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I've traveled and worked many times

Posted By: wimt on 2006-07-20
In Reply to: I hope I dont sound naive, can you tell me how you travel with a laptop and transcribe? I have neve - Kat

To try to answer your questions.. Whether your foot pedal will work in your laptop depends on the laptop that you buy. When you're looking to buy one, try to find one with the correct kind of port for your pedal.  The one I recently bought doesn't have a serial port, so I bought an adapter at Circuit City that plugs into my USB port, and then I can plug my ergo keyboard and mouse into that.  In any case, your laptop will definitely come with at least a couple USB ports, so you could always buy a USB pedal to use with it if you have to.   As far as the headphones, every laptop I've ever used has had a place to plug in a pair of headphones so that should be no problem. The thing is...if you're going to buy a laptop specifically for this, then look at the ports on the laptops and make sure it has what you need.  I would say if you don't mind buying a USB foot pedal, though, you're not going to have problems because every new laptop will have USB ports, and I'm sure a place for your headphones.


If you're staying in hotels, try to stay in places that have free high speed internet which so many of them have now.  You can plug right into that and work.  If not, I know Verizon has a wireless broadband service now for around $60 a month you could check into.


I hope this helps some.


 




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I've worked and traveled with (sm)
A Verizon Broadband USB device on a 5GB/month plan for $60/month. Anywhere that I can get a Verizon phone signal, I can work. Working on the DQS platform, I could work 24/7 and never approach the 5 GB limit per month, but I'm not sure how other platforms work in that regard.

Europe in general is more sophisticated in their cell phone plans than the US (the majority in Europe use prepaid as opposed to 2-year contract plans). I would think that you could get a USB device over there that is compatible with the cell phone frequencies they use over there.

Hope this helps!
I have often worked 2 jobs, at times 3 sm

Up until my present job I have never worked on a company computer, so that was not an issue.


Be prepared (as one divorced single mom to another) there is almost no such thing as "extras" when you are a single parent.  Dad's usually fight tooth and nail to keep the kids from getting enough child support.  If you live in a state that counts your income (some like California and Colorado do) then the more you work, the less child support you will receive.  Besides which, if he carries them on his insurance that will also diminish the amount of child support you receive.


I didn't get support after about the first 9 months I was divorced and that was 13 yrs ago now.  It was pure and utter hades financially.  I am only just now getting on my feet and the children have been grown and gone for nearly 4 yrs.  I worked 2 jobs most of last year to pay my income tax AND be able to afford to eat and have a place to live.  I am an employee now, have full benefits for the first time since I divorced and according to the IRS calculator, I have satisfied my tax debt for 2008 at this point, provided I don't make more than $40K this year.  Since I don't have to break my back for the kids, I will work and begin to start having a life outside of my job. 


Also, if you are an IC and your ex gets to put the kids' deductions on his income tax and you don't, you are going to really hurt at the end of the year, unless you are eligible for earned income credit.


I would seriously wait and discuss this with both your divorce attorney and your tax accountant.  I should have talked to my tax accountant when the kids starting leaving and I didn't.  I have finally paid off being totally screwed by my taxes.  Tread carefully and remember that the "extra" your kids really want is going to be time with you, away from your desk, doing things with them and helping them make this adjustment.


Did it again a couple times and worked now!!! Thank U!!
so much!! :)
I've done this many times (sm)

My hubby used to travel around the country a lot for his employer and we used to stay in places from anywhere from a few weeks to as long as a year.  We used to just make sure that we stayed at one of the business-friendly hotels, i.e. the ones with high speed internet and a separate work area.  If it's going to be long term, try to get one of the suites if you can, because you'll be surprised at how quickly cabin fever can start to creep in when you're working out of a hotel room.


As far as the C-phone, other than being a pain to lug around with you, just plug it into the hotel's line, but do NOT call out directly.  Most hotels will charge their guests an arm and a leg to make anything but local phone calls.


What I did was to get an account set up with onesuite dot com (very reasonable low cost prepaid minutes), and I would use that to call out with.  Just make sure that your hotel doesn't charge for making 800 number calls, because an 800 number is what onesuite uses.


Many hotels do not charge for outgoing calls to 800 numbers, but be aware that some of them do.  In which case, neither onesuite dot com or a prepaid calling card will work.


All in all, the only real inconvenience of it all was having to dial all of the numbers, PIN numbers, etc., that were associated with using onesuite or a calling card each time I called out to connect up.


If you have any other questions, you can email me if you'd like.


I've done it, many times...sm

I know after 3 days if the job will not work out.  Let's face it hon...we need to make MONEY and if I see the platform is ridiculous, NOT MT friendly and is a waste of my time, poor training, training done by someone who is NOT a MT and has NEVER worked as a MT....HUGE RED FLAG!!!...That means that the company probably just wants "fingers" to type and type and type.....One company who is always hiring on the boards....I gave it a while, and today I was offered a nice position with someone I used to work for!!!!! it is awesome!!! and I quit that other hot mess today.  Good luck!!! Don't feel bad if you quit...hey, we gots to make a living here. with the economy and everything being so bad...you have to look out for number 1 and your family.


I've seen the idea several times,
x
I've responded to this many times
Look through the archives.

I just don't want to subject people here to the information ... again!
I've heard this a few times- maybe you have too

Do you think anyone would ever be on their death bed, surrounded by loved ones and say, "I wish I had spent more time working."  Doubt it.  My kids are grown now, and the good memories for them are the ones I didn't think were so great.  Like the time we lived in an apartment building in the Northeast, had all our Christmas decorations in the storage room in the basement, and someone stole them.  We made all our own that year with aluminum foil covered cardboard and strung popcorn.  Not even any lights, couldn't afford them.  They to this day call that tree their Charlie Brown tree.  That's just one of many "little memories" that may not seem like much when they are happening, but it's the things they remember.   


I've used them several times w/o any probs at all. nm
s
I've had it a couple of times.
  Doctor gave me a sheet of exercises to do on my own which just amounted to moving my head and/or eyes around in different positions.  It can be just a horrible thing to have.  Yours is probably worse than mine if you have to "have therapy." 
Any job I've been on has used Times New Roman at 12. nm
s
Yes, I've called many times and they
tell me the same thing, that it is being reviewed. I havent'sent any money because they want the entire amount, and the mtg payment is more than I can afford. I figure I'd best try and save half of that to go toward deposits on apartment and moving truck and such.
What is a TROLL! I've asked many times, no ans.
Thank you!
RE: What is a TROLL! I've asked many times, no ans.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In internet terminology, a troll is a person who posts inflammatory messages on the internet, such as on online discussion forums, to disrupt the discussion or to upset its participants. The word, or its variant, "trolling", is also used to describe such messages or the act of posting them.


No big deal. I've done this a few times, can't be helped
nm
Yes, several times. I've learned to listen to them. (s/m)
A very long time ago, I once had a dream that my dog got hit by a car - the exact time, place, etc. And exactly one week later, to the day, place and hour, she got hit & killed by a car.

Another time I was driving on the freeway, and suddenly in my mind got a very clear picture of a pickup truck on fire. Yet there was no truck on fire where I was, and no smoke or anything. About 10 miles up there road, I came around a bend and there was a truck exactly like the one I'd seen in my "mind-flash", and it was on fire.

Go figure, but yes, I definitely DO go with my hunches and premonitions.
Yes, about 65K and I've given all my tips multiple times.
no message
Hey, I've had them stumble over their OWN name (3 times in 1 report). nm
nm
I've heard people have to try a new food 10 times before they know for sure they won't like it
I heard that somewhere.

I had a SIL who actually SAT on her young children and force-fed them new foods if they refused them at the table. We were appalled, but weirdly, the kids often got up from the floor and happily ate the food they were just force-fed!
I've tried to quit 6 times in the past 6 years but

always went back to it. The longest I've quit was 3 weeks. My mom died from COPD and she had smoked from age 16. She really enjoyed smoking and although we kept trying, couldn't get her to quit until she was on 24 hour oxygen.  She told me if she couldn't enjoy anything in life (smoking), why live. She died 3 months later.


I started smoking at 13...you know, the "try it, you'll like it" phase. We both tried to quit when I was 19 but we only lasted a day. There was only cold turkey then.


I've tried the patch (3 weeks off cigarettes), cold turkey, herbal meds, hynosis (only lasted 5 hours), you name it. I've used all the suggestions possible to no avail.


With a cigarette dangling from my mouth, I told my boys never to start smoking because they'd never be able to quit easily. Two took my advice, one didn't. He also tried to quit smoking but failed. He was on Wellbutrin for it.


My husband started smoking at 8 while working in a coal mine. He quit cold turkey 19 years ago. He was smoking almost 4 packs a day and one day he got so disgusted with it, he  just threw them out the window of the car. Never touched one since and smoke from other people doesn't bother him.


He told me you really have to have the willpower and just get disgusted enough to quit. There's no other way. I guess I just don't have that willpower.


I've tried to go back to the office a number of times and

I never can make the transition.  One consideration is your wardrobe.  You have to start dressing in office attire which is something I don't miss and found irritating when I went back into the office.  I also found that after working at home for as long as I have done it, it's kind of stressful to get out there and try to be social and friendly.  Office politics is another negative.  Offices are very much like high school, very cliquey and filled with gossip.  There is more to working in an office than just doing your job.  At home, it's just me and my PC.  I do the work and I get paid.  In the office, there's you, your PC, the person who shares the desk with you, the person who sits across from you, the person who sits next to you, your supervisor right across the hall, the doctors knowing you by name and seeking you out to complain about their dictation, the constant ringing of phones, chattering of voices.  The people you share office space with, one will always be hot, one will always be cold, one thinks it's too bright and there's a glare on her screen, and one thinks it's too dark.  You can't wear perfume because the girl next to you is allergic...


I could go on... 


Amen, and I will add one more thing. If I had a penny for all the times I've heard, "just a ty
well, maybe I wouldn't be rich, but I could buy a months' worth of groceries! LOL
I traveled all over too. sm
After Colorado the best place IMO is Flagstaff, AZ area. People in the Southwest (the natives that is) are very genuine and friendly too. You can never say you have nothing to do here, something for everyone. If you are single, you can go out by yourself & meet new people easily. People will talk you if they do not know you. On the east coast, my experience was just the opposite.
Anyone who has traveled working on desktop
I am getting ready to take an unexpected trip and can not use a laptop due to company policy.  I found a hotel with "wired" internet to the room.  Has anyone ever stayed in a hotel and used wired internet before?  My question is do you need a modum or anything or do you just hook in to the computer and it miraculously works?  I'm just trying to ease my mind because I'm scared to death I'll get there and have no internet to work on.
I've worked for both

I think there are two big differences.  (1) Benefits should be much better than the national, and (2) in working for the hospital, you will only be working on one account (which makes a BIG difference in my opinion).  I averaged about 225 lines per hour working for national on a main account plus a couple backups.  I am averaging 300+ with the hospital.


The only advantage with going with the national might be better job security.  If you lost the account, at least they could move you to another one.  But personally, I would take the hospital job in a second.   Good Luck! 


    


I've worked with one of their
products. It was an excellent transcription product; they basically bought another company and added the product to their line. I've read some about the owner of the company. He seems like a very above-board kind of guy. He values the special knowledge that MTs have, and we used the product without VR, BUT ... he won't be happy until his VR product is worked in to the transcription process. (I think they might focus on radiology only). He is just SURE it can improve turnaround time, but he admits that VR on its own is not very impressive and reports will always need to be tweaked by a knowledgeable MT. What he doesn't realize is that the transcription process is much more active and able to catch errors when the MT is immersed in transcribing the report. I don't believe 95% of MTs could in a time-efficient way get the complete gist of each report and catch as many dictator errors, history errors, as she could when her mind was completely involved in the transcription of every word. Doing radiology, how many times is there just the briefest pause from the dictator and the MT's mind is already filling in the next word or phrase, and then the dictator says something else, and you think - wha?? and then the radiologist realizes his blunder and corrects himself at some point. Or if he doesn't, the MT's mind is reasoning out what is right or wrong and can bring any problem up with that report. Because of noticing, that report will get corrected before it goes out to the referrer and causes a phone call from an angry referrer.

Radiology needs to go out at 100% accurate, and IMO, insisting on the use of VR will lower accuracy rates and won't improve turnaround time much at all. When I was doing radiology, the better radiologists could dictate a note in a quick and efficient manner and the MT would get on and do it within about 3 minutes. Every 20 minutes the good radiolgists would sign a batch and the reports would go out. So it was about a 30-minute turnaround time for those reports that didn't need a different radiologist to read them. Turnaround time had everything to do with which radiologist was reading and how many specialty reports there were and how efficiently the off-site radiolologists were getting on to dictate. It seems like the VR guys think the MT is the slow one, but IT'S NOT THE MT - SPEED IS UP TO THE RADIOLOGISTS.


I've worked for MQ for years and
have NEVER been given the opportunity for bonuses.  Those who have gotten them have been lucky.
I've worked for MQ over 4 years now and
I have never been told how many spaces to put or not put after a sentence; I have never been paid for spaces, by my count at least. I occasionally check my reports. I do not get spaces.

I'm not sure why, or actually by the anonymous stature of posters on this board, IF anyone has really been told to limit spaces to one after a sentence.

If MQ really isn't paying for spaces, it wouldn't make any difference monetarily so I cannot see that they would make a stipulation like that.
all the ones I've worked with (6) were gay. Go figure.

The only male MT I've worked with is now ...
one of the MDs I transcribe for now. He worked as an MT for the same small service I did while he was going to school.
I should add, I don't know how they are to work for as I've never worked for them, just saw th
post.
I've worked for several companies using this VR
I make on average $20-$26 an hour with the editing at 4cpl/straight typing 9-10 cpl 65 char with headers and footers and templates. I've been using it for several years though. There are several job ads for this software.
I've worked the same one account...sm
for over 10 years. They know I'm reliable and I know what those docs are going to say before they say it ;0) Seriously, though, I've tried other short term assignments or on-call situations through the years but always come back to my bread and butter. Like anyone, I could of course be let go tomorrow, but in the meantime I'm making good money and doing work that comes second nature by now. Less stress too!
No, not gullible. I've worked in
years and not just in MT.  You need to unwrap your mind from around the state of MT of 25 years ago.  Those days are long gone.  Another unfortunate issue that we're faced with today - new MT graduates.  The quality just is not there as it was back in the day.  Well, enough said - we obviously will need to agree to disagree.  I see it every day the negotiations with major hospitals and offshore.  They know what their pennies are getting them and they don't care as long as it's cheap.   
What is the best platform you've ever worked on

and why?  What do you like about it?  Also, what is the worst?


I really like EditScript 8 & although it isn't perfect, I like the fact that I can access other reports on the same patient/same dictator if I need to verify something (although I never trust it 100% lol)  One thing I don't like is that I can't use my Expanders (or maybe I can, but don't know how to go about it?)


I don't like ChartScript, as I don't think its very user friendly and those old DOS-based antiquated systems were for the birds!


Spent 3 months in Brazil, traveled all over. Great

booze - really knocks you for a loop. 


I've worked in-house and at home ....
I find that even when you're in-house, with the nature of the job, there's no time for chit-chat.  When I worked in-house we had production minimums and there was incentive to earn if you produced, so who has time to talk?  I'm with you.  I'm happy being here in my comfy clothing without all that aggravation.  Let is snow, I don't have to drive in it!
I don't think so. It sounds like you've never worked for a national.
Nationals DO check references.  That's the job of the HR department.  They DO run credit reports when you accept a job, and they tell you so on the piece of paper you have to sign giving them permission to do so.  They DO prosecute and report to collections against people who don't return equipment.  They DO keep deposits on unreturned equipment.  They DO get the equipment super cheap anyways in bulk deals through major technology suppliers.  Equipment, losses, and shipping are all tax deductible anyway.  They DO use QA so that lazy or inexperienced MTs aren't sending garbage straight through to the clients.  Most national MTs don't have any contact whatsoever with the clients.  In addition, the majority will let you use your own equipment or charge rental fees so it's not coming out of their pocket.
That goes both ways. I can tell you out of all the MTSOs I've worked for,
only a small percentage of them worked out. It's as if they'll tell you anything to get you hired, then reality hits. You tell them when you're available. Oh, OK, no problem. Then the work doesn't show up until your shift is over, but they still expect it done by TAT. Sorry, but I don't work on-call for free 24/7. I'm not sitting around doing nothing all day long waiting for work to come in. I'm not staying up all night without sleep and blowing off my family because the MTSO is in a bind. We're expected to work more than 8 hours a day without overtime or incentive pay.
I've worked for two services that had VA contracts.
It was horrible. Lots of ESLs. High stress MTSOs. No samples or QA feedback.
I've worked on a laptop only for going on 7 years.
I do use an external keyboard the majority of the time though.   The USB WiFi does not accept a card, it is small, plugs into a USB port and acts like your card does, you don't use a card.    Go to  a website like best buy and search for Wireless USB adapters and you'll see what I'm talking about. 
They aren't that rare. I've worked with SM
bunches of them.  Unfortunately, my experience with them boils down to this:  The men who do this usually are the men who can't get along in a work environment with a lot of other men. 
I've had this problem and the only thing that worked for me....sm
was to slow down turnaround.  They called within a couple of days.  Told them I had to take on extra work to meet my own bills by paying customers which slowed down their turnaround.  I had my check the next day.  Don't know how they managed that, but they did.  Since then, there have been a couple of times that it was a week or so late, but not like they used to do.  I honestly think as long as they can get away with it, they will.  I wonder how long they would last if their paychecks were 2-3 weeks late.  Really irks me. 
I've worked with much programs that were much worse.
I don't find ExText so bad.

Because I've done radiology, I've been stuck using software that didn't come with a medical spell-checker and was not compatible with any medical spell-checker. It had an English word checker, so we had to add every single medical term manually.

I once had management actually move us BACKWARDS in technology, from Medrite (which was a fine program back then), to the one previous to it. It may have been called MTS, but I can't remember. This was done because of a company merger and the "alpha" company managers were too lazy to learn the Medrite program. Did it matter to them that they were not paid on production and we were? NO! Of course not. So we all stood around as we were trained on this program my jaw dropped to my knees because it was so inefficient. And the spell checker was worse than useless with that program. Say you misspelled Levaquin as Leviquin. Here is a list of the suggestions it offered, and I am not exaggerating:

lewder
lawless
marshmallow

As far as ExText, what I would want fixed would be the ability to speed up or slow the dictation rate with the keyboard. The multi-mouse moves required are a waste of significant time IMO because of the long pauses so many acute care dictators inconsiderately leave in dictations.
I've worked with MTs who work diligently
...to find a way to cherry pick.

The system that you and the poster above you are describing sounds like the one used where I used to work.

One MT fiddled around and wasted who knows how much company time until she figured out how to manipulate the filters component of the system, and set the filters to only route to her jobs from her 3 preferred dictators.

If only these MTs put as much time into actually transcribing as they put into getting around the system they could probably make even more money than they do with the cherry picking.


I've worked for companies that needed people
specifically to do certain reports.  I have been hired to exclusively do ERs and discharge summaries before.  It wasn't cherry picking either.  They needed someone to catch up their backlog and keep the reports within TAT permanently.  Evidently, other people were cherry picking and bypassing these report types because they're not as good of money makers as Ops or H&Ps.
No, I've worked in doctor's business office.
That is what the insurance company allows, not what they dictate.  Who is to tell the doctor how long he can sit and talk with his patient.  It is up to him.  True insurance companies get together to decide what is the appropriate amount for the doctor to "charge" for a service but I've literally seen where the doctor sees the patient all of 2 minutes after patient is worked up by techs, but they still get paid for that visit.
We supposedly have Labor Day, but I've worked it for years.

I do respect those that have serious religious holidays though and only hope that the company that they work for understand.


At first I kicked myself for picking Mondays as one of my scheduled work days, as most of our holidays fall on a Monday. But  the kids sleep in because they have no school, so it always works, as I only have a 3 hour shift and I'm done before they get up.


I do. I've worked closely with these people for years,
nm
I've tried Vivarin and the 1st two days it worked great
But after that they put me to sleep like anesthesia. Go figure.
I've worked for attorneys and doctors in the past and ...
I can tell you that attorneys have way more heart.  Docs are stone cold.  Personally, I can't stand working for them.....