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Spent 3 months in Brazil, traveled all over. Great

Posted By: me too on 2006-03-18
In Reply to: My honeymoon last year..went to Brazil..sm - MT in MT

booze - really knocks you for a loop. 




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Yep, he's smart! A tent sounds great! My youngest just got her's 2 months ago, and my poor hus
Well, suffice it to say, he just shuddered...and got a tent...
My honeymoon last year..went to Brazil..sm
To Rio DE Janeiro.  The people there were amazing, the prices were cheap, the food was excellent, and the booze was wonderful.  
AAMT member, yes. Love Texas de Brazil!!
!
I traveled all over too. sm
After Colorado the best place IMO is Flagstaff, AZ area. People in the Southwest (the natives that is) are very genuine and friendly too. You can never say you have nothing to do here, something for everyone. If you are single, you can go out by yourself & meet new people easily. People will talk you if they do not know you. On the east coast, my experience was just the opposite.
Anyone who has traveled working on desktop
I am getting ready to take an unexpected trip and can not use a laptop due to company policy.  I found a hotel with "wired" internet to the room.  Has anyone ever stayed in a hotel and used wired internet before?  My question is do you need a modum or anything or do you just hook in to the computer and it miraculously works?  I'm just trying to ease my mind because I'm scared to death I'll get there and have no internet to work on.
I've worked and traveled with (sm)
A Verizon Broadband USB device on a 5GB/month plan for $60/month. Anywhere that I can get a Verizon phone signal, I can work. Working on the DQS platform, I could work 24/7 and never approach the 5 GB limit per month, but I'm not sure how other platforms work in that regard.

Europe in general is more sophisticated in their cell phone plans than the US (the majority in Europe use prepaid as opposed to 2-year contract plans). I would think that you could get a USB device over there that is compatible with the cell phone frequencies they use over there.

Hope this helps!
I've traveled and worked many times

To try to answer your questions.. Whether your foot pedal will work in your laptop depends on the laptop that you buy. When you're looking to buy one, try to find one with the correct kind of port for your pedal.  The one I recently bought doesn't have a serial port, so I bought an adapter at Circuit City that plugs into my USB port, and then I can plug my ergo keyboard and mouse into that.  In any case, your laptop will definitely come with at least a couple USB ports, so you could always buy a USB pedal to use with it if you have to.   As far as the headphones, every laptop I've ever used has had a place to plug in a pair of headphones so that should be no problem. The thing is...if you're going to buy a laptop specifically for this, then look at the ports on the laptops and make sure it has what you need.  I would say if you don't mind buying a USB foot pedal, though, you're not going to have problems because every new laptop will have USB ports, and I'm sure a place for your headphones.


If you're staying in hotels, try to stay in places that have free high speed internet which so many of them have now.  You can plug right into that and work.  If not, I know Verizon has a wireless broadband service now for around $60 a month you could check into.


I hope this helps some.


 


My old clinic spent (sm)
over $100,000 implementing an EMR system that claims to "replace dictation."  Well, they'd have to sell it to doctors who are interested and have time to type in order to replace dictation.  If nothing else, it increased my line count because of all the crap I had to add to get the notes uploaded to the system!  I'd still be there if I didn't have to move. 
My $375 was sooo well spent...
We have a cat and a dog - We have gone through a Fantom, a Hoover wind tunnel, and a Dirt Devil (not in that order, but you get it, about one vacuum every other year - kaplooey with the animal hair - yes I groom my animals but still...they shed)....I bought a Dyson a little over year ago, after seeing it on sale at Sears, looking it up on the 'net, and just being fascinated by the whole vortex deal. I also ended up using a gift card I had as well, which took a bite out of the price.  Before buying, I asked the Sears Service Dept and customer service people their "scoop" on the Dyson - they had never had one returned....for any reason in our region of stores - they looked it up for me.  I figured that was good enough for me !  I have had no problems whatsoever and absolutely love it.  I should have started working at Sears on commission.  I have sold 3 of them just by word of mouth..LOL!  Gotta love the Dyson - especially with the extra motor in mine (the purple one) for the animal hair - it honestly doesn't ever lose suction! 
90% of my day is spent on OPs and I LOVE it....nm
s
Disagreed with how it was being spent (sm)
I realize when you own property you don't have this option, but we're not into owning material stuff either.
Time spent...
Think about this....There will always be other jobs in transcription or heck anything else you might find of interest, but the bottom line is...Your kids are growing every second, and the time that you miss with them, you can never get back.  So, if it were me, I would choose my time with my son any day.. Good luck to you.
$32K/part time 6 months/full time 6 months
I have kept my child home with me half the year, but when pre-K started I began working full time. Helps to only have a main account and one backup account for the 2nd year now, so my abbreviation program rocks and rolls when I focus.
If you would take the time you have spent here today

and work on building your expander, macros, etc. you could get your line count up faster.  Don't know if you have a line per day committment or hourly committment, but if you have lines you can get them finished quicker with a better expander and have more time to play or do whatever.  I am NOT a morning person, but I feel so much better when I do make myself get up and then by 9:00 I've made my line committment and I've got the rest of the day to do what I want/need to do and if I need more lines I can work an hour or two after dinner.   I almost feel like I have a 3-day weekend because I'm finished so early that on Friday I'm done early, my DH has an early day at work and is home by 10 usually so we have an almost full day to play.  


Reassess your situation.  What were your reasons for coming home to work?  If you didn't have to work at all, would you spend all day sitting in front of the TV watching all that mindless garbage and letting the housework go?  Maybe you're burned out or depressed.  Maybe you just lack self-discipline as somewhat else suggested and you really need structure.


Just some things to think about.  Working at home isn't the fairly tale that most people think it is. 


 


I spent/no make that wasted

trying to get my supervisor to understand I DON'T NEED TO BE TYPING IN 10 HOSPITALS!


I need to be left in one hospital that I can learn. That means I need to know the surrounding doctors, doctors in other hospitals, streets, area SNFs, all that comes with the territory.


I never got one glimmer of hope that she understood.  Dense as a brick.


That's what happens when you have people in charge of MTs who HAVE NEVER TRANSCRIBED!


They think we can just sit down.........turn on the "machine" and just spit out transcription because we know medical terminology.  WELL SORRY - IT DOESN'T HAPPEN THAT WAY.


Yet they want HUGE LINE COUNTS.


They aren't going to get good TATs or HUGE line counts flipping me from one hospital to another at THEIR LEISURE. 


Somewhere along the line they have me CONFUSED WITH A MACHINE



 


Spent 8 years in Florida

Have you tried the realtor sites?  If you are looking to rent, use rent.com, apartmentguide.com, forrent.com.  Also, go online and look at the online newspaper for that area.


The price of real estate is ridiculous there because of the demand. We once looked at a mobile home and I kid you not, the insulation was hanging out the bottom, no skirting, chickens running around, and the neighbors horses within 5 feet of the back door (free flies too).  They wanted 800 a month with 2400 to move in.  Even the apartment prices are pretty high for what you get there. 


 


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.
Time spent with your mother will be a much better
gift than anything you could buy.   I'm sure your mother has every material thing she needs or wants.  
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I've spent over an hour on this.
s
I spent over 2 evenings testing

Filling out their interview questions, answering questions about my computer, and it would be just my luck they would either send an e-mail in just four  words, "we can't use you" or not send one at all.  That would just bite. 


The test was not really difficult just that I have no control over it, I cannot speed it up, slow it down.  I kept stomping the floor looking for my nonexistant foot pedal. LOL.  I am afraid there might be something I missed on the test.


Here I wanted to apply for a few more companies to see if one could offer me a better deal than another, but I bet I will have to go through the same thing, and I am not real sure I want the job.  What if they offer too low of pay?  What if their line quote is too high? 


That is my vent.  whew.!!!!  I am going to bed.


Clinic I MT for spent big $$, too, but I am still doing work
ik
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. 
I would agree that energies could be better spent.

I agree--this is a losing battle.


The world is becoming one big place and I foresee a time when you'll not be identified as a citizen of a country but rather an employee of a company. Government is not supposed to be micro-managing business or our lives. Social responsibilities should be handled at the "ground level"--where we live, work, and worship. When the churches stopped doing the social work needed, government stepped in and now government is not doing the job so who's next--companies. There are many companies that are doing the right thing.


There is so much energy being spent here on trying to stop change. That's just not possible. You would better serve yourself if you would adapt to the change in whatever way necessary so that you are ready when it happens.


Went from coding to MT 'cause I had spent
was unable to pass the exam to become certified, missed by 3 all three times of taking the exam. I love being an MT, but I do miss the coding. Guess I just was not cut out to be a coder, :)
I would love to know how many hours are spent

listening to papers shuffle!  Even when I fast forward these annoying reports there are minute-long paper shuffling that goes on and on throughout the paper!  I wish these doctors would get organized!


thanks for vent.


When I tried them, spent much time toggling
x
I was hijacked like you once and spent all day trying to get (inside)
rid of it, it hijacked everything and sent me to sites I had never been, could not get to Yahoo my home site. Finally I downloaded Hijack (that is what it is called). It is a free program and that did it. I had everything back to normal. I just followed their instructions and walla it was back to normal.
not all the time is spent in the bathroom..
one has also to eat, wash etc...don't you?
This whole discussion is just ridiculous.
Don't you find something better to do?
they spent 40 years in the desert.....
i was pointing out to my friend that in the bible they spent 40 years desert before they arrived...CMT spent 40 years collecting our money and we were snookered and got nowhere. In  half a century (and AAMT were going to do great things for us, must we wait for the 100 year mark?).  Paying dues, and nothing to show for it with the exception of their having meetings in fancy restaurants at exotic locations on your tab, and for this you get a pin, a piece of paper, and a magazine describing what a wonderful time they had at their seminar and to send more money. 
I agree, it's all about $$$. Vet wanted my sister to spent 4,000 on a
x
Error reading, spent the money for nothing
x
I spent over 8 hours trying to get a problem out of my computer yesterday until

I spend more time on the electronic, computer, mechanization of this stuff - I can't even do transcription.


I use to think being a hooker would be bad, but now I'm having second thoughts.  And I definitely am having doubts that "creature comforts" are worth the pain of living in the so called civilized world we are in now. 


Oh yeah, by the way, I spent 2 hours on hold altogether just trying to get to a tech support at NORTON! an hour trying to get tech support for my internet provider, another 6 hours screwing around with the computer - 2 hours the other day just moving it from one room to the other.


I am so out of here!  They (the MT companies) can find some other *patsy* to sucker these costs onto.


Symantec etc...I wonder if that is what I just spent 18 hours cleaning out of my computer!

in my computer.  Eventually I couldn't even use Email.


It took hours and hours of being on hold to get tech support at Norton/Symantec!  Then they were all Inidan/Chinese/French - couldn't understand a word they said!


They were having me call my internet provider - internet provider making me call Norton - back and forth back and forth! grrrr


Finally they sent me to www.symantec.com/symnrt and I had to literally break my computer down and rebuild it. 


My computer kept saying "you are already running a Symantec program on your computer....then it said you have done an illegal action/every time I did anything!....then it said the Configuration Wizard is still working (had to figure out how to turn that stupid thing off....it changed the settings in my internet options panel/I never touched it but when internet provider looked in there it had totally been changed.


I couldn't update my LIVE UPDATE! Whatever it was kept locking me out of dialing out or loading the new updates which of course left me vulnerable to viruses.


I have Windows98 - but the Norton Antivirus program is for both Windows XP and 98.


Good luck if you have Norton!


I spent the entire time after the show trying to vote
/
That sure beats the $900+ I spent on my Aeron Miller chair ! - nm
x
The clock does play into how much time is spent with patients
The way the CPT codes bill insurance have guidelines for the physicians built into them that give amounts of time spent with the patient (in addition to certain information covered in the ROS/PE), especially in consultations (whether inpatient or out), hospital discharge codes and critical care time (inpatient or out).

Yes, that computer is in fact billing the insurance company because it not only saves not having to pay an MT, it bypasses a billing clerk (eliminating that salary), and if the doctor's office space is paid for by a hospital, that file is sent to the hospital's database where a *scrubber* compares what the MD submits versus coding guidelines. If it is an independent office, the MD can upload all that day's billing before he walks out the door and leave it unattended to update patient accounts and reconcile the days money intake.

In a nut shell, your doctor is no longer just practicing medicine. Your MD is doing the documentation and billing and saving money on two warm bodies.

I understand your concern as I see it more and more in today's medical care, but yes, this is the way things are going. I am fortunate that my MD has been very computer literate for a long time, so the amount of time he spends with his laptop is minimal. Once he enters the info, he kicks his shoes back and we chat and get into a deeper discussion both professionally and personally (we've known each other a long time). Give your MD a chance to play catch up to what he or she is doing with that computer and you should see a more relaxed physician soon.

Good luck.
If you spent anytime here at all, y'all know how I feel about offshoring. :0) SM

What most don't realize is while there are laws protecting your medical data in the United States, these laws are unenforceable overseas.  So basically, a patient's supposedly "protected health information" isn't really protected at all once it electronically crosses the borders out of the U.S.  I think it is important that all patients be aware of this fact and have a say whether or not they want someone in India having access to their medical data!


I've been talking to a newspaper reporter in my area who is interested in running a story on this subject especially because I have firsthand knowledge of a local hospital who is outsourcing all of its transcription to a MTSO that offshores to India.  I'm very excited because I've been pushing for public awareness of this subject for a while and I feel like I'm finally on the threshhold of effecting real change in my little part of the industry.


Anyway, change has to start with us, the MTs.  We are MTs and we are patients.  We have valuable knowledge as MTs about what happens to our protected health information and we should pass that knowledge on to those patients who don't have the benefit of being employed in the healthcare industry and are unaware of what happens to all that electronic information that makes up their medical record.  I've told my whole family to ask "who does your transcription" at the doctor's office, the hospital, etc.  When the doctor's office or the hospital hands you a HIPAA disclosure, that's your opening to ask questions about who all sees your medical record, who does the transcription, and is your medical information protected even if it is sent to India to be typed.


Okay, that was my soapbox speech for the day. 


Cheaper health insurance or time spent with
Why would you want to work until 11:30 at night?  You risk driving late nights being exhausted in the a.m. when you are trying to get your children off to school.  Why not wait out the nursing school call and continue working at home until then.  You will be so busy once you start nursing school that I can't see you having the time or energy to work a full-time job on-site (3-11 p.m.)  I'm not so sure why you believe that a secretarial job will prepare you more for nursing school.  If you want to prepare for nursing school then why not purchase some anatomy books and get a head start, stay home with the children keeping the typing job.  Believe me, you are going to learn way more doing transcription than you will doing secretarial work.  JMO.  Good luck in whatever you decide.  Is there a reason you are trying to get away from your children/husband at nighttime?  I feel it is more important to spend time with your children than at some hospital being a secretary especially at night.  ???????  
Spent 20 min. researching with very little info, and at the end, Dr. said 'Just take that part ou

I hate it when I spend so much time looking up things I do not know (terms or medications, or even a referring or copied doctor's name and address) and then the doctor changes his/her mind and says to just take that back out.


                              


Or, you spend all that time looking things up and researching, then at the end they say 'Oh, by the way, here's all the information you just wasted your time looking up.'


Ggggrrrrrrrrrrr. 


I'll be back to rant more later because this has REALLY been getting on my nerves lately, and seems to be happening a lot more often.


Rates have simply gone up. We've spent over 500 since Sept. on propane.
x
Should company pay for time spent on a required conference call? (sm)

My company has been having conference calls on one of my accounts in which they request that you attend (they take roll call) to learn new rules, changed rules, updates, etc. on the account.  This has turned into a real pain because it takes so much time out of your production that day.  They say it will become more "routine" as time goes by because of the volume of the rules, etc. 


I was wondering, do any others have had that situation and, if so, have you been compensated for that time? 


I should note, I am an employee, not an IC, and am paid by the line.


Thanks!  


Don't complain! I spent years married to the coldest fish around....
nm
I spent about a month in India and they do speak English but sometimes I had a hard time
understanding the way they pronounced the words so I would ask them to spell it.
Saw him on CMT show with John Fogarty. Great, great singer with a neat personality and drop dead
gorgeous without seeming to know it. 
Great post. I swear by both Advantage and Frontline Plus-- both work great! - sm
I don't know about "natural" approaches for the house. I have always used flea bombs in the past before the miracle of Advantage and Frontline changed my life. Have not had a flea problem at all since I began using those products about 10 years ago, dose all the dogs religiously once a month with the Frontline Plus except in Dec.-Feb. to save a few bucks and because the ground is generally frozen by then and no fleas are scurring about. -- Hope you get flea free soon.
Thanks to all. Got some great feedback and ecouragement. This board is great.
My rant passed, ate a late lunch, now back to the trenches.
GREAT GREAT SHOW! I still think Ellen Pompeo
should have gotten the Emmy/Golden Globe whatever it was for the show. I like Sandra Ho, her character just needs more depth... Next week looks AWESOME!! Maybe there is still a chance for McDreamy!! First season DVD coming out with deleted scenes! Can't wait to get it & watch it!!
It is a GREAT company and great deal! I've had
Vonage about 6 months now and I love it. The only mistake I made was trying to keep my original phone # - I wouldn't recommend that. You have a temp # for a while, and the other provider can fight for the old #, etc. Go to vonage. com. They have new features all the time! There is even a new soft phone that is a phone on your screen. You don't need a real phone when working - just headset. It has 800 #s you can have very inexpensively - great voice mail. You get emails when you have new messages, etc. I only wish I had used them a year ago! Nothing but good things to say, and I complain about everything!
Sounds like he will do great then. Again, best wishes for great success!
x
That's great Patti. Thanks. Have a great time at the beach.
x
You should feel great as a transcriptionist if they think your work is that great!!!
It is not your fault they approached you. I think it would be a different storey if you were the one searching for the job to take away from a company. They obviously want to get rid of the company and if you didn't take the job they would probably ask someone else. You should enjoy the better position and not feel guilty!!