Home     Contact Us    
Main Board Job Seeker's Board Job Wanted Board Resume Bank Company Board Word Help Medquist New MTs Classifieds Offshore Concerns VR/Speech Recognition Tech Help Coding/Medical Billing
Gab Board Politics Comedy Stop Health Issues
ADVERTISEMENT




Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

a reply and a rant!

Posted By: JZ on 2005-09-27
In Reply to: Is our profession drying up? - Nancy

I suggest if you want to stay in this occupation, just keep looking and be persistent, and concentrate on getting experience in acute care.  Personally I don't think the work is drying up, I think the gist of the problem is there is more than enough work to go around, and not enough experienced people to do it.   The "solution" of voice recognition has not taken all our jobs like they said it would. Offshore transcription has not taken all of our jobs. I don't believe EMR is going to be totally successful either.


Even if they find a good transcriptionist, some of the powers that be are unwilling to pay a decent wage even to well-rounded, seasoned transcriptionists.  I have seen lately on this board several examples of people that subject themselves to nearly unbearable work conditions, extremely long hours, working on little sleep, etc.   I certainly understand keeping up with one's standard of living, but is it really worth it?   We will continue to be treated like doormats as long as we're willing to let others do so.


MT is a profession in trouble. The wages have been getting lower and the workload keeps getting higher, and it's no easier now than it was before.  What young person wants to get into a job like that?  I made the decision to work my way out.  I'm bloody tired of the shrinking wages and the lack of respect from suits and the like who have no freaking idea what this job takes. 


Sorry for the long diatribe but I had to vent my 0.02.


 


 




Complete Discussion Below: marks the location of current message within thread

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu


Other related messages found in our database

Just a little rant

One ARNP on my account is absolutely the most aggravating person!  Obviously she rants all the time because we've gotten memos saying to be extra careful with all her work because she is the "squeaky wheel". You have all these particular things to do to hers for 8 lines, 9 lines, etc. etc., reports taking about 10-15 minutes to be sure everything is done right.. for 8 lines, 9 lines..and so on. .Very frustrating. But then, half of the time, she doesn't even give the name of the patient. So we are to be "extra careful", but she can't even remember to dictate the patient's name!  Very frustrating!  Nobody's perfect. We all get in a hurry, but only THEY can make the mistakes!  Thanks for letting me let off steam..


Rant -well said - sm
I have felt as you do for sometime now, but you said it well for all of us who feel this way. The caring and dedicated physicians in this world are few and far between. I firmly believe what goes around comes around, and I only hope to be there when it does.
rant

APPLAUSE!!  APPLAUSE!!!


You are just so right on!!!!  They give us little thought or consideration, but expect us to cover them and "make them look good" for pennies!!!


 


A RANT!
Does anyone know of a company that REALLY handles the problem of cherry picking??  I makes me so mad.  The people who skip hard jobs get paid the same for doing easy work, and the ones who don't cherry pick have to work harder!!  Most companies say they have a policy, but in my experience the supervisors don't really enforce it.  AARRGGHH!!
Just sent in my little rant! nm
x
go ahead rant!
One of my dictators smacks gum in my ear constantly and it drives me crazy because it is rude!!
I have been wanting to rant too
When they start talking before the system is recording. Is it REALLY so difficult to turn it on BEFORE you talk?
Quick ER rant
I swear, it seems like the network TV seasons get shorter and shorter. There will be one new episode, a month of reruns/specials, another new epi or 2, more reruns, and so on until the season ends in the beginning of May. And if you miss an epi, forget about seeing it during summer reruns. Seems like they stuck a new show in the time slot.

And that's why I love my cable, especially FX. If you miss a show, they'll be replaying it 500 more times during the week and sometimes even repeat the whole season of episodes.
Pundit's rant

Ah, my favorite -- a long proselytization that sounds vague but is in fact meaningless. 


 


oh man I could go on a rant right here with y'all but DH just got sm
home from work so I am afraid I would get caught!
Rant away, Girl!

It's GOOD you got all of that off of your chest!!


A Major Rant

A rant letter to a couple of doctors:


What has happened to the medical profession in this country?  Why is it that doctors forget their Hippocratic Oath?  Why is it they forget the purpose of their career choice?  I've transcribed this week on numerous elderly patients who have been with their doctors for five, ten or even fifteen years, but they have to seek care elsewhere because so many doctors are refusing to accept Medicare.  How would you feel were if it were your own mother or father being refused care with their established physician just because they became classified as "elderly" and qualified for Medicare?  If it weren't for your "connections," your parents would face the same dilemma that other elderly people face.


Why is it that when a patient comes into your office complaining of feeling fatigued and achy that you automatically assume they're depressed and pop out a prescription for them to pop a pill?  Why not LISTEN to what the patient is saying and realize that while some MAY be depressed, others have a legitimate medical problem going on?  Why not do some labs on them to check for anemia, hypothyroidism, etc.?  Oh, I get it -- let them wait two hours to see you after their appointment time and then spend two minutes with them... after all, time is money.  By the way, I guess that kid who came several times a couple of weeks ago complaining of abdominal pain wasn't just trying to get out of school since I saw his obituary in the paper this week.  Even when his mom and dad brought him in a second and third time, you brushed them off.  I hope seeing his obituary hurts your heart at least half as much as it hurt mine.  I can't imagine the pain those parents are enduring right now, but I doubt you've stopped earning money long enough to let it bother you.  And, no, I won't cover your butt if I get a subpoena when his parents sue you for medical negligence.


Why is it that you cringe when I tell you I need to raise my rates when I've not had a rate increase in three years or longer when in the mean time you've raised your rates at least three times a year every year?  Oh - ok - your expenses have gone up?  Do you think they've discounted my electric bill, gasoline, supplies and everything else?


Remember that last check before Christmas that I asked about when you were late paying me?  You know, the one where you said you didn't have the money to pay me until after the 1st of January - although my contract with you explicitly explains payment arrangements?  That was hard to swallow when your wife was standing there while I was waiting to talk to you and making out a check for $8200 to have your home decorated for Christmas?  Yes, it ticked me off that you had the money for that in your budget but not the money to pay me my measly little $702.  It also ticked me off when you took your three-week vacation to France and left me waiting for payment.


I do understand - its all about the money.  Of course, that is why I work.  But, if I ever get to the point that I'm so cold-hearted or money-oriented that I cannot try and give the best of my abilities in my transcription for every patient I type on, I have common sense enough to know its time to get out of my profession.  Yes, to you I'm just a "typist", but how many times have you picked up the phone and called me asking, "Do you remember the names of the tests that I need to order for Lyme disease?" Or, what about when you can't dictate a proper letter and you say, "This is what I want to say - can you fix it for me?"  What about those times when I've flagged a lab result and said, "This patient would be dead with a potassium of 988."  Regardless, I remain just a "typist" in your mind.


In spite of all your faults, I do my best for you.  I give you accurate work every day of every week because I know one typo (on the transcription work you don't review) with a drug dosage could mean the difference between life and death of your patients.  But in the end, does it really matter to you? 


 


EMR rant - lengthy

Hey, everyone.  We have all been so worried about VR and India taking our jobs that I think we may have let something slip by that is so very much more dangerous. 


My uncle had to have a procedure at the local VA last week, which was an education in and of itself, but what was perhaps most interesting was that I was able to watch his doctor work with the VistA EMR system.  For those of you who are not aware, VistA is the EMR system the VA uses.  It was created by them for use throughout the VA system, and basically it is a click and choose transcription system, minus the transcriptionist.  It uses templates and normals, and if the doctor needs to add more specific information, they simply type it in.  As I sat there with my uncle and watched his doctor type a few words, click some boxes, ask some questions, and do a completed preop report in the time it would have taken him to dictate the darned thing, I was astonished.  It is a very slick system, very impressive to see up close and personal.  From the perspective of patient care, it is wonderful.  The doctor pulls up the report with a few clicks, the patient signs off on it with a little electronic signature pad, and a nurse approves the whole thing with a code.  Very slick. 


So why should this scare us?  Here is the kicker.  The VA/Government/Medicare system is giving this program away.  That is right, GIVING it away to any doctor who wants it.  The problem is that it is extremely difficult to install and set up for proper use, and hard to learn to use initially.  It is also hideously expensive, both for the equipment used to run it on and the installation, though for a large practice probably no more cost prohibitive than paying a team of transcriptionists (2-3) for a year.  Okay, now add to this equation that Medicare is encouraging doctors to learn and use this system, and the date 2014 has been thrown out there as a target.  Skeptics say that 2014 is not reasonable but I am not convinced.  Here is why.  I think we can all admit that the transcription workplace is most definitely not what it once was.  Part of the reason is that it is getting harder and harder to find decent, qualified transcriptionists.  I know there are many, many hard-working transcriptionists out there who know what they are doing and take pride in their work.  I also know that there are many folks out there who like to call themselves transcriptionists, people who think the job is nothing more than typing and see no need to further their educations and stay on top of things once they have obtained a job.  This is not a problem that is confined to our profession; many other areas of employment are suffering the same malady.  However, most other areas are able to weed out the bad seeds, if you will, before their business has been harmed and find the hard-working people they need after searching at length, but medical transcription is not one of these areas.  Because of the nature of the beast, the seriousness and responsibility of the job, if a Transcriptionist messes up people have the potential to die.  With wages decreasing over time and companies becoming more desperate to hire anyone who can type, experienced transcriptionists are moving away from the job, not being able to support themselves on the lousy wages companies are paying.  The dwindling experienced work force is being replaced by a new generation of transcriptionists whose only experience with doctors' offices is when they visit their own primary care physician.  They are educated online, and while there are some schools out there truly committed to producing qualified workers, most are fly-by-night operations.  This is why, in part, doctors are trying to find other avenues of getting the reports they need.  Two of the VR perks that are pushed by companies are cost reduction and accuracy.  The companies that are promoting VR are using our inaccuracies and poor performance to tout their new baby, and they are succeeding.  Because they still pay us a minimal pittance to edit the VR after it is dictated, the doctors never see the product beforehand and therefore are under the impression that we are, in fact, inept, and that VR is a much better system than using humans. 


Now, imagine this if you will.  Transcriptionists are already on the hot seat and so, when the government starts promoting its EMR VistA system, it appeals to doctors.  Not only does it eliminate the need for transcriptionists, it costs about the same overall as they are already paying in wages/fees.  It gives the doctor complete control over the reports they produce, and they have immediate gratification because in the time it takes them to dictate the report, it is finished and in front of them.  The impression one gets from reading all the articles and forum posts pertaining to transcription these days is that doctors are becoming frustrated with the services they are being provided, and are ripe for being swayed into something else that is more productive.  This is the perfect time for doctors to begin transitioning to EMR, and the proliferation of companies out there who have developed EMR systems is testimony to that fact. 


Do doctors look at the EMR as a potential end to the careers of tens of thousands of workers in the United States?  No, probably not.  They only look at how this is going to affect them, their practice and their patients.  Congress is supporting and pushing this initiative, as are certain presidential candidates.  The concept of losing this many workers to EMR is apparently not something they are concerned about.  Implementing this sort of system will make them look good, and the importance of image to politicians is a given. 


While there can be no doubt that outsourcing has hurt medical transcription, as has VR, I strongly believe that our biggest threat is coming from our own government.  I think the EMR system is, within the next 5-10 years, going to put 80% of transcriptionists out of business.  There will be holdouts, and I am sure not all types of reports will be producible from this system, but if a doctor is given a choice between paying for a transcriptionist to possibly do a report correctly and perhaps get that report back within 24 hours if all goes as it should, and using that same time they would be dictating to produce the report themselves, with very little actual work on their parts, which will they choose? 

I do not know if there are any answers to this problem.  I do not know if there is anything we can do to save our jobs.  There are so many problems in the transcription system that one would be hard-pressed to know where to even begin a revamping.  There are nay-sayers who think the EMR system will never get off the ground, and they may be right.  I hope they are.  However, unless something drastic happens, such as complete and total destruction of the computer-based infrastructure of the country, I fear that the EMR system will be the end of the profession we all love.  It is a gamble that was initiated many years ago by our own government, and it looks as though the pay-off will be exceptional for them but most definitely not for us. 
I don't blame you for your rant, but here's how I feel about it. SM

Consider the source, laugh, and enjoy your home and your family. You don't have to defend yourself to anybody.


I GIVE UP!!! (A RANT/VENT)
I am sooooooo mad I could spit. I have sooooo had it when clients call, asking what I charge.  I am upfront and honest and tell them 12 cents for a 65-character line - 24 hour service - friendly service - everything proofed to a T.  They keep wittling me down, and I just refuse to work for Indian wages, living in a United States economy!  So, I HAVE TO DECIDED to do what the offshore groups do who are scarfing up all the business.  I'm going to start charging 10 cents a line, gross line, with full lines containing, give or take 50 characters, but all I'm telling them is 10 cents a line.  I guess there's more than one way to skin a cat!!  
let him rant for a while; he'll realize
nm
Nice rant. Here's one from the MT side!
I'm sort of a newbie compared to some here I bet, 3 years acute care. I look up things almost constantly, my books have had their covers blown off, and Google all the time. Mistakes and/or blanks? Sure, I'm human. I have trouble when the dictators barely speak English, dictate ridiculously fast, ignore their own format, etc. I don't understand why they think it's acceptable. Considering the high productivity and near perfect accuracy required, knowing or finding terminology in every specialty, every work type for more than four hospitals, I am surprised at this job's relatively low pay and apparent low opinion of the position. Just another clerical job to offshore asap? I sometimes I have to fight the attitude, "Well if they don't care, I DON'T CARE, garbage in, garbage out!!"

I have even watched movies of the surgeries on my own time to understand all the details. Sorry you have to clean up after a few lousy MTs but don't put us all in the same basket :)
My turn to rant - sort of

While it is true that change is the only constant, change should not be accepted uncritically.  *New and improved* is often neither.  While *if it ain't broke, don't fix it* can be taken to extremes such that it inhibits any kind of innovation, change merely for the sake of change doesn't result in improvement either.


Students anywhere, not just those who are financially poor, are often eager to learn when they start a new course of study.  Perhaps the difference you see between third world countries and the US is that transcription pays relatively well in third world countries when you consider their economies (not ours).  It's not a palace, but it's not a shack in the country either.  They believe they are on their way up and may eventually push for higher wages as they want to continue to better themselves and their families.  It's an immigrant's mindset without actually having to go anywhere.  In the US, on the other hand, middle class, and even financial poor, students are in for a shock when they find that they may only be making $20,000 to $25,000 a year and can't afford the average 1 bedroom apartment in their area, much less a house.  If they know any *old* transcriptionists, they may find that wages have been, and are continuing, to fall.  For them, this is not a step up nor will it allow them to do better than their parents, and the bloom comes off the rose pretty quickly.


How much feedback you get depends largely on where you work, not how many years you have in.  It's a function of how much your employer values quality.  How feedback is accepted also has a lot to do with how it is given.  Constructive mentoring that is actually helpful and collaborative is vastly different from the adversarial merely playing *gotcha*, and the response to each will be similarly vastly different.


As for the Book of Style, some clients want it and some don't.  Long-time transcriptionists aren't the only ones who say *but we've always done it this way.*  Long-time dictators have been known to get in a rut, too.


Good long-term transcriptionists have already learned to be adaptable.  Is anybody still transcribing on a non-correcting Selectric and using Dictaphone belts?  Is anybody still using WordStar?  We are already teachable.  Medical care in all sorts of specialties available today little resembles what was originally learned 10, 20 or 30 years ago.  We know how to use resources whether it's books, books on disc or the Internet and are grateful for the increased resources.  Gone are the days of only having a Webster's, a Dorland's and a PDR.  We must continue these good habits.  School is never out!


What needs to happen is for this current exacerbation of the newbie vs oldie fued to die down.  Both bring strengths to the table, as well as weaknesses, and both could learn from the other.  It was easier when we worked in the same place, but if we want to strengthen transcription as a career, we have to do it together.  Fragmenting ourselves into newbies, oldies, mommy trackers, career people, us, them, simply allows employers to play to our fears and play us off against each other.  Transcription as a career cannot survive this way.    


 


** RANT!! ** I hate QA people!

  They whine about everything they're sent.   I think we should all boycott QA for a week, send them nothing, and put them out of a job.


 


Nice rant, but nobody tells me what to charge. nm
x
As a former 2nd grade teacher... NO way. Why? (see rant inside! Ha ha!)

As a former schoolteacher.... We would not have done "snowman poop" in class.  No way, no how.  I think it's a little on the tacky side but still relatively harmless, so that isn't why I wouldn't do it. 


Too many parents with no life and too much time on their hands would complain.  Teachers have to walk on eggshells to avoid giving parents any tiny thing to freak out about.  The kids? They're great.  Parents?  Man, do we need some chlorine in the gene pool.  If they aren't expecting teachers to do free tutoring after school (Why would you expect that? Do we give away free MT for doctors? No! ) or to hold conferences after 6:00 PM so they don't have to leave early from work (Hello, teachers have families, too! They're YOUR kids, YOU take off work early rather than expecting a teacher to stay past 5:00, okay?) they're "forgetting" to send lunch money for weeks at a time or refusing to take any responsibility for their child's behavior and blaming it on a million different reasons other than that they just don't take the time to work on the problem.   


Two degrees in education and a gift for teaching, but never again.  I'm an MT for the rest of my working years.  


Yes, you can. Rant, stomp feet, jump up&down,
x
Email reply vs. Post Reply
Could someone tell me how to post a message and then have someone reply by email instead of just "Post Reply."  I'm pretty new to this "chat" board.  But I WOULD like to say it is VERY informative and helpful.  Too bad some of the companies we work for aren't as helpful as one MT is to another MT.  We'd have it made!!
uhhhh, well I um apologize. I uh didn't mean to um take away from you uh rant. And uh yeah, 100

a little um, ya know, excessive.  But ya know, some of us, uh aren't quick thinkers like um, ya know, you.    Just havin' a little fun.


I worked with an older lady who got sick of hearing all the ums, sniffles, coughs, crunching from a certain dictator. She was one to tell it like it is no matter who you thought you were, co-worker, supervisor, doctor, administrator.  She had been at the hospital for nearly 30 years and was nearing retirement.  I loved her!  So she typed a report of his verbatim and I mean VERBATIM.  With every grunt, snort, and nonsensical word he made.  She, then of course transcribed it correctly.  She sent in the verbatim report just to show him and his staff what he sounded like.  Long story short, he didn't have a sense of humor at all and he couldn't take a very large boulder of a hint.  He called our supervisor ranted to her about this transcription and said that our department had better not be disprespectful to him like that again.  He never changed his dictating style either.


Anyway, there's my story.  I always have one. 


My rant re: "a match made in trailer heaven - two skanks in a crud"

Let me FIRST say that I do not usually rant, I am not a ranter, if something bugs me I take a deep breath, look at the offending item in the grand scheme of my life and realize that most of the time it isn't that big a deal.  However, these condescending trailer park references that I run into are a bunch of crap!


How can you make a derogetory referrence regarding people who live in trailers?  If it had something to do with race or sex you have been flamed by the whole board.  I am sick and tired of generalizations directed basically towards me!  I live in a trailer in a trailer park and I MOST CERTAINLY am not a skank.  I have heard it all, white trash, trailer trash, skank, etc. when people talk about parks.  My town even named it a "Manufactured House Community" and hid it where you can't see it!  I am here because I can afford it here.  The average price for a house in my town in Maine is $250,000 ++.  While we do just fine, I cannot afford that on my MT salary (been MT for 6 years) even though my husband works his butt off at 3 jobs.  Oh sure, we could probably get a loan for a $300,000 house but I refuse to get in over my head in debt just to convince people like YOU I am in your league!  I also LIKE it here.  My neighbors are the best I have had.  All of our homes (trailers) are well maintained, the lawns are spotless, and there is not a single car up on blocks that I can see anywhere!!  Don't even bother to tell me that is not the norm for parks because there are 300+ trailers in this park and they are all just as well taken care of! 


Another thing that irritates me is the word "skank".  I have never understood why women have to tear each other down using trashy descriptions like that.  Of course I am sure there are those out there who DESERVE the title but most of the time women seem to judge based on the look of the offending party. 


You may think your comment was tiny and I am blowing it out of proportion, but I am not!  It is comments like that that makes people like my neighbors ashamed to even tell people where they live. 


I have said my piece and I await the flaming.  When you drive through my park (yah right) and see me standing on the nice, green lawn in front of my pretty trailer with my 7-year-old in the yard, my toddler on my hip, looking very pregnant in my cutoffs and tank tops, you can THINK "skank" all you want.  I KNOW that I am a strong, educated, well-employed woman with a nice little family who refuses to put all our happiness and our hard-earned savings on the line to prove that I am EQUAL to people like you! 


Instead of clicking Post Quick Reply, go to the box further down on the left that says Post Reply to
     
thanks for your reply

and really sad too....


how's this for a reply
THE ARUBAN CASE INVOLVES AN AMERICAN, HELLO?  Comparing this and the Idaho case is just plain stupid! She is an American and deserves to have Americans looking for her.  God, give me a break!
Reply
Well I have only been working for 5 days now hard to say...
REPLY
Oh you are kidding!!! I just tested and was offered an IC position.. did you work for them long and they didn't pay you or if I am being too nosey please tell me.. I hear so much on this and other boards about companies not paying, you just don't know anymore about any of them!!
I have to reply to this LOL
That is not always the case sweetheart (see being nice).  I have been sugary sweet to these people and it does not work.  I have found that if it is a woman on the phone..my husband gets where we need to be and if it is a man on the phone, i get where we need to be.  Sad but true!!
REPLY
Hello,

Please read my reply to Vanessa Satterwhite's post. If you are still interested in working for us, please contact me at smt_recruiter@yahoo.com
sm's reply
Give this newbie a break! Trust QA? You don't if you do all that research. What makes you think no research was done?
Reply

Thats what i said..we don't know.  So therefore, she needs to be aware that she should definitely do the research PRIOR to just leaving the job.  If she hasn't then a new job is not going to do her any good other than show that she changes jobs often, which does not look good on a resume.  As far as trusting QA...not ALL companies hire crappy QA.  We again do not know.  The QA COULD be right and COULD be very good at his/her job.  You simply don't know, but telling her to move on before you even know the facts is just silly.


reply
Animal advocate, I really appreciate all your info you are putting out there, but I do take pause at your statement above that animals were meant to be consumed, I do not believe this. We are made to be vegitarians as our digestive tracts are not meant to digest meat, our intestines are too long thus the meat sits in our stomachs and rots before it is expelled. Yes there is a food chain, but I don't believe animal meat is part of that food chain for humans. Keeping on researching you will find the right answers for you, again thanks for your input.
reply to please help
Can you tell me what you were offered? If you don't mind.


Thank you! for your reply. Must tell you

When I got the email telling me I passed my test, I had tears rolling down my face. My 10-year-old daughter said, "Mama what is wrong?!"  I said, "I passed the test!"  She said, "Why are you crying?  You're happy aren't you?"  The combination of the stress of testing and finding out that I actually do have what it takes, hit me all at once.


I've been home for a year now after doing inhouse for over 15 years, and it is the best decision I have ever made.  I love it.  The flexibility is great for my kids, not to mention that I'm saving a small fortune on gasoline!


I get your message loud and clear about looking things up.  I have dozens of dogeared reference books and I am the queen of Google.  I took a medical terminology class to help with areas I wasn't too experienced with and the instructor's main focus was, "Don't guess. Look it up!" 


reply, thanks
Thank you for the feedback. any ideas on a company that is honest to work for?
If this reply was to me
It is because I still have the best I can get right now with the hospital, even though MQ did make it much worse, I can't afford to lose the benefits that we have. I went to work for MQ part-time on the side in the SAME PROGRAM and realized that it was EVEN WORSE, SO I QUIT MQ.
reply to above
if your life is so void of friends/family that you have to come to an MT board to discuss your personal issues.  transcription is only ONE aspect of my life.  I come to this board to discuss transcription issues and transcription issues only.  I have other people in my life that I can discuss things like KATRINA with.
reply
you obviously don't live with anyone.
A reply...
Your assumption is that less profits for CEOs and businesses and MORE money funneled into services will alleviate poverty.  I don't agree.  That is still a Band-Aid to the problem.  Since Johnson's Great Society in the 1960's poverty has not improved much at all.  In fact, some of the core underlying reasons for poverty have now been enabled... Who needs to worry about having kids without the proper preparations, the govt will save you.  We have a culture filled with rap music telling impressionable young people anything goes.  And I don't buy the "parents should just not allow kids to listen to it if they don't like it" because the kids that it impresses are kids who don't have proper parenting at home.  I'm all for funneling money into programs to get people onto their feet, to get educated, to help them while they achieve this goal, but to just hand it out to people who feel entitled without any effort in return is wrong.  Poverty will simply continue and even worsen. 
For you and WA see my reply below. I did this

because I needed a laugh too! 


My microwave is broken again, so I had to order out for pizza.


I first called my sister and asked her what to do.  I asked her how to use the big huge white appliance thingy with all of the dials on it that sits next to my refrigerator and has cute little covers over those "coily things" on the top.  I told her that the dials and numbers are way to confusing.


Her reply to me was, "Oh my gawd, you cook?"


Glad I made you guys laugh or chuckle.  With this job, we all need it.


Was your reply to
I am confused by your response.....I actually enjoyed the original posters "little jokes" about Walmart and someone had to come on here and say how ridiculous it is and how it wasn't funny and what not. I voices my opinion and she kept having come backs. I certainly always love a good laugh and just cannot understand how this Walmart jokester was so wrong in people's eyes. So, perhaps you should be addressing her and not me, because I have a good sense of humor and found it somewhat amusing.

reply
No, I have my college degree. All I was saying was that no job is certain anymore even with a college degree. I have met quite a number of people who have college degrees in areas such nursing who have gotten into transcription because what they were doing before was too demanding of their time and they had no family life. I wish people would stop knocking this profession. For myself this is a great fit for me. I just recently moved across the country from PA to CA with the same job totally intact. I have total freedom to move where I please when I feel like it without it disrupting my income or where I work. How many people can say that? Not many.
reply
what are people supposed to get paid??? $20 an hour? Sometimes I think part of the problem is that people think that just because they went to school that they should come out making $40K plus a year. Let me tell you something, even with my university education plus my MT education I knew what seemed at the time nil. I think people forget the saying -- if it so easy then everyone would do it.
My reply
I have two full time QA positions and I am not certified. I am salary on one at about $16 per hour. I am IC on the other at $20 per hour. The salary, I get paid the same amount each pay period no matter what volume comes through. The IC, I am paid to monitor the work as well as QA so for whatever shift I am on, I get paid, work or not.

I can't help you on average lines as I am not paid by line so I do not keep track of them. The amount of work required depends on your companies requirements. Mine are based on what platform and what account I am working on and they are not set in stone. Hope this helped. Good luck to you.
A reply
You don't shop there...Good for you.  I never said you SHOULD shop there if you have personal reasons not to.  If they're breaking the law, the law will deal with them.  If they are TRULY the evil company that you say they are, that will be their eventual downfall.  One class action suit on a company that big?  Hardly a shocker.  As for Chinese products?  Please check the labels on the stuff that you DO buy at where ever you buy it (other than Wal-Mart) and tell me where it's made.  EVERYTHING IS MADE IN CHINA!  Why?  Maybe because Americans and their unions didn't help the situation by demanding big bucks for little skill.  You arguments doesn't hold up either, at least as far as Chinese products go.
Reply
It is www.ustranscription.com
A reply
So what you're saying is that everything can be arranged for except for keeping  ice.  That brings us to who needs ice?  I can live without ice.  The only people who must have it are people who have meds such as insulin that must be kept cool.   Were those lines full of people on medications?  I doubt it.   As for the way the storm hit, I guess people should assume the worst and be glad when it doesn't happen. No offense though, but I can't see how anybody wants to live  in the state of Florida.  I've been there.  It's awful.  Hot, sticky,  flat, expensive, and riddled with bad weather.  I'll keep on freezing my butt off up here in the  Northeast (with my 4 cords of wood piled up for our 2 woodstoves just in case the blizzard of  all blizzards keeps us trapped this winter).
reply
I use the phrase, "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." Then I tell them that I wouldn't have to actually kill them, but it IS confidential and sorry, but I am not able to discuss it.

End of discussion.

(I just couldn't stand hearing ONE MORE PERSON say, "Oh, I know how to type! Maybe I should do that!" Grrr!