Not an MQ employee but have always transcribed via turnaround pool.
Posted By: sm on 2005-07-26
In Reply to: Any MQ MTs have experience with the "improved" - sm - SIKovMQ
The office manager I worked for set it up so they could bill faster, i.e., ERs in 24 hours or less, op notes, discharge summaries, etc. She said it made for a better cash flow for the hospital. That's probably what MQ is trying to accomplish, maybe per client request.
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varies: clinic/acute, employee/IC, own accounts/pool.
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depends; clinic/acute, IC/employee, pool/own accounts....
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If you work from a pool, it's onlyl a matter of returning a dictation to the pool for the poor sucke
,
Where I work, turnaround time
Where I work, turnaround time has become a major issue -- 1 hour turnaround time for reports which are not lower priority.
yes, loved tapes - longer turnaround, no one
no one watching through your computer or over your shoulder, work at leasure, pleasure - and yes, pay was better. Still done in compute and copied to floppy.
sniff...I was a real person with a life who was nice to others.
Excuse me but federal taxes are paid as employee by employee
The ONLY difference in IC is you pay the ENTIRE amount of the SS which is the 15.25%, as an employee you only pay 7.75%. And you can easily make up that difference in deductions. As an employee you just have someone else manage your withholdings and as an IC you do it yourself. I have much more usable income being an IC and not an employee and I am strict about putting aside what I need to. But everyone always says you have to pay your own taxes, well your employer does not PAY them for you -- except 7.75% of SS, they merely withhold it for you. As an IC you are the employer.
If you have not transcribed using BOS
guidelines that is probably the problem. See which version they are using and get a copy.
and this is how our records are transcribed =(
x
I have not strictly transcribed in about 10 yrs.sm
I work full-time doing medical transcription but I also have other duties that do not involve transcribing so I don't keep up with lines or anything like that; I get paid by the hour. I have worked 3-4 hours in the evenings for one of the national companies for a little over a month but I can't seem to get my line count up. I've only been able to do around 100 lph. I know it will take longer than it would if I worked 8 hours just transcribing. I would like to quit the other job and just work from home transcribing but I'm afraid if I can't get my line count up I won't be able to maintain my current income. I'm not a blazing fast typist, I probably type 75-80 wpm without any kind of expanders. Any helpful advice or encouragement on whether you guys think at my typing speed it is within reason to think I can make it to 150-200 lph? I've done straight transcription in the past but I never had to keep up with lines. I have 30+ years of experience. I just need to decide whether to keep things the way they are now or take the chance on income by production only. BYW, I transcribe acute care for the national.
Your transcribed report would be your testimony, if anybody, for whatever SM
bizarre reason decided your input would be needed. Why the heck do you think you'd get called to court?
I got charged $75 for a copy of my old MRs, even though I transcribed it!!! n/m
:p
QA Help: Earlier I transcribed a report where
the doctor used a really offensive curse phrase. He was actually quoting what the patient said (ER report). He said place this in quotes. It was a really ugly thing to say (mother F word). Even though it's in quotes as what the patient apparently said, I felt uncomfortable actually transcribing it. And believe me I'm no prude. I've heard it all (and said some of it). However, it just seemed really unprofessional and not appropriate in a medical document. It's not like it was a psych report. In fact, it really had no relevance whatsoever, in my opinion, but I could be wrong I guess. So, I left a blank. But now I'm thinking, was that really not my call? Should I have just transcribed it? What would any of you out there have done? QA? What do you advise in cases like this? It's happened before but never as filthy as this. 
Contact the clients you transcribed for
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VA accts transcribed offshore
My first editing job was for a company located in Virginia that has since closed and one of their largest accounts was for a network of VA Hospitals. I always wondered if they (the VA) had any clue that the actual transcription was being done in India.
It is 10 reports transcribed for free.
The OP states the account goes through transcriptionists. I wonder why? The OP states later on in the thread they go through transcriptionists.
I'm trying to protect Lisa from getting abused from the get-go. All she has to say is "my charge is" and go from there.
Too bad if they were already transcribed. Does that mean Lisa should take the loss? NO. Absolutely not.
Again, read above where the OP states "they can't seem to keep a transcriptionist."
To the OP: Charge them! You won't regret it. If you are an IC, you have every right to charge them.
Plus, look at rockinMT's post. She bent over backwards for an account and what happened? It turns out she was spending more time than it was worth.
These are all my opinions, and I am trying to give my opinion on what the OP should do in regards to reports that she transcribed and should, yes, be paid for since she was not aware ahead of time and especially because it is a new account.
What do I know? Ya know? I mean really? Just looking out for the best interest of the OP, but hey, that's just me.
The reports that are transcribed get scanned into
the EMR record. They do the same thing with the lab slips, x-ray reports, etc. The transcription is still performed in the usual way it has always been done.
I have transcribed from handwritten notes
and it was a nightmare. Sometimes the info was missing and my neck hurt like heck looking down and up, down and up. I charged per page. This dr went from dictating to these 5 page forms that he would fill out when he saw the patient. He scribbled and it was horrible. It wrecked my neck, so I gave it up. I was better off straight transcribing at lower pay than when I had to keep looking up and down from a page and no a stand for the forms didn't help because my eyes kept leaving the monitor, so it was hard to get back in gear only to have to take my eyes back to the handwritten form.
MTs by definition are hired to transcribed - sm
what the doctor dictates. We can't be expected to have to catch their mistakes - they're supposed to catch their own. That's why they're being paid the big bucks and we're note. Years back, we weren't expected to know all this stuff -- the meaning of every word we transcribed, the normal/abnormal lab values, what a particular drug is used for, and I could go on and on, and we were paid better, appreciated more & respected more.
I do agree that we must know how to spell medical words and words of English usage. That's what they get for their 7-8-8.5 cents per line. I do NOT believe that we should have to look up doctor's names, on our time, when the dictator has it right in front of him/her and would take him/her only 2-3 seconds to spell it, thus also avoiding any confusion. But I guess that would be too easy.
I didn't always feel this way. Years back, when I was treated as a professional and compensated accordingly, I performed as such. If I want to flag a doc's mistake, I do it for the PATIENT'S sake (but for the grace of God it could be me or a loved one lying in that hospital bed) - and as a courtesy to the doctor. But they really expect too much for too little.
I swear, I just transcribed Bill Cosby! sm
you know that voice that Bill Cosby does, kinda sounds like he's drunk? Well, this doc I just transcribed sounded like that!!! and it's workers' comp, no less. Just had to vent a little! It's still too early for all this! 
Well, I just transcribed 1500 lines in 3 hours. sm
I work on the same account every day, same dictators, lots of templated reports I did myself and put them into auto correct. I get up early, start at 7 am and today I was done by 10 am. Cleaning the house now. Also, the line pay is slightly higher than most, so 1500 lines is fine for me today.
On harder days when the account is really behind, I get up and vacuum the house after 3 hours of transcribing then come back for 1 hour. If things are caught up, I stop for the day. If not, I will go back in the evening.
I can't sit for 6-8 hours straight. Making $160 bucks in 3 hours is good for me and enough. Tomorrow is another day!
Use templates and short cuts - that will help! I have whole reports in my auto correct, but you have to listen through and change and correct things as each patient is a different case.
I do have to tell you, I do not get this many lines every day in such short a time. It just happened that today was a good day. 
Hope this helps.
copies of previously transcribed reports
What I always found helped, make copies of reports from the medical record charts. Make a few copies of each doctor and keep them in your desk that way you can refer back to the report when doing the doctor. You will get the hang of it. No hospital wants to go through the money and time hiring someone just to let them go right away. Usually you get about a three to six month probation period.
Guidelines are one thing, but if your client wants it transcribed a certain way, just do it.
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My grandmother transcribed part time into her mid 70s.
,
I am filling out a job app and they want transcribed words per minute.
Thanks.
I have transcribed for doctors in the past who have dictated...sm
that the patient is heterosexual. I'm not much on what is politically correct or not, I just transcribe what the doctor dictates.
Pull up the whole period for which transcribed...see more inside
Say July 1 was the first day and July 14 was the last day - are you able to do a date-specific count? If so, get that on the screen, hit the "Print Screen" button (above SysRq next to Scroll Lock). Then open a Word document or go to Accessories and get either Word Pad or Notebook. Do a control C, which is the Word command for copy. This will copy the whole screen shot into that new document. Go to "file" on the task bar, do a "Save as" and name it what you want, say 07012008to07142008 or something so you will be able to recognize it. This will now give you a document that you can email to their payroll period with a nice little message something to the tune of "WHAT GIVES" or other equally professional question - just kidding, but now you have proof of what your total lines were and a bargaining tool. If you can only do it 1 day at a time, you can still use the screen shot method, but you will have a lot of documents to email if it comes to that.
Be sure to question them verbally by phone first as that might clear up any confusion. If not, then you can tell them YOUR line count and ask why your figures are so different. Just a thought. Good luck!
Meds are not given based on transcribed reports
Meds in hospitals are not given based on what is in transcribed reports. There are so many errors with transcribed material that everyone expects there to be errors in meds, either because it was dictated incorrectly or transcribed incorrectly.
Physicians write orders for drugs, treatments, tests, and procedures. They're in a different part of the record entirely. They're either handwritten or they are in electronic form.
That's not saying there are no medication administration errors, but just saying the likelihood of an error stemming from a transcribed report are almost nil.
Pool
We have an above ground pool, but my friends across the street have an in-ground. We live in NY and they paid about $20,000 for their pool. It's fiberglass with cement around it and fenced in (of course). It's a great time to have a pool here with the hot weather we've been having. Have fun.
"For 30 years, I've transcribed things by what is..SM
correct." This is where the problem is. Do you know that some of the most stubborn, difficult, argumentative, inflexible MTs I have ever met in the course of my career are the ones who parrot that particular sentence?
What was done or has been done for 30 years is not necessarily the correct way now. Language has changed. With the advent of VR, the way we transcribe is now more of a verbatim way than ever.
These 30-year MTs are still adding 's on to Down syndrome, still typing out the word "centimeter" even though it is no longer accepted as anything but line-padding....get my drift?
We're paying 9 cpl and everything transcribed plus spaces is paid for.
/
Depends. Did you just study or have you actually transcribed lots of tapes as sm
part of your training? If you can't put down on your resume that your home study included multiple tapes in many specialties, etc. you are going to be hard pressed to find a good job.
On the other hand, you might be able to type some orthopedics or pt notes (and then at least have some experience to put on your resume.) Orthopedic doctors have TONS of dictation. Besides their clinic notes, etc, most of them do IME (independent medical evaluations) which are fairly easy to do. You'll need some good ortho books to get you started, but most will let you start without the experience if you can demonstrate you know the terminology. Good luck. Get some experience and the doors will start opening REALLY fast for you. Sometimes, taking a low paying job is okay in the beginning just to get the experience. If you can possibly get in a PCP's office to help out with clinic notes (even offering to to backlog/vacation stuff, you will get good experience and your resume will look great for the future stuff that comes up. Good Luck to You. Hang in there and learn everything you can.
Let the docs use their reports transcribed in India as a defense! LOL
The doc can sit there while the personal injury lawyer shows the jury a grieving family and the messed up report.
US MTs should not accept sweat shop wages or conditions. We are providing a service to them! We are their first defense!:) :) :)
If US MTs stoped working for low wages, the physicians who value patient safety and their livelihood would pay a descent wage. The other ones can try to explain the report being done in India to the personal injury lawyer tearing him apart.
IMO, you violated a patient's confidentiality by even posting about this - that you transcribed t
I know you didn't give any personal info, but even mentioning this in a public forum on the "world wide web" - I don't know, I would consider that a violation of medical record confidentiality. I know some may post a sentence or a blooper or something, but this is probably something I would have kept to myself... I am sure you thought what an interesting coincidence when you show the show, but my opinion is you should have kept it to yourself, and if I was the transcription supervisor at your hospital and I found out you had posted on this.... well I would think that would be reason for discipline. No offense meant, just my opinion.
Here is my understanding of conversions of time dictated to transcribed
I was told once that the ratio of dictated to transcribed minutes was approximately 1:4 for an average MT for average dictation. So, if you've been given 300 minutes of dictation it might take you 1200 minutes to finish it, divided by 60 minutes equals about 20 hours. Obviously this is just an estimate and could very depending on a lot of factors, but this might give you some idea.
Another conversion I've heard is that one 65-character line equals 6 seconds of audio and so 1 minute of audio equals 10 lines. So, if you are charging by 65-character line, you may be looking at 3000 lines or so, which when using the above formula would have you typing at about 150 lines per hour for 20 hours, giving you about 3000 lines.
Sounds like this is very doable, typing for 7-8 hours per day if you have until the end of Wednesday. If it has to be back by Wednesday morning, you will have to work 10+ hours per day on it today and tomorrow.
;)
Christine
Thank you for response. :( I figured it was nearly impossible for transcribed lines.
I think my co. wants me to quit...
We must work for the same pool! :) sm
I have a dictator that sounds like an older gentleman from the south and he will always say, "I thank you very much for typing this for me. Have a nice day."
I always say, out loud, "You too sir" because it's so totally unexpected to hear it.
I even have a guy that talks 1000 mph and ends his dictation in a robotic voice in one sentence with no spaces and his last name, like this:
thisisendofdictationthankyoufortypingthisSmith.
working in a pool
Hello, I have been doing medical transcription for 11 years, most of them as an IC. 2 years ago I changed companies from which I get my work and, for the first time, I am in a pool situation. Here's my question. Is it standard procedure (or normal) when you are working in a pool to not be able to pass on doctors that you cannot do well or just find too frustrating to do? In all the years I have been doing transcription, this is the first time I have not been able to say I can't or do not want to do that doctor. I am expected to do whatever comes up in my pool, regardless of whether or not I do them well, and at the same time keep my accuracy up at 97%, and not send all of the jobs to QA. It is a very frustrating situation and honestly, for the first time in 11 years, has me thinking about quitting altogether. MrsBTFuller
I have only worked in 1 pool myself but - sm
when I first started you could send back work. I had 1 doctor I absolutely hated and could not do, so I'd send him back. Then they "updated" at some point and you could not send work back. I ended up having that doctor removed from my pool (I ask mgmt) since he killed my QA. We were only allowed to send in 5% of our work every month (not a day, a month) to QA. So out of the 300+ reports I would do a month I could only send 15 to QA, the other 285 had to have no blanks, or only 1 blank ....we were allowed to send it through with 1 blank. Needless to say this was a difficult thing to do with 80% ESL. I'm sure it can be done if you take 30+ minutes or more for each report to make sure it is perfect, but most of us do not have that luxury....we need to eat, pay rent, mortgage, etc. All I can say is good luck.
working in a pool
Not that it helps any, but I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels this way. I would love to just have them remove my "bad doctor", but when I bring it up I'm just told that I will get better at him, or they will remove me from that pool. The only thing that is stopping me from just quitting is that I just hate changing companies and all that entails . Not sure what I will do. I really should have asked this question before I started working in this situation.
We have had our pool for 2 summers. sm
The first pool we got from Academy Sports and it was totally awful. The side walls were not thick enough. It kept busting at the seams. It did not last 10 days. So, needless to say, we took it back. We then got the 18 x 4 at Walmart and it has been great with no problem whatsoever. Do not use more than 1 waterhose to fill it up though. If you do that, it will not stand up right. As much as I want a regular hard side pool, this will definitely suffice for a few more years. Happy Swimming!
Inground pool
I don't know if this will help you or not but we live in CA and paid about $35,000 for our pool, although we got great discounts because we did it at the same time as our neighbor, who is in the pool supply business and lined up all the subcontractors. So it's probably more like a $50,000 pool. We love it! It almost always takes longer than the estimated time, so if you do have it done this summer you may not be swimming until next summer. Best of luck to you!
It goes back to the pool nm
xx
I do pool work
I have to get a minimum of 1200 lines in an 8-hour shift, which is more than enough time to hit the minimum. I do acute care and do have a backup account, which I work on infrequently since my primary rarely runs low. I take a 10-minute break every 2 hours just to get up and move around a bit. I hope that answers your question.
They don't remove eyes based on transcribed medical reports. SM
Hate to burst your bubble - we're important, but not that important.
I take great pride in doing great work and doing a bunch of it.
Yes, the gene pool stops there.
I'd be in my pool for the 2nd time this year.
Thanks. My work pool has become the detritus that others will
not do. Mostly ESL docs with heavy accents. Over the past few months, I have been relegated the worst of the worst, and, on some occasions, find myself working for about $2 bucks an hour. This morning I've gotten jobs from three days ago that were apparently tossed back, floated around like a turd circling the drain. I send nothing back, I've always transcribed these reports, hoping to get past them to the better dictators. The consequence: This morning I got one after another of these horrific reports until I finally gave up in despair. Sorry for the rant. I'm pissed.
Need to add, old job I have own accts, new job will be working from pool. nm
:+
114° here in AZ. Our pool feels like a bathtub. It's HOT!
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We had one in our pool yesterday. My husband
got it out and killed it. I am trying to identify it on the internet. The only thing I can come close to is a Tiger Rattlesnake. It is a baby, about a 12" or 14" long and has a diamond shaped head. We are in Texas and haven't lived here very long.
My #4 key is a return to pool key. Depends on how you are set up. nm
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