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keep in mind that lines w/o spaces

Posted By: cut your "real" production by an on 2006-02-16
In Reply to: I'm new, but am I still too slow? - green green green

average of 30% - so if you are getting 150 lph w/o spaces, it is the equivalent to 180 lph with spaces.


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They really don't pay spaces or templates? Holy cow.

Even worse if spaces aren't included. nm
s
Something else to keep in mind ...
AAMT supports and even encourages the outsourcing of American MT jobs to places like India and the Philippines. They are perfectly happy to facilitate the loss of American jobs and the destruction of American families to fill their coffers. With that in mind, one wonders what value AAMT endorsement of an MT course should have to an AMERICAN MT. Just a thought.
Do you mind my asking...
...how long ago this was? Was this recently (since this economic meltdown)?
Hope you don't mind

I really hope someone chimes in with the answer to your question but I wanted to comment that I have heard nothing but positive reviews for MTEC and the reviews have been mixed, but leaning towards the positive for Career Step.   There are some CS students and alumni that will defend their school tooth and nail that it is not a second class stepchild to MTEC, and some that feel that MTEC (or Andrews) would have been a better choice. 


I had a friend who could not afford the down payment for Andrews, and either could not or did not want to try to get the Sallie Mae loan for MTEC, and I steered her towards the CS program at Everett CC because she had pell grant and student loan eligibility. 


You might want to ask some national companies whose grads they hire.  I asked a few (you could certainly ask more than I did, and I recommend that), and one listed a few schools I had not even heard about up to that point. 


It seems that the companies have some thing going on with CS because many of them have a link to request training info from CS.  Not a guarantee of employment by any stretch but worth asking what that is all about.  (hopefully not just about getting money from CS for advertising and referrals).


If it were me I would choose MTEC over CS.  But my decision is made - I chose Andrews over both of them and as soon as I can bring myself to send in the $1500  down payment(its just a scary amount of money to plop down), I am doing it!


I don't mind saying where I live.
I live in Granbury, TX. If thats nowhere near you then they probably wouldn't even bother w/ me, right? If you live around here, let me know, if not then let me know too. Thanks for helping!!!!!
No, they didn't mind at all that I was new.
In fact, I think they preferred it. That way, they can train me to do things their way. And no, I won't be the only one transcribing. They have one Transcriptionist that has worked there for 6 years and I will be helping her out. I will only have to work in the office for approx. 1 hour per day and the rest at home. They said I could work as many or as few hours as I need to. I've thanked them very kindly every day this week for giving me this opportunity.

I hope you can find something soon as well. It is so frustrating trying to get the required experience.
ConcernedtoBMT, if you don't mind me asking...
Which school did you go to and who are you working for now?
keep in mind when doing entertainment transcription - sm
this is faaaarrr different than medical. The companies that the poster referred to that are in California require VERY ACCURATE transcription. Thus, you must be excellent with punctuation and 100% accurate with transcription. In the medical transcription industry, hospitals allow for mistakes (both grammar and spelling). Go figure, the entertainment industry does not!!
possibly changing my mind
I think this is more than just a little discouraging. I am still working on my transcription course as well and the future doesn't look too promising from what I am hearing. I originally wanted to go into a radiologic technologist program, but it is full-time for two years. I cannot quit my full-time job to go to school. I thought MT would be something I could do from home while I went to college full-time. But it doesn't sound like I would make enough money for it to be worth my time. Very disappointing.....
Keep an open mind when looking for your first break.
For a first break into the business, you really need to welcome an in-office position. Not only is it a job doing what you say you want to do, but you may actually get guidance from an experienced MT and learn more than you could ever learn alone.
Hmmm, interesting. If you don't mind me asking *sm*
was it a paid apprenticeship?
Jen, would you mind emailing me info too?
I do have some MT experience, mostly VR, but just haven't been able to break into a really good MT position yet. I could use some help too. What costs are involved?
It sounds like your mind is made up that you don't need an adequate course,
and that hard-working MTs in your area are just waiting to complete your education so you can be of help to them. But you did say you wanted advice, so mine would be that your future co-workers, supervisors and customers will all wish you were ready to transcribe when you got out of school, which can only be guaranteed by two schools: Andrews & M-Tec. So instead of wasting a few hundred dollars on an education that won't land you a job, spend what it takes for a real education. At these schools you can learn at your own speed with lots of support from the teachers, and when you graduate you will be an asset to the profession.
I guess you don't mind working for $5-10 an hour.
I don't feel 5 cpl is worth my time. Even doing 200 lph (it took me 7 months to get to that point), I would only be making $10 an hour. Why would anyone waste their time? Their are companies out there that offer new MTs much better rates. But if you don't feel you are worth more than that, by all means, go ahead and accept minumum wage.
How to compare MT training classes? I have 3 in mind...SM
For comparing M-TEC, Andrews, and Career Step, what is the easiest way to narrow this down? A person would hate to make the wrong choice, but how do you know before starting? Is one of these more flexible as far as time frame to complete? What if a person started the course and had to stop it for a while before resuming (such as taking some time off while caring for a newborn)? Are payments made as you go or do you have to pay ahead?

Is picking any of these 3 generally a safe bet? They stand out to me as the 3 that I hear the most about that aren't the scams that I have been warned about.

I guess a speedier time frame for completion would be a plus, but then is that shortchanging the education?

Any advice would be great.

Thanks!
Sorry, I read the wrong post. I had way too many things on my mind.
but that said, I think the local hospitals would be your best bet. You can get invaluable experience there. Especially with acute care.

Good luck with your job search. WIll keep you and your family in my prayers.
Apparently, the AHDI can't make up their mind! See inside
From the FAQ on their website (as mentioned by someone else here):

"Two years of transcription experience in the acute care (or equivalent) setting is required to take the CMT certification examination."
Along the same lines
I went to a Community College in my city and received my MT certification. Most of my classes were online (only one class required me to go to campus). I could have opted to take them on campus, but because of my other obligations at the time, online was easier for me. I was hired by a national right out of school.
lines
Dont feel bad I am fairly new too. 7 months. I don't know exactly how many lines per hour I can do but I don't think it is even 150.
500 lines per day?
I was wondering about how long it takes to type 500 lines per day.  I am just starting as a transcriptionist, and they want me to type at least 500 lines per day.  Is this a lot?  
500 lines
I am also a newbie. 500 lines isn't really a lot. It is possible even as a newbie to do that. As a newbie your first few days or week on an account you may not get 500 until you learn what you are doing. But then 500 is easily possible.
how many lines
How many lines do you put out per pay period??
lines

I think you need to specify the pay period.  One week, two weeks, a month? 


I am a new MT.  I have only been working for 6 weeks.  I get paid every two weeks.  My first pay period was 3500 lines, second was 3000 (I went on vacation), and my third, which ended yesterday, was 7400.  I expect that by the beginning of the summer I will be up to 1000/day, 5000/week, and 10000/pay period.


But I also have children who need to be picked up from school, and I cannot exactly get a bunch of work done while they are home, nor do I want to.  I am not sure how things will go this summer.  I may have to work at night while they are sleeping. 


lines
how many lines per pay period???
# of lines

What is an average number of lines per day for a new MT (typing 60 WPM)?


On average, how long (in minutes) is the typical dictation?


 


# of lines
I realize I will be stopping to look up words for whatever reason and that it won't be straight typing without interruptions. I was just trying to get a ball park figure, that's all. Thanks anyway
500 lines
If it is ASR it should only take about 1-1/2 hours or less. If it is regular transcription it should take a little longer.
Lines
Lines are counted different ways. Sometimes they are counted gross lines, sometimes 65-character lines, sometimes 65 characters without spaces. You should really ask your teacher how they would like you to count them. I do not think that blank lines would count though.
Lines
Build your expansions, that is the key. After many years at this, I am still adding expansions almost every day. A split keyboard also helped me as the poster below suggested. I also started out very slow also. Don't worry, you will get there.
My very first day as an MT I did 667 lines. I had had no

MT training, wasn't a fast typist, had no expander. 


You can't compare number of reports because reports vary.  If you are doing clinic note they are usually short.  If you are doing acute care history and physicals they can be quite lengthy, same with consults.   I can do 40 reports one day and only do 28 reports the next, but still get the same number of lines both days. 


As a newbie you should do the best you can and not worry about what everyone else is doing. 


Or more lines as indicated below - nm
x
I would not take less than $48 as 60 minutes is est. at 600 lines - sm
$48 would be .08 a line. Granted he is giving you 48 hours to do it, and it will take anywhere from 3-6 hours to do depending on degree of difficulty, if you have to look up addresses, Dr. spelling, etc. All that SLOWS you WAY DOWN. $40 is only .066 a line IF it comes out to 600 lines, granted if it is less than that you make more $$$, but if more than 600 lines (say he is a fast talker) then you will get reamed. I'd get a sample first before you agree to anything. Good luck.
How much lines per hour?
Thanks everybody for providing me information few days ago, but I still dont get it how a new MT can type 75 to 100lph because I am able to type hardly 350 lines in 8 hours, this is after the correction i mean grammer, trying to find drug names, etc.
350 lines in 8 hours?
That really isn't much. You should be spending time when you aren't working studying *grammar* and such. I am a newbie, have been at this since January, and can get at least 150 lph. So far I am able to get about 9,000 lines per pay period...that's 10 days. Not trying to bash you or anything, but it sounds like you really need some practice. Websites like www.rxlist.com are great for drug names as well.
How *many* lines per hour...do you have a
nm
My very first day I typed something like 150 lines
for 8 whole hours.  My supervisor looked at the line count and made the clerk do a re-count, lol, surely they made a mistake!  Nope, it was me.  By the end of four months I was off of hourly training pay and on incentive doing about 1600 lines per day.  It will come if you work at it.  When you first start, your head is in books most of the time too, so this is taking away from your typing.  Just keep at it.
I do 1200 lines per day

as a FT IC.  This takes me anywhere from 5-6 hours normally, on a bad day it can take me 12 hours when I get distracted.  The point is that you will get faster with time.  I don't use expansion programs or macros, for me it is just faster to type what they say rather than try to remember what my "codes" are.  I have been doing transcription now for 15 years and it does take some time to get the hang of things, even when I started this job it was taking me my full 8 hours to do 1000 lines, then I was noticing I was getting it done in 4-5 hours so I upped my line committment.


I started out full time at home when I was pregnant with my first child, it is difficult to organize your time with kids at home but there are ways around it and still be very productive.  Where is your computer?  I used to keep mine downstairs so that I could still be with my kids and give them stuff to do and watch them but still work at the same time. 


Good luck and hang in there, it will get quicker for you!


500 lines for a newbie
I have only been working for 8 weeks.  It takes me 4-5 hours to do 500 lines.  Somedays, it takes less.  It depends on if I have to look up meds or procedures.  I also do clinic work, not acute. 
1000 lines
I do clinic notes and it still took me nearly 4 weeks to get to 1000 lines.  I only hit 1000 lines once, maybe twice a week.  Other than that I stay steady around 700.  I would imagine ESL dictators in acute care would have taken me 6 to 8 weeks to hit 1000 and I probably would not hit 1000 very often either. 
Can you say where you work that you can get lines that easily? Thx. nm
s
FT is usually 5000 lines a week and - sm
PT is usually 2500 lines a week. I have never heard 2500 for FT and 1500 for PT a week. I hear the hiring rate is 5-7 cpl. The most you will probably get is .08 after a few years, unless it keeps going down which I hope does not happen.
How do you make lines and maintain quality?
I'm trying to get up to company's line requirements but do not seem to be catching all my errors. Any suggestions?
I've always lost the first lines that were typed when
they come back on and change what they had said.  The report needs to make sense and if he is obviously going in another direction, it's just easier to start over.  It doesn't seem fair, but that is they way I have always done it.  Now, if you had typed a paragraph or so and he just hung up or got cut off, I would leave a QA marker and send it in and get the lines. 
200 lines an hour is way beyond minimum expected
s
Gross lines are great! Take it if it's 6-7cpl. nm
s
Reading between the lines, the work is coming
from India and no experienced MT would be willing to work for peanuts to basically have to redo the report. 
I wasn't being nasty - quit reading between the lines
x - but do not think that you are just going to walk back into this like it's a walk in the park. It's not. Things have changed and it's not what it used to be and it is not where the money used to be.
Orion Transcription/Vital Lines/Speech 4 Me

I am a newbie and have been dealing with these three companies about the possibility of working with them.  Does anyone have any information on any of the three companies? Good or bad.


 


what company can I do about 1000 lines/week from home?

Hi, I just got an offer for a day job with benefits but I want to do about 1000 lines of MT a week from home.


Anyone have any recommendations about a company I can do that with?


I just graduated Everett Community College's program.


A lot of companies required 1000 to 1200 lines a day. If you are just
starting out you can expect to do about half that unless you have an easy account.