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Welcome to my world...I would type a whole page and ended up with 35 lines max. No thanks.

Posted By: Curious on 2007-05-16
In Reply to: Lori, I'm in the same exact boat. - mt

I had to bag it. I couldnt afford to do that. I was averaging $6 an hour. I can make more at McDonalds. So there is obviously a problem.


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Yep, $2.00 a page and the page has about 30-40 lines on it nm
>
how many lines are there per page?
A friend of mine works on a per page and half page basis rate wise and I was wondering how many lines that is.
lines per page
Depends on font, character size, margins -- anywhere from 54 to 62 per page.  Type a page in your usual font and count the lines -- easy to do, type numbers all the way down your left hand margin.  Or do one page and use the property function in Word and it will tell you the number of lines on that page.   Change the font and it will show you how many in different fonts.  Easy enough to find out. 
Actually there is often not 65 lines per page. sm
It depends on your line length, font size, and a lot of other things. You would have to take the entire character count and divide by 65, that gives you the lines. I have had anywhere from 30 lines per page, to 70 lines per page. One hospital figured 18 words per line, or 90 characters instead of the normal 65, but it was an hourly position so it didn't matter.

But you're right, I doubt if you are only typing 15 lines per page. Somewhere you are being ripped off. Can you get the entire character count anywhere?
Now many lines are there in an average page?

M


Me, too. Can't make money if you can't put lines on the page. nm
n
Not Silent Type! Less than $1.75/page and you go to NJ to train. nm
s
Psychiatric transcription - average # of lines/page
I had an interview with a local MT firm that specializes in psychiatric transcription. The pay rate is .05/line for the initial training period (no timeframe given - training ends when owner feels employee is ready to work independently at home - could be 3 months) & .06/line after that. The owner mentioned that reports sometimes average 10-15 pages, but didn't mention how many lines the average page includes.

I'm trying to figure out what my pay would be. During the training period, the owner wants employees to train out of her house (20 miles from where I live/one way). With the price of gas, I'm trying to figure out if this is a good move financially. The psychiatric transcription definitely interests me, but I'm trying to figure out what my pay would be like. I'm guessing that while I'm in training, I won't receive large reports. The employer is supposed to make her decision within the week, so it's not like I've been offered the job. I just want to educate myself as to:

How many lines the average page of psychiatric transcription might have.
Does 10-15 pages sound right for the average psych report?
Does .05/line during training & .06/line after training sound fair. The owner doesn't give out pay raises or paid time off (I would be an employee, not an IC).
Does it sound reasonable to be in training for 3 months & then be able to work from home after that?

Can anyone help me or direct me to where I might be able to figure this out. I'm currently going thru MT training, so I don't currently have MT work experience. I do have 11 years administrative work experience & 7 years technical writing work experience, so I'm pretty proficient on the keyboard.

Thanks for your assistance.
If there is a company out there that let's you type on a blank page, I haven't found it. I
been an MT for 13 years now and worked at home for about 11 of those years and never found a company that I felt truly treated their MT's fair.
Ask for a sample report. Count the gross lines on a full page. Then
figure out the line rate you want to make. For example, if there are 30 lines on the page and you would want to charge $0.15 per line, then that would be $4.50 per page. If they would like your hourly rate, figure out how many pages you think you can transcribe in an hour. Using the above example, if you can transcribe 4 pages per hour, then charge $18.00 per hour. In California the going transcription rates are approximately $22-$25 per hour.
I keep up with my lines as I type them ...
I have a document open at all times and keep up with the WT and the lines for each report. I stop to count when I take a break or after every 25-30 reports or so.
How many hrs (on avg) does it take to type 6,000 lines/wk?

And is this what most companies consider FT (6,000 lines/wk)? Just trying to see if I will be able to do this...Thanks!


Wow, how do you type 1000 lines in
I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I don't type anywhere near that. How do you do this?
Need to type 1200 lines on new

I just started new job about a week ago.  I need to type 1200 lines/ day to reach my income goal.  How long does it usually take to reach this amount of lines?  I can't seem to find a comfortable routine.  I want to work nights but no luck with that.  I am straining too much to see the work because the eyes are just too tired by the end of the day and day time is full of interruptions.  Thought about splitting it up with 4 hours in the day and 4 hours at night.  Anyone heard of doing this? Any other suggestions?  I have an Expander but I haven't put all of the shortcuts in yet.


thanks for input.


What type of reports do you get the most lines on?...
I was wondering if you had to choose, which type of reports would you want to do exclusively that would net you the most lines, of course other than a wonderful account with normals on every report
How many lines per hour do you type? (sm)
I am curious how many lines per hour my fellow transcriptionists are able to accomplish?  I used to be able to do 250-300 or so per hour, but the last company I worked for I could never break 200. 
What about the pages where you only type a few lines?
You're still making out better getting paid per page. I know I am.
So, if I were to type 10,000 lines in a pay period (sm)
for that company, would an incentive be given or is that amount expected for a full-time employee?  Curious! 
I type 1000 lines in about 2.5 hours (sm)
I type on a gross line and I can type 1000 lines in 2.5 hours +/-.  When things were good at MQ on the Cottage program, I could type 450-500 lph.  Everybody's situation is different.  Sure some people stretch the true, but it is still possible, but you have to take into account all the different variables.  I utilize my word Expander to the fullest.  Any little thing I can think of to save me Keystrokes I use.  I checked my stats for my shortcuts the other day and in 3 hours I had actually saved 56% of my keystrokes.  Can speak for anyone else, but on most days, I can type 900-1000 lines in 2-2.5 hours.
How long does it take you to type 1200 lines?

On a normal good day it takes me about 5 hours, somedays I just can't stay focused so it takes longer.  I'm still debating about getting an Expander so just wanted to see how long it took people on average. 


I type no less than 1500 lines in 7 hours

On my slowest day, I will not allow myself to get less than 200 lines an hour.  Depending on the worktype, I can type up to 400 lines an hour.  It is hard for me to consistently stay at that speed as I have orthopedic issues!!!  I also can type extremely fast, (120 wpm).  I also use a lot of Expanders and shortcuts. 


Can YOU really type 3000 lines an hour?!

That right there is an incredible feat of fingerin'! 


Meditech didn't work with my particular short cut program and the lag time was absolutely unbearable, not to mention all the demographic screens to wade through before getting to actually type the report.  I absolutely hate using "F" keys, which leads to more finger fatigue, and the Meditech I used was full of them.  Honestly though, I can't remember if it was "Magic" or the other version of Meditech, as it's been at least a couple of years now. 


I do know, however, that I was able to produce 1500/lines per 8-hour day as a matter of course with one word-based program and with Meditech, it dropped down into the 900 range.  It was financially and mentally devastating for me, but again, my experience.


A person who can type 200 lines/hr. is worth
nm
i have 19 years experience and still type 220+ lines/hour
without having to cherrypick. That's just what we do when we get into a backlog. That way, we never have to outsource ... thank God ... and we won't lose our jobs to India ... even BETTER!
I just type 250-275 lines per hour and transcribe about 6 to 6.5 hours a day.

I am a seasoned MT who back in the day 2000 lines was nothing to achieve.  I sat for 8 straight hours, barring potty breaks and 30-minute lunch.  But now that I am pushing 50, I can hardly stay in the chair 2 hours at a time.  I have set my goal at 1600 lines per day as that is what my employer pays 9.5 cpl for.  If I drop below that, my cpl drops also.   In addition, I have a backup up IC position with another company (to compensate when I run out of work on my FT job)  that pays 10 cpl.  I type 2 hours  on that account  (usually at night) and get 600 lines per day.  Fabulous account, fabulous "internet software" everything is right at your fingertips, and they count spaces, headers and footers.   Actually both jobs count spaces.


My advice to anyone wanting to get more lines- first and foremost priorty is check out the software the company uses.  If it is not user-friendly... forget it.  There was this one company who paid 10 cpl, and I could hardly get 500 lines in a 2-hour period.  They said they counted spaces, but it was hard to tell, and they surely did not count footers or headers.


I routinely type over 300 lines an hour, so even if I could do 300 LPH in VR, I would be taking a hu
x
I type around 2300-2600 lines a day, 5 days a week.
Yeah, it does come out to $6,000 a year.

Yeah, many of us do it on a regular basis.

Yeah, it is worth it to me.

No, there is no magical single tip that can give you that kind of production.

No, I'm not interested in talking about production with anyone because all I ever get back is all the reasons you can't do it. So, if that's your mindset, you're exactly right - you can't do it.

My experience pays off for me and having the CMT gives me an extra income boost (which I save and makes a tidy nest egg padding) and the CEUs are very, very educational and worthwhile.


how many lines per day and per hour do most companies expect/want you to type for full time? thanks
lll
lines produced also depends on type of account, doctors, specifics, platforms.
nm
I wish that it had not ended the way
but it is a great movie!
Thank you both! I ended up doing something magical with my
nm
I ended up getting another keyboard SM
like my old Microsoft ergonomic, the beige one (Natural Elite I think it is) and am much happier.
Personal page/web page resource
Paula,

Thanks a lot for sharing these great websites!
Thanks to you all - I ended up declining this offer after all. nm
xx
She ended up losing the baby and she did tell him about it.
xx
Quit 10 years ago because I ended up in the
hospital with an asthma attack. If you have asthma, you will not smoke. The way I did it was very short term use of the patch and 13 months of a low dose of Paxil. It kept me from having panic attacks from not having a cigarette. You probably know that there is more nicotine in all brands now than there was ten years ago.
I understand. Been in same boat. I ended up
trying to do the 2 jobs for a few years - IC and employee, and absolutely burned myself out. I sold out and stuck with the employee position. I don't regret it in the big picture, but I sure do miss my freedom. That hurts so much that I am basically dead emotionally regarding my JOB. Its now a job. But I just was not finding the security at IC positions and was afraid. I'm getting older and can't mess around with companies going under and the like. Once I did finally give up the second job as IC, though, it did take away lots of pressure, and I realized how hard I had been working doing the 2 jobs. So, I am an employee and probably safe, but I feel sad. Its a corny comparison, but I feel like one of those wild mustangs who was free, but now is saddle broke and in a corral.............Neigh. Neigh
All I can say is I wish my parents home schooled me. I ended up sm
getting into a gang from school due to constant peer pressure, failed the 8th grade, got arrested, and deep down inside my heart was always right and conscience telling me no, but when you have kids all around you who are just no good, you seem to get sucked into their ploys....My school years were just absolutely awful.

We didn't move away until it was too late. Moved to another state...I can't really tell you how I survived those high school years, but I can tell you this - it would have been much better for me and my own life had I been pulled from that situation altogether. I have 3 young boys now and I am home-schooling my 4 y.o. (pre-K). We do very little right now, but it may be a door for their future. We have social life at school and with relatives and good friends whom I CAN decide is right for them - when you are at school, we as parents, don't see all that is going on and kids nowadays need that constant supervision (which I lacked) and so I think home schooling CAN BE OF HELP FOR SOME and for others (maybe if they had good self esteem and knew better) can be in public schools.

Public schools nowadays though, are really going straight down the tubes..

PS: I did not read ANY of the other home schooling posts. Just wanted to share my story.

I do have a crockpot in my Goodwill box. I've ended up with 3 of them somehow.

Thanks for the offer.  My mother and maternal grandmother both died of breast CA and I always knew of all the girls in the family I was going to be the one to get it, just didn't think this early.  Haven't had staging yet, but I get yearly mammograms so hopefully they've caught it early enough.


I'm already trying to decide if I'm going to dye my hair that burgundy color that seems to be popular  or if I'm going to get a super short haircut.  I've recently taken up knitting and I've already accumulated a major stash of yarn and I'm making a list of all the things I'm going to make and how I'm going to teach all the other people going through chemo to knit and we'll just have a jolly ole' time knitting and carrying on.  I've been wanting more time to knit. 


Hate to tell ya, but some of us Flower Children ended up as
It's narrow-minded to blame any one generation. We Boomers blamed our parents' generation for all the world's problems, as well. I see CEOs from all 3 generations: My parents', the Baby Boomers, AND generations X & Y. GREED comes in all ages, sizes, shapes, and ethnicities.

I DO agree, however, on voting the old timers out of office. Not necessarily because they are OLD, but because too many of them are GREEDY, short-sighted, narrow-minded, and in the case of a certain President, jus' plain DUH-MB!
It sounds like the processes haven't ended yet...sm
Go to Task Manager and the Processes tab and you should see "wc32.exe" and "winword.exe" and if those are still running after you closed Extext, that means the program hasn't completely shut down yet. You can manually force it shutdown by highlighting each of those processes and hit End Task, I believe it is. Click yes when it prompts you to, then you shouldn't get that message about it not responding and the normal.dot message.
A lot of people who grew up without privilege ended up skanks too
Money or lack of money has nothing to do with it. It's whether the person has any value system, lines they will not cross, and standards set for themselves regardless of financial status.
Not sure, but had something similar happen to me to, I ended up changing companies...
The telephone company I had was for unlimited calls, long distance and regional calls. Everything was fine for about 3 months and got a letter where they were disconnecting my service because they said I had used it too much. I called them and stated to them that it wsa for unlimited minutes and they just said sorry, they were discontinuing my service. Luckily I was moving anyway and the new area I moved to has cable. Might check into another telephone service. Good luck.
I know a very large MTSO that lost a LOT of money and ended up
/
that should read "they ended up sending all the work"
x
You are correct on all points-I ended up copy/pasting
XX
Thanks! Called Help Desk. My settings somehow ended up on Joystick and not pedal. Go figure!
dd
Ditto on Voice Systems. I have a friend who worked for them and ended up being owed .... SM
way more than $1000 when the first company went bankrupt. Also I had applied but decided not to take the job, and the MTSO literally begged me to come to work for them. I'm sure glad I didn't. Maybe this present company they've started will be better, but so far, it doesn't sound like it.
Went to pig roast. Chefs had no idea how to cook pig. Ended up smelling and tasting like garbage.
:+
No joke. I made 12 cpl as an employee at a large teaching hospital. I should mention the ended up
work to an outside service and that is why I'm not with them today, but good paying, employee status jobs are out there, though they are few and far between.  You just have to be patient and be good at what you do. 
NJ $3 page, though I have heard as low as $1 page.

When I worked for a national, up thru 2 years ago, I was getting $1.75 page and heard they got $4.