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

I lived in So. Cal in 1979 and they lines were atrocious.

Posted By: NM on 2005-08-31
In Reply to: it is my understanding - Snow Bunny

x


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

Lived in Germany for 5 years - best place I ever lived!
I found the people very warm and helpful, the food is to die for, and if you like beer (I do not, but this is what hubby tells me), it is the best in the world! The downside now is with the conversion to the euro things do seem much more expensive (was just back there to visit last Decemeber). Still, I would live there again in a heartbeat! :-)
Don't know if you can, but the sound quality is sure to be atrocious. Gets worse with every
s
You must not have been around in 1979...
We had lines that were BLOCKS LONG!  It was ridiculous.  I sure hope that doesn't happen again.  I'll just stay home and swim in my pool.  The heck with driving.
me too. I started in 1979 at the age of 24 sm
I turned 50 this past May. We had selectric typewriters and the dictation was done on some kind of dictaphone system that had these little disks that were that floppy plastic kind of like when you would get kids records out of the cereal boxes. Remember that stuff. They were the size of a CD now. I remember when we first got cassette tapes. I thought I was in hog heaven. When I started with Transcriptions Limited in 1983 (now Medquist), we had selectric typwriters, typed on paper, different kind for each report and each account and got paid by the page. They delivered the cassette tapes to your door (at least where there were offices in the area) and picked up the work the next day. At least back then I actually knew people and saw them every day and got acquainted. Not like today. If you had too many accounts and too many types of paper you wound up getting paper "mites". For you younguns who don't know what paper mites are, they are little tiny creatures you cannot see but they will bite at your anikles. You have to spray for them! Kind of like fleas but smaller. I use to hire my two sons when they were small to separate the paper and pile it up by accounts and type or report. The little guys were 6 and 8 and they learned a lot quick. I paid them so much a page and finally my oldest asked me one day, how much I made page! He was 8 years old. I knew I was in trouble. But, then again this was the kid who took his Twinkies to school and sold one for a quarter and ate the other!

Now I sound old, but those really were the good old days.

O yes, I remember when Transcriptions Limited/Medquist got the IBM wheelwriter and then finally one day computers! I had been on the MTs system since tehy developed it in the late 80s and just this past March went on the DQS system. If they change again, I won't be here. Don't want to learn another one. haha

O yes, I learned in highschool on an old black manual typewriter (Olivetti I think), not sure and then we went to the really sophisticated stuff, the ELECTRIC TYPEWRITER which at the time I hated as much as I hated the computer the first time I used it!

Thanks for the memories!

P.S. You yunguns, 50 is not that old!
Carter was I think 1979 - not old at all.....nm

I am making less now than in 1979
but I am not working 2 full time jobs, have cut down to part time and loving it.
1979 vs 2009

First, don't get me wrong, I definitely think we should be paid more.


However, in 1979, you were likely using a typewriter, no such thing as computer and delete/backspace, no such thing as Google, no such thing as sending in reports with the push of a button, which makes things much, much quicker and efficient, which makes more typed.  We should have better insurance, though.


I imagine it took at least three times longer to type a report then than it does now with computers, Google, better references, et.


1979 and 2009
I don't know what went on in 1979 because I was 10 but I do know that in 1990, the school I trained with was still using typewriters and in my first job, although they had computers, were using tapes, which we had to use a magnetic to erase.  Heaven forbid that someone erased the wrong tape.  Talk about a doctor being PO'd.
I had one too!! a 1979 piece of junk.

And if that wasn't bad enough it was chocolate brown.


My blinker knob fell off and I had to shove a pair of tweezers in there to work the blinkers.  I couldn't wear heels or they'd get wedged in the holes in the floor board and one tire had a big bubble in it.


I can't believe I even dared drive that thing.


Started in 1979 when I was 18, worked in office at MQ while it was still
.
I'm making less per hour in 2009 than in 1979!

I'm making less per hour in 2009 than in 1979!

I'm making less per hour in 2009 than in 1979!
In 1977/78, I made 6 cpl. at a transcription company. Had full medical benefits, paid sick days, a cushy, comfortable office, and monthly CASH (like, real paper dollars!) bonuses for 'Transcriber of the Month'. Of course, back in 1977, I could fill a 20-plus gallon gas tank for just under $18-20, too.
I'm making less per hour in 2009 than in 1979!
In 1977/78, I made 6 cpl. at a transcription company. Had full medical benefits, paid sick days, a cushy, comfortable office, and monthly CASH (like, real paper dollars!) bonuses for 'Transcriber of the Month'. Of course, back in 1977, I could fill a 20-plus gallon gas tank for just under $18-20, too.
I'm making less per hour in 2009 than in 1979!
In 1977/78, I made 6 cpl. at a transcription company. Had full medical benefits, paid sick days, a cushy, comfortable office, and monthly CASH (like, real paper dollars!) bonuses for 'Transcriber of the Month'. Of course, back in 1977, I could fill a 20-plus gallon gas tank for just under $18-20, too.
IBM Selectives before, but In 1979 where I worked we had computers
and loved them; however right before then we had IBM Selective typewriters and you could honestly fly on those, well I could anyway. I think anyone who ever used the IBMs would tell you they loved the keyboard. I don't think it took 3 times as long because we were trained better to start with. I spent a year studying before being turned loose on actual incentive pay plus payroll. The typewriters had correction tape you put on and used that way. When making an error you simply backed up, hit the same error again, your new letter and on you went. It was fast and seems like then you did not have as many to go back and say, oh add this, erase that, start over and so on. The first computer we got was honey also. Don't remember the name but I do remember having a Wang in the 80s, loved that one and no internet but still did straight over 2000 a day. We were our own good references, did not rely on the internet.
believe what you want, I lived....sm

I lived out west for 10 years, in that area.....lots of nuclear dumping sites....area 51.....


oh, perhaps you're not familiar with area 51.... White Sands, New Mexico....all kinds of good (being facetious) stuff buried out west............


I have lived in NC since I was 12, so about
19 years. My mother used to work in a hotel, and my step-father worked as a furniture peddler. He stayed in the hotel where she was working and it was love at first sight! They have been married for 18 years now and are very happy. I also got a sister out of the deal after having been an only child for 13 years...lol.

I love Maine in the summertime, and obviously because my family is there, but I don't think I would move back. I am so used to not having to deal with all the snow. I think that is probably the major difference. Here we have 4 seasons. There, winter lasts for a long, long time. I remember being little and having huge amounts of snow on my birthday....in APRIL!

The food is also different in a lot of ways. They drink sweet tea up there, but it didn't catch on for quite some time, and it still isn't like it is here in the south. I don't drink tea though, guess that's the Yankee coming out in me...lol.

And of course there is the accent thing. It's funny, but even after living here for so long, when I go up there to visit, I pick up my northern accent all over again, although normally I talk with a southern drawl.

I do miss 'home', but I don't really think I could go back permanently. I can't deal with the cold anymore...LOL.
Aaahhhh, now I get it. Gross lines vs. Character lines. I guess I've just been conditioned to
think in terms of character lines.  One of the perils of working as an IC for somebody who defines what a line is versus owning your own company and defining it yourself.  After working for someone else for 15 years, maybe it's time to bust out on my own.
Always wonder how I lived this long! LOL
The stupid things we used to do and never thought anything of it until later in life and wonder how the heck I lived this long!
lived there last year - sm
had difficult time getting freelance work. I thought it was pretty funny that the hospitals in Tampa and St. Pete would go to an outside service for their overflow and pay $0.14-0.18/line, however, would not utilize me as a prn transcriptionist. Moffitt Cancer Center wanted me to drive all the way from south tampa one way for $12/hour on a prn basis. But if I wanted to be full time, I would start at $9/hour. However, Moffitt had no problem bringing in transcriptionists from Kforce and paying the COMPANY hourly rate of $33/hour (per transcriptionist), hotels, rental cars, per diem, and overtime for all six transcriptionists, and travel back and forth to their home state every 10 days. Had to laugh!

Kindred Hospital is screaming for transcriptionists, yet, they would not let me work for them, inhouse, on an as needed basis until the positions were filled. They had a two month backlog, and I lived 20 minutes away and the woman I spoke to said no. I told her I was moving in a month and could produce 1800 lines/day, knew their transcription system backwards and forwards, and wanted to be paid $0.10/line. Answer was still no. They are outsourcing it at a higher rate.
Yes, she lived it. I'm curious though,
had her and her siblings at an early age and parenthetically added something about "hormones and no sex education". But now when people talk about programs that inclue "sex education" a lot of neocons freak out and say abstinence is the only way to go and cut funding for education, so what do you do about that? How realistic is abstinence? This is not an ideal world, after all. How do we break the cycle of babies having babies and the cycle continuing for generations?

lived in Texas too
I posted to you about where to look. We also lived in Dallas and they are overpriced too.  You don't pay a state income tax in Florida, but there are a lot of hidden sales taxes and such.    The problem with living on the water is you can't get insurance and if you find it, it's extremely high.  We left Florida and went to Biloxi, Mississippi and it was about half the cost of Florida and we were 1 block from the beach. We had planned to go back but it will take a few years to be rebuilt. In the meantime, heading to TN as they do not have a state income tax, a vehicle tax, and the property taxes are much much less.
have you ever lived in the south?
If not, then don't make negative comments about people you know nothing about.
have ya ever lived with a techie?

eaten with a techie? worked with a techie?  have ya ever listened in on the techie's side of the conversation while setting up an MT?


 This isn't a problem exclusive to one company.  And the problems techies have aren't all their fault or the company's fault.  Can you imagine being the techie that tries to train the MT that asks if the CD tray is the cup holder?  (yeah, this stuff is real).  It takes a tremendous amount of self discipline not to hang up on a clue-less MT and even if the MT is very computer savvy, that MT's equipment might have unique challenges that take more time than expected.  Image a techie's surprise when after trying to identify a problem, the MT lets out a final piece of information not given before and the techie has to start over from scratch.


Techies are a breed unto themselves and putting personal blame on the techies really is unfair.  I still defend them even if I think they are weird (that's okay, they think I'm weird too).


Give your local techie a hug today 


my most embarassing was when I lived
with no doors and the bedroom was a loft with the parrot downstairs.

When my partner and I became amorous, the bird went nuts and started screaming. Didn't help to shove pillows in each other's faces either!

Of course he repeated what he heard during the day when I had visitors...humuliations galore!
You haven't lived until you have
been woken up at 1:48, 2:37, 3:12 and 5:07 a.m. to windows shaking from Mexican rap music blaring from almost 2 blocks away and then getting yelled at by the 911 dispatcher over and over again saying that 911 is not for noise complaints. Well if they would have taken care of the problem the first time, I would have stopped calling. One 911 dispatcher was really sweet though because she could hear the music when I stood outside talking on my cell phone. Usually the first time the police go out there, they stop the music but they must have new people staying with them as they kept playing the same Tequila song over and over (only word I understood was Tequila). Then when the police went over there these idiots pretended not to speak English, speak Spanish when the officer tries to speak to them in Spanish or read the complaint printed up in Spanish. Tomorrow I'm searching for the owner of the house online and will start complaining to them as will the rest of my neighbors. You also haven't lived until you have seen some of your  neighbors out in their pjs at 3 a.m. trying to do a Mexican hat dance. I'm thinking maybe they too were consuming mas tequila.
Well, I have surely lived then!
Not Mexican - rap music as loud as it can be played coming from somewhere behind my house on almost a nightly basis around 2 a.m. The thing that makes me the most annoyed is that it is literally the same song OVER and OVER and OVER for two hours or more! I just want to scream, "At least get a new song!" Ugggghhhh!
I lived in Portland for a while...(sm)
but I am back in Iowa now and wouldn't go back to Portland for the world.  It's beautiful, but I guess I just like my four seasons and all the wonderful reasons to live in Iowa! 
I lived with a crackhead. nm

Has anyone ever lived overseas?....sm

A friend of mine is moving to Italy and I am really considering going with her.  Just wanting to know if anyone has lived outside of the US (not necessarily in Italy, just anywhere).


Thanks


I've never lived there but

know a good friend of mine from Michigan, who is an MT,  who moved there.  She doesn't live in Denver but Pueblo and the last I heard from her, her and her family really love it there!


Best wishes to you.


If DSL was not available where I lived, I'd HAVE to move!

I have lived here all my life and never
have I heard the word Kruk…Maybe the person was tongue-tied and could not pronounce the word truck and called it kruk instead? I am originally from Tenn and my hubby is amazed at how I talk and I have forgotten the name for the sayings but I grew up with them and they come so natural for me- up the creek without a paddle, don't be left high and dry, making a mountain out of a mole hill, a gut feeling, like looking for a needle in a haystack, cost me an arm and a leg and on and on. He says, what??? Well, bless his heart.
I lived in Virginia for a while.
I thought it was pretty funny that my ex and his family where always carrying people somewhere. "I have to carry mom over to the store."
only if I lived in India where everything else is

I thought YOU were the only one that lived in Idaho,,,,,
:I
We lived on Riverfront Drive but
Silly huh?
Lived in a trailer for years
The only reason I'm not still in one is because I moved in with my boyfriend who had a bigger house.  If I was by myself, I would buy another trailer.  I was always perfectly happy in mine; actually, I loved it, and could afford it, without going into serious debt.   I would buy a newer trailer right now if my boyfriend would agree, because I hate a 2-story, but haven't convinced him yet.
Lived there when little, couldn't pay me enough to live
there now.  Don't even like to visit family there. 
Lived there for 20 years, moved
back up north 5 years ago, so glad I did.  Would't even visit family down there after I moved.  Now all family has moved back up with us.  Wouldn't ever, ever go in July or August, the heat and humidity are so bad. 95 degree heat and 90% humidity.  Its like trying to breath in a suana or steam bath.   Storms every afternoon.  The bugs are terrible also. 
Met him in the apartment complex I lived in.
We were just friends for about a year and a half. I was newly divorced and not ready to have a relationship, but we became great friends. Here we are 11 years later - happy, happy, happy!!!!
Sure wish you lived close to me. I'd take the dog in a flash (sm)

We lost our lab/retriever 2 years ago from root nerve tumor and still miss him. I think it's time we get another one so we can stop mourning our babe.


Please DON"T take him to an SPCA or any shelter like them. I, and many others, have had horrific experiences with our local shelters. It breaks my heart to see all those animals without homes and wish I could bring them all home but, unfortunately, cannot...and I will not adopt a dog from their shelters, either, due to their "higher than thou" attitude. Take it from one who knows, they are only interested in the money they receive from tugging at people's heartstrings, not the animals themselves. They came on our property when we weren't home and stole two irish setters that were left from a litter that were promised to someone with a very good reputation, I might add, and then told that person they had to euthanize the pups because they were sick. They were NOT sick. They had all their shots and wormed, etc., and definitely not sick. The worse part was that they had my 14-yo son SIGN a paper stating they had PERMISSION to take them. I really could have caused trouble for them but didn't have the money to pursue it (lawyer fees).   Two weeks later, their picture was in the newspaper up for adoption!


These worker should work twice as hard trying to find homes for them instead of stealing other peoples dogs and then asking for money every other week.


We have always adopted from people who are moving out of area, are elderly and can no longer take care of their pets, from friends, etc.


Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now. but that's my 2 cents.


I disagree. If I lived in predominantly
Jewish area and people were wishing me Happy Hannukkah (forgive the spelling, please), it cannot possibly offend me just by them saying that. Their wishes toward me do mean that I must recognize their holiday. People who do that are looking to be offended so they can have something to be upset about.

Sounds like a few people are bah-humbug because they cannot control what others say to them. Well, it's called freedom of speech and there is a post on up this page about Paul Harvey that states it very well.

If someone doesn't want to be told Merry Christmas or Happy Hannukkah or whatever the tidings are, they need to move out away from anyone and live alone as a hermit.
I agree w/Donna - I lived 10 yrs....sm
In the 70s, I spent 10 years out west, 4 in Denver Colorado (not far enough SW for my liking and too cold), 3 in Tucson, 3 in Santa Fe, New Mexico (my most favorite place in the US and even have a bedroom all done in the SW style from things I collected way back then).  The real SW culture is wonderful, one IS never bored, all kinds of things to check out and do.  When I die, it's where I want my ashes scattered, over the Sangre DE Cristo Mountains of Santa Fe and Taos. 
Bermuda - lived there 2 years
Lovely island.  Their seasons are same as East Coast -- semi-tropical summers, rainy & cold winters.  Island is long and thin.  Great snorkeling.  If you want nightlife and restaurants, stay in St. George or in Hamilton.  (Princess Hotel is nice, too).  Otherwise an expensive cab ride.  No car rentals - scooters only.   Drive on left side of road with roundabouts rather than traffic lights in most places.   No 7-11s and stores generally close by 6 p.m. Take lots of money as things are expensive.  Give my regards to the Swizzle Inn !!
Lived in Germany for 2 years

Going to Ireland in a few months.


Roanoke-lived there for years
You can email me if you have any questions. I haved lived there for years.

I think you would like it.
Lived on St. Simons years ago
NM
Wish you lived by me - we could go together, two oldies but goodies
nm
I've lived in CA my whole life,
and I was offered several jobs. Yes, the cost of living is sky-high here, and I couldn't make it on what I'm being paid by the national I work for if I didn't still have one local account who pays me an obscene amount of money and is happy to do so because I do good work. (It ain't bragging if you can do it. Didn't Babe Ruth say that?) When my supervisor who lives in South Carolina found out what I'm paying for rent, she said shucks, girl, you gotta come out here, and I said no way, they wouldn't let me past the state line 'cause I can't talk like they do!

But seriously... this is home, and I really can't envision living anywhere else. My supervisor has been hesitant to authorize overtime for me because of the hoops the employer has to jump through, but in practical fact it has been never been actually necessary for me to work OT.