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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Flexible schedule and reasonable line rate, at least 11 cpl for acute care!

Posted By: IC of 25 years. on 2006-04-24
In Reply to: To All IC's - please see message - dreamjob

I am not real "needy". No benefits as IC, just need flexible schedule due to very active family, and expect a good line rate. In return, I will go above and beyond what is expected to meet TAT and quality!



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line counts doing acute care ????
just wondering, all these very high per day line counts, does this include acute care - discharge summaries, op notes, consults, GI tests, echos, etc.  Just curious.  I have been doing this a long time, mostly acute care, but some clinic, but I find that my acute care line counts are a lot lower than the clinic.  I would appreciate any tips.
I love the flexible schedule!
I decided to stick with MT because of the schedule. (Plus, I can make more money in 6 hours of MT than 10 hours at a regular job with commute, lunch, breaks, etc.) DH and I had a long lunch yesterday at my favorite restaurant. I was able to drop off and pick up the kids at school, and be there for their sports practice. This next week is a Thanksgiving feast at the kids' school, so I get to go to that, too. I clean during the day while I'm working, so the house isn't a total pigsty.
Is it harder to reach your daily line count on acute care or clinic?
nm
I have a flexible schedule, I make decent money, better

than I could make working in an office, even though I haven't had a raise in 5 years and not likely to get one anytime soon.  I homeschool my children, we don't have a 9 to 5 lifestyle, DH doesn't have a 9 to 5 job and it allows him a 3 day weekend so we like to travel.  I am able to work anywhere I can get internet access so we can pickup and go at a moments notice w/o me having to worry about work.


I hate office politics.   I don't have to spend $$ on clothes as I work in jeans or sweats, or can stay in my jammies all day.   We only have 1 car and that works for us now, but wouldn't if I worked outside the home. 


Life is just less stressful not having to get my kids up at 6:00 a.m. to get ready so they can catch the bus by 7:00.   My DC would be getting home at 4:00 or later if they were in school and by the time they did homework and we had dinner it would be time to prepare for bed and we wouldn't have much family time.  By homeschooling my DC have been able to explore their passions, have really developed a love of learning and we have developed a wonderful family bond.  We spend hours every week talking about world events, relationships, etc.   My DC are my #1 reason for working at home.   When they have left the nest I may consider working outside the home, or at least exploring other work-at-home options. 


 


 


When I applied looking for acute care, Jane told me it's 70% clinic and 30% acute. nm
s
Here's how I do it. I start at a reasonable rate for my area. SM

I take of a penny a line for each of these things:


1.  Digital. 2. No printing.


Or you can start at your bottom line and add a penny for 1. Pickup 2. Printing. 3. Delivery.


That's just how I do it.


If it was a clinic, it might have been urgent care, but it was NOT acute care. sm
Acute care refers to work in an acute care setting, a hospital, doing at least History and Physicals, Discharge Summaries, Consultations, Surgery notes, Emergency Department notes, and much more, including GI procedures, Cardiology procedures, Neurological procedures, Pulmonary Function Studies.  It goes on and on and it means and acute care hospital setting, not a clinic.
Dell will finance at a very reasonable rate, just bought one and my payment is $50 a month with no i
just start charging interest. I am using my IC job to pay it off. Medquist does furnish computer, Amphion furnishes but with a monthly fee that is refunded at the end of a year's employment, I think.
1/2 rad and 1/2 acute care
Does anyone have an acount where they do some radiology and some acute care?  Do you get paid differently for rad/acute care on this account?  I get paid the same and have one radiologist that slows me down considerably (I transcribe for 2 radiologist alternating weeks).  I make 1/2 with him than what I would make doing acute care or the other radiologist. 
Acute care

Can someone please explain acute care setting in detail?


Yes, and also known as acute care. (sm)
To me, the next thing would be OPs right after doing radiology, because you have lost most of your drug names by now. But it is hard to break into OPs, especially exclusively. You would also likely do well with (office) orthopedics or gastroenterology. I'm not saying you can't do acute care, but you would want to be in-house with a mentor nearby for the easiest transition. The drug names and all the various mispronounciations will be a thorn in your side.
I do know that the acute care...
would benefit me in the long run because I would have more opportunity to learn more. I currently do not take on the variety of work that you do, hence, the boredom. I only do discharge summaries on a regular basis and just started with consults and H&Ps. I have yet to do any regular workload of OP reports, etc.

I have always been interested in the psych field. Maybe that is why I think that I would be more interested in doing the transcription. Also, yes, I am on the hardest account we have. Thanks for the input though.
Acute care, 0.07 and 0.075....maybe??
I was hired making 0.08 cpl doing acute care for a national right out of school. Personally I think your numbers are a little low compared to what I have seen out there.
Acute Care & QA
I guess that is where my problem lies.  If I send a blank to editing/QA, I do not get the corrected report back so I never know what was filled in for the blank. Obviously, that hinders the learning process quite a bit.  Since I have only worked for 2 companies (the first one I could view my corrected reports, second one not), I am wondering if this is the norm. 
how many lph on ave is everyone doing in acute care? sm
i know there are lots of variables. i am just looking for a general idea of about where most people average, lph. TYIA
Acute care is
all the basic work types found in a hospital, H&Ps, consults, discharges, op notes, cardiac reports, the whole shebang.  The work is so varied and you get to touch on just about all the specialties, especially if it's a larger hospital.  
acute care
Just to clarify, in no way did I mean that as an accusation that she was misrepresenting herself.  I wanted to make sure she knew the difference between acute care and clinic work, as she seemed new to the world of transcription outside her experience with her doctor for the past 3 years.   
Acute care...nm
.
I would go with acute care, only because
I have a short attention span and doing clinic notes day in and day out would put me to sleep. It is bad enough when I get a bunch of monotone dictators, but it helps when they talk about something other than GERD and immunizations. JMHO.
acute care........

acute care
I started with a company back in June of last year as a newbie.  Due to a terminal illness, the owner sold the company in August.  The company who bought the business kept me on, which I am thankful for.  When I hired in with the original company before they sold out I transcribed clinic reports for a general surgeon who was an awesome dictator.  When the other company bought it out they said they no longer had that account and put me on acute care.  A huge hospital with tons of doctors.  A lot of ESLs.  Doing everything from H&Ps, consults, op notes, discharge sum., cardiac caths, sleep studies, etc.  Needless to say I was lost.  I am so thankful for the opportunity but isn't this a bit much for a someone with not much experience.  Anyway I came to find out later I was lied to and they still had the clinic account but gave it to someone with much more experience than me just because they didnt WANT to do acute care.  Now since I know they still have the account they let me do leftovers and use me for when no one else is available to do the clinic account but otherwise I have to do acute care.  Shouldn't a company give accounts based on the exp. level you have not what another MT wants to transcribe?  I think I should have gradually worked my way up to an account like this acute care account.  It is a very difficult account which slows down productivity a lot.  That and I am only making .065 cpl.  Which I know I have to start somewhere.  But on an account like that it is hard to make any money.  I don't have a lot of experience with companies but have you ever known a newbie to do a difficult acute care account when there was more appropriate accounts available?
Acute Care?
Subject: Acute Care?

I have been applying for jobs but all or most of them say Acute Care experience.  I am not sure what that means?  I have been with a small company for almost 3 years now and type several different docs for them.  What is acute care?  Sorry.  May be a dumb question but this is the only place I have worked since I started transcribing!  thanks.
acute care

I could be wrong but I think acute care means you have experience transcribing the basic 4.


You can try searching "what acute care means" here on these forums.  Just type it in the search box up above.


acute care
It means you have experience typing hospital reports, i.e., discharge summaries, H&Ps, consults, operative notes, and the like. If you type doctor's office notes that is considered clinical, not acute.
Acute Care?
What about in hospital acute care patients? Will all their records also be generated via EMR or is that the plan in the near future also?
Unfortunately, they do not have acute care.
It baffles me that my experience does not seem to even be considered. I am a quick study and I learn and retain well. I really want to expand my horizons and I am open to suggestions. I am a good Transcriptionist with 99.8% accuracy and I am motivated, yet I just keeping running into wall after wall. Would testing on company websites be helpful at all? I don't want to waste my time, but I am almost desperate.
Rad Vs Acute Care
I've done both and, to be honest, I think it depends on your dictators, their use of normals, the length of the reports, etc. I've had rads that will blather on for 12 minutes (yes, 12) on an essentially negative CT abdomen and pelvis. And it's not 12 minutes of dictation. It's 12 minutes of start/stop dictation, with lots of pauses and dead air time, which is a total line killer. I've also had rads that have a normal for this type of report, have it blown in, fill in a few blanks, and wrap it up. I've also had dictations that show up as a 6 or 7 minute total time dictation, only to find the first 3 minutes are actual dictation, the rest of the time is "Transcriptionist, go back up and where I said...", and proceed to spend 3 minutes changing the first 3 minutes of dictation (always a delight). In an 8 hour shift with the right dictators, I can slam out about 1900-2100 lines of straight transcription in Rad; on the other hand, I've had 8 hour shifts where, depending on the dictators, I've been doing good to eek out 1400 lines.
Having done both rad and acute care, I'd say it's a crapshoot as to which one actually pays more. There are a lot of variables with accounts and it's difficult to really differentiate which of the two would pay better. It all comes down to the account...doctors' style of dictating, usage of normals, ESL physicians, etc.; the same things that impact one's line count on an acute care account.
Good luck to you. I really think with the right account, you'd see your line count increase dramatically.
I did rad then acute care...sm
Did Rad work for about 4 years then switched to acute care elsewhere.  I worked in-house for about a year and that helped me a lot.  As GothMT said, it was overwhelming, but now I definitely prefer acute care. 
Do you do acute care and
there are people here who tell you the certificate is not worth much, employers are wanting experience. It would seem if you are working 2 days in the transcription department, what is wrong with working more or do they not have any more than 2 to keep you occupied?
Can you apply for both acute care and rad at MQ?
/
I just learned rad after 16 yrs of acute care.
just by having a couple of good reference books and some live body to ask a few questions of has been all that I've needed.  It's different, but like anything else, after a while they're just saying the same things over and over again.  No different than just doing a different specialty in acute care.  I can't imagine needing to go back to school for radiology.  That's overkill.
I do acute care ASR every day and if you think it is perfect you had better take a better look
because I spend a tremendous amount of time fixing those reports and many times delete them and type from scratch. What planet are you from.
acute care basic 4

Could someone please explain the major differences between acute care basic 4 and multispecialty clinic transcription?   It seems that the job ads usually specify which one and how much experience is needed with each of these categories, but I am curious to know the differences and why someone with several years of multispecialty clinic experience may not do well with acute care hospital transcription.



TIA for any info provided!


differences in acute care and

Basic 4:  H&P (history and physical), CN (consultation notes by specialists on staff), OP(erative) reports, DS (discharge summaries) - reports dictated while patient, having experienced a(n acute) problem, is admitted and being treated in a hospital. They encompass all disease processes, procedures, specialties, medications, analyses, surgical equipment, tools, anesthesia, etc.


Multispecialty clinics, i.e., specific specialists consulted by outpatients including OB/GYN, opthalmology, neurology, psychology, psychiatry, orthopedics, urology, hematology-oncology, internal medicine, pediatrics, gastroenterology, family practice, etc., etc.     


ACUTE CARE-RADIOLOGY

I have noticed a couple of companies are asking for Rad transcriptionists but they want you to have acute care experience.  Why?


Oh, my. 30 years doing acute care. sm
I started VERY young!!
27 years, all in acute care. NM
x
30 years, doing it all (acute care now)
x
Acute care for 5 hospitals. Don't run out, but
z
Is your background in acute care?
Sounds like your experience may be in clinic and you are testing for acute care. Is this the case?
What would be the best way to go about getting good at acute care

(particularly ops) when you only have clinic/ER experience.  I've got 10 years of experience but none in acute care and I'd like to expand what I can do.  I don't have much extra disposable income so can't see taking any formal education at this point, but can you give any other suggestions?  I know I can just read up on stuff, but there's just so much to know that I don't really know where to begin!  I'm also very wary of just jumping in at a big national.  I guess I'm worried that I've done the same types of reports for so long that my terminology beyond that would be too rusty. 


Thank you!


How about finding PT acute care, sm
If you can handle an extra part-time acute care job, they would be paying you and you would be getting the experience.  I think the tapes are a joke and a complete waste of money.  I never learned anything about MT from the practice tapes in school and I went to a reputable community college for a year for transcription.  The true skills come from doing live dictations where you get actual feedback from the dictator or QA staff.
Been doing acute care for 7 years now,
and I was taught to do all of what you QA said you should be doing. The only exception is the spelling out of the abbreviation (GERD). Then I think that depends on how your hospital wants it done - verbatim; spelled out; first time said spell out, then abbreviate after that, if the doctor abbreviates. But I think all of the other times you listed are according to AAMT guidelines.
I don't see the reasoning for 15c for ops and 12 for acute care.
discharge summaries and consultations when PAs and physicians are shuffling papers, trying to find lab data, etc.  Once trained on ops, it's the best moneymaker work type an MT could have.  DS and CON = wasted air time and should be paid higher than ops, IMHO. 
Average CPL for Acute Care
I was hired as an IC 2 years ago for 7.5 cpl doing clinic notes and ER work.  I am close to having 4 years experience in transcription (2 with a previous company), and I have been progressively doing more and more acute care work.  I have asked if there is a raise involved if you go full-time in acute care or even into OP notes, and I never got a reply.  As far as I know, the only pay differential is 0.5 cpl for CMT certification.  I am nuts to think think that 8 cpl with no benefits is what a CMT gets paid?
Do have experience in acute care? (sm)
If so, you won't have a problem.  It will take just a little getting used to, but overall it is quite easy if you already have acute care experience.  I live in Texas, and the hourly pay is around $11-$14/hour.  Currently I make 11 cpl on radiology as well as acute care as a hospital employee.  Hope this info helps you out on your decision.   
i currently get a mix of clinic and acute care; sm
i get all different report types (clinic, acute, and various types), different facilities, just a big mix and yep it hurts on production. i have worked for MTSO before that assigned us set report types like i did consults and discharges. i was way much more productive there than i have ever been.
acute care vs. clinic

A walk-in clinic would still be considered clinic work.  When applying at a company that classifies experience as acute care and/or clinic work, acute care is the term used to designate hospital dictation. 


Acute care clinic

The reason I called it acute care clinic, is to convey that it was not a specialty clinic.  Our patients were there for acute care, and it was a clinic.


But you are right, I am knew to the transcription world outside of what my doctor expected.  I have read at least 5 text books on MT, but all emphasize asking your employer which format is preferrable. 


I was also wondering, on these online tests,  do they want verbatim, even if it is incomplete or run on sentences, or am I to make them complete by using "and" etc.


Hundreds - all acute care too! nm
x
Do you do acute care or clinic?
nm