That's Why I Posted To Begin With
Posted By: ra11en on 2007-02-26
In Reply to: Education assumptions - Unhappy Camper
I didn't make the assumption that 'fast typing' was all it took. I still believe that you have to be able to type fast, but I also have 'top notch computer skills' and can learn well. I wanted to know more about training in this field because I assumed training was a necessary evil. One thing I didn't assume was that the folks on this forum were just downright rude!! Not saying you are, just most of the others that replied to my initial post. I am certainly not looking at MT as a way to pay my mortgage or put my daughter through college. Just a way to fill some free time.
Thanks for your post!
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Where to begin?
Brandy,
Where do you live, most importantly? I am a mom to 3, in Georgia, and am currently homeschooling my son in kindergarten. I can give you some tips, if you want, but there is a lot, too much to post here. IF you want more info, post back and I'll give you my e-mail address or e-mail you privately.
Oh, where shall I begin. sm
The *hoopla* about offshore not being secure is absolutely a valid threat. It may have nothing to do with transmission and everything to do with the value system of another group of people though. At least three VERIFIABLE instances of offshore MTs holding medical records for hostage and at least one where the MT threatened to publish the records on the internet if she was not paid, exist. Hardly *hoopla* my dear. I seriously doubt if the CMT will ever become a mandatory credential and I seriously doubt that for several reasons. After nearly 30 years, the AAMT has fewer members now than it ever had. People are leaving in large numbers. I also have it on good authority that the test the offshore MTs take is not the same one given to US MTs. Personally, I don't put someone down for having a CMT, I just have no great real respect for it or the association. I trust I am allowed my opinion. I worked at a local hospital where the transcription supervisor was a CMT and she could not answer one blank when asked! I actually know a lot of CMTs who are not all that.
Maybe it's your attitude to begin with.
Change your tune. Be sugary sweet when you think someone is being rude to you and see what happens. Pay it forward. Give someone a smile or a kind word. Let someone in line in front of you. Just do one little nice thing per day and it will multiply. People are never rude to me. Everywhere I go, they know me by name because I take the time to be kind to them. Gas station, grocery store, bank, school, doctor's office. You might have to fake it 'til you make it, but you can change your outlook and how you perceive the world treats you. If someone is "rude" to you, blow it off. Maybe they're having a bad day and it's nothing personal.
To begin with, I would suggest
Paying for your rent/mtg, food and utilities without fail first.
I ended up in BK 13 so I can't help you with a company name but this is what I learned, food and shelter come first.
You should have a system to begin with. SM
I recommend mining the Productivity Talk forum for tips and a book such as Saving Keystrokes by Rolland. One high producer strongly recommends Easyscript Express by Levin, an old ABC-based ShortHand method that can be used with a keyboard.
When I first started with expanders, in the Ice Age seemingly, there were no forums like this to consult and I just started dropping definitions in without a good system. I've since had to redo everything a number of times as I wanted my Expander to do more and more for me.
As time goes on, you'll also want to abbreviate EVERYTHING for you, which requires system, both because you can't possibly remember thousands of abbreviations but remembering a few rules is easy AND because you need to have a way to enter various terms that seemingly need the same letters.
One tip just to jump you off: Some systems start two-word phrases with the first two letters of the first word and the first two or three of a second word. However, if you look up "lesions," say, in a medical dictionary, you'll see immediately that starting with three letters of the describing/adjective word and two of the noun (i.e., cocle for cochlear lesion and corle for cortical lesion) would serve you much better. Although if you gaze over just at the ones that start with intra- you'll realize more system than that is going to be needed for more complex terms. I personally start that prefix with "ia" to differentiate from ones that start with inter- "ie". Best wishes.
ADD vs. MT - Let the Battle Begin
Have you tried setting a timer for 20-30 minutes, then giving yourself permission to get up from the desk (setting the timer again for 10 minutes or so), wander around, surf the web a little (on a different computer if you can, it will help keep the surfing bug separate from the MT'ing bug), then when the timer goes off again, go back and set it again for 20-30 minutes and start typing again?
These days, I'm working in bed from a laptop due to back and wrist issues that don't play well with conventional desks, but in some ways that actually helps keep me focused, because it's such a pain in the neck to get up and walk away... I still struggle with wanting to surf while typing though - a problem I never dreamed of having back when my shiny new computer was an IBM PS2 or something like that - where the floppy drive held less information than my cell phone does today!
Good luck!
Does it have 3 letters, begin with an M?
If so, I'm there too...Ain't life grand???
The one time I asked for one, they said no. Ask and if they say no, begin looking elsewhere.
dd
The rules for Op notes are a little different. You may begin a....sm
sentence with a numeral; so, you would never spell out cc for blood loss, IV fluids, urine output etc. In the indications section, if a sentence starts with a number e.g. "Three days ago the patient" or "One day prior to surgery, I spell out the number. Otherwise, in the body of the report or in the headings, I use the number.
Don't get excited. You should have provided it to begin with. nm
x
The head set worked to begin with so
if it was in the wrong hole would it have worked in the beginning? Because it worked until I downloaded the pedal software.
How do you begin to come up with a line rate..
to pitch to a new account? Been working for others as an IC, now contemplating approaching an account on my own. No clue how to not hang myself and selling out at too low of a rate vs giving a quote that's too high and will make them back off quick. Would it be a good "rule of thumb" to take what you make as an IC on someone else's accounts and add .05cpl? From what little I've gathered over time, that's about the ballpark of what the MTSO gets paid per line for the account vs what the IC gets paid to do the typing. Does this sound about right to those of you who have experience with this? Tks
I promise you - I begin work at 7:00 p.m. - I'm only PT, and my day always begins with
stat, H&Ps, consults, etc! I love it!
When they have me working mornings I am getting special procedures, ops, caths, and don't like it one bit! Maybe 2nd shift would work for those who just can't see themselves working from 11 to 7. Good luck!
Nope. It was a small account to begin with.
The work never went anywhere. The company has not lost contracts. I'm not being "phased out" either. The workload simply doesn't suit my needs any longer. I can do it in my sleep, so I'd like more work that's more challenging.
I would never begin a sentence with an abbreviation, for one thing. nm
x
I begin my day, every day, with a nice 2 to 3 mile walk with
This gives me time to think, alone time, fresh air and of course exercise. I love to walk and it seems that since I began doing this I am less stressed out. Have you had your thyroid checked??? Just wondering if that could possibly cause hair loss. I wish you the best.
Was taught in my program that all those eye words begin with
s
That is assuming they could even understand the dictation to begin with.
I would love to see the doctors having to listen to dictation.
Utilize the speed typing engines and begin
storing in their favorite phrases so that a few letters will bring them up. I am working for several physicians. Took me a few months to get all the words into speed typing mode but now that I have, the time I spend typing is cut in half.
Never type a word larger than 4 letters.
chest pain - cp
pneumonia - pnea
atelectasis or infiltrate - aoi
so on and so on - whatever works for you. This is how to make money these days, high production. And the speed typing engines lessen change of typos and other erros.
Okay. Where do I begin? I need some advice! My husband is in real estate. sm
He owns 5 houses (rents 4), and just closed on a house on Friday that he needs to "flip" really quick! Basically, it's a 30,000 profit IF he sells it quick! We've never bought a house to flip before, but have purchased them for rental property and to gain the equity. Okay. I'm spoiled. Very spoiled. Or you could call it blessed! We are both Christians with good jobs. I only work part-time and then we live off of his salary and the 700 we make in rent that is extra after paying ALL the mortgages. But we are in a real bind now. We have renters who owe us 2 months of rent, well now 3 months of rent! They won't take our calls, you know the rest of the story! This house that my husband bought on Friday cost us ALL of our cash because we had to put some down and then pay closing costs (close to 4,000!). So now, for the first time, we are broke (NO cash flow whatsoever now). And I'm struggling over here! I mean, we can't even go and get ice cream tonight. I'm really questioning our decision to purchase this house.
See, we had no idea UNTIL closing (honest to God), just how much it was going to cost! So, we couldn't back out of it. We were thinking 2000 on the high end. I completely flipped out when the attorney told us how much we needed to write a check for!!!!
We've gotten a couple of calls on the house, but obviously no takers. My husband went straight from the attorney's office to the house to put up for sale signs in the yard! It's a cute house. We just need someone to buy it ASAP!
So, if you've ever wanted to meet the people on the Carlton Sheets infomercial - here we are!!! yes, we've made a lot of money in real estate, but there are huge, gigantic RISKS! You could go for the gutso (like we did and buy all these houses) and you could lot a lot if it doesn't work out. The loan we got on this new house is a type of loan I've never heard of before. It's just a "quick" loan where you need to pay it back pretty quick in the hopes that you will make the 30,000 in equity that the house did appraise for.
What do you do on a budget? What do you do when you are so broke you can't even buy ice cream for the kids? I want to cry now, even though I know some of you out there have zero sympathy for crazy folks like us...Well, I need some ideas on food. What's cheap to make and cook? I put 30.00 in my SUV last night and that will have to last me until the 15th!
To all of you who struggle every week like this, my heart goes out to you. It truly does. Now I know what it feels like to live in desperate need every day.....
They're not thrown to the dogs when they had no work to begin with!
nm
thank you - please do keep me posted. - sm
I was supposed to be there next week.
yes - keep us posted
I am sick to death of these companies. My credit card company called me Friday night at 9:45 P.M. to ask where my payment was, which I made last week and it was not late!!!! I was so mad and I knew the call was being monitored "for better customer service" that I screamed "listen you job stealing m**f**, do you have any idea what time it is, and if you knew your job, you would see that I am not late with my payment and it was RECEIVED last week." I was sooooo mad I couldn't believe I had lost it like that. I was screaming all kinds of profanities.
Ooooh that felt good getting that off my chest. Now if a big hurricane or tsunami would hit their towns I would be even happier. I have never been racist a day in my life, but I realize that I am racist against countries taking our jobs.
Where was that posted?
Can you direct me to that?
that was probably LL who posted.
x
I think that is the same guy that posted
before about the $25/audio hour and got actual bids for $10 and $20/audio hour. He/she sounds like a scammer
I got in right after I posted here, but before that
x
This was NOT posted by myself.
Hello PJ, nice to meet another, but how about we find a way to set ourselves apart. I am an MT and an Editor for multple accounts and frequent the boards here on MT Stars, come visit me on the Holiday/Recipe board if you like.
You might as well have posted
What is this? What can we do with this. Sorry, I'm not a technical person. How can we use this?
I posted below on this...
This lady I referred to before who wrote the doctor, he was actually more impressed with her at trying to learn a profession and showing that she cared than he was with the MTSO. He got mad at the MTSO for firing this lady and thought she should have been given a chance. He was actually really upset by this. I just think maybe a doctor should know how much their demands can affect a family...especially now that I am out of a job!! As far as the MTSO and everyone else seeing this and having a long memory, do you really think I would ever be able to work for that company again? She fired me over e-mail and told me not to contact her and then stayed logged off of her IM, so she is basically "hiding." Now that should stick in everyone's minds for a long time, I would think. It does really hurt to be an MT for so many years and have a mishap with a TAT a time or two, be told about it, apologize and then be given more work for a week while the MTSO trains someone else and THEN get fired!! I thought there was some kindness in the world, but I guess not when it comes to business. That is such a shame.
I saw that you posted....
a little lower that he was fine, but now he's having problems again. I really do think it's some sort of allergic reaction, and he went and exposed himself yet again. What is he eating or drinking??? Only the two of you can decide how serious this is, but if it IS serious, then get him some medical help--and to hell with the cost!
Well, I think this is probably a first for me to see posted
I have mixed feelings about what to say because I don't know what kind of felony it was (and I'm not asking), but I would think that would be a huge factor in getting any kind of job in the medical business. Usually it takes 20 years for things like that to roll off a reference check. I'm torn between telling you not to disclose it and roll the dice of it not being found or continue disclosing it and not being able to find a job. (I know that statement will generate some livid responses!) In general a felony is enough to keep you off most employer's payroll and I imagine it would be next to impossible for jobs related to the medical industry. Maybe try some local clinics where you can explain face to face your situation.
Saw them AFTER I posted!
Again, sheesh, sorry to be a bother - I thought this board was for support. If you don't want to answer, you don't have to! People talking about what they are fixing for dinner are not attacked! I'm trying to save my house and feed my children. I logged in after a long absence, ran a search, got 0 (again have no idea why), posted my message, and yes, THEN related messages popped up! I only come here now and again and probably did something wrong but jeepers! That's ("how can you say that?!") how I can say that. Please think twice before basically accusing someone of lying! Thank you for a lovely end to a lousy day with only $26.00 earned due to no work at my job.
I don't know why I posted that there!
nm
Maybe this should be posted on the
x
Thanks again!!! It's also posted above!!...sm
Since I never win anything, this truly made my day - thank you MT Stars again and again for this huge recognition this year!!!! Your support makes us happy!! 
I know this has been posted before, but...
I just got a job in which I will need macros in word. Since it is something I have not needed before now, I never really paid attention to the posts on it. Can anyone explain this to me? Thank you!
done, but please keep us posted (sm)
I really got hooked on American Idol when it was on. If they ever put clips up we could listen to, it would be fun to hear. Maybe you could keep us posted on the process. Did this just start recently? Much more fun that MT, isn't it! Sing one "for the girls"!
Just posted on this...
I make over $20.00 per hour on VR, even with the low pay because I can do more than straight. The VR is different with the platform- just like working for 1 company as opposed to another. Where 1 does not like, another loves this form of doing their work- what system are you on? Mine lots of time takes very little editing really.
I know - I just posted above sm
about some other discrepancies - like the templates from DQS I put in only register two or three Keystrokes but it doesn't count the characters at all. The templates I have in IT shoot the count up, but then I haven't determined what happens when you remove part of it. It must keep the original count of the template?
Yes, that was exactly what was posted above you and below
NM
Then everyone who posted here who said (sm)
they transcribed a report knowingly on a family member either likes to not follow rules, doesn't want to toss the dictation back into the cue for loss of lines, or is just plain ole NOOSEY BODIES.
Well after I posted this...
it brought up the list of related posts and they were all so similar to my situation! and good advice too. I feel better. I notice though, the only people who never respond are the pickers themselves.
That was me that posted about...
the online removal and no, you don't have to have their service. It's an entirely one-time thing. McCaffee is the one I used. Do a search on Google for McCaffee online virus removal. I haven't seen it on my bill yet, but it was between $60 and $90. Allow at least an hour's time to complete the removal.
There was a job ad just posted by
a Christian-based MTSO. Of all the MTSOs, I'm sure they would understand your dilemma. Give 'em try, but be upfront and honest about your belief system.
I posted previously on this...
Unfortunately, probably for every good QA person, there are maybe twice as many who are sadistic against other women. Also, sometimes, in my opinion, they try way too hard to impress their bosses, or whoever they are trying to impress, than to really to help and educate MTs. If that were not the case, you would not have all the major inconsistency, where one day they want it 'this way' and the next QA on the next day wants it 'that way' haha. Ever had that happen? Then when you question, you are treated worse than any man would treat you...
If a company hires an MT who is so terribly bad and lacking in skills, that is quite sadistic to then turn around and whine and complain of how bad they all are. Perhaps QA should be involved in the hiring process as well.
Sounds like martyr syndrome a little bit, too, like 'we all just have it so bad from you horrible, awful MTs, we have to fix all your nasty work.'
Right, it is all about the QA and the supervisors, right? Not at all about the MT who is expected to produce twice as much, for 1/2 the pay, is listening to the dictator form scratch, not reading along like QA does, where, yeah, it is easy to catch a word or meaning when most of the hard work is already done from an MT who was probably struggling to even get that much intelligible information from someone chewing or sneezing, coughing, or when a child is screaming in the background.
If anyone really wanted to 'fix' the problem, there would be a job created to help educate MTs having consistent problems (not just, gee, today we do not like the way you punctuated, so you are a terrible MT). Hiring also should be better controlled.
One wonders, are you that critical to the overseas MTs? Hardly...their work is probably 50% worse than any of our worst MTs, yet look how they are thirving...and your bosses are even wooing them.
Help MTs, stop crucifying them for errors that are not causing harm to patients, and remember we are struggling against time, as well. Only, WE are the reason YOU have jobs.
I see why you posted Anon
That's nice that you are prejudice. I have three children who are mixed. They are wonderful children. I know this has nothing to do with your post about the little girl, but your admittance of being prejudice really offends me.
I only posted the one question
I did not LIE about anything. The only question that I asked was regarding the test question that I have been jumped on about. There is another poster who asked about questions on her practice tapes.
Are you the one who posted on the Ask the Dr board?
I go to "The Stop Smoking Center" for online support. I quit for eight years, but this past 13 months have been so crazy that I relapsed exactly one year ago. I've been peeved at DH and stressed over a lot of stuff, so I lit up one night while out with a friend. I quit again for three months using Zyban, but relapsed yet again after stopping that. I do OK during the day with not smoking, but DH smokes outside at home so it's tough to stay quit being around him. I just keep making excuses to not quit. That means I'm just not ready yet. People handle their emotions and stress fine without smoking. I handled everything fine for eight years without smoking, and those eight years were pretty hairy, too.. For me, it's a question of replacing my bad emotional crutch with a good one. (Exercise!)
Good for you for making the decision! You can do it! Google the support board I told you about, and I'll probably be around here if you want to buddy up or anything.
Oh, and I notice you have posted ONCE as JK???...
Here is a link that was posted on here just a bit ago.
http://www.mt-resources.com/index.htm
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