I was making 6 cpl back in 1975! There is DEFINITELY something wrong! (s/m)
Posted By: Burned, 2 on 2006-06-16
In Reply to: Back in 1983, there was an article - none
Back in '75, you could fill a 20-gallon gas tank for about $8-10. Now $20 buys me just 6.5 gallons!
And now milk is even more expensive than gasoline! Sure glad my car doesn't run on milk!
In 1980, a nice 1-bedroom apt. in Calif. was about $350. Now it's about $1150-1250 for a very mediocre one.
A box of dry cereal nowadays? Five bucks. An artichoke? $1.50-$2.00.
In 1972 a brand-new, totally loaded luxury sedan cost about $10,000. Now you can't get a bare-bones Hyundai for that.
I think the only way to prevent MT wages from continuing to drop is to start getting vocal about the situation (and the health & legal risks it poses to patients & MDs), and start talking to legislators about the offshoring problem. Then start speaking with our votes. Some MTs in my area are unionized (I think at Kaiser). Maybe we ALL should be, so we'd have someone to speak for us, because right now now only is the government on our side, but the very companies that advertise all over these boards for "badly-needed MTs" are against US MTs as well, if all they're offering is 6-7 cpl,sweatshop working conditions, and little or no benefits.
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I was making 6 cpl back in 1975! - nm
.
I was making 6.5 cpl in 1975 at a service -- 30 years later most jobs
Talk about PITIFUL.
There's nothing wrong with a Volvo, but she's making it look like it's a Mercedes or someth
x
They stopped making those back around
1914. But hope you find one anyway! Main thing is be happy with yourself and your life. Funny thing is years ago my son wanted a fish tank, so we kept upgrading to larger sizes, going from 5 gallon, to 10 to 35 and then 40 gallon. At that point, I told my son, "I will not get a larger tank because I will not get married just to have a man around to carry that ding-dong tank!!" That is the way I live my life; what I can handle and what makes me happy and trying not to have to depend on a DH to help. Maybe one day, I'll find a good man just to hang around with. Have a beautiful day!!
Come back east, I'm making 17 per hour and for 300,000 you get a
x
Excuse me, but the results that I got back this morning that showed that I got wrong were
Sentences that she said were not fragmented, were. Sentences that she said were complete were run on. And, one sentence CLEARLY required comma usage and she said I was wrong.
I am one of those MTs who knows what she is doing and has done well over the last 20 years. The only reason I am applying for work is because I was laid off with several others right before Christmas. I take pride in saying that I know what I am doing!
Girl, I'm with you... started in 1975
in a Medical Records Department transcription... so I was self-taught by necessity and learned fast. Even had carbon paper between the sheets for the copies! We've come a long way in some things and gone backwards in others. I made more money in the early 80s (cpl) and didn't have to work nearly as hard...no ESLs even... didn't know what they were back then! Boy, things have changed.
I started on a mag card in 1975 (loved it!)... and (s/m)
then in subsequent jobs used a Selectric & correction paper, or correction tape.
When Liquid Paper dame along, it made doing reports with 4 carbons behind the original a lot easier, though not necessarily less messy! I also found out I was slightly allergic to carbon paper! It makes me itch & sneeze. When I arrived at my current job in '80, my office-mate had been at it since the late 40's/early 50's. Back then, she said she actually took her notes LIVE, sitting in front of the doctor while he talked. (We all had alot more time back then!) She took her notes in shorthand (remember shorthand?), and then went back to her desk and transcribed them. So that was even 'way before ANY kind of recorded dictation!
Then we got Correcting Selectrics. Nice, but not NEARLY as much memory as the Mag-Card, where you could just keep on shoving those cards in for an unlimited amount of memory.
At one service I worked for, we had state-of-the-art "Lexitrons". I loved those, too. The memory was on cassettes - like the kind you play music on. Each cassette had 15 empty pages on it. We had some for "normals", others for entirely transcribed reports. The printers were pretty primitive... they typed with keys, just like a typewriter. And they only went ONE direction, then the carriage would return! You also couldn't type while it was printing. Finally they got an upgrade where it printed both forward & backward, and we could type while that was going on. We thought we had joined the Space-Age at that point!
Eventually we got an IBM computer for my office. It had a tiny screen, so you could only see 1/2 the page or less at a time. At that time Wang was the most popular computer/software, but they still wanted an IBM because they were familiar with the name.
Then I changed offices within the SAME organization, and it was back to a Selectric again!
Many years, computer and software changes later, we now have Dells and a powerful word processing system. And oh, yes: Now we have strained necks, carpal tunnel syndrome, thumb & neck splints, ergonomic work stations, sore backs, fat butts, etc., etc., etc.! Something we never worried about back in school, when we used the old manual typewriters with manual carriage returns!
Mt. Lakes High School, NJ 1975
 
I have been doing this for 30+ years, like the poster below, starting in 1975 sm
in high school, trained on the job. I have no idea what radiology pays, but with your experience, you should be able to get at least 9 cpl as an employee doing acute care, more as an IC. There are still companies that pay semi-decent wages, but they are getting harder to find. Sad to say, I made 10 cpl GROSS line back in 1986 -- cannot say that today.
Good luck!
wrong, wrong, wrong. work is being outsourced because of $. period. not because of unqualified MTs
c
sure i was. i'm making fun of the people who are making a case for background checks, etc
to do medical transcription at home as if they may do something AWFUL with the info they receive. So if you want an invasion of privacy let's REALLY invade it and make sure fat chicks don't transcribe because they are so busy eating they can't get the work done, they mess up the keyboard with food and if they are provided health insurance they will raise the rates for the company sky high because their health risks are higher than others. Then there are the psychological issues overweight people bring to the table. After we eliminate fat people, we can go on to eliminate diabetic people who may have low blood sugar while typing and go into a spell and type the wrong thing. I could go on and on through the process of elimination. How about prescribed medications that may cloud your thinking? So you take Ambien to sleep but you have an Ambien groggy hangover when you are transcribing? Should they transcribe. How about your teens are on your last nerves and you take a Xanax? Should you be allowed to transcribe?
I typed a report on the wrong patient as the doc keyed in the wrong info, SM
He later said the correct patient's name and I SWEAR to this day I made the changes but somehow the report when through without the correct patient and changes made. I still remember that incident.
You realize by doing that they're making more money & you're making less? You should reconsid
Fantasia wrong??? Haven't seen the OP's CD, couldn't have been too wrong.
x
It's about morality - not censorship! Right is right and wrong is wrong!
nm
With short arms, I need chair with shallow seat, good back support and high back. Want arm rests
:+
OK! I'm glad you're back down here. Now don't go back up there and read those evil posts ag
Okay? But I have to leave you now, sadly. Thousands of noble dictating doctors are anxiously awaiting my help with their "dictations"....They're all loading up on chips, drinking lots of soda so they can burp, and then have to go to the bathroom...You know the routine! Off I go to earn some pennies!! But, truly, I am thankful that I have a job! 
PS.. It apparently worked..I heard back and already submitted the paperwork back.
I'm not sure how many people they are hiring but you shouldn't stress too hard over it. Do the best you can.
As far as it being wrong, well who defines right and wrong? On the
other hand, what if he were doing the same thing? How would you feel? I think that should answer your question.
You SUPPOSE it was wrong! It was way wrong.
x
I would not do them back to back - I have done 2 and 3 jobs at the same time -- all PT - sm
It is possible to do of course but you will burn out fast. Now I do one almost FT (about 30 hours a week) and the other is about 8-10 hours a week-- I still get beat doing that and that is w/o set hours. I find that the older I get the harder it is to work late and I am only 40! But a mid afternoon 30-minute cat nap helps a lot in order to keep going on busy days.
How do you set your computer back 1 day. I messed something up and need to go back 1 day.
NM
Yes, you get back to work now. Go back to
some routine, and it does start to hurt less. I know  And remember, she is still there at work with you. Always will be. I figure at this point I have a whole herd of loved dogs under my desk each day - along with a couple horses, hamsters, parakeets, rabbits...If only I could see them - must be quite a happy zoo! But I know they are all there I sense their love.
making up.....
I suggest you have your father read my post and explain it to you. Apparently you have poor comprehension skills. Talk about ignorance.
My point was NEW immigrants who come here not to become American. Obviously, this is not apply to all NEW immigrants, because as we know, many of them bust their butts to become American in every way including service in the military. My point was that so many of the NEW immigrants, meaning those from the last 25-30 years, come with different aspirations than previous groups. This is documented by social scientists who have been studying this very point for a couple of decades. Look up some articles in any journal of American sociology or political science and you will find research on this subject.
I am perfectly aware of New Spain and New France and even that Russia once owned parts what is now Washington state and Oregon. Do the people in Northwest US demand to have legal papers printed in Russian because 400 years ago, Russia settled that land? Are you aware of the language controversy in Quebec, Canada? We don't need that in this country and having English as our accepted common language has helped prevent some of the fighting and death that results from people coming to blows over language. Language is the root of "the Troubles" as the Irish call their 100 years of conflict with England. England passed a law making English the official language and forbad Gaelic in public places, including schools. Look how that has worked for them. In the U.S., it has worked because it has been understood as a custom and new immigrants were proud to learn English, because it was a mark of American citizenship.
You need a history lesson - New Spain was SOLD to the U.S. government and New France was sold to the U.S. government by their respective kings because France and Spain needed money to finance their wars with each other. So, Spain left voluntarily.
BTW, my brother wrote my parents in English during WWII and his letters were confiscated - is there a group that will protest such actions again Irish-German Americans?
Wnat to see what ignorace looks like? Got a mirror?
I am making......
17.00 per hour with a home-based hospital job (you have to be local to the hospita) PLUS a generous incentive with a "quite easy to attain" minimum line count and then 8 cents a line after the minimum is met. Plus I have all the benefits of being an employee (which I am) including paid vacation and benefits. I've been the national route and I didn't find any of them to be paying well, plus I was always running out of work. We are swamped all the time and NEVER run out at the hospital. If we do run out, which has never happened, we can go into the department and shred paper or something. I wish more hospitals would go back to having a department. That's where you'll find your dignity IMHO.
You were making LESS than THIS????
unless u r making $25/hr
not impressed one bit
you can make $12.50 an hour being a secretary and be dumb as
dirt.
you can make $12.50 an hour doing data entry and not know one
word of medicine or the other junk we have to know and be responsible
for and get grief from QA about.
you can make $12.50 an hour doing a lot of things and not have to
put up with the junk MTs are having to put up with now.
IT is making me
My eyes keep moving up, down, up, down. I'm getting a headache. How long does it take to adjust to this?
No, making way more. nm
x
Making more now
I worked for a hospital for 5 years and then we moved... tried another national who didn't pay much, and then started with OSi and am making more than I ever have (including 25 years of secretarial work)! I've read so many negative posts here about OSi, but I think those who have complaints tend to voice them more than those who don't. I'm very happy with them as far as money, schedule, and flexibility. I know from reading previous posts that many will assume I'm part of management just trying to give them a plug. No, I'm not part of OSi management. Just a very happy transcriptionist.
Men Making More LOL
That is because they choose wisely and don't accept just anything. I am female and quite often make more than most women. Having been in the MT business for only 3-4 yrs I am constantly amazed at the rates offered and accepted, and the lack of understanding at the complexity and enormity of education required to do this job. When someone offers me a low salary I tell them what I think of it and just go on to the next company. I have always known why there aren't a lot of men in MT work - the salary. In places where typing pays decent $$$ there are tons and tons of men.
making the big $$$
I was actually referring to the above posts that state they are making $50 to $60K per year.
Making $100,000/yr?
Is that really possible without having your own service?
ya know, when I'm making
70k a year, I can have the 850 square foot bedroom if I want. In fact, my home is a mere 2200 square foot, on 5 acres in the country, only worth $450,000 but I paid off the mortgage in full in 7 years, by- yep, you guessed it-- working my MTSO. I have no debts. I own 4 cars. I have money stuffed in my 401k. The point was made in an earlier post by our beloved Patti, who chooses to live in 1000 square feet - and also put 15K in her retirement account and takes home 50K. When Patti mentioned her home was 1000 square feet, some ignorant troll said (now say this in a high falsetto) "shocked! my bedroom is 850 square feet! How can you possibly live in only 1000 square feet." Jealous, no. Anyone who wants to own, maintain, clean their 850 square foot bedroom can be my guest. Me - I go for a little smaller but still nice, with more freedom and lifestyle. That's why I put in my 5-10 hours a week running my service while you're working full time. LOL!
What we SHOULD be making, and what most of us ARE making (sm)
are two different things. We SHOULD be getting from 12-18 cents per line. In reality, most of us are somewhere between 7 and 9 cents a line.
I'm making nowhere near that much
I'm either working for the wrong companies or am really slow, my best is 200 lines an hour, which translates to at best 18 bucks an hour, Wish I was faster I guess
What I would like to know..... IF they are indeed making that much then.... sm
how are they doing it? VR? Would love to know the secret. Those of you claiming to make a ton of money, please do share how you do it. Have been doing this for 15+ years and I am seeing a quick decline in pay and seeing these companies getting away with making the lines harder to get with how they calculate them. This profession quickly going downhill.
More than what she is making, I'm sure.
x
If you are making 9.5....
I would ask for at least 11. If you have been there that long, why not? I always ask for more than i really want cause you can negotiate. If you end up with 10.5 that is still a good rate.
For ESL's I want 11, but I don't get snippy if i have some here and there. I do one now exclusively and he can be a big pain but i can understand him fine and ESLs are great for making normals because in my experience they repeat A LOT.
The going rates around here seems to be 8 cpl with many companies...you are doing good at what you have but there is nothing wrong with levering your experience and services for more money. You have proven yourself already to these people. If they turn you down you can start looking elsewhere but only do so if you are taking a step up.
I was making 16/hr when i was QA n/m
x
Making changes
Alright folks let's move this off the word help board because it's become a different discussion. First of all, I personally believe that we should type what doctors say, everything they say and not change a thing. So if they say Synthroid 100 mg, leave it. If they say There was changes. Leave it. However, our companies and many hospitals don't agree.
If you were to try to get a job editing books at a publlishing house you would need a degree in English and you'd get paid a whole heck of a lot more than we do. But we do the same job, fixing the English of doctors, having perfect punctuation, correcting verb tenses. Not to mention the medical side, knowing all the drug dosages, correct lab values (yeah we get marked off for those too). I love it when I have to leave something blank like I just did "H&H 13/4/38" ???
IMHO we don't get paid enough to do all we have to do. We are not just typists. My friend is a nurse and when I told her everything we have to know she told me we could all be nurses! This is because I carried on a conversation with her about cardiac cath, CABG and people who have IV dye allergies and the compliance issues with Mucomyst. She was shocked.
We get no respect from many doctors. I actually had a PCP that I went to when I was sick say that because I was an MT I knew too much about medicine in a really condescending voice. Had another say then what do you suggest when he tried to tell me he'd done all the possible tests. Corrected another to his face.
So call me whatever you want but if I hear the doctor say something that is inappropriate in the same manner that Potassium 132 is inappropriate or Synthroid 100 mg is inappropriate, I'm going to leave a blank. Maybe the doctor is mad or frustrated but the medical record is a legal document that the patient can get access to anytime they want. So when the doctor calls a patient a land whale or says she's f-ing pregnant again or is a retard or is an SOB (and I don't mean short of breath), IMO I am covering their butt by giving them a chance to rethink what they say before they put it in a legal document.
VR and making only 10.00 a day!
No work this entire week at Sten-Tel. What is up? A job here and there but that is VR and I am making like 10.00 a day...this is total bullcrap. So glad I am training for a new company starting tomorrow.
Well you could have put down what you are making???? - sm
But with that said I do $375 to $450 a week.
I will say what I'm making
I make close to 3,000 dollars a month typing....I'm not sure if anyone thinks that's a lot, but I feel very fortunate to be making this kind of money. I have been doing this for a little over 20 years.
I hope this helps!
It is entirely possible to be making that
much money. I make close to 50K, but also work FT and as an IC at another facility, and luckily I work for 2 companies that actually appreciate their employees and pay a decent cpl.
I am currently making
about 52K, but I work 50+ hours a week.
I am definitely not one of those making...sm
the high annual income. My income is rather pitiful to be honest. But I don't have enough work and that is why. And due to not enough exp yet I am going to have to tough it out until I can obtain a better paying job or preferably where I am has more work for me or higher line rate. I love where I am.
Some people may make up income or cpl or they may not. Who knows? Who cares? What do they have to gain by doing that? I understand your selfish longing to have that. Who wouldn't but remember you are doing your best and that is all you can do.
Nothing like making up history
There are in fact many Hispanics who died and continue to die for this country. I am the daughter of a WWII veteran whose mail was confiscated because he wrote letters to his mother in Spanish. While my dad was literate in both English and Spanish, his mother could only read in Spanish, as was the primary language of New Mexico, Colorado, etc. 50+ years before the Mayflower landed. Also, my brother is a Sgt.Major who retired after 25 years in the army and 3 of his sons are also currently in the army (including Iraq). But as I said before, you can ignore all that 'cause you make up your own history....and telling Native Americans to get over it only displays your ignorance.
Yep...had an old doc who would always say, when making a correction (sm)
"Ummm, STENOGRAPHER, please change..." etc. Yeah, like I'm sitting here doing Gregg shorthand!!! Drove me nuts!
Also used to have one who loved to editorialize as he dictated...had a great sense of humor, tho', & I really enjoyed him. He'd always start off with "Hello Transcription!!!"
Sometimes I wish I had a tape of all the docs' bloopers to listen to on the days when I wonder why I do this for a living 
150 lph at .06 = $9.00....if you are new count on making less than that. - nm
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