Yes, have done my own...avoid going to docs where I know...sm
Posted By: casey on 2006-09-29
In Reply to: have you ever done your own?? - Patti
the MT. I would not want anyone I know doing mine.
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Any way to avoid it?
My parents both lost hearing with age and I have seen how isolating it is.
Is there any way to avoid that with this job? I try to keep my volume down, but they way the dictators speak, I can't help but crank the volume quite a bit.
Did enough rock & roll blasting when I was young!
Any ideas?
Here's one to avoid -
My BF picked this up to try it for his laptop. It worked great for the first few days (long enough to get past the 'money back' offer), and then it suddenly began disconnecting him up to 12 to 15 times in a 4 hour period. I'm not sure about the legalities of using these types of devices to transcribe medical reports so I never tried it, but he said it was one of the most frustrating internet situations he'd ever been through.
If you've got Cricket stations in your area and they're offering their "unlimited" broad-band service for $40/month, I'd suggest applying that $40 toward a reliable service.
Here's one to avoid -
My BF picked this up to try it for his laptop. It worked great for the first few days (long enough to get past the 'money back' offer), and then it suddenly began disconnecting him up to 12 to 15 times in a 4 hour period. I'm not sure about the legalities of using these types of devices to transcribe medical reports so I never tried it, but he said it was one of the most frustrating internet situations he'd ever been through.
If you've got Cricket stations in your area and they're offering their "unlimited" broad-band service for $40/month, I'd suggest applying that $40 toward a reliable service.
It can be fun if you avoid the aggravation which I try to do - sm
Yes, it does bring out the worst in people...we got up to get ice cream after my 5 & 7 y/o had finished their lunch, left out drinks and my 1 bag purchase on the table, came back after maybe 5 minutes to find 2 ladies had helped themselves to our table, I was pretty pissed, but just gathered up our stuff (only 2 seats left for 3 people) and said we needed to find a place to sit, neither lady batted an eyelid or said a word. Kids asked why we didn't stay, I said I feared I wouldn't be too polite if we had stuck around since I was ticked. So we sat at the steps of the little stage area in the food court area and they had their ice cream that way. So that was the only wrinkle in the day basically. Kids had fun, we never dealt anything too horrendous, and I got a couple things accomplished without having to deal with the hardcore nut cases.
avoid refunds
Why would you want a refund? If you're getting a refund that just means you overpaid your taxes the previous year; in effect you gave the government an interest-free loan of YOUR MONEY.
Ideally you should set up your withholding so that you end up having to pay some extra taxes when you file your return (but not so much as to trigger a penalty). That way you get to hold on to your money as long as possible and can at least earn some interest by keeping it in a CD or money market account.
Do not avoid them. They are willing to work with you
because they want you to make your payment.
Read all the letters they send you some mortgage companies will point you in the right direction like using a third party to help you get caught up.
I never thought I would get hit with foreclosure but it happened to me and luckily as the poster below, my family was able to bail me out.
I still owe my family thousands because they tacked legal fees on top of what I owed and the mortgage company not only wanted what was late but also two month's mortgage in advance all in one lump sum!
Good luck...
Just want to avoid the same mistake...nm
x
None. I try to avoid caffeine.
nm
I would like to know to, so I can avoid applying
there. 3 cpl is awful.
I do have kids. They can have pop and chips, but I try to avoid it.
And Iecture them on the value of healthy food. LOL My diet used to be horrible until it caught up with me with my last pregnancy. I was frequently hypoglycemic and had high blood sugar. Then I had two irregular EKGs before a surgery. I've basically been scared into becoming healthier.
I definitely think its best to avoid relatives this year.
I'll join you for a toast on Thanksgiving? The idea of being alone during the holidays still sucks, but its a change from the strain of being with relatives, and a first. Might be kinda nice I guess.
Avoid Focus Infomatics!
I worked for Focus for a couple of months, and I absolutely hated it! They offshore their QA and tech support to India, and you can never understand a work they are saying when they call you to train you on their software, which is the worst program that I have ever transcribed in. It was always freezing up, losing connection to the VPN, and it cost me so much money because I kept losing work that I had done. Their tech support would take forever to respond when I IM'd them, and they were hardly ever very helpful at all. It is also true that they deduct pay for mistakes. I now work full-time for Cymed, and I am so much happier!
The only way I've found to avoid this is to.....
have three part-time jobs. I used to have one full time and two part time, but just recently went to three part time.
I NEVER run out of work now, but always have in the past six years in the business. This works for me, but took almost a year to balance the three so I'm not working a ton of hours.
You said THAT right! Most people avoid her type
nm
I try to avoid it, but I'm a pretty good diagnostician.
Most of the time I'm right, but I hate to do it, cause they invariably will say, "then what should I do?" - at which point I have to tell them, "go to the doctor. I'm not a doctor, I'm a diagnostician."
No, just want to cut to the chase and avoid tne empty posts. nm
:+
How to avoid hiring an American (video)
Cut and paste this link into your brower and click on the video to play it. It's kinda long but worth it....just dang is all I gotta say about that.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/16421
I've developed a bit of social phobia, now I avoid
 I listen to social anxiety tapes, Dr. Richards, because i'm finding I want to be around people now, just have forgotten how. When i'm in a conversation, even with people i've known forever, where attention is focused on me I feel this fight or flight feeling, get nervous and turn red, just uncomfortable with socializing. Getting better though.
My service told us to use mg/dL...as well as mL instead of ml, "to avoid confusion." nm
x
Not coming up w/ much except construction paper...tyring to avoid that if I can. Thanks anyway. nm
x
I prefer weekends. I find most cherrypickers also avoid
weekends, so I at least get a decent selection of work to do.
Accreditation matters. It helps to avoid scams, but not always. sm
Pick a good school. It is extremely difficult to get hired immediately, even when graduating from an accredited school. It is a hard row to hoe. Most companies require at least 2, usually 5 years of time on the job. They just don't have time to train new MTs.
I avoid numbers in my short forms and use letters
instead when needed. What I do most often is double-key a short form (same two letters) that goes back and adds slashes or dashes for dates and decimals. It's easier for me to key the numbers, then let a command entry edit when needed. You might want to go to Productivity Talk for a lot of great tips on learning IT.
Also avoid Antivirus 2008/2009. It is very nasty.
x
AVOID AT ALL COSTS SoftScript, Transcend, Medquist, OSI, Transolutions
SoftScript has bad, bad ESL accounts.
Transcend is notorious for running out of work while they have plenty of well-to-fo executives. They overhire, then nobody has any work. They will call you every day to "work extra" - that is, if they have any work to do.
Medquist is having a massive exodus because they have been sued for fraudulent billing. There are thousands of people looking for new jobs, so maybe you can get something soon.
OSI offshores like crazy but their worst problem are some of their lunatic department heads, one in particular with no experience and less of a brain. NO IDEA how to run a successful company able to keep good employees. Most of their best MTs have left and they are stuck with a bunch of MTs fresh out of school.
Transolutions - Low, low pay and horrible QA department that is not consistent and will write you up over crazy things like commas.
Garlic keeps you healthy. You smell so bad sick people avoid you.
x
Medical Bazaar is Indian and horrid. Avoid like the plague.
Here's the deal. The only way to avoid the pre-existing waiting period (usually 12 months) is to
insurances..Even at that, say you have coverage until the end of July miss August and get new insurance September 1, your new insurance cant do a 12-month waiting on you for pre-existing but they can make you wait that 1 month that you didnt have insurance so...in effect, if you new insurance starts on Sept 1..it wouldnt have to cover a preexisting problem until October 1 cuz you missed a month. My advice.. keep the Cobra.. I know it's a fortunate but if you had any kind of complication or anything related to a preexisting and you have to miss a month of coverage..it could be really painful. Let me know if you have any more questions.
I hate shopping. I do mine on-line and avoid the annoying crowds.
x
If allergic to nickel, then avoid green beans, broccoli, peas, etc.
I have that same allergy, had problems with the old metal zippers, snaps, etc.
This is a link for metal/nickel allergy
http://dermnetnz.org/dermatitis/nickel-allergy.html
if a new headset doesn't help, plug directly into CPU and avoid speakers and see if that helps.
;
ESL Docs
That is SO true!!!! There is definitely a problem with dictating the appropriate gender when it comes to ESL docs. They tend to go back and forth umpteen times during one dictation, so you really have to pay attention.  Verb tense can also get very confusing.
I agree that sometimes slowing down and concentrating can actually increase productivity. Even though I feel like I'm transcribing like a tortoise, I'm really getting more done than I think when I slow down and allow myself to think. 
Just hang in there with QA. They are just doing their job and you need to take a good look at what they are telling you and concentrate on that issue. It's really hard not to take it personally, that's for sure, but it's gonna make you a better Transcriptionist in the long run. On the other hand, if you feel they are truly wrong about an important issue, then challenge them!! But you'd better have major references to back up your challenge. 
Ellen S.
ESL docs
are you on VR yet? you can choose to have a 20% cut on your baseline rate and get the "better" dictators ?? or you can choose to keep your MT 100% baseline rate and probably get all of the ESL docs -- what a choice - not fair, huh??
This is almost as bad as the docs
I got three of them yesterday...three different docs. I think this is soooo rude! I'm almost to the point where I'm going to refuse to attempt to do them. Surprisingly, it's always a female doc who is dictating either a GYN or breast cancer related report.
I can picture a couple of these ladies hopping on a Harley Davidson riding home from work.
I think they should ask all ER docs
if they even know the English language to begin with, 'cause if they do, they don't practice it.
I know everyone knows that a lot of docs don't
read the reports after we have transcribed them, but I just had a doc on my account dictate that he wanted the line "Dictated but not read" added to ALL of his reports from now on. He was mad because he said he requested this to be done a few weeks ago and has been "keeping track" and it hasn't been getting done.
Amazing.
All of my PAs were better than the docs before
I switched companies and along with my new account came all new PAs (and might I add, quite a few of them) who all make me miserable. They botch the dictations beyond belief and I am left to fix the sentences which look like riddles and are actually confusing after they get done with it.
Change thoughts in the middle of a sentence...start talking and forget where they left off so I am sitting there for another 2 minutes waiting through the ummms and ahhhs and the start of sentences "the patient umm.... ahhh" and I'm waiting for them to say something and they just hang up.
Mine are good for this too... they will dictate an incomplete report and then a few dictations after they will start finishing incomplete dictations, adding in something they forgot to say, or they will say CC a copy to: Dr. ____ on a 4 second report and not say whose report it goes on. This would be easy to figure out if they didnt have 40 dictations and at least 5 hang-ups with about 8 of those 40 dictations being something they want added on to some nameless patient's report.
Had I not switched jobs, I would have had a hard time believing any PA was hard to transcribe...just because I had a good bit of them on my other account and they were all PERFECT speakers.
Now when I see that I have to transcribe a PA-- 
ESL docs
Hey there,
Hang with it a little while longer. You'll probably find that it gets easier. Those ESL doctors do say the same thing over and over again and it takes practice to get it. Try listening a few seconds longer than the phrase you aren't getting because sometimes that helps. I agree that samples help an awful lot so be sure to request as many as you can. Good luck! You can do it!
I would always rather have my ESL docs over the sm
English as first language docs, who speed talk, slur words, and don't seem to care about the patients. I am usually very impressed with the patient care given, and the understanding of the human issues, by the ESL docs. I think the problem with the original poster is she needs to learn to transcribe these docs, with all the suggestions, especially getting samples, mentioned above. She doesn't really seem that concerned with patient care, but her inability to transcribe difficult dictators. It is, quite simply, the nature of the business. The easy docs go on voice recognition, and the transcriptionists transcribe the difficult dictators.
I tell ALL my docs that I'm an MT...
...and I transcribe and read my own reports (I work for a large healthcare co). Hubby signed a HIPAA form for me to transcribe and read his reports, too. Now the docs are more careful 
how many docs know?
When I mention to physicians that if they send their work out it might be sent overseas they are appalled! Sometimes they say things like, "So that's why there were so many mistakes." Companies don't always tell them where the work is being done or by whom.
I still fault them for trying to save money at our expense, but in a certain sense some of them are being taken advantage of as well. Perhaps our "enemies" could turn out to be our best allies should a good case make it to Court TV.
We need to educate the physicians as well as the public.
docs
Or I like when they make up their own spelling of words, especially meds.
docs
sorry made a mistake above...I meant the docs take me to the bathroom with them LOL!!!
docs
Let's face it ladies and gents - doctors have absolutely NO respect for what we do for them so they can make $$$$$$$$$$$$$$....
My ER docs do it alot
I guess it gives them the right to charge PREMIUM prices,  although I
think ER prices are quite pricey enough. My friends trip through the ER
the other night was a cool $10,000 and all she got was an aspirin. (she thought
she was having a heart attack and it was GERD. But to rule it out they gave her
the works; CT scan, CXR, blood work, cardiac enzymes......and on top of that came the doctors (including the cardiologist, oh my) bill.
of course, I know 'bout as much as the docs do...sm
yeah, and that's why I'm here typing and they're out on their yacht somewhere, right? But I do try to diagnose, even did this when I worked for a doc in the back office. And sometimes I was actually right!
Cheap docs
They absolutely don't care about quality or any of that jazz, which is why I have always wondered why we as an industry keep beating each other up over issues that doctors couldn't care less about. Not that I think we should all just transcribe any old way we want, but it seems like we act like the slaves out in the mud pit slapping each other around about how much or how little straw to use for the bricks while the slavedriver sits on the side line with the whip completely content with end product either way.
I suppose the answer most would give is that we should take pride in the quality of our work whether they (the doctors) do or not, but I can't get passed the notion that these are the same individuals that the powers that be seem so intent on pleasing and are also the same individuals who would see us all in the soup lines tomorrow looking for the next homeless shelter to sleep in if they had their way. They (the medical profession) will not think twice about putting all transcriptionists out of business at their first opportunity, and yet we as an industry continue to bow to their ridiculous and uninformed demands concerning how to do what we do or their complaints about how much we charge or that we shouldn't charge for line count generated by short forms or macros, etc. They have no clue how many times their butts get saved by transcriptionists on a daily basis.
I've never met a transcriptionist who wouldn't readily agree with the notion that we are part of the health care team, and yet many of us continue to act like we still work for the doctors instead of the patient. Oh well, go figure.
Just venting as well.
also, most docs won't do certain tests (sm)
without your consent, if they are not considered standard and will probably have to be paid for by the patient out of pocket, unless the patient agrees to pay either up front or if the charge is denied. At least that's been my experience! Good luck, I hate insurance companies, too!
Isn't she cute? 
Do your docs talk 2U?
I have one doctor who, when she wants to correct something or other always says "This is an aside to the typist." ARGH. I feel like I'm in a Shakespeare play or something - don't those have a lot of "asides"? I always want to scream at her "Don't you know I'm not a TYPIST?? I'M A MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTIONIST, DAMN IT!!!!" Of course she's 80 or something so I shall forever be "the typist" to her.
I have a resident who always says "For transcriptionist, would you...." to get my attention - but when he was new I thought he was saying "Poor transcriptionist..." I always nodded my head in sad agreement until I realized what he was actually saying....
And then there's the doc who loves to complain about his job to me, sometimes in great detail - "Here I sit, waiting for some x-rays to come in so I can make a buck" and "I cannot believe this hospital."
They crack me up!    
docs talk to me
I always get one who says, "uh, secretary, please correct..." and then I have one who always says "oh, operator, could you kindly...." Does he think that because he dictates into a phone it's a telephone operator on the other end or what?
Docs don't have those guidelines because... sm
they realize how stupid they sound and look. They learn the language of medicine and stick with it. They don't bow to some silly-*ssed organization's whims.
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