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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

This is all part of transcription and the skill

Posted By: that it takes to do the job well. on 2008-01-06
In Reply to: ESL - anon

I have had in all of my years of experience many types of dictators.  I can honestly say that I have had ESL dictators that were better than your run of the mill American dictators.  We are a melting pot, and what's funny to me is that so many make comments about an MTSO sending ESL dicators offshore, yet we have Mexican, Chinese, and Indian restaurants that we eat from and love the food.  I think we need to somehow learn to embrace the ESL dictators.  I had an ESL that was the most lovely physician.  He knew that his dictation was difficult and was always willing to answer questions and would take the extra time to explain why he stated this or that. 


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What about the part that says, 'Free transcription'?
?
Has anyone here tested with companies and had trouble with the transcription part with the foot

pedal not stopping the voice.  Am I doing something wrong.  I am using the foot pedal that I used for DQS and the voice just keeps going and going and I have to keep going back over the stuff and over it by mousing back and forth.


Does anyone work a part time job that is NOT transcribing or related to the transcription field?
If so, what?? 
What is the minimum lines per week required by employers for part-time for transcription?
nm
transcriptions have a skill also
as far as looking up addresses go!
There's a shortage of US MT's because the skill is becoming obsolete

Schools don't even encourage anyone to get into this field anymore because they don't want to have someone take a course and then be out of work in a few years when this skill goes the same direction that shorthand did several decades back.


Like someone said on the Company board, education is the key.  Don't allow yourself to be a one-trick pony and learn how to do something else while you can.


MTs with less skill s/b paid less with that money going to the best
I can do xxxx but it makes me sick when the slackers get the exact same pay as me. Please don't give me the xxxx story that I can make more by being more efficient.
Upping the skill ante.
You might go online and look at Oak Horizons. They have an excellent reputation and are affordable. Also check VO-Technical schools for grammar as they are less expensive but adequate and junior colleges in your area. Good luck and good for you in improving your quality.
Good research skills the best skill an MT
x
If you believe editing is a HIGHER skill, then why are we being paid

Failing national skill test
This is to Vicki. Please do not be discouraged. The MAJORITY of the companies out there (most of them advertising here) actually DO NOT want experienced MT's. They are looking for the stay-at-home mom (not critizing, wish I could be one) that do not actually have to carry an active part in family income. If you are experienced you would actually produce (imagine that-isn't that why we are working cpl?) and that would cost them money. Where a newbie makes the minimal amount for a time and that makes them happy. Not to say that they would not be on the newbie's butt to produce 98%+ etc.

I have 30 years experience, and I have failed tests from a national company. I have kept myself updated over the years and extremely computer literate, and had been in charge of staffing before they recently outsourced our workflow to India, so it is not a case of not accepting the "new ways" of doing things. Many of the "new" AAMT guidelines are grossly incorrect according to the major hospital system that I represent.

Just my say. Thank you.
If I had just one other skill that allowed me to pay for my modest lifestyle, I'd utilize it.
Maybe it is the 20 yrs in this business. I now have tinnitus, am absolutely sure that sitting for 8-10 hours a day is having a detrimental effect on my health, am more anxiety ridden now that there is very little job security and I am a sole operation here in my little world, have arm and hand fatigue (it's a freakin miracle I do not have CTS yet). I just really do not enjoy doing this as I used to. I have to really force myself to stay focused and am really really trying to find some joy in it by realizing other people have tedious jobs just as I do that they must also dislike.
B.S. in HIM, no MT school, OTJ training for that skill, but the HIM classes for the knowledge. nm
x
It depends on your skill level, your speed, your ability to do the
nm
Editing is the higher skill since it's more brain work,, AND SM
the computers are taking over the finger work. That and practitioners entering directly into the electronic medical record mean that most traditional transcription jobs before too long will be a thing of the past.

So I'd recommend you go directly to editing since you'll end up doing that anyway. If there's a future in this, it's going to be with a higher level of medical knowledge and a more expanded involvement in medical records beyond merely editing dictation, but likely including that.

Plus, with editing you'll be in at least twice as many reports as if you were transcribing them, which means you'll get much more experience more quickly. Whether you'll lose some benefit from not typing every word out I don't know, but you will spend a lot less time getting verbage you don't need to learn on paper. I.e., instead of typing some version of, "The patient presented to the emergency room by private automobile with a complaint of" a few hundred times a week,...you don't.

Do commit to developing an expansion base that will cut the Keystrokes it takes to do your work to the very minimum. As long as anyone's paid on a production basis, and as long as we're using keyboards, someone using 5 keystrokes to make 2 edits will BOTH make a lot more money than someone who takes 9 keystrokes to make one correction AND be a much more valuable productive worker--i.e., worth keeping on and developing as most traditional jobs disappear.

And do sign up for more medical classes, the ones people preparing for nursing and medical school take.

Whether you'll make more or less money one way or the other right now probably depends more than anything on the particular talents you bring to the job and the particular skills you choose to develop. Unlike the previous poster who does better transcribing, I make more editing, but I'm a fast reader and a slow keyboarder, so the less my income depends on what my fingers are capable of the better. Best wishes!
Yes! We're talking critical skill developement here! nmx
x
Totally agree. They're no longer paying for this so-called skill
and that's part of the reason the quality is down.
The easy part is making the decision to leave, the hard part is
actually doing it.  Been in your shoes and it took me a year and a half to leave after I had made the decision to do so.  It was the best thing I have ever done for myself and my girls.  I had family and friends and a counselor telling me what needed to be done and I knew what needed to be done but until I had the courage on my own to do it I stayed.  One day, we had an argument and he spit in my face and that was the last straw for me.  Even though it is something that I will NEVER forget, that day is also a day I will never forget because it is the day that I took my kids and left.  I am a single mom of 2 and have been single and supporting us for 5 years now.  I have been healing ever since and still am to this day.  You can do this.  I know that if I hadn't have left and I would have stayed one of us would be dead by now or both. 
This is a very basic computer skill/concept. You copy files to another drive using Explorer.

There are very detailed instructions in the Help files that accompany Windows. You can read those for more information.


Basically, you open Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer). Locate the files you want to copy, highlight and right mouse click. Choose Copy. Now, find the location where you want to copy these files (usually another drive like D: or H:, whereever the flash/jump/thumb drive is located) and paste the files there.


 


Good for you, Linda! SM First, editing's a desirable trend. Higher skill, easier SM
I feel it may be like a train about to rush around the bend at me.

For the discussion, editing is a higher skill and it's easier on the hands--absolutely no carpal tunnel problems since I started editing. And the WAGES ARE ABOUT THE SAME--you go through approximately twice as much dictation (some people more, some less depending on talent) in the same time it would take to transcribe it and get paid half as much for that amount of dictation, ending up without a drop in wages from editing. This is fair and market-driven.

Fewer editors would be needed, but some would be needed for the stinkers, even scary-good as VR gets with most dictators.

The big threat is from the electronic medical record, where physicians and their assistants check boxes on a handheld device they carry around with them and there is NO text report to come to us at all. England has had this for some years; go look and see how MTs are doing on the Emerald Isle.

No Chicken Little here, guys, AND not burying my head in the sand either. I don't have a view into the future, but the one thing that's clear is the future will require developing new skills, professional or trade level, of one kind or another. I just hope and pray it doesn't require going back to suits and office politics. School's okay, even at my age, but am guilty of putting it off to see if I'm going to be allowed to continue pretty much as is until I'm too old to work...huh--maybe there's some sand obscuring the picture after all. Best wishes.
Agree, verbatim transcription equals poor quality transcription.
x
It's not funny when you're on a board where language is one skill you're selling.
.
It's not even a sport - these guys aren't athletes - it's a SKILL not a SPORT
x
Know AIM transcription system, never heard of Hull transcription. Are you sure
you are not thinking about DHull who is a recruiter for MDI-FL?  They use the AIM system. 
Editing is the higher skill. I earn more editing SM
because I'm able to produce more--if the company doesn't adjust the way production's figured down and down again to keep the account from going elsewhere (when that happened to me on EditScript with no explanation of why my income was dropping, I went elsewhere also).
What's up with the CMT part A and part B exams?
I thought it was all one test.  How can a half a test last 6-1/2 hours?  If anyone knows, please share your info!  Thanks! 
Does anyone know if you are a part time employee for 1 company and part time IC for another can you
still claim deductions for IC on your income tax even though you are one of each.
Depends on how part time the part time jobs are.
You can do it. You just have to work out a schedule you can live with.
Which part of OK are you?
Hello there
I did my little part
Went to the Houston SPCA yesterday to bring home a "furry refugee".  They had not all been processed yet, however, and so we brought one home that had already been there, but at least it cleared the way for the other furries guys and gals.  They are in need of donations, if anyone is interested.  They have brought in approximately 460 dogs and cats from NO.
Because they pay a part of it as well.
MQ pays a good portion of the premium and the MT is only paying part.

Spheris pays a higher part of the premium, or at least they have in the past. With the new plan, MQ may have adjusted their portion of the insurance premium up a little bit.

Where did you get the idea MQ was taking away insurance?
this part
Preliminary, unaudited results indicate that operating income declined from approximately $61 million, for the twelve months ended December 31, 2003 to approximately $23 million for the comparable 2004 period. The decline in operating income includes: 1) the impact of approximately $11 million in costs incurred in 2004 related to the ongoing billing investigation and associated litigation, 2) approximately $4 million in costs associated with separation and replacement of the Company's management team, including members at the executive level and 3) approximately $3 million associated with the write-off of intangible assets associated with products no longer being offered. In addition, the base business, as described above in the Revenues section, experienced a decline in transcription service volume from existing and lost clients and a decline in transcription service rates charged to customers. The impact of the revenue decline was partially offset by several cost saving initiatives including reductions in telecommunications costs, office consolidations and associated staff reductions.
$2.87 in this part of PA sm
I got a bike rack for my car (had been using SUV) to take DS to his races and training sessions. I have personally been increasing my mileage and even ride my bike to church every chance I get (20 miles one way). I do all in-town errands by either foot or on bicycle.

When the aforementioned SUV is paid off this summer, I am going to get an even smaller car. I would love to try either a hybrid or a car that would run on biodiesel.
I don't think there is on. How do you get the lab part?
There are programs to get BSN if already an RN that can be done on-line. 
SE has to pay part of the SS tax, which is
practically the same as self employment tax. As SE, the company pays part and you are responsible for the rest.
Most definitely part of it...

See your doctor...may need some hormone adjustment.


What part of WV are you from? sm

I am from Beckley...Boy, is our town ever growing rapidly!!!!


I have read these posts and checked out websites for these train rides, Amish country, Dutch Wonderland and I really, really believe I have found our next vacation!  I have found so many things that I am interested in that would be great for the whole family.  I really do appreciate all of the advice!  Now I cannot wait to book this vacation!  Thanks!!!!


Like I said, it came as part of MQ's (sm)
horrible DQS platform in 2004.
Duh on my part ... thanks so much!! :-) nm

What part are you from because
everything I've read or looked at in my state is between 12-15
You know the sad part?
The sad part is that she was a really good friend for a long time, and she never ever spoke to me after that because she blamed me because I found out what she was doing. I guess she figured I had "ratted her out" after she got caught the second time, when I was not there anymore. I remember when I asked her to stop, she said to me that, "She could not be like me, because she did not have my work ethic." I know that maybe she was just hurt, and that I should stop thinking about it because it was almost 12 years (my goodness how time flies!) ago, but you know, I still miss her. Every so many years I'll send a Christmas card hoping she will write back and even now I wish the whole thing never happened. Oh well. I will make a New Year Resolution right now to stop whining LOL. Things happen for a reason!
First part taken from OP
"... and this is a catholic hospital. i guess this is the new christian work ethic." - I brought up organized religion because of this comment.

I merely meant that it is flawed (because it is made up of humans) and she should look out for her own wellbeing (and not be swayed or feel unjustified because she is working for a religious organization).

Religion itself isn't a bad thing, but many times the organized groups get more concerned with protocol than the truth and love that Jesus talked about.

(The following is from copied from PFO.org)- Some of the most stinging rebukes Jesus issued were directed toward the Pharisees. Probably the strongest diatribe is recorded in Matthew 23. At least seven times in that chapter, Jesus pronounced the following condemnation: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” He condemned and illustrated their rapaciousness, their selfishness, their inward spiritual emptiness, and their emphasis on “scruple” while neglecting the “weightier” matters of justice, mercy, and faith.

I am also curious if you are sensitive to how the people in other parts of the world feel when Christians tell them that what they have been taught and believe is wrong and that they will go to H#ell if they don't change their thinking.
it has always been a part of the job sm
and it is not going to change. There are some dictators that some MTs are always going to have a hard time understanding, probably most MTs but they are not going to change for us. The only thing you can do is flag a report and hope the doctor will fill in the blanks or the hospital will say something to that person about all the blanks in the report (the dictator). They are not going to change for us because it is not about us!
QA is a part of MT like it or not. nm
x
what part of Florida are you in
because it shouldn't really affect your work, if you have a working computer and electricity, you should be able to get work.
I exaggerated the part about
1/2 the pay for working twice as hard, but in my opinion that is quickly becoming the trend...

Also, I apologize ahead of time, for any typos.  I am not on the clock right now and am not obsessive/compulsive about it all...

maybe its part of the new MQ pay plan

its all part of the job sweetie.
x
This is part of growing up
I believe they have to start making their own decisions at some point in their life and living with the consequences.  Same as we all do.  I'm not saying he will regret it or not regret it, one way or the other, but either way, it should be his decision.  Take it easy, Mom. 
Try just entering part of the last name sm
and the first letter of the first name.

Some accounts do have glitches and yours might be one.
Obviously not part of the base of
..