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My clients hold the work for me. Of course, I rarely take off unless I'm sick. What's a vacati

Posted By: Not a speed typist on 2005-10-27
In Reply to: Own client question - TIA

I have one client for 11 years, another one for 15 years. They wait...they don't want anyone else doing their work. Are they spoiling me or am I spoiling them? My vacations consist of a 2 day fishing trip. One day to the site, 1/2 day fishing, and back home again.


If I'm sick, they understand. I still do the work, but at a pace that won't make me sicker. I sually catch up in a couple days.




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This is true. I work for the Q -rarely run out
of work (live in CA). And by the way, I would get paid my benefit rate (which is at least twice the CA min wage. I always thought this was why I never got NJA. But at the same time, I know they would love it if I quit.

Offshore work is rarely client ready. Who is going to edit
p p
I work for Warminster at MQ and I am sick to death of being jerked around with no work all the time.
I would like a job where I can depend on the work and it does not seem to be in this office of MQ.
they are just looking for ways to get hold of our work
I actually got a phone call from a guy with an Indian company looking to do work for me. He got my numbe off of Monster. I had my resume posted LOOKING for a job, not looking for someone to do my work for me. He actually had the nerve to ask me why I didn't start my own business so I could give work to him. Needless to say, I was not very nice by the end of our very short conversation.
mq supes are there to monitor your work not hold your hand.
you are living in another day and time. this is the internet age. people are impersonal because they don't really know you and to tell you the truth, i like it that way. i have enough real life friends and family w/o the internet acquaintences taking my time.
also, I work for a national - not my own clients! nm
x
Sick of no work
In the past 9 hours, I have been able to get 300 lines.  I have been out of work all day.  Every new job I get, same problem.  Where does it end?  How does one pay bills like this? 
We may care what our work looks like & how correct it is, but many clients don't. They want words
j
That is SICK! That IS sweatshop work!
causing this profession to go to the dogs.  They want perfect work, super-fast turnaround, want you to be at their beck and call (even if you are an IC) yet pay you a 'wage' that is only enough to purchase a few groceries with your check.  Forget paying for rent, car payment, health insurance, electricity, etc.  You can only really make money if you have great dictators, use a lot of normals or templates or are able to use word Expanders to the fullest.  Otherwise, your best bet is to get your own accounts.  4cpl is sick.
Oh, bull. I'm with a large national and those clients whose work is offshored
That one statement is bunk.

Thanks. I'm sick that PRD may not work. Stedman's new spellcheck looks like it will

tell you I'M SICK OF COMPUTERS?  Well, I'M SICK OF COMPUTERS!


 


For Pete's sake, if you're too sick to work,
call in sick!!
This past week I've had chronic sinus drainage and a nagging,constant cough that has kept me up most of the night. Felt okay during the day,(although typing speed decreased significantly).Was able to take cat naps off and on during the day to make up for lack of sleep, otherwise,I wouldn't have hesitated to take a day or two off.
If I'm "really" sick,I call in for a sick day without hesitation!!
looking for part-time Emdat work, preferably with clients in the East Coast
I have been making an average of 10,000 lines per pay period (bimonthly), on QA-optional status, but my accounts are based in the West Coast while I am in the East Coast. I usually work from afternoon to night to reach my daily goal of at least 1000 lines, which is not good for my family.

I would like to find part-time work to keep me busy in the mornings instead of nights. I prefer clinic accounts, ESLs or American dictators. I am willing to take a test anytime especially in the mornings EST.

Thanks!
Can you give us a hint you work for? I'm sick of cherry pickers too
You just know they are giving you all the crap they dont want.
I AM SICK, SICK, SICK AND TIRED

Of bad dictators and QA that takes up for them!!!!  I am sick to death of:


1.  Doc saying paragraph after every sentence.


2.  Docs never dictating the first name of doc they are writing to.


3.  QA asking us to insert certain sentences in certain places for certain doctors who do not dictate them.


4.  Docs wanting their own specific headings but not dictating them.


5.  Docs who ramble, never saying period.


6.  QA asking us to **fix** their grammer, mistakes, fragmented sentences, and verb tenses and sometimes when we do, we are docked points for **not transcribed as dictated.**


7.  QA not wanting anything sent to them, stating **researach medical terms and facilities you are not familiar with.**  If they are not there to help us out, what are they doing there????


8.  Docs, NPs, and PAs who do not know how to dictate, pronounce, or spell.


9.  QA asking us to use BOS, but not knowing it themselves.


10.  Doing work I do not get paid for.


Before QA became involved, in years gone by, if a doc's dictation was awful - then that is what he got for transcription and more times than not, they would straighten up and make a better effort.  Not now - we or QA has to almost do the dictation for them!!  They are the ones with the medical degree - not us.  What happened to us just transcribing what is dictated.  Why can't they be responsible for what prints out??  If someone could let them know how much trouble their dictation style causes, it would cut my transcription time in half.  My list could go on and on.  It is a terrible time to be thinking about getting out of the business, but if this crap keeps up - I have to give it some serious consideration.  The job just AIN'T what it used to be.


I rarely get to do them
I would love to type OPs. I rarely get to do them and like with anything, you don't use it you lose it but most places I work someone has been there longer and knows all the docs who can fly on OPs and that's who gets to do the OPs.
I try to keep in practice with doing it all and really hate to be limited to one type of report.

I'm rarely on here lately because of schedules ...
I work when I want to so stick it if you don't like it! Hahaha
I also use Ask.com, I love OPs but get them rarely, sm
make good money though.
I rarely use my Stedmans
Its so much easier just to type in what your looking for!  I must have 20 books just sitting on my shelf!
it's rarely offered anymore, thanks to the

AAMT. They started the whole problem, and then they bailed out after everybody decided it was the most honest method to determine what a "real line" was.

But there's still a way to break even. Go to this web site:  http://www.medicalese.org/line_count.html

Figure out what you want to bill for gross lines. That would be under the 45 cpl column (trust me on this ... I did stats for years when I was billing for gross lines). Compare it to what you would get paid if you billed for a 65-char line and that's what you want to be paid.

IOW, if you want to make 9 cpl for gross lines, under the 45 line length column it would be $200. Go over to the 65-char line and see how close you can match things up. It's 13 cpl = $200.00. That's what you want to make the same amount.


I rarely use books any longer....sm

However, I would get Vera Pyle's Med. Term book, Ellen Drake Sloane's Medical Word Book, and Claudia Tessier's Surgical Word Book.  Also Quik-Look Drug Book.  This is only if you are still using books 24/7/365.  The web has faster access in my opinion.   


I rarely watch TV, much too busy. nm
 
I rarely, if ever, use the 2nd Edition. So nope, I have
X
My phone rarely (if ever) rings, but my -
cat is constantly interrupting me, getting in front of my monitor to get attention. Either that, or she'll sit in the kitchen and yowl until I come out to see what on earth is wrong - only to find she's all bummed out because there's a single cat-hair floating in her water dish. :/
We try to set good examples for our kids. We rarely

drink, don't have alcohol in the house except for cooking wine/sherry, don't smoke, don't do drugs, are honest, hard working people.  My oldest son has "friends" who smoke, who put vodka in their Coke cans, cuss, steal, etc.  My son is a good kid and no I'm not naive and he isn't doing this stuff behind my back because we spend lots of time together.   My son is a health freak and won't allow anyone to smoke around him.  We've also tried to explain to him that even if he isn't drinking if someone he is with is caught drinking then he is guilty by association and he knows he needs to avoid these kids.  He has come home before upset that kids were using seriously foul language.  The "F" word at our house is spelled f-a-r-t. 


We live in a country club community.  The kids around here get new cars when they turn 16.  The parents don't keep up with their kids, just give them money.   My son has to earn his car with saving $$, keeping out of trouble, and good grades.  I don't keep tabs on him 24/7, but I know where he is at ALL times so that if I need to find him I can.  He even asks me if he can get on-line so I know he isn't using the computer for porn.  He is concerned that he doesn't have enough testosterone because he isn't wanting to sleep with anything that stays still long enough.  Don't know that his friends are, but they talk a good talk anyway.  


I think you are wise to be concerned and just need to keep open communication with your kids and hope that he makes good choices.  My son was a follower when he was younger and I had serious concerns about how he would be growing up, but now he has become a leader and I'm very proud of him because so far he is making good choices. 


Rarely use any books anymore. I use Google.
nm
Same here, I like operative notes, but rarely get them, by the end of the day (see inside)
I am fuming. I make more money on operative notes and am motivated. Discharge summaries are hard to make money on for me, as they are all different.

I am actively looking for another job. I am not one to job hop. I just cant see feeling like this all day long. Good luck.
Millions may have learned it, but rarely perfectly.
And learning it and speaking it are two different things. Lyndia makes a great point.

A pet peeve of mine is American arrogance in the sense that most of us don't really know a second language. Maybe we had some in high school, but most of the people I know speak one language, American English, and that's it. So we don't know how it is but we bash others for not learning it perfectly.

I don't mind the ESLs who try hard to communicate. I get ticked at the ones who don't care, and I think most would agree that it's obvious who those are by their dictation and their patient rapport.
I rarely have expander blips now that I use marker keys.
xx
I remember all that, too. The parents rarely, if ever, questioned the teacher or the principal.

I wonder what the change is?  Do we parents have egos because now most of us have as much education as teachers do?  Are we unwilling to sit back and never question "authority figures"?  Do we remember being wronged in our own childhoods, so we're quick to defend?


I try not to be a buttinsky at my kids' schools, but sometimes I just don't agree with how they're doing things there.  One day, three bigger boys with bad home lives and a history of fighting jumped my son, who is the most peaceful kid you've ever met.  Two of them held him down while the third one was on top of him punching and kicking him.  My son had to bite the kids to get them off of him.  He was cut, bruised, and had a bloody nose.  Guess who got punished?  My son did, for biting.  I called the cops and intervened at the school because my son has my full permission to defend himself against bullies, especially on a 3-on-1 situation.


I also remember being punished for things at school when I did nothing wrong, then my parents punished me a second time because of what the teacher said.  I got detention for sneezing in class once.  One of my teachers publicly humiliated me and threatened to pull me out of all the advanced classes if I didn't publicly apologize to another teacher when I wasn't even the one who said whatever it was she was upset about.  One of my male teachers actually picked up a student and slammed him into the chalkboard, ripping the kid's shirt off in the process.  So yes, I'm going to stay on the schools and make sure my kids aren't hassled by any burnt out teachers who are just biding their time until retirement.  My kids aren't angels, but they're not demon spawn either.


Been paying aol since ྛ!! on BYOA now for kids limits, rarely use though

I've been on Escription for four years and I have rarely hit 2500 lines a day..
Yes, when I have good reports I can do 500 lines an hour, but unfortunately, that does not happen consistently in my day. I can cruise along for a few hours and then hit some ESLs, which just mentally slows me down and then I struggle the rest of the day. If, I was able to sit there 8 hours straight NO interruptions or breaks and easy reports, then I could hit 2500 lines but that is not my reality. Some of the reports are good but I'm telling you.. A LOT of them have to retyped, thus slowing your line count down an hour..and you've just basically done straight typing for a mere 4 cpl.  I truly think that editing needs to pay more. I am like you.. I am requiring at least $100 a day.. sometimes I can do it in 6 hours (no breaks and good reports) and sometimes for various reason I have to sit there 12-15 hours (interupptions, ESL, and just bad reports)..So add that up..$100 in 12-15, that's like $8 an hour.. Wal-mart here I come LOL
My earnings are very similar to shipaddict. Really good week I can top $1000 but rarely. nm
;
Means gross line is a good way to get paid, but is rarely offered anymore. nm
s
how hold
married at 18....wouldn't change a thing even if I could go back in time. Our marriage grows stronger each year...
Hold up a sec.

You dictate your own VR as an IC?  I don't think that's what the original poster was asking about.  I think what the OP was talking about was a company that has VR and only pays 55% to 70% of regular line rate.  Most companies' platforms aren't technically enabled to allow the MT to redictate the VR.  In fact I've never heard of that before. 


If you make money doing VR you're way, more power to ya.  But I don't think that's what the OP was talking about.


Hold out for more.....7 cpl is way too low...sm
I just had the same experience, was offered that amount by one company. I held out and got something part time with a good company at 9 cpl on weekdays and 10 cpl on weekends.
Hold on........think about this. sm
First, you need to make up a pay rate to compensate you for your hard work. Re-negotiate your contract if you have one. If you do not have one, I suggest getting one.

You need to set your pay date/pay period in writing and the ramifications to the client if pay is late. Either charge 15% as a late fee, etc.

Next, you can either charge piecemeal for STAT work, faxes, etc or you can include everything in one line rate. That is up to you.

After everything is in writing, have the client/doctor/office manage, whoever it may be, meet with you and go over all of the details. If they agree, than continue on doing the acocunt. If they do not agree, and it is a well-paying account, when you get paid, try to work a few things out. If all fails, then move on.

But, don't just get frustrated and let the account go. The office just may not be aware of all the extra things you are doing and may think it is included in your line rate.

You need to either spell it out to them in writing or just raise your line rate to include everything.

Believe me, in my younger years, I was where you are now. On looking back, I would have done some things differently. Now, I can say I know things from experience that you can not learn in a textbook or college classroom.

Good luck to you.
I'd put it on hold it too. You are being
very smart right now.  Hang tight.  If it goes well-WONDERFUL.  If it turns bad, you won't have to kick yourself in the a$$ because of buying a new house. 
okay hold on I think we are...
talking about two different certifications!

I mean certification as in going to school. I mean we should have to have a CERTIFICATE from a school saying that we took the courses and have passed. To heck with AAMT, I've heard plenty about them promoting overseas transcription!

I just mean that there needs to be a standard for MTs. That way it isn't so easy to get into the profession. Besides outsourcing overseas, our next biggest problem is that there are people who are getting MT positions just by the luck of passing a test or are taking jobs at 4-5 cpl which is why someone like me who has spent a year going to an actual college, actually going to campus each night, now has to start off at 6 cpl. That type of pay is ridiculous for a professional. I can make more working at Burger King.

That's why I was saying that for those that are already proven MTs who have experience there should be some type of quick certification for them. Maybe a test, or three verifiable references that they have been MTs for such a time, or something. I don't know.

But that is what I meant by certification. CMT/RMT has just become a way for AAMT to make money off of us. There needs to be a mandatory, BY LAW requirement to be an MT. Just like a doctor absolutely has to go to and graduate from med school or a police officer has to graduate from the police academy, etc.
i would hold
off until about 3 (her time). then you could call her or if you have her email address just send her an email and just say you were wondering if they had made a decision yet. I would not worry about the ad being gone.
May want to hold off on cashing it

One of the attorneys handling the lawsuit or an associate of, suggested I hold off on cashing the check that came to me from MQ.  This is the one that came with a letter saying basically the reason they robbed us of so much money over time was a system error.  Yeah, right.  The  attorneys want to check into the true purpose of the checks.  So listen to your gut on this one   If this has already been said on the boards, sorry, I haven't read them lately.


To my goodness-You can hold your own
here! Hats off to you!
Capitalization will not hold!

I need to type  VENTILATION PERFUSION SCAN as a heading.  But when the capital letter lock key is on and I type in vps to bring up the three words in all caps, my IT changes it to small case.


Does anyone out there know how to make all caps remain all caps?  I have auto capitalization check marked already. 


Thanks soooo much if you can answer this!


Don't hold your breath
Never has for anyone I know anyway (myself included)
If I were you, I'd hold off on purchasing anything sm
until you find a position with a company as many (if not most) companies will supply you with the pedal and software. All you would need to do is plug the pedal into your computer. The companies usually will install the software for you via your phone line or will send you a CD, whatever.

USB is the type of "plug." It's small, about a quarter-inch wide and has a little design on it with a circle, an arrow that points to the plug, and a little square.

The other type of pedal outlet has the little pins inside. You will need to count the little pins to find out what kind you have.

Good luck to you!

Do they think you will hold reports for
lol
being delusional seems to hold

               


have a nice day and I will be sure to do an additional dance just for you when impeachment begins.......within the next year or two. 


Want to hold my hand.
I agree, insulting a fellow MT is uncalled for, let alone a PS to imply this is unprofessional. I guess the word "brain" "dense" and "childish" are your words for the week! That makes what now, ? MTs you are wondering whether they have brains or not, are dense or childish. Oh, and please stop YELLING at people posting on this site. We are not children nor do we act like a child. Be kind as if we were your children, because you obviously are not around adults often enough. Geez!!!!!!! PS: Congrats to making fantastic money. I'm sure you are very dedicated.
Hold the train, here!
You actually feel justified to stoop to this level of vile hatred against Tinks personally?

Not nice, not nice at all.
Hold on before you take that survey!
I have seen this lady before. I could swear when we first checked out her "pay me to take surveys" MLM scam site before she had previously worked at Bloomingdale's, but I do not recall that she had worked there for 20 years or had worked anywhere for 20 years. Seems to me she had references from several people she had supposedly worked with from several different places all swearing up and down what a wonderful and qualified employee she was (too much so, if you get my drift). I don't recall ANY of those said jobs being QA positions, more like sales or clerical. She seems to have had a lot of jobs for someone her age who worked for 1 company for 20+ years.

My point here is that this gal was operating a pyramid scheme just a couple months ago. Her original site was "Join here and pay $20 to take survey's about our MT business, and then refer people to me and you will get $5.00 per person who signs up under your name." I don't believe she is interested in any of this information being factual, she just wants to collect it (along with our personal data) so she can make money by selling it to God only knows whom, probably costing us our jobs or at the very least a whole lot of aggravation with e-mail boxes being filled with spam from other companies. Her only goal (in my opinion) is to make money in a marketing scheme. I guess she thinks the national MT companies are going to pay her for this data just because she collected it? She will claim its accuracy because she did a survey? I also find it odd that while she talks about QA this and QA that, it seems to me what she really means is quality control - and that is a big difference, odd she would not know the difference, isn't it?

Being a former Spheris employee myself, if she was as "all that" in the QA field, she should have started with them. I do wonder if she is still with them and, if not, then my guess is this is how she thinks she can make a living since, apparently, no other companies will have her?

One thing we all noted before, and it is rather apparent on her new site too, is that for someone who has been an MT for 3+ years and is supposedly as good as she claims herself to be, she sure makes a whole lot of errors.