at MT.

Lisa, you make a very good point. sm
I guess I should have been a little more specific. If ALL MTs were to go on "strike" and not accept the low wages these MTSO's are offering, they eventually would HAVE to offer a decent wage we can live on. But, the other side of the coin is, if the MTS WOULD STRIKE, then the MTSO's would no doubt just hire those non-U.S. MTs anyway, because that is the reason in the first place they are paying so little. The U.S. MTs have no support, that's for sure. (and I apologize for the misspelling of a word in my previous post.)
or make sure its a good google source.
x
Because MTs in the US become the "editors" to fix their work and make them look good. nm
;
This would make a good Seinfeld routine.
Of course probably only MTs would understand the jokes. Somebody needs to write a book about MTs and what they go through. It really would be touching and funny, and a bit tragic, I think. It could be marketed in the Stedmen's line of books or something. It could have cartoons. This title where did QA come from? This makes me want to be all creative. Of course, this MT is full of talk, but not a whole lot of action. LOL.
I can make good money without overtime
I posted below but when I saw your post and it said crap- I type mostly VR and I work 8 hour days 4 days a week. I make at least $160.00 per day- add that up if I worked full 40 hour week or lordy if I worked overtime like years gone by. I get paid no more because of my years of doing this- work for national- the pay is low but I am fast. I just wanted to make about the same as when I worked in the office and set my goals accordingly.
I do VR, love it, make good money at it
and I have no idea why people who do not do, have not done, don’t plan on doing talk so much against it.
Not for what it does besides just text expansion.
xx
word expansion
By MS Word expander, I guess you mean the one built into Word. In addition to this, I make my own "normals" and just copy and paste them into a Word document to retrieve when I need them.
I don't use DocQscribe nor do I know what the expansion

formula looks like, but if you can open it up in Notepad and manipulate the formula to look like this, tp=the patient, then you can import them into EXText.  I don't have my EXText in front of me so this is from rough memory.  Once you have your expansions in the above formula, save them in Notepad on your desktop.  In EXtext click on Options, Import file from Text(?), in the drop down box click on Desktop, click on your saved list, put an = sign in the delimiter box, click on Ok or import or whatever the next step is (lol...told you it was from rough memory).  Once these are imported you'll need to save your ESP list.  It is really simple to import once you have your expansions in the right formula.  I'll check back here in a little bit and answer any questions I can.  I'll be working tonight and may be able to give better step-by-step instructions once I have the actual program up and running.


CW


In the box where you would normally put your expansion text. n/m
.
text expansion?
I was wondering if anyone can recommend a good text Expander program. I have never used one before, and there are so many out there, I am just looking for some advice as to what might be a good one, easy to use, for a person who has no experience with text expansion. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!
You will make it just fine. Good Luck my prayers are with you. nm
x
It is worth it though. I couldn't make a good living without.
x
Depending on who you work for.... you can make good money

I usually average between $15-25 an hour doing VR. That is enough for me. I think it helps if you have companies that pay for footers, headers, spaces etc.. Good luck.


Really? I make a good living transcribing tapes.
Just because it's not the way you want to receive your work does not mean it is worthy of contempt. As far as I'm concerned, practitioners who are reluctant to give up their familiar dictation methods are less likely to give in to the blandishments of VR or EMR salespeople.

You are free to work your way, and I am free to work as I see fit. If that makes you cringe, well, I guess that's just your problem. It doesn't bother me at all. Cringe away.
Good grief. You'd make an employment decision
Honey, you need to get a grip!

Good advice, but make sure to check 1 thing
When I did this a few years ago, my company had a policy that stated if I did not return after my leave, I could be responsible for any benefits received during the leave.  Make sure to check with your human resources on that.  I ended up coming back to work out a 2-week notice, which wasn't bad.
I make very good money at home with a small MTSO

Is ExText user friendly? Can you make good lines?

I will be using a foot pedal - ? Transnet.


I'm using Meditech Magic now and I can't imagine anything being worse. 


Can you make good money with radiology? I'm thinking of switching
nm
I go to alt-E and bring up the expansion menu sm
then I add a new header in there. That way, the new header created will be saved and usable in future reports. Maybe there is a better way - I do not claim to be a DQS genius, but this does work for me
Word Expansion Programs
I am trying to get a general idea of the best/worst Word Expansion programs available.  What do you use and how does it compare to others?  I know of Shorthand, PRD+, MedBrain, and good ol' Auto Correct.  Please give me your opinions.  Thank you very much ~
Normals in Expansion File
Just be aware that your company may have set a size limit for individual expansions to prevent transcriptionists from making "normals" that are not really normal, that is, not always exactly what the doctor says.
Why not add them to your expansion software with different endings? Like
s