A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Okay, I think it's time for ALL OF US to take a stand on VR pay. - No more half-pay, period!!

Posted: May 25, 2012

Here's the bottom line, colleagues. We're getting paid exactly what we deserve because we don't have the basic fortitude to stop it.

I think, in particular, that women are abused with respect to pay and benefits in the workplace because we are NOTORIOUSLY GUTLESS when it comes to sticking up for ourselves.

I had to think about this three times before the irony really struck me: They pay us half rates for work that can be as difficult and time consuming as straight transcription - if not MORE SO - and then....THEN....they gripe because some of US ARE NOT MAKING MINIMUM WAGE AT TIMES SO THEY HAVE TO GIVE SUPPLEMENTAL "MAKE-UP PAY"??!!

In case it escapes you, here's the irony explained in very simple terms: It's absolutely no different than if I was to take a big crap on you and then complain (no, threaten to FIRE you) because you don't smell good!

I'd just like to know when ALL OF US will have had enough of this, because here is the simple fact. IF WE DON'T EDIT VR, THE MTSO IS DEAD IN THE WATER AND THERE IS NO WAY THEY CAN "TAKE THIS WORK OFFSHORE" OR DO ANY...I REPEAT ANY...OF THE THINGS THEY MIGHT THREATEN TO DO. THEY WOULD BE OUT OF BUSINESS WITHIN A WEEK, ESPECIALLY IF WE COMMUNICATE THE REASONS FOR OUR ACTIONS TO THEIR CLIENTS AND TO PHYSICIANS, WHO I DARE SAY KNOW VERY LITTLE ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON IN OUR INDUSTRY.

JUNE 30TH SHOULD BE THE DEADLINE FOR MTSO'S TO DECIDE WHAT IT'S GOING TO BE: FAIR COMPENSATION FOR EVERY BIT OF WORK WE DO, OR GO OUT OF BUSINESS.

Are you a working MT or a pot stirrer? I make double the lines or more with VR. - Love Escription

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Don't ruin it for those of us that are happy because you're miserable.

And which are you? - VR is a joke

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I don't see how anyone can double their lines unless they were extremely slow to begin with, or unless they are fortunate enough to get only near-perfect drafts from excellent dictators. The drafts I get are garbage, needing multiple edits per line. There's no way I can double my production on that junk, and I don't care how many shortcuts they give me. The speech engine has no idea where one sentence ends and another begins, has no idea how to punctuate, no idea what the right word is for the context, no idea how to format, leaves out several words per sentence, mangles entire phrases, and so on. I don't know why it's not fraud when a company tells me that I should be able to produce 600+ lines per hour on the garbage they give me and it's barely possible to produce 250.

Your situation is YOUR situation - Some of us have good VR accounts

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As with every other aspect of life, your situation is precisely that - YOUR situation. It does not mean everyone is sharing the same experience. Instead of accusing others of being dishonest, perhaps you should consider the very real possibility that some people simply have a better platform, better dictators, better back-end maintenance, or all of the above.

To assume everyone is sharing a situation identical to yours is unrealistic and belied by the fact that many MTs are successful, even on VR, much to your chagrin. We are not all suits. Some of us just have the fortitude to adapt, learn and succeed, and to move on if we were to find ourselves in a less than optimal situation.

I thought this very same thing when I was first introduced - to VR, sm

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I am a heavy hitter of 350-450 lph straight transcription (with variables in place, i.e., the quality of the dictation and the person dictating). I tried my hand at VR and was only able to produce 450 lph doing VR. There were too many physicians on VR that needed so much correcting that I never could make it past the 450 or so lph. I decided against VR at that point as I couldn't afford to do it. I have been with 2 different companies doing VR and both experiences were the same. Why they put every physician on VR is beyond me. They do not all belong on VR. My attempts to get those taken off of VR that should not be on VR fell on deaf ears. I wish I had your situtation of good platform and great dictators as I would love to be able to do the VR and make some money, but when you are used to making a certain amount of money and that is the way you have been living for years, you canot just simply accept the terms and conditions of the pay for VR (I would probably lose my house if I did). I tried to adapt, learn, and succeed, but 450 lph at 4 cents a line is $18 an hour and that is a big cut in pay from making $30-40 an hour. Of course, this might seem like a success story to others as $18 an hour is better than not making minumum wage, but each person's circumstances are different and my success is entirely based on whether I can pay my mortgage or not. I do consider myself a very good transcriptionist. My QA evals have always been 99% or above (my last one actually being at 100%). I do feel that I am successful at being an MT. I just think the reward should match the effort. It doesn't seem that VR is set up to do that. You're lucky to have good VR accounts. If I could have good VR accounts, I would love to do VR. Perhaps you could share your company name and we could all get on the same band wagon and adapt, learn, and succeed as you have done. I moved on from my last "less than optimal situation," but I find myself constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.

VR is not better pay for very fast MTs but it is for those who are average to mid-high. sm - Lead MT

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The rule of thumb, I have been told, is that if you transcribe 200-300 lines per hour, it is possible to double your lines. However, 450-500 lines per hour is the average on VR, so if you do that on straight transcription, you will not double production. Slower MT's can double or triple easily when moving to editing.

This is not meant to insult anyone by saying that someone is slow or fast, just giving the statistics. I am a slower MT but a quick editor; it is definitely a different skill set.

VR is a joke - Linda

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I have to agree. I don't know how people can double their work load. I'm a good transcriptionist but my pay was cut in half doing speech recognition.

Are you paying attention?. - Read the board.

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Yes, I'm a working MT and one with many, many years of experience.

Now, let me ask you: Got logic? If, indeed, you're doing "more than twice the lines" with VR, you're being cheated even more than people who aren't as fortunate, apparently, to have a good set of dictators (because Escription isn't that good!) and who are producing fewer lines.

I'm done. No one is allowed to have an opinion here or a good experience. sm - Goodbye

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This board has gone from nasty to worse. I feel like no one can post other than the few who are trying to shove their nastiness down our throats.

I love my job. I love the company I work for. I am paid well. I make over $50,000 a year and always have. If I work overtime, I am paid for it. I rarely run out of work and have a back-up account that is always busy if my primary is slow.

I am not the minority. I am not a liar. I am not suit. What I am is sick of the nastiness, the talk of lawsuits and striking and letters and tweets. Give me a break. If you had it so much, go do something else, and let the rest of us go back to being able to ask questions, answer quesions and having opinions.

I am not coming back for a while. I am going to look for another board that is what this used to be.

Good luck to everyone.

Does your job love you back? - Gossip Girl

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nm

Such maturity you display...I believe the CW network - is looking for your prepubescent demographic

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What an assinine post. Bet you're a delight to be around. Amusing choice of a screen name. Perhaps you should tune out the CW network and watch some grownup television programs so you can learn some more intelligent retorts. You attempt at witicism is appallingly mundane and generic.

If you find one, please come back and e-mail me too. - In the meantime, stay and fight the good fight. I

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think of just deleting this forum, but what about the poor souls who come here actually looking for information?

Goodbye - Old Pro

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The nastiness is the reason I am here very infrequently anymore. It is shameful.

All these tales.... - wild exaggerations

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of 450 lph, $50,000 + per year---Hilarious.

Would appreciate some VR tips - MT pockets

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If you have any tips for those of us who are struggling to produce with VR, I would appreciate it. If you're making $50,000 a year, and say you have 2 weeks off per year and work full-time at 40 hours per week, then you're working 50 weeks at 40 hours per week, which is 2000 hours per year. If your VR line rate, like most of ours, is around 4 cents per line and you're earning $50,000 a year, then you must be producing around 1,250,000 lines per year, and since you're working 2000 hours per year, that would yield an average production rate of about 625 lines per hour. Some of your pay might be in overtime or production incentive, though, so the average line rate might be somewhat lower.

So how do you achieve that high a rate? Do you just get a bunch of standards and get paid for the template lines? Do you get dictation that is practically error-free and all you need to do is read along and maybe make a small adjustment here and there? Do you never have to do any research?

I do the best job I can on the speech drafts I'm given, but I despair of ever being able to increase my production very much because of all the errors in the drafts, primarily. I would love to know how it's possible to make a living wage on this stuff.

Thanks for any advice.

I'm going to chime in here. - I like ES too

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I have been on ES for a couple of years now. When I first started ES I hated, hated, HATED it. I had to retype everything and it was tedious and frustrating. Then the client realized if they want their work done quickly and accurately the docs needed to make their dictations understandable and the MTs needed to be consistent in training the speech engine. Everybody pretty much got on board, and within a few months it went from being horrible to being really very pleasant. Now I MUCH prefer ES to straight typing. I know I'm going to get flamed here, but I truly do think that it can be hell on earth or it can be a few keystrokes per dictation, which isn't that unusual for me. It all depends on whether or not the client is willing to work with the speech engine or if they are going to try to use it like straight typing.

Good post. That's my experience too. Note, half pay works ONLY - when average ME edits twice as fast as types. NM

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x

Your logic is faulty. - sm

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Everyone who is being paid half-rates for VRE is being cheated. Just because someone can potentially double their line speed with VR does not negate the fact that they are producing twice the number of lines, bringing their knowledge to twice the number of lines, or producing twice the amount of work.

The only way your logic "works" is if you assume that being paid the same amount in exchange for putting out twice as much product is a reasonable proposition.

I, for one, do not. A line of transcription that requires my intervention (and even declaring a line to be correct IS an intervention that requires the same knowledge as declaring it to be erroneous) is worth the same amount in real economic terms, regardless of HOW it is produced.

Oh, that was my logic when SR was new, too. Higher skill, - higher production = more value =

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higher wage.

Others in the industry made that assumption, too, not realizing that the entire economy we're a tiny, tiny part of has moved into mean, selfish times, where economic Darwinism--you're entitled to whatever you can grab and owe nothing to weaker people--has replaced any notion of equitable pay for value added.

Also, of course, this IS an era when half the hospitals in the country are fighting to stay afloat, we can be replaced in large part by computers, and work can be sent various places around a planet that has English as its main common language. At this point, battered and demoralized, I'm not actually sure that the sun, moon, and stars aren't aligned against us too.

In any case, I feel my position that we should be paid as much for our time editing as our time transcribing is a reasonable fallback and worth fighting for.

We can not be "replaced" by a computer... - because VR

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is absolute garbage on anything but the most elemental of work. What percentage of acute care reports can go straight to the client without MT editing?

VR replacing MTs - burned out

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VR will never replace an MT, and if it ever does, it has a long way to go. In a report I did the other day the doctor said monitor i's and o's (ins and outs) VR put "monitor eyes and nose". LOL!

VR has eliminated a lot of need for additional MTs. - Plus, product gets ENORMOUSLY better when

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dictators are required to train and dictate properly. Since they can pay us a fraction of transcription rates to dictate untrained rubbish, they went that way instead. They don't even bother to require us to edit consistently. Our losses from continually bumfuzzling the computer (aka GIGO) are...our losses.

The notion that SR is not capable of doing a very, very good job when used correctly is delusional. It IS very, very good already and will only continue to develop.

Bingo! - Agree with you.

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Two accounts I am on have the most atrocious dictators I have encountered in 25+ years--extremely poor audio (cellphones) mainly, mumbling, fast-talking and quite few other things many of you could add. VR is a nightmare of these accounts. However, once, I covered an unfamiliar account for me and wow! what a difference. Very few edits and dictators I could actually hear clearly. That was the first time I realized that VR *could* be an asset, but MTSOs are not willing to bring dictator issues up with the clients.

I doubt a few comments will ruin anything for anyone, - especially since it would take, sm

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an army to change this situation. I don't think it is wrong for people to speak out when they feel they are being cheated. A lot of people are miserable with this VR situation and the pay. Unfortunately, the MTSOs did not take into consideration the MTs who produce higher line counts. The expectation of 125 lph for straight typing is pretty low for some MTs, so to VR 250 lph is really a walk in the park for some MTs. It's actually being able to VR the same amount of lines that they used to type that is the real kicker. If you were typing 300-400 lph, then a cut in pay is what is going to happen when you switch over to VR. I would think all of the MTs who were typing minimum lph would be very happy with their jobs as their pay hasn't been touched. I just read the posts and generally move on. I agree with a change needing to be made, but think that the change will be a long time in coming. I do have high hopes that eventually it will happen. I just don't apply for jobs that only pay 3 cents a line for VR as that in itself tells me I would never make any money doing that job.

VR pay - oldANDtiredMT

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Yes, i'm MModal, from spheris...and have been extremely fortunate (until 8 weeks ago to do straight typing for the same). After 8 weeks, i'm up to 250 lph...i do not possibly see how i can go faster, and yet that will be roughly 1/2 the pay i used to get. I'm tired, scared, worried all mixed in together. Don't see i can possibly survive another month with this kind of payday. Anybody have a magic bullet for me to read and help? I live in a 1-horse town with NO jobs available, 6 years short of retirement, doing this for 30 years.

I think I am on the same acct as you old and tired - sickandtired

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I love my account because I have typed on it since day 1, but since we started VR my pay went down over $800 per month. I think it is unfair!!!! I find VR to be DOUBLE the work.....that is when I actually have work. I have been sitting at my computer for 16 hours to get my 8 hours in and I am so over it. Resumes out and tests taken.....just waiting. I am not playing this game with them and when I go I am sending a nice letter to Mr. Vern....don't care iff he has heard it already. If we keep telling him over and over maybe he will do something for the rest of you that decide to hang in there. I feel cheated! and I am just exhausted from sitting there all day and all night!! It is not fair to expect me to flex every single day!!

You will never enlist ALL of us - As we are not all failures

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By now it should be clear that not everyone on this board is miserable. Some of us have managed, likely through positive attitudes and a top-notch skill set, to fare quite nicely in our various positions.

Instead of the constant stirring of the proverbial pot on this board, where your apparent welcome is already worn quite thin with many posters, I respectfully suggest that you start up your own forum for your efforts at instigation of strikes, sick-outs, etc.

There are free forums that can be set up and the disgruntled MTs from this site I've no doubt would flock to that site for these types of "Norma Rae" posts, and you could organize protests and express your unhappiness to your heart's content without fear of an actual HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL MT thwarting your efforts.

I'm all for you all having your own board for these types of posts on this site, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen, and I'm afraid your continuous efforts to convince all of us that we're abused (which I consider an insult to every physically and emotionally abused woman on the planet but that's just my opinion) are falling flat on many of us.

The big May 1st strike, as predicted, apparently didn't even create a ripple in the huge pond of the MT/MTSO world. I have no doubt your rallying of the downtrodden and failing MTs on June 3rd will have an equal effect in the grand scheme of things.

No snark intended with this post, just the facts as I see them and IMHO. I just get tired of coming to this board and having to wade through the nonstop posts insisting we *ALL* need to do something when I have absolutely no intention of doing anything to rock my financial boat and I've no doubt there are many others on this site who feel the same.

Over and...OUT.

I'm not sure it's about being "failures" - sm

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at doing VR. It's more about the compensation for the VR and the overhiring and no work available that some people are finding themselves in. The amount of money you're making may be successful to you, but someone else may have been successful at making a lot more on straight transcription. So the expectation of doing double for some (which could mean having to VR 600 or more lines an hour) is just not feasible. That's what it is all about, not being failures at VR, but not being compensated fairly for the VR.

I agree. Success requires being excellent in a good position, - BUT where does that leave everyone else? Good MTs

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and good hardworking editors on more typical accounts? I've angered a lot of complainers who've confessed to their ineptitude by suggesting they should work harder and better, but I am emphatically not advocating an everyone-for-himself attitude and do not subscribe to your message. We should be supporting higher pay for everyone.

Average-production MTs work harder than ever these days as editors and should be able to make at least mid-to-upper $30s, depending on just how hard they stress themselves to get the numbers. This is a modest goal, geared to current economic realities, and is just what they could make at outside jobs requiring lower skill levels and much, much less time training.

Oh get over yourself!!!!! - Becky

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If you are so happy and soooooooooooo successful.....why do you waste your time on this board talking to people who are not happy with their current job? Just let them be. There will always be happy people and unhappy people. Just so you are aware you sound like a snot. The best thing about this job is it takes all kinds to do it. Some people love straight transcription and do not fair well with VR that does not make them a failure in any way!! Same goes for the peole that love VR and hate straight typing, that does not make them a failure. You need to choose your words a little better. For example if you have a kid and you sign them up for soccer and they do not do well with it and do not like it, but they excel at swimming or basketball are you goinig to turn around and call them a failure at soccer? Get real you are a joke!!!!

Becky, I'm afraid you are wrong. Many people who do not fare - well with VR are failing. It is critically

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important that they realize this in time to avert disaster. This isn't play. This is about people's mortgage payments, utility payments each month, ability to get medical care, even gas to attend family reunions. Their lives and livelihoods.

If weeks of falling wages hurt and cause problems, what is happening after months and then years? The perspective offered by people who are doing okay to well is desperately needed to help people evaluate their situation.

Some fairy tale relief like everyone's doing just as bad and it's only a matter of time until it's fixed for everyone is not going to happen. For some it will only continue to get worse as the effect of losing thousands upon thousands of dollars every year builds--until they finally wise up and deal with it. If they can at that point.

What are you talking about?? - Becky

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I am not even sure what you are talking about here. I was responding to the post where the person was calling everyone a failure at their job if they could not do VR work. I was simply saying that just becuase they do not fair well with VR does not make them a failure at MT. I am not sure how I am wrong in saying that. I am not sure you understand my post becuase I certainly do not understand your reply to me. I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND that people have to pay bills. I was not saying anything against helping people evaluate their situation with VR. I will state again that I did not think it was nice that the poster above is calling people failures at their job. You can agree with her if you want, I personally DO NOT!!

I agree with Becky. - Noelle

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I agree with Becky. I do not feel it wad nice for the above poster to call people that are not doing well with VR failures. I am not doing well with VR either. I was making great money and able to work 8 hours straight and finish my shift. Now that we moved to VR I have lost about $500 per pay period. I also have problems now with running out of work constantly. I have to sit at my computer for sometimes 18 hours before I am able to get 8 hours in and I am constantly changing from account to account with very different specs. I believe if I was on 1-3 accounts I would proabably be more successful, but I could edit/type 50 reports a day and not have the same doctor once. So I guess becuase I did not get put on an account with a sufficient work load, I am a failure? I think not, considering before the VR switch I was able to make a great paycheck in half the time.

VR - Fatigued Fingers

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Make a stand against what? That I love my job, that I have excellent accounts, and that I make good money? I may take flack for this, but maybe if some of you would spend less time complaining and more time working, you'd make a decent living.

throwing my shoe - sm

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I do 500-700 lph on VR (M-Modal) and love it.

I'm paid well to do those lines, too.

What has to happen for you to realize "all" MTs are riding in your boat? Some of us are skilled, have had the luck or talent to find good gigs, and have learned to make technology work for us? You don't/won't find us on here claiming we aren't doing particular doctors, or we're not working on this day or that day, or that we won't do research and look things up. We're MTs. Real ones.

I agree MTs should stop taking low pay for VR but we'll never see that happen. And as long as "some" are accepting 2-4 cpl, it doesn't bode well for ever seeing an increase in those companies.

that's fantastic! I tried my hand at VR, perhaps - just not with the right company, sm

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I just found that the majority of ESLs were on VR and the corrections having to be made added up to typing the whole report over again. I no longer do VR, but have taken a cut in pay as it seems straight transcription has also taken a hit on what it is worth. I don't think I could ever make "technology work for" me on this VR, but hey if the company you're working for is this great, I would be willing to try VR. I have seen the posts on the M-Modal board though and would be leary of even trying to make the transition there as it seems you must be one of the lucky ones. I see a large number of people are complaining about not having any work to type over on the M-Modal board. I would be afraid that I wouldn't be able to make 500-700 lph if there was no work to type.

throwing the shoe question... - oldANDtiredMT

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I'm tickled you have had success...but what i REALLY want to know...is how ya do that??!!! Admittedly, i'm only "into" VR 8 weeks, and just now up to 250 lph. I'm a very well seasoned MT (25 years) and know terminology, tier 3, and i NEED to at the very least add on another 100 lph. Hints please??!! I think i have read everything mmodal has suggested, twice.

I hope you get an answer - sm

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My personal opinion is there are too many variables for the lph from one MT to the next. This person apparently has good accounts, which will definitely increase the line count without having to have any secrets to the trade. There really are no secrets to VR. Time has a lot to do with it. Not for the VR, but for you. The more comfortable you are the faster you get. Same things apply for VR as they do for regular transcription. I would try putting in some shortcuts for things that you notice are consistently wrong. This may speed you up. I have noticed when someone tells us all that they are making such great lph and someone else questions them, you're usually not going to get an answer. Maybe they're afraid they will give up some big secret only privy to them. My guess they are either exaggerating or their circumstances are far better equipped for making those lph, i.e., physicians with lots of normals, no ESLs, etc. You can create your own normals you know. It might be faster for you for instance on a PE, if the doc usually says the same thing and you keep correcting the same mistakes, put the corrected PE in one of your own normals (shortcut expander) and then delete what is in the file, put yours in and edit your own normal. Just an idea.

hmmmm - SM

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open mouth and all that??

Oh and my accounts are not all easy accounts. One account is 90% ESL but we (the people on the account) have worked hard at training consistently so that we are getting decent records to review.

OldAndTired, you'll get those 100 easily and then more. 8 weeks - is not long for such a different work. SM

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I do everything SM suggests--in spades. Use your expander as much as possible. If SR always mangles someone's PE, instead of bunny hopping around correcting word by word and line by line, store a standard version in your expander or elsewhere, replace with that, and alter as needed. If SR keeps making "due to the" into "due. 2. The" record your keystrokes to fix it once, including changing the case of "the," and name it something like "cto" (correct to "to").

Above all, get as familiar as possible as fast as possible with your accounts. Since you need to be twice as fast now, every stop to look something up costs you twice as many lines as it did before.

Plus just relaxing and getting smoother as you get more comfortable. I don't know what that was worth to me, but it was a bunch. Working in the groove!

You'll see. Even if the SR you're given has too many mistakes for the pay rate, the basic 100 more you need is attainable, and you'll be working on more after that.

Thanks!! sm - oldANDtiredMT

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Thanks for taking the time to respond. I realizing i'm GRASPING for straws at this point, but 8 weeks is 4 bad paychecks. LOL. To say that i'm extremely antsy at this point is more than a mild under-statement.

IMHO that's just crazy to tell you 8 weeks is not long, - no different than straight, sm

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transcription. It will take some time to get used to your doctors, but I would gauge the production by how long that took you, not how long it takes to do the VR. If it only takes a few weeks to get used to your physicians, it should only take a few weeks to be proficient with your VR work. The reason it isn't is because you have too much work to do on the VR jobs you're on. Hence, more time spent in the document and less pay in your pocket. I would tackle VR just as it were straight typing and set up as many normals as I could because you're going to have many, many mistakes to correct in each document. That's really why you're not up to the line count you need.

clarification - SM

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I use the M-modal platform, I do not work for M*Modal.

Our company trained us well, has a resource available if we feel we aren't making as much money as we'd like or want. And I'm lucky in that our recognition is really awesome on most of our accounts.

I made sure to learn all of the keyboard shortcuts so I donâ��t take my hands off to reach for the mouse (a habit that was hard to break for a while and really does slow you down, those seconds per job add up by the end of the day). I also have extensive short-cuts I've created. If I have to make the same correction a few times, if it's able to be "short-cut" or "macroed" I'm on that baby in a heartbeat.

I also recommend using Shorthand or another expander of that type where you can fine-tune your shortcuts to the account you are working on.

what company are you working for? - nm

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.

MD-IT - nm

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x

thanks again!! sm - oldANDtiredMT

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I had used shorthand quite extensively for "regular" transcription but now, not so much...I'll most definitely try to add to that now. My new group only has about 7 different facilities (primarily) so, i'm gradually getting familiar with the docs.

I'm extremely thankful for all your hints and tips...if ya can think of anything else, i would be tickled pink at this point! LOL

I was thinking of this again as I was working this - morning. As another just-for-instance,

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I tap my finger twice on the period key to change "to the patient as for the" into "to the patient. As for the." The keystrokes were recorded on Shorthand and would activate with the cursor on "as." It's called ".." I made these for all punctuation corrections.

All doctor names are entered as soon as they crop up, with search terms of abbreviations for hospital name and specialty included. It's not only faster to insert, but since few physicians on the hospital list actually show up in reports it provides a much shorter list of possibilities when you're trying to figure out a name. Very valuable.

A short given to us deletes to and including the next period but requires 3 splayed fingers. I gave it a letter tapped twice for a name. Then I used it to make another that does the same but also backs up to add the period back in, then jumps the cursor to the beginning of the next sentence.

A macro given us to capitalize/uncapitalize a letter has been incorporated into probably dozens of shorts. The same thing for the one that toggles a whole word. I have a bunch that turn words into headers dropped to the next line, left in place, etc. Anything SR mangling typically leaves us to fix.

Shorthand is used to pull up templates quick; send routine, already-typed notes to QA, etc.

One prized use is to store blocks of text in it for troublesome dictators, so I can figure out what they're saying very quickly. Like the standard PE for Dr. B whose standard blurb I defy anyone to actually hear more a half dozen individual words in. SR also routinely goofs on his one-line ROS, so I made a short that not only inserts it but deletes the slop first.

Since I enter almost all tool names the first time I verify their names and spellings by googling, I search my expander first to figure out what kind of retractor or whatever is being dictated in some mangled dictation. It's probably there.

Since every stop to look something up costs more and more lines the faster you edit, using the expander and any other tool you can come up with to cut them down really pays off.

Have fun. :) Fellow Traveler

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Oct 16, 2009

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nm ...

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Jun 11, 2010

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Nov 11, 2010

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Jun 15, 2011

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Jan 06, 2012

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Jan 20, 2013

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Jan 10, 2014

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Nov 29, 2014

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Dec 30, 2009

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Mar 07, 2011

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Mar 16, 2011

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Jul 27, 2011

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Aug 26, 2011

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Sep 09, 2011

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Sep 18, 2012

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Feb 18, 2013

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Jun 20, 2013

x ...

Dec 29, 2013

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May 21, 2014

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Oct 14, 2009

TIA :-) ...

Feb 18, 2010

when not putting 'disease' or 'syndrome' after the word, do you put an 's or just and s at the end of the disease or syndrome? ie Reynauds or Reynaud's Parkinsons or Parkinson's. Thanks ...