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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Difficult to find, haven't found one yet (sm)

Posted By: Anon on 2007-10-03
In Reply to: 3rd giveaway for Scavenger hunt started. Good luck! - Administrator nm

but I keep looking


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Which specialty have you found the most difficult and why?
I find cardiology to be most challenging.

Any good cardiology links or websites?
Why would you find this so difficult to believe?

Especially considering that Brad PItt - famous movie star - had the world by the family jewels with a beautiful wife, Jennifer - multimillion dollar mansions and $$$$ coming out the ying yang, yet he up and left it all to be with a woman who's a lesbian, Angelina Jolie, PLUS he adopted her two orphan children to boot, as well as knocked her up. 


Now .... who do you think has more power over Brad - his mother or Angelina?  Think about it, not that it needs a lot of contemplation...Angelina can do things for Brad his mother never can, if ya' know what I mean, which is why I told the original poster to LET IT GO because she's FIGHTING A LOSING BATTLE SHE CANNOT EVER WIN.


I find that difficult to believe -- not the money but the hours.
That would leave only 6 hours a day to sleep, bathe, eat, do housework, errands, LIVE.

Naaaaa. That's a legend. LOL

I haven't found them
What I've seen ranges from 2.5 cpl to 15 per hour.
Haven't you found though

that what feels good short-term (shoes, chairs, foundation garments, etc.)  gets uncomfortable long-term?  I've sure been fooled by something I tried on, sat on, even walked a few feet in, only to find that it just did not work out. 


My current chair, for instance, felt extremely cushy when I tried it in the store, and for a while afterward at home.  Then the seat seemed to lose its 'cush'.  I think the type of intensive 'extreme' sitting we MTs do is the real test of a chair.  Maybe we all should get jobs as chair testers with Consumer Report?


I'm not a very "outgoing" person and I find extremely difficult to sell myself. So the ide

going door to door selling myself causes me to have a major anxiety attack!  But here is my two cents anyway.  I work FT for a local hospital from home, but I have  two of my own accounts I do on the side.  My biggest piece of advice is always carry a business card, ALWAYS!  Wherever you're at, make sure you have them in your purse.  I have found that when I go the new doctor's office, like for example recently I was referred to a dermatologist for a mole removal.  While there the doctor chit chatted with me and asked me what I did and I said I was a transcriptionist.  She asked how long I had been doing that and I told her 15 years, yada, yada.  Anyway, long story short, she asked if I was able to take on more work and I said sure.  She asked me to leave a business card with her and she would have the OM call me.  I left a card and a couple days later sent a followup letter basically thanking her for her time and her wonderful bed side manner and then included another card with the letter with a little friendly and if you ever need any help with your transcription, remember to give me a call...


They did and they are one of my greatest accounts.  One other time at an auction at a business school that was going under, my husband (who never meets a stranger) struck up a conversation with this very professional looking woman who was buying up all the good office furniture and equipment.  It seemed like she was willing to outbid everybody and so my husband being curious struck of a conversation and found out she was a psychologist opening up a new office and was there to try to get some office supplies.  He proceeded to introduce me and tell her that I was a transcriptionist.  She asked if I had a card and I did.  Gave it to her, wrote down my per line rate on the back with a note that said it was negotiable and to give me call.  She did and that is the second account I have.


I mean if you have the personality to sell yourself and go door to door, I say go for it.  I'm just one of those stand-offish kind of people that has trouble making the first move, but once the door is opened for me, I'm always prepared.


I haven't found the need to have a backup sm
phone line connection. My cable is Insight and very seldom have a problem. They usually do their ugrades during the midnight hours, which posed a problem when I worked nights. We seldom have any outages and if we do, it is usually resolved in a couple of hours or so. For what I pay, I think I get pretty good service and don't want to cough up any more money for another connection unless I had a second job that required it.
I hear it's very difficult to find the file..for obvious reasons I guess! LOL
x
Bono, still haven't found what you're looking for?
Just couldn't resist that one.
I'm happy there. Haven't found anyone to be rude...sm

I think the office/tech staff is exceptionally nice.   ');>  All I care really is that my work is steady, I get a great cpl rate, I've never missed a paycheck or had a late paycheck in my 2+ years there, and on the occasional times that my work has run out I could be switched to another work pool for more work.  And the benefits are great, but only for full-timers (no bennies for part time MTs). 


If you have any specific questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them. 


By the way, I *think* TransHealth is hiring right now.


I am a good MT. However, I haven't found what I need from a company yet.
I agree that not every MT or company will be a good fit for each other.  I just didn't realize that what I was asking for from an employer would be nearly impossible to find.  It's not that I'm not willing to give a little either; it seems like the majority of companies that I have come across want you chained to your desk 24/7 with a ring through your nose to tug on.  They won't pay downtime but they expect you to check back into the system every 15 minutes without pay.  Some people do this without complaining because they feel lucky to have a job working at home.  I'm sorry, but I'm not a doormat.  We already pay the overhead and equipment costs for the companies.  Our benefits and line rates get cut back more and more.  The quality of dictation gets worse and worse because of VR and offshoring.  I'm a good MT, and I deserve to be treated like one.  If standing up for myself means I have a bad attitude, oh well, at least I can sleep at night for not letting anybody walk all over me.
For transcription, I haven't found that the quality of the sm
speakers is an issue at all. it is the quality of the headphones that matters, unless you don't use headphones?
Thx for the heads-up! I haven't been in there enough to find that out yet. nm
x
If there is a company out there that let's you type on a blank page, I haven't found it. I
been an MT for 13 years now and worked at home for about 11 of those years and never found a company that I felt truly treated their MT's fair.
Haven't tried it yet, but my son told me you can actually "fly" around and find places - he
flying all over the "old neighborhood", finding the old ball field he used to play it, his old grammar school, etc. etc. 
Puzzling? OP did not find this puzzling, found it AMUSING. It is called a *sense of humor*. LOL
.
Oh, I found it really creepy when you said you found the flowers not so skillfully arranged on your
steps, and from your own flower bed.  That's what I was worried about, having gone thru some psycho kids myself with my pups.  Someone's been in your yard and in your garden and at your door without your knowledge.  Its just creepy to me, and I'd still be very, very careful.  Especially valid sounded the other MTs warning you about potential fake molestation charges.  You just NEVER know nowadays, and these people have already turned on you big time once. Luckily (though I don't believe in luck), you had it on film to save yourself and your puppy.  You might not be that lucky next time, and the whole thing just sounds very unstable to me right now.  I know you feel sorry for the little girl, but probably the only time I have ever made BAD decisions regarding my life is when I felt sorry for someone, particularly kids.  My son even has an evil kid in his life, but one who has a million reasons for sympathy, and I was saying how we should "be bigger" than the situation and invite this kid over to play.  Thankfully, I regained my sanity long enough to remember - ever time I have done something like that on a personal basis for someone just because I feel sorry for them AFTER horrible behavior, it has always been a disaster... Be kind, but you don't have to risk your family again. Be kind from a distance.  Its sorry she went thru this horrible experience, but YOU didn't cause it, and its not really your problem.  But it could be your problem if this kid acts out in your life.  Know what I mean?
I think I found it, found multiple recipes with the same
exact ingredients so I figure this must be it. 
go to chat room on web site and find out. i'm working but if you find out, let me know.
creepy dude.
I find most of my abbreviations here. Scroll all the way down until you find the abbreviation box.
http://www.mtchat.com/frame.php?frame=message
For me, it 's more difficult after 2 p.m.
doesn't matter what it is. But that's only because I've been doing it since 4:30.
It can be difficult...
to know the right thing to do. So many companies are unfair to their MT's, but is it right to dish it right back to them?

I would say it depends on how they treat you. If they are great to work for then be fair to them. If they are awful to work for then, well, use your best judgment.

If you do lower your rate just be sure that they understand this is your rate for THIS account of mostly macros. If they want you to do an account with straight typing they need to readjust.

Good for you for having high values in an industry that is getting more and more amoral every day :-)
Not difficult for you maybe
But obviously she wouldn't have posted if she didn't have feelings of uncertainty about it. I know when I have had to make a decision about something being right or wrong I find it difficult. You have a clear opinion on this, she didn't. I was just trying to be supportive. I WAS NOT making a blanket statement that it is difficult to treat a bad company badly, or playing the SAME GAME that your company is playing. Geez!!!!
Not only is it the most difficult sm
it is also extremely depressing, or at least it was for me.  I used to work for M. D. Anderson years ago and did a lot of Peds.  Also, the protocols change faster than you can keep up with them so expect to spend a lot of time searching but internet would probably make it easier.  Good luck and I hope you like it...somebody has to do it but not this body anymore.
How difficult is it to set up?sm
Also, what equipment do I need? I have a Linksys wireless broadband router.
Yes but difficult! nm
x
I was LPN 30 yrs ago. It is more difficult now. SM
I would encourage you taking the course, but then try working in a doctor's office, clinic or private duty. Most definitely, not in a hospital.

I remember loving the course, but hating it when I got out into the real world.
So difficult
It is very difficult for me too sometimes. So many tragedies.

It seems life is often so tough. My views and understanding of where and why we came from have been changing over the last few years, and I am having a very rough time trying to make some sense of it.
I don't know if any particular field is more difficult
than the next, if all you do is type one speciality. I think ER and Psych are mentally hard because with ER a lot of the patients die and it is depressing and then psych is depressing because of the severe dysfunction of the patients and/or their families. Oncology can be depressing too cause outcomes are not always great and like the previous poster said frequent new meds.

I used to transcribe for a teaching hospital connected to a medical school and that dictation was very hard, much more technical than your normal hospital, lots more dictators too and a new crop every July.
It's difficult but necessary to be in control
Otherwise you are simply allowing little Hitlers to grow up and become *adults* - your job is not to be their friend, your job is to be their parent.

Why would you allow your kids to have friends that you wouldn't allow in your house if they were your friends?

Why would you allow filthy language, out-of-control behavior, and downright liars even on your property?

Are you afraid of your kids? if so, why?

Good luck
It is so difficult for MTs these days
With voice recognition, hospital cut backs, and companies overseas. I have been doing this 30+ years and have enjoyed it up until now. I can so relate with you. I have been looking at a company SilentType? Any input on them or any others who do not consider you an IC, I don't mind paying my own cable or DSL as I have that for home anyway.
It is difficult, I won't deny that.
I stretch quite often.

I take breaks, too, or I couldn't do it at all.

I won't be doing this more than about 2 years so I can hold out.

I'm not kidding though, I have to work hard and I'm not bouncing around like Tigger at the end of the day. I'm tired and sometimes sore. I can't make this kind of money from the comfort of my home anywhere else though!
Was very difficult to learn and there are
still some things I cannot get the hang of. But, it is the only Expander I am permitted to use so had to bite the bullet after resisting for a few months. Takes about three months go use it effectively. Try using it for a few hours every day. When you get frustrated, close it and type everything out. On short-fuse days, skip it altogether. Over a few months, with this method, you will begin to develop speed and each new problem will be solved one by one so your line count will not get suffer greatly. Using IT requires doing a massive amount of reading initially. But, I have to say, I love it now (and am still learning how to use it six months into using it).
Difficult to remember
I also have struggled with that. I have been trying to think of a creative way to remember, but I keep coming up empty. If you think of someway to keep it straight in your mind let me know.
Radiology is not that difficult ...
it does take some extra study of anatomy, and a good radiology word book, and there are websites where you can learn a lot about radiology. I do both acute care and radiology, and I like both.
Almost always the first except if a difficult dictator. (sm)

Then I am constantly listening again to make sure I have it correct.


Difficult decision

Hi,


It sounds like, despite all the problems, that you love him and want to remain a family, particularly for the sake of your son. 


Without disrespecting that, what I would suggest is that you tell your husband to either grow up already (and pull his weight around the house while he is at it) or please go ahead and divorce you and marry his mama. 


In the meantime, make sure that your name is not on his credit card bills, etc. and that you DO expect him to provide child support while he is absent from the family, the home, the marriage.  If he fails or refuses, take him to court--that should make him wake up and smell the coffee and grow up fast.  Otherwise, let mama figure out how to manage his payee check with that new expense. 


HTH. 


It isn't that difficult to create your own...

Yes, it will take a bit of time, but you will then have a test that belongs to you.  Any that you might find on the internet are most likely not meant for the use of others. 


 


You have a very difficult situation
and I wish you the best. For many who work outside the home, they can stop and forget for a little while the problems they have at home. They are able to socialize, confide, and have outside relationships. You have made a hard and a valid choice for your priorities. Stick to it. Be proud of the choices you made. As for the family, pretend they are just background noise and turn down the volume.
difficult dictators
I'd advise to stick with it also, even the difficult ESL ones. That's how you get better.  Just plan on not making much money initially but look at all the experience you are building.  I made peanuts when I first started out and I'm sure a lot of us did.  It'll pay off for you in the end when you are able to pick and choose your jobs because of all the experience you have under your belt. 
another difficult thing for me...
...is the fact that relatives and friends just don't understand the obstacles we have to deal with as an MT. They think we have it made "getting to work at home" and that we are just typists. Do they realize the constant battle to stay focused and remind people that even though we are home, YES, we are working, and quite hard at that, I might add! No, we can't babysit, we're WORKING! No, I can't talk on the phone, again, I'm WORKING! We probably work harder than a lot of people since we are paid on production and live and work under that stress - we can't have a "bad day" where we just take it easier at work if we don't feel good or had a fight with our husband. We have to be on at all times or our income suffers. My husband doesn't get it when I get really stressed and in a bad mood and fed up when I get horrible dictator after horrible dictator and my line count suffers and I have to sit there for longer than expected; nobody does. Thankfully we have each other - we're the only ones who TRULY know what it's like.
Most difficult: Americans!
I absolutely cannot get the American accents in which the doc sounds like he/she is running an auction. At least with the ESLs I can get into the rhythm. Not with these guys. Although once I figure out what a grunt or a cough means I make a normal LOL.
I understand that they are difficult
and it's frustrating, but why are they low class? There are probably few MT jobs without ESL.. they are  here to stay.    
very difficult business
I think that is another reason why I am attracted to this profession. Since I am an IC, this is my business, and I have always wanted to be self-employed. It is very challenging, but that is what also motivates me to succeed.
It is still difficult to get assistance. SM

I would say give it a try to the OP, but don't be surprised if very little or no assistance comes.  I may be reading more into this than is there, but OP probably needs assistance with house/rent payment, keeping up utilities, etc. and the public assistance people will look at it like he or she will be well in XX weeks, things will work out.  Unfortunately, people who truly need short-term public assistance can't get the help they need to get them through trying times like this.  OP may be able to get emergency food stamps fairly easily though.


I would also suggest, if OP is a member of a church, letting the church know what's going on and seeing if there is help there (they are usually quick to respond) or trying Catholic Charities or another faith-based organization set up to help.  You don't have to be a member of that particular religion to get help.  The key is to reach out NOW while the situation is unfolding and not wait until things get so bad you are getting forclosed on or evicted. 


difficult personalities
I had a very difficult hospital manager to deal with at one point. She would rant about how Dr. so and so got so angry and is going to the staff office, and blah blah blah.....All of this was passed onto the company managers and QA who in turn passed it on to MTs in this very manner. It did not go over very well, we lost a lot of good people because of the constant threat of losing their jobs, and was a very hard lesson learned, get my point?
Not difficult at all. You dont want to do ESL,
x
Interesting. Was it difficult
to adjust to that type of keyboard? Do you use your mouse at all?

I can't seem to get totally away from using the mouse, but that would be a big help too.
No, not difficult at all. I do still use mouse but
use keyboard for cut and paste for inputting into my Expander and also use keyboard for bolding and unbolding.  My next thing is going to be programming a key on the left side for my comma.  I edit a lot and find I have to put in commas and want to be able to navigate with the mouse while I backspace to delete and then insert comma with the left hand.  I also use the arrow keys alot to navigate,  I have taught myself to do a lot of this by feel, so I dont have to look at the keyboard.  I am thinking of getting a one hand keyboard to I can keep one hand on mouse while I type with the other hand,lol. That should be interesting.
It should not be difficult to determine
your line rate if you are currently charging by the page. If you like the page rate you are charging, then take a typical line count for one page and divide the charge per page by that many lines. For example, if you charge $5.00 a page and 30 lines is an average line count for one page, then $5.00 divided by 30 equals 16.66 cpl. So if you want to still receive $5.00 per page or thereabout, you would need to charge between 16 and 17 cpl. This is based on a gross line count. Ask if any editing is necessary. Charge a fee for editing based on an hourly rate.
Not difficult if you are prepared sm
but also you have to be prepared to stick it out until your income picks up.  You're not going to come out of the box making huge bucks right away.  I find that MT is something you either love or you hate, no inbetween.  Read the boards and look at the comments.  Check out the new MT/student board and see what they're saying.  Quite honestly, anyone that has asked me about going into MT recently I've suggested they find another career as MT ain't what it used to be.  Good luck to you though.