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I remember the belts. Dictation was clearer on those than sm

Posted By: MTx32 on 2005-12-29
In Reply to: really going back - oldster

the cell phone and/or digital garbage available today.


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Geeze, I remember the wax belts, and the red surgical book that was waxy, too! nm
x
OMG I did too!!! Remember the raunchy equipment and "blue belts". People these days should
.
In the "old days" of dictation on vinyl belts, the quota was do to 15 minutes an hour. sm

To me, it seems realistic, but then again, each situation is different.  On account I know, I can usually do 30 minutes an hour, although being money-oriented and paid by the line, I usually gauge things by lines.  I do 250-300 lph, but those little dinky reports ARE an irritation -- no argument there -- hardly enter the header info and *poof* the dictation is over.  Would be hard to make a decent line count that way.


But ... surely your employers understand there are variations on such things.  Maybe you average 8.9 one month and 12 the next ... I would think it would even out.


Anyway, i'm into that gray zone where I know nothing about, but I wish you good luck.  To me, in the days when I was supervisor, if I knew someone was doing the best they could do, that was all that mattered to me. 


Oh you are right - I should have made it clearer..sm
I was talking about QA.  It is confusing a bit.  I was offered a position with Transcend many months ago but I was scared to jump out and try a new position with a new company, even though my workload with my company was getting less and less.  I was looking for good health insurance, PTO, etc...which Transcend seemed like they had good benefits.   I guess I was just too scared to quit my job that I have been with for sometime to try out a new company.  I guess maybe I had better work on that aspect too.  Thanks for the clarification! 
I love Directv. The picture is soooo much clearer than cable. sm
Prices in our area are comparable between cable and DirecTV.  If you look at their website, you can pull up comparison charts showing exactly which channels are on each service package.  You can sort them by number or alphabetically and print them out if necessary.
My fones have been in my tower for years now as sound is so much clearer. No probs. nm
s
I've never used USB phones, but I do plug my jack into the tower for clearer sound rather
s
belts
Same here. Then went to IBM MTST (sort of like a computer. It was huge and had a desk of its own. I could not even use one now if it existed. To me, it went down when the big companies tried to take over more and more hospitals. When the small companies or individuals had it things were much better. Also they were on tapes. I used to drive up to 120 miles for one hospital to pick up overflow. Yes, I would love to go back! Even then you never knew when you would have work or some one would undercut you, but it was better.
LOL. Used those belts in 1978. sm
IBM Selectric III and everyone fighting over corrective tape. One PDR, Dorland's, and Sloane's Medical Word Book for the whole office. No such thing as school and a wide variety of medical terminology books.
I started in the 60s, before belts even. SM
We used wax records and had a press to smooth out the grooves and reuse them.  The stat machine was down at the switchboard and we used to walk down and get our records a couple of times a day.  We were using Royal typewriters, four carbons, all different colors with carbon paper and different colored liquid paper.  We had two reference books, Dorlands and a red surgical book, which I still have somewhere. 
I'd have loved tapes when I started...we used belts! nm
x
Belts, then regular cassette tapes...
then mini, then micro...an IBM Selectric then magnetic cards, then magnetic tapes...those were the days! 
My first job out of high school, we had those belts. That was in 1964. Whoa!!

Vinyl belts. Thanks for the memory, Mine was legal, but all the same.
x
I did legal transcription using the old vinyl belts. A LONG time ago. LOL
x
It's THEIR dictation. They want what THEY are
dictating. If they use poor grammar, etc., that's not the MT's fault!!

Many don't trust the MT to make appropriate corrections and I can certainly understand that.

dictation by doc's
you're absolute right about the hospitals doing something about how doctors dictate and it probably wouldn't take that much effort to do it, but they're not going to do it. If the dictation is wrong, the MT will get the blame regardless.
low dictation
This is several hours of time just disappearing.
? min. of dictation per day

What is considered the average amount of minutes for 7.5 hour day.  I'm thinking 45 to 60 minutes???


PA dictation
You must be lucky! Our group had two PA's and they literally "outdid" each other to see who could dictate the fastest. I got used to them, of course, listening to them all the time but many times had to stop and look up a med to be sure of the dosage because I couldn't tell if they were dictating 5 mg. 50 mg. or whatever! They seem to have an "attitude" too; we had one female one who really thought she was hot stuff. If they were that good, why didn't they spend the extra time and $$ to go to med school???
RE; Dictation
Kept forever. Chart is microfilmed and kept. Regular transcription is kept for 10 years supposedly at hospital I worked for.
I just had a dictation where
he stopped dictating mid sentence in the chief complaint and I Iistened to silence for about seven minutes (maybe he fell asleep, I dunno) and then he says, "hello? hello?" and hangs up!  Gotta luv this job! 
60 min of dictation

How long should it take someone to do about 60 minutes of dictation on average.


Thanks you.


60 min of dictation?
My own personal average is about 1 hour for each 15 minutes of dictation.
Can't help with the dictation but...

LOVE YA!


Hope that helped. 


Dictation
The problem is that MTs are rarely in the workplace any longer.  When I originally started in transcription years ago, we were in-house and accessible to the doctors. I would tell the the speeders to slow down.  We had one ER doc who loved to look through reference books for words to use.  I would tell him nicely, "If you have to look it up, spell it and save both of us the hassle."  That usually worked.  But now, most of the time, they have no idea who is transcribing their work and as long as it gets done, that's all they care about.
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