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

My experience - first time traveling and working

Posted By: academia on 2007-10-15
In Reply to:

Just got back from Lake Tahoe.  I told some of you I would report back and let you know how it went.  This was my first experience MTing on the road, and it went so smoothly.  I worked about 20 hours from the hotel.  They had nice comfy chairs and table big enough to hold all my stuff comfortably.  It was amazing being able to look out over the lake and the mountains while working.  My only complaint was this particular hotel did not offer a weekly rate for WI Fi.  They charged by the day, and it was kind of pricey at $12 a day.  I was worried about not having my books, but it was not an issue at all. 


Taking a vacation by myself was the most amazing experience.  I would highly recommend it to any of you who need to get away from the daily stresses of life.  I feel so refreshed!




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

Question about working while traveling..sm..

Since I have my own account and no one to cover for me, I bought a laptop so I can take my work with me and get out of the house, go on vacation, etc.  I'm used to typing at a desk with the keyboard on a keyboard tray and a little lower than the computer.  I have an external keyboard hooked up to the laptop on a spare desk for now.  I just can't picture myself typing at a table or something when on vacation but what other choices do I have? 


Anyone have any advice for staying efficient and keeping up typing speed but not being at a desk?


Okay..I'm a.k.a. WanderingMT. Either way, I'm a traveling, working woman LOL

Not anymore. For some time now, I've been working 32 hours and am considered full time to receive
p
Working full time at home with small children is hard but part time works great
is almost impossible. You will either have to work when your spouse is home or for only a few hours during the day and then more when they are asleep. I work part time at home and my kids (2&5 now) have done very, very well. They are great kids, very well behaved, don't get into much. I stop working to check on them/give them some attention every hour or so while I work (5 hours each afternoon or so) and they get all my attention in the morning and at night. It has worked out beautifully for us.
Just my experience.. I get less sick when I am working in the car.
I think it is because I am concentrating on my typing and computer than looking up.  I love being able to work traveling down the road.  For me, I'd rather be making good money while traveling instead of sleeping. Heck, as much as it costs to fill up the gas tank, we have to offset it somehow. As far as the other poster says about hitting bumps, hitting wrong keys etc.. I haven't had that problem. I actually bought a portable desktop board that I set everything on so it stablizes my work area.
Please tell me you are not working for .07-.08 per line with 15+ years experience. SM
Sweetie, I would rather work at Walmart than settle for this. Not sure if you were referring to yourself; however, this is what is driving our payscale down. Speaking for myself only, I will not even consider working for a national who pays under .10 line (bare minimum). I have many years of experience and truly appreciate and understand the need to have a job in this field, but there is a fine line to draw. Let's avoid desperation and take back our pride.
Does anyone have recent experience working with Spheris...

that you wouldn't mind sharing.  I heard that they used to drop your pay based on how many reports you send to be QA'd.  Is it really that way?  Just want to know before I would consider applying.


oops cut myself off....working at home with 3 years experience.
';
Do you need to have 2 years full time experience or just 2 years' experience? nm
..
LOL!! By the time you have enough experience,
you would be too old to remember how to work the keyboard.  I just would steer clear of that place if I were you.  Lordy!
I have 13 years experience and just started a hospital job working from home making $16 an hour

and with a really good incentive plan.  I live in the Kansas City area.  $10 seems like a low starting point even with only two years experience which is the usual benchmark for hospital MT jobs. 


It's been my experience that the low end of the pay scale for hospital employed MTs was around $12 an hour.  Also, it's been my experience that the pay offered is usually based on years of experience and how well you perform on the transcription test.


I would say if their pay is that low, they should at least be making it up with incentive and it doesn't sound like they are.


JMO


Starting off part time with little experience?

I've got one year of experience working with a national after going through an MT certificate program with a local college.  Had trouble with speed and production.  Want to go back into transcription and considering part time as not sure I could do the 40 hours a week with everything else going on right now.  Wondering if it is possible to learn the tools of the trade, account specifics and get used to the docs with a national when only working part time. 


 


Thanks.


I think she was 9 or 10, and I got my second holes put in at the same time. Bonding experience! :)
s
Don't waste your time, with your experience, you don't need those initials (nm)

nm


Why isn't part time not working for you?

Hope you don't mind my asking why Spheris part time is not working out for you?  Thanks.  Just want to know what I could be getting into.


Will soon be working in Word for the first time sm

and I was going to use Shortcut, but do I need to?  Would the auto-correct feature of Word work just the same, or is there an advantage to using Shortcut?  I am an old PRD+ user, and am now using Bayscribe, which uses an Expander similar to PRD, so now am having to evaluate options.



Thanks for your input.


Too much time usually spent working (sm)
Like the saying goes, "How many people at the end of their lives say, "I wish I had spent more time working."  NOT - being with those who mean the most to us more important, of course.
Thank you so much...I got it working now! I appreciate your taking the time to help out. nm
nm
If you spent some time working instead of
you might make some of that money that you find so elusive.  All you are trying to do is stir up trouble.  I dislike AAMT as much as the next person.  I am an MT myself first, and MTSO only because I have more work than I can handle myself.  I get 14/15 cpl.  That's it.  I know in your dreams you think MTSOs are making so much more and getting rich.  I am telling you it's not true.  Maybe Medquist is getting rich, but I'm not and neither are any of the other small MTSOs I know of. 
working two jobs at same time
Okay, this may be a strange question - but here goes...  Does anybody work two different jobs, are clocked in at the same time with both?   For instance, two different companies, two different computers, clock in with both jobs at the same time, do a couple of documents with one, go to other job and do a couple of jobs, and so on...? 
I now am only working part-time but
in the past many jobs and mostly had 2 until I married my knight in shining armour. Now I am a part-timer after having worked over 20+ years at 2 really full time jobs.
I love getting up and working at that time.
It was the only time that I could actually concentrate and have quiet time in my  house.  I have a 3-year-old son and grandkids that lived with me a couple of months ago...it was hard to try to work while everyone was doing their daily thing.  So, I just started getting up and 4 a.m. was a good time.  I would stop around 8 and get my mom/son's breakfast ready and get them situated. After that I could go back to work until I was through, taking breaks in between.  I prefer the 4 a.m. thing...it works for me.  You will have to find what works for you and I am sure that you will.
I f you are working at the time you want to check the lines, hit F9
xx
Anybody working two full time jobs
Due to the lack of work (on a regular basis) with my current full time at-home job, I'm considering taking another full time job...7am to 3pm then 3pm to 11pm. I don't know what else to do. I can't afford to go days without meeting minimum line count because there is no work.

Am I nuts to try this?
working full time with kids
If it is about taking off a couple years, there is nothing wrong with that. However, you just can't say that it cannot be done - because there are several of us here that, obviously, can do it.
I only have dial-up when working from home (most of the time).
I get my work as dss files as email attachments. Originally I did not think dial-up would work at all, so I set up an office at my mom's house where I have DSL. It does only take seconds to download with DSL, and takes several minutes for a huge file with dial-up. I can download a file while I am transcribing another one. It takes less than a minute for me to send the completed file back. This is certainly acceptable, although I hope they get DSL here soon. It takes longer to Google something.
About $30,000 working 5 hr per day considered full-time
because I make my required line quota for full time, so I get the benefits. Would try to do more but take care of my three year old grandchild during the days, so only can work evenings and let me tell you by the evenings I'm tired!! In a few years my DH will retire and I will probably be putting in an 8 hour day for awhile then and hopefully can get up to the $50,000 at least for a year or two. Still have years to go for retirement for me.
$1,200 month working part-time with National/other. nm

anyone feel weird working at home all the time?
Who smiles at everyone way too much and tries too hard to make conversation? 
Time saved working at home is about 2 hours
The time it takes to get up, shower, do make-up and hair, dress, get in the car and drive to work, then back home equals about two hours for me. I work a PT job along with a FT job at home. Plus money saved not needing to use a dry cleaners, keeping up the ward robe.


AAMT has been working on that for a long time. Frankly sm
I would prefer AAMT start working on getting us better working conditions, a more standardized and fair pay scale, and benefits, instead of certifying offshore MTs and getting involved in offshoring to the extent that they are.  Really, now, which do you care most about? 
I made 21,000 last year working part time...
hoping when my youngest gets a bit older (she is 16 months) I can make a bit more...
Working 2 full-time jobs (for a year now), and boy am I tired!!
.
Anyone else working today? Am I the only lowly sole with nothing to do until dinner time?

I feel like I am the only on working today, as the Boscov's parade is on TV, my two teens are sleeping, my husband is working OT and here I am working also.  Gotta cover my account today, at least until this afternoon, when I have to cook for my little family. 


 


Just wanted to see if anyone else is out there today! 


I did try the Belkin and I thought it was working but the first time I let up on my foot pedal
it just stopped and froze up my computer. I tried all of the COM ports I could think of. Today, I ordered the Dynex adapter which is the other adapter that Escription recommends and I'm going to try that. I am not giving up. I do hope that in version 8 of Editscript that really do make the foot pedals USB and get into this century. It's almost impossible to find new computers that have the serial ports on them anymore. I will update you on this Dynex adapter when I try it out now. So, for the time being, I am packing along my little portable computer when I travel. It's pretty small but it's just having to bubble wrap the flat monitor that is a pain. At least, I get to work and play. It'd just be nice if I could take my laptop instead..
What service pays sick time, not working, vacations, etc.?
Where? I have never gotten paid for any of these, especially sudden illnesses, or I would be rich!
You're right, i spend way too much time on this board when should be working, I am just so burned
NM
$15,000.... Hospital employee, telecommuting from home, working less than full-time.
c
Traveling MT

If I was a single person, I would most definitely take the position.  This would be an opportunity to save lots of money since most of your expenses are paid and you really would not need to maintain an apartment at your home town.


traveling
I work for K-Force now. I also hear Precyse travels but not sure, am looking for another company that does.
traveling MTs
My hubby retired recently, and we travel in our RV. I have a laptop, foot pedal, headphones, and an external keyboard. When in our truck, I just set up a TV tray in the back seat and use the keyboard on the laptop. For Internet access, I have an air card from Verizon. With few exceptions, this has worked quite well for the past 9 months of cross-country travel.
Traveling
I have searched and have not found the answer to my question, so I apologize if this has been discussed before.  I live in Florida and as hurricane season approaches, I am trying to figure out what to do if I need to leave town.  I work for a company that requires an internet connection, unlimited long distance and a C-phone to dial in to the hospitals.  I know that hotels usually offer wireless internet connections, but what about the phone line/connection?  It would have to be something that offered unlimited long distance (as the hospitals are in different states) that could be used anywhere (not just my home).  Would something like Vonage work?  Or does Verizon have something?  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you!
Traveling MT- I need you!
nm
For those of you doing MT while traveling...
what about internet security? How do you make sure your work is secure? If you are using some other wifi connection when out and about, do you feel it's private? I am trying to figure out the basics. I'm clueless about this laptop thing but it sounds very versatile.
traveling
I went to San Antonio a couple of months ago for 2 weeks. I rented a laptop from Rent-A-Center, had the company install their software, and took it with me. I worked at the local library the first weekend because they had wireless, but then my father-in-law just went to the cable company and got me a modem for the 2 weeks I was there so I could work at his house. I would do it again though, even with going to the library. It was great to be able to go visit family and friends and not have to lose work either.
The traveling MT...
I have seen some posts about MTs who travel while they work.  I would like to try working in the car but my husband is afraid I will get motion sickness.  I am prone to motion sickness on curved roads and cannot read in the car.  Does anyone else have a problem with this or find that they don't have a problem with typing?  It seems like it would be different then reading a book or newspaper especially if I know we have a straight highway drive.
Traveling MT
If you have been a CMT for 20 years, how come you spell a lot as alot? ALOT is not a word!!!!
Traveling Hubby
I, too, have a traveling husband with so much responsibility in his job for the past 20+ years.  Often I have had to be put on the back burner with a small child so that he could progress to the successful executive he is today.  Things have never been about me, and I have had to accept this.  I must say it was much more difficult when my child was young.  When he is free, we have to remember to schedule nice things together and get those in his DayTimer before life marches on by us both. 
traveling with a laptop
I put a pillow on my lap and the keyboard on top of that. It only took a few minutes to get used to and works great for me.
Traveling Transcriptionist
How can they expect you to be a traveling Transcriptionist and go cold turkey into a facility and maintain a line count of 1500 lines?
Traveling transcriptionist job
I would love a job like this. Where do you apply for it. Also, do you have to do ops to get the job?