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Headers and footers in line counts - nn

Posted: May 28, 2011

Kind of stumped on this one. I just recently started working for a company that does both VR and straight typing. Luckily, have been doing more straight typing than VR, but noticed that after I did 20 or so reports my line counts were around 600-750 lines for those 20 reports. Well I found out that the headers are not counted in our lines even though we may have to enter a date and sometimes even the patient name. I was told by one of the supervisors that this is "now the norm." I have never heard of anything like this and I think its just another way of getting cheated out of decent money we could be making. I look at where I was a year ago, and was making wonderful money with straight typing and had money left over after paying my bills -- now, thanks to these MTSOs, facing eviction. :(

Isn't that the pits? But wait, it gets worse .... - s/m

[ In Reply To ..]
Where I work (Acusis) they stopped paying for paragraph titles (HPI, ROS, DX, etc.) Cheap chumps!

pay for headers - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Yes, my company started putting in a ton of headers into their template when we pull up a report, which we are not paid for. But wait, it gets even better, usually over half are not used and we spend a lot of our time deleting them or rearranging them into the correct order, just to save them some more money! This profession has truly become a sweat shop!

You're right about all the deleting/rearranging! - Ours are set up so that you - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
have to insert the paragraphs between colored bars for their respective titles. So you're constantly cutting and pasting. The colored bars have invisible codes in them that are easy to accidentally delete, and then correcting the resulting mess is a real time waster, too. To top it off, the bars don't come in automatically, except in a few cases (and then they're usually wrong and have to be changed). Instead, you have to bring up a dropdown menu, and scroll down to the correct title. "Tedious" doesn't even begin to describe it! Especially when you've scrolled down, found the word "diagnosis" or "impression", and added it in, only to find as the doctor dictates that there are multiples, and you have to go back and change it again to "impressions" or "diagnoses". Which in turn means you have to re-cut and re-paste the paragraph back into its proper place.

That stupid system is maddening even if we were paid for those lines. The fact that we're not makes me want to vomit, it's so cheap!

PS: Transcription has become more like one big, - poorly-designed VIDEO GAME.

[ In Reply To ..]
Sorry, but I prefer Pac-Man over playing the MT game.

A game that moves as you play it. Like the old-fashioned trickster shell games. Nm - Andypudenda

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Nm

two observations - hmmm

[ In Reply To ..]
It's hard for me to imagine beginning a new job and not fully comprehending what will or won't be paid until after the fact. I wonder why MTs don't ask for a clear explanation of this before accepting a job. hmmm

I have one job where H/F are not paid, so I keep that job on a p.r.n. basis only and not as my main source of income. They are constantly asking me to give them more of my time, but they know why I don't (I make more money being paid these things at a higher CPL elsewhere).

As to the constant adding and deleting of paragrah headings, codes, etc....Is it possible to minimize the effect this has on the MT by loading in normals into an abbreviation/template expander? That would be how I would work it, but it may not be possible on every platform.

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