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I don't remember. It has been a long,...sm

Posted By: blondie_1147 on 2008-11-13
In Reply to: When was the last time... - tradMT

long time since I had daily work available to me. I don't even remember. You know I seen on the world news last night that health care is slowing up because of the economy. Even people with health ins are not having surgeries, tests, or just simply going to the doc because they can't afford the copay or deductible. I know work has slowed.


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Absolutely! My grandmother has been doing this for as long as I can remember...she is
in her 80s, still coloring and going strong! I, too, color my own hair. I don't usually do it, but when I feel the "need," I do my own. Saves big money and looks great every time.
I remember hearing it should take the average MT twice as long

transcribe as it takes the physician to dictate.  So for 30 minutes of dictation, if you sat and transcribed without interruption, it should take about 60 minutes.  However, I believe that was a MTSO telling me that, soooooo 


Now years ago, probably in the mid 90s, I used to work for a hospital that tracked our productivity based on minutes a day versus lines.  The minimum requirement for that job was 90 minutes of dictation in a 7.5 hour day (they deducted 30 minutes for lunch and two 15-minute brakes which equals a 7.5 hour day).  So that kind of debunks the "30 minutes of dictation in 60 minutes" theory that the MTSO had.


I don't know if my ponderings have helped you at all, but there ya go! 


I think you qualify - as long as you can remember using white out. Those little strips of chalky
paper better yet. 
I hate Instant Text. It is expensive, long long learning
curve, and too much distraction for me.
How long should I wait after applying for a position before I follow-up. It has been as long as two
without hearing from some.  Just wondering if I should send an e-mail to follow-up to see if they received my resume or not.  I don't want to offend anyone but feel two weeks should be long enough for someone to at least acknowledge my resume and that I have applied for a position.  Right now I would accept anything even a note saying no thanks.  Any advice would be appreciated.  I haven't had to apply for a job for the past 10 years so I am a bit rusty at this.  Thanks again for any advice. 
Congrats! How long have you been a MLS and how long did you study for the test!

Please see message. I have three daughters with long, long hair.
I also have long hair down to my waist and my three girls have hair that long too. My daughter brought them home from school last year. I was devestated and grossed out!!!! I have never had to deal with lice. Anyway, we did the treatments and two of my girls broke out in a severe rash with the OTC stuff. Their little heads were so sore!! I thought I was being meticulous with eggs, only to find them hatching again down the road. A nurse at the pediatricians office suggested I try oil to suffocate them since my girls were allergic to the lice solution. I bought a huge bottle of veggie oil and dumped it on all three heads, plus my own. I then wrapped the heads in platic wrap and then a towel. I left this on for 30 minutes. It takes a while to wash out the oil, but we never, ever had the lice or eggs again!!! If you try this, make sure you put on an old shirt and put a towel around your shoulders. Obviously we were desperate, but we all have such long hair and very thick hair so I was willing to try anything. And I figured there was no chemicals involved so that was pretty safe. And it sure did help my littles ones since their scalps were pretty raw from the solution. Hope this helps and Good luck!
It's been a long, long time since I've used a C-phone, sm
but I do think jobs can be paused.
I had a problem with this for a long, long time sm
I have always worked days, like from 6-3. Over the last few years, it didn't matter how much sleep I got, I became real groggy between 7 and 11. Really shoots the day. Talked to my doctor and he said my blood pressure pills were the culprit but he refused to change me to another brand or dosage since I have multiple aneurysms (2 in the brain). My BP has been stable for a long time and he wants to "keep it on the low side". I tried taking them before I went to bed instead of early in the morning, but then I had headaches all day. So, I am changing to a night shift for a few months so I can sleep when those pills kick in and so far it is working pretty good. I stay mostly awake during my shift and die when I hit the bed from 6 am to 10 am, then I lay down again later in the afternoon for 2-3 hours. I still get 6-7 hours of sleep, it's just split up during the day, plus I am mostly awake now when I sit down to type. I don't have to deal with the heat in my office, either. It tends to warm up real fast in here with the south sun on the house and 2 pc's running all day, even with the air conditioner on.
Way back when, a long, long time
ago and in a galaxy far, far away, I had my own accounts also and some years cleared $75,000.  Yes it can be done, but you need to have your own accounts.  Also lots of delivery, and other duties involved.  I work for a large national now and make much less, but I got tired of accountants, having to deal with hardware problems, deadlines, driving deliveries, printing, printers, etc.  So I decided to simplify my taxes and stay home and just type.  Don't have to worry about computers either, because the company will just send me a new one. 
Long, long files. Seemed like they'd never end! I'd never go back to VA again. nm
s
I've been doing this a long, long time...

I used to make $70,000 and up a year and did so for most of the late 80s and 90s (one girl used to make six figures a year working 7 days a week!)  Because we were making more money than the supervisors and Medical Records Directors in hospitals, they began to switch to transcription services which were sprouting up all over the place.  Plus AAMT came into existence and even though in the beginning it claimed it was to fight for transcriptionists (although assured us it was NOT a union), they eventually morphed into an organization that was more management friendly.  They developed the "guidelines" and the 65-char line.  That was the beginning of the end for those high-end wages.  Then all those mickey mouse transcription schools popped up, and now outsourcing overseas.  YES, we're complaining. 


Been in this biz a long, long time, 30+ years and....sm
I love/loved MTing. However, things have changed so much during these years. The job definitely gets easier; don't have to look up much, can decipher ESLs much easier, in other words, you get pretty comfortable with things and you have confidence in yourself. The more experience you have the easier the job, but....

I actually made more money 10 years ago!! We didn't have speech recognition and you actually got paid for headers/footers, demographics, carbon copies, etc., you got paid for what you did fairly; today, I am not so sure.

You will feel burned out at times, but that passes and you find you like your job again.

Good luck to you!!
A long, long time ago, I was going thru
a really bad time emotionally and physically. I was suffering, and my transcribing suffered. I assure you - if you are to the point of not paying your rent, literally, and needing food stamps, there is something else going on in your life than current transcription rates. We are all in this industry and many are thriving, most getting along comfortably. If you are literally to the point of food stamps, you honestly would be a fool to continue. I blamed it on my job, on my line rate, on everything but the honest truth that I was ill and was NOT working as I should or could. It is a really sad thing that you keep spreading this propaganda that MTs in our culture are doomed and now destined for food stamps. Food stamps are not something to toss around lightly, as you would know if you ever had to use them. Please let's not be quite so dramatic. Again, if you are really in those dire straits, you really need to face that MTing is not the fit for you, personally, and do something about it rather than blame our industry. You dwell on the past, but we can't do that. While you may have made other wages 20 years ago, may I remind you that we were pounding away on IBM Selectrics using layers of paper and bottles of white out, going crazy trying to rewind tapes over and over to get that dang word, with no idea what an Expander was. Technology is fantastic. Things have changed, but things are still great in this industry, and in this world. Those who change and can adapt will be fine, but you need to recognize that most of us are not ready for food stamps.  
Sure did...you been around for a long, long year

just please remember that....

science is a GOOD thing :) If anything, the ultimate gift of God. IMO


(shuttin up now)


OKAY, BUT REMEMBER
Remember, maybe your current employer would pay you a penny more a line (MAYBE), but what about the next employer. Things in this business change quickly, and just because your current employer may up your pay, the next one might not care.
Do you remember>>bet I'm
How about those HUGE transcription machines bigger than a desk>>>>I gravitated to MT from KEYPUNCH school...REMEMBER THOSE KEYPUNCH MACHINES!!!!!
I remember
I learned to type on a manual typewriter.  I actually won a county typing contest on one of those, when some of the contestants had brought their electric portables with them.  I won because I relaxed, thinking I did not have a chance on a manual, and had only two errors.  They counted off words for each error.  I got my A.S. in HIM, only then it was Medical Records Technology.   My first job was in a small physician's office, where I had an IBM Selectric.  Dictation was on this little thing with belts.  After that was a machine with small little discs that looked like film, that never came out of the machine, just stacked up like a juke box.  After that came tapes.  My references were a big Dorland's, a Taber's and a PDR.  Of course, like another poster said, I had the chart.  Even with all the bad things about the business, I don't think I would want to go back. 
ek, remember ET...


AND REMEMBER
Oct. 1 if you are ME, you get the "reward" of 20% decrease in pay.
just remember

remember
They used to think that about male nurses too.
I believe so, but can't remember what it is! nm


Don't remember where I was

I probably found out about it at night, when the newspaper arrived. It didn't phase me at all.  

In terms of my age at the time ... 27.


How do you ever remember them all?
That's my problem
Remember When? SM
I posted last evening and spent time this morning just chuckling over what people have written. I still have the red book, "A Syllabus for The Surgeon's Secretary." It is all beat up and the spine is broken but I will not part with it. Let me quote, "Only when a satisfactory degree of proficiency has been achieved should a student be given actual work assignments. She thus learns by POSITIVE TUTELAGE as contrasted with the outmoded method of trial and error." The 2nd edition, January 1965 is the date of publication. We had no electronic dictionary or medical speller. Everything we wrote had to be correct or it was literally "thrown back at us" to retype. We had to use our "Dorlands" or "Tabers" and one PDR for the use of the whole office. Believe me, these "one of a kind" books were tattered and torn but we used them or else. We "had" to get it right, no excuses. What a wonderful way to start the New Year. Somehow it seems all worth it now, sore back and tired fingers and all. Happy New Year, Everyone. Mary Mc
I remember when...

As a child;


Movies were 50 cents. We went at least every weekend...


We got cable TV...wow, more than 3 or 4 channels!


Our first VCR had a remote...with a cord running across the floor!


 


As a teenager;


Let me just say...leg warmers!


Big hair!


Wham! Boy George! Flock of Seagulls...


Those were the days...


I remember
as a child

Combination TV and record player. The record player could play 33-1/3, 45's AND 78's

Stores were closed on Sundays.

As a teenager

White lipstick

Rolling hair up on orange juice cans.

Cash registers without scanners.

Wishnicks (lucky troll dolls)

Don't let the trolls get you down.
i remember those
I'm old enough to remember standing at the meat counter with my mom watching the butcher weigh out the meat and wrap it and if she wanted a special cut he would step back to a table with the meat saw and cut it.

I also remember long trips on Route 66 before the interstates- getting car sick because I was sitting with my knees on the seat looking out the back window watching the stripes and telephone poles go by- my cousins had a Rambler station wagon and that was really cool cause they got to sprawl out in the back it had a luggage rack on top - oh, boy am I really telling my age
Boy am I old. I remember......
when I was a child, and there was no TV, we actually had one of those big floor model radios, and we actually sat around it and listened to it.  Wow.  When I was a teenager, gas was about 18 cents a gallon, and we used to go out on a Friday night and get a dollar's worth.  I also remember our first color TV.  Everything looked bright pink, bright blue, and bright green.  Probably my most significant memory as a teenager was being on my senior class trip in Washington, D.C. when Kennedy was killed.  We saw the White House flag being lowered.  Car radios were on all over town, people gathered around cars crying.  That was back in the time when everyone was kind of "innocent" - things like that just didn't happen.  Wow, what a memory. 
I remember when...
Michael Jackson was "normal" and very cool. I remember when we only got three channels out in the country. I remember being in love with Erik Estrada from CHiPs! Ahh, nostalgia. I remember when Ricky Martin was in Menudo. OMG, so cute! When I need a nostalgia fix, I watch "13 Going on 30". She was my age exactly then! Loving those layered polo's and plastic necklaces! I remember watching NEW episodes of "The Cosby Show". Oh, can't forget "The Facts of Life"! Woohoo! Good thread idea. I'm smiling now! Thanx!
WHAT I REMEMBER

When we waited for guys to call us now girls ask guys out (I have two daughters).  When you would not be stuck with one guy and would go out with several. When College was an option because jobs were more plentiful. Now College is a must.   When TV had the good shows like Different Strokes, Facts of Life Etc, when Kenny Rogers was as hot as Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney.  When TV was a little more sensored than it is now.  When there was more little corner stores and not a variety of  supermarkets.  When you only had one brand to choose at the store and not a million.   When Sundays were a day of rest and not work(stores were closed).  The only time you could get donuts was on Sundays at the corner stores. 


I remember when...

Milk used to come in glass bottles with cardboard tops. Bread was wrapped in waxed paper with a label on each end.  Kids had to be inside as soon as the street lights when on.  Everyone ate dinner together, and you had to ask to be excused from the dinner table.  All 3 of us kids waited in the back seat of the car while mom did grocery shopping, and we actually believed she could see us.


 


As a teen I remember city buses took us everywhere, or we walked.  I remember bleeding madras shirt, tight cut-off kakhi-colored jeans (but I'm not sure kakhi was a word then), boys with bleached blonde surfer haircuts, and penny loafers without socks.  I remember circle pins, letter sweaters, and Aqua-Net. 


 


Thanks, fun!


Just remember

were you were only four days ago.  You posted on this board "bawling your eyes out" and having no idea what to do.  I am very happy for you, please understand that.  But I have been where you are right now.  I am not trying to dampen your spirits or get you down, I'm just trying to give you a little bit of reality.  I didn't respond to your original post because I felt that you had enough people putting their two cents in.  I left my husband over four years ago.  It took a lot of courage and it was a very scary thing to do.  He was a very emotionally abusive man who had taken away every ounce of self-esteem I had.  But I got me and my son out. 


I do want you to be happy and excited about the steps you are taking, but I don't want you to forget where you were just a few short days ago.  It is very easy to fall back into the same old routine.  I heard many, many promises from my ex, and I stayed with him only for things to always go back to the terrible.  If you hang on to where you just came from, you won't allow yourself to go back there again.


Good luck.


remember when
I remember when I was working FT outside of the home. Lots of days it grated on my last nerve but I am, make that was, a people person and felt I needed that interaction. Due to child care circumstances I work FT at home now doing transcription. I do find myself getting more and more reclusive and miss the public less as times goes on. I do, however, have a p.r.n. position at a local hospital that I work when I want and so that gets me out there. I usually works Saturdays. I can work there as much or as little as I want. It is really not a hard job but by the end of the day I'm ready to go home. Both jobs make me appreciate the other one more.
I remember that too.
Besides, it looks bad. "He was seen 1 day ago and has had 2 episodes of chest pain, 3 times a day." Come on.
I remember.....sm
I remember the group "Seacrest out" now that you mention it. But I though he did it every show last year. That's cute that you use it.
Oh how I remember it well....sm

I was married for 13 years and we never left the offspring with a babysitter (husband=European)


..and so I read somewhere WAY BACK THEN.....that if he doesn't want to leave the kids with a babysitter, you make plans with your friends and STILL GO out with them.....the article indicated that while the husband may not be happy with that, he will respect you.


I divorced him after 13 years of his CONTROLLING passive-aggressive ways....the fact that his things were always more important than our things...me being an equalist.  I want a man in my life, not in my house full time.  I will NEVER marry again by choice.  *lol*  Joni Mitchell (singer back in the 1970s) once sang a line "We love our lovin, but not like we love our FREEDOM!!!!!"


So you go on out and have a GREAT time and DON'T FEEL GUILTY......you deserve time on your own away from everyone at home.  I don't even know you and can tell you that with CERTAINTY!!


ENJOY YOUR EVENING.....and hopefully you won't come home to the THIRD DEGREE (questions).  *LOL*


 


remember this . . .
illicit - illegal
yep, that's how I remember this one too.
:)
Does anyone remember (sm)
Pat from Saturday Night Live? LOL
Yep - I sure do remember Pat from SNL.....nm

i remember
playing hopscotch on the sidewalk, jumprope and my pogo stick. In those days we were allowed to actually play outside without fear of being abducted !
I don't remember the man's name, but--sm
he and his wife did their Christmas party for many years. He was a family friend. He also did not need a "costume" as he had a long white beard etc. already. He had also given JonBenet a teddy bear that night at the party and when he was on Geraldo, he had the bear in his hands. Still just my opinion.
Yes, but I cannot remember the name of it--sm
but they do advertise occasionally for an MT to go to various in-house hospitals and type dictation. Might be good for someone with no responsibilities at home, but not me.
I don't remember much about it, other than
that I loved it. I don't think its very fancy, not a lot of bells and whistles, but I believe I used to use it at the Q, and I always made great line counts and was really fast on it. I would love to use it again! I'm sorry that I don't remember the details other than above.
They way I remember it,
As I remember it, punctuation rules changed in the late 1970s or early 1980s. I remember some teacher telling us, and I think it was when I was in college. We learned very different rules, but many doctors still use the rules I learned before this change. The new rules make more sense to me now, and I use them, bearing in mind that the trend in medical reports is to use fewer commas rather than more. Most of the medical journals that I've read use the same style I do, so I don't know why the MDs don't notice how it's done in the journals.


Now I remember why I don't come here often (sm)
I guess I referred to them as "normal interruptions", because frankly, I think we will all agree that working from home is very different from working in an office environment away from home. My 4-year-old son is home with me, which does create interruptions and since he is very active, I actually have quite a few interruptions. However, since it is my choice to have him home with me and not in day care, I try to deal with it the best that I can. I do not want to put him off or insist that he be silent while I am working. He does go to preschool 2 days a week, 2 hours a day, but that actually is more of a hindrance than a help, since I drive both ways.

I do not do housework during my working hours, other than to clean up an occasional spill or mess that might occur while I'm working. I do take occasional breaks to play with my son though. My voice mail answers all my calls, and I have caller ID so that I can screen them as well.

I appreciate your input and I think it is super that you are able to accomplish so much work in 2 hours. However, I really don't understand the tone of snootiness in your response.


I remember once
a store clerk tried to get my mom to give her SSN# in order to allow her to write a check. She told him he was crazy if he thought she was giving him that info.

It probably could be that the school needs proof that the child is who you say they are (think of kids who have been kidnapped, illegal immigrants, etc) but I would think that a birth certificate would serve the same purpose.
I don't remember how, but I
think I had to set ES as my default. Also, you have to set up your foot pedal in ES. Did you do that?