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

Success doing VR anyone? - mt on a path

Posted: Jun 30, 2011

With a lot of negativity towards VR by MTs and with very good reason, is there any MT who is having SUCCESS with VR? Even if you can't stand VR, are you still maintaining decent production/income with it?

I am, but when I tell you my numbers, - everyone will call me a liar

[ In Reply To ..]
I work for the eeeeeevil Transcend, with its "horrible" speech wreck platform.

Oh, wait a minute... they're no more eeeeevil than any other large corporation, and in my region at least, the speech rec is actually pretty darn good, because my management team are very aggressive and proactive about continuing to train the engine--and they've taken some dictators off of it as well (thank heaven).

According to the editing proficiency reports we get from time to time, my editing LPH numbers average in the high 400s to low 500s.

Yes, really. Swear on a stack of Bibles.

My percentage of edited work (as opposed to straight typing) is generally in the high 70s.

Those LPH numbers are calculated based on how long each report is actually open on my computer for editing; in fact, we are told that if we are in the middle of a report and we need to leave the computer for more than a couple of minutes, we should put the report "on hold" to stop the clock, so to speak.

My straight typing numbers (which they don't always provide) range from the high 200s all the way up to the low 400s, depending on whether I'm lucky enough to score a lot of the "canned" reports in a given week.

So, how do I do this? Well, for one thing, I've been transcribing for a VERY long time, and I'm scary-fast at it.

Also, I have done some aggressive work in Shorthand and created a whole lot of my own shortcut keys for doing common editing tasks, and the trick is to assign keys that are very close to the "home" hand position, so I'm not moving my hands around the keyboard excessively. My LPH scores actually jumped by quite a bit from one week to the next when I put the latest batch of shortcuts into use a few months back.

So yes... it IS indeed possible to be successful with VR... but there are a LOT of variables involved in the equation. If I had truly lousy speech wreck, and if I weren't scary-fast on a keyboard, I wouldn't be able to survive.

Best of luck to all. And no, I am NOT a suit; I'm just another down-in-the-trenches production minion--er, MLS.

Not calling you a liar nor a 'suit.' - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
You are just a person, yes, who has done it a long time and CAN think of HOW to beat the machine at its game, and good for you. Unfortunately, shouldn't our services be helping us with these so-called tricks of the trade also? It would be for their benefit also, but they'd rather do it their way and have eveyone burn out and quit because another 3 years for someone else is now sweat off of their fingers. Not all of us have the ability nor time to figure out how it can work for us. Even if copying, you can make a huge mistake. Canned reports in VR is a lot of time even more time consuming by having to edit. Your shoe seems to fit and God Bless, even with Transend! You truly are a rare winner. Thanks for sharing also. I have met a few like yourself, but you are rare.

Anon, go read Everyone's message again. She's not - telling you how or why to not be successful.

[ In Reply To ..]
There is an important message there.

No, her service did not tell her how to do it. Neither did mine, or almost anyone else's. Whether they should or not may be something to go on about in your spare time, but what has waiting for them gained you so far? The fact is, we do it by ourselves for ourselves to MAKE MORE MONEY, and there are lots and lots of us these days who have, creating a giant watershed between those who are still waiting for someone to come take care of them and those who took care of themselves.

Second, it cost these people every bit as much as it would you to do it. You've at least considered the "math" on what you'll lose in lines right now to make yourself faster. That loss was and is very, very real for me, I assure you, and the process never ends. Just don't forget to apply that thought to what you'd gain by investment in developing a much higher skill level. More. A lot more.

Yes, a lot of MT/MEs are being cheated these days by a lot of companies--the industry standard these days, and who knows where it'll stop. What you can control is making sure you don't cheat yourself.

Pragmatist

I wish my ROM would do that - frustrated

[ In Reply To ..]
She is so hung up on making everything VR that she does not care whether we are making money or not. There are horrible ESL that have no business being on VR, yet she puts them there. I have complained to my lead that the voice recognition has gotten worse lately and she agreed with me. Oh well... I will just bide my time till something better comes along or until I can't take it anymore.

Must be the difference in companies. I, too, am - extremely experienced and

[ In Reply To ..]
scary fast; however, I struggle to do the mandated 150 lph on my speech wreck account. I used to do 200 lph without breaking a sweat straight typing. Apples and oranges, I guess. I am now down to about Burger King wages.

I don't consider high 400s to low 500s a success at VR - at 3 cpl that is 15 an hour at 4 20 an hour

[ In Reply To ..]
for those people making 30 an hour and up, that is not a success story for VR. VR will always be an average money making job. Yes, average as the top pain here at 4 cents a line is 20 an hour. Maybe that looks good to some of you, but for those who were making 50,000 a year and a above, at the top rate of 4 cents a line and 500 lines an hour, that is 38,400 a year, and at minimum an 11,600 cut in pay per year for those making 50,000 and above per year. So your success at VR just might be someone else's failure at VR, especially those trying to raise a family and pay the mortgage alone.

5.5 cents per line here average 450 to 550 LPH - Nina

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Used to do 400-500 - MR

[ In Reply To ..]
What platform do you use? I used to do 400-500 on Dictaphone ExText but now struggling to build up speed on an M-Modal based VR program. I liked how ExText keeps your hands on the home keys and had shortcuts for putting in commas, periods, hyphens, etc but for M-Modal you have to take your hands off the keys and use the shift and arrows to move around the document? (hmmm...I probably should post this as a separate thread to get tips on M-Modal).

If you're using Shorthand, you can remap - some of those shortcut keys

[ In Reply To ..]
so that your hands stay on the home keys. For instance... with my Shorthand shortcuts, CTRL-J is now equivalent to CTRL-right arrow, and CTRL-H performs the same function as CTRL-delete. CTRL-comma at the beginning of a word adds a comma at the end of the previous word, and CTRL-period at the beginning of a word puts in a period and capitalizes the first word of the next sentence.

Those shortcuts alone have increased my LPH tremendously.

If you get creative, there's not much you can't do.

Thanks! - MR

[ In Reply To ..]
Thanks so much for the helpful tips. I have InstantText but am still getting myself familiarized. I know I can make shortcuts and name it letters (for example, backspacing and putting in a comma I've created and named "zz"). Does anyone know if I can name them using CTRL or ALT instead, and if so how. Thanks!

You might want to post this question re Instant Text - on the tech board

[ In Reply To ..]
Also, Google 'productivity talk' and look there. Best of luck!

Thanks, will do - nm - MR

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Who's asking? Any of us with any history or experience KNOWS the answer. - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
How can anyone say yes when you have to know English, be an editor, be near perfect, know medical and then understand a foreign accent who does not speak clearly, or even have an English speaker who mumbles, coughs, clears his throat, chews, does not even want to dictate and you have to produce beyond what any human can for 3 to 4 cents 5 days a week/more? Having Sucksess?

all that you mention there IS medical transcription at any pay rate. - NM

[ In Reply To ..]
x

Success with VR - Radtrans

[ In Reply To ..]
I have success with VR, but I do radiology transcription. I work for a hospital and we get paid by the hour, but must maintain a minimum of 450 lines/hour. I also work for a company on the weekend warrior program. There I get paid by the line or report depending on the account. I am successful with that company as well. I think the trick is find the company that is right for you. I have been extremely lucky with the 2 companies for which I am currently working. Also the next tip is to have your own normals or expander program. With either of one of those or both you should do very well.

If you are one account with limited dictators and - can get any kind of

[ In Reply To ..]
repetition going, maybe so. If, however, you work for the huge companies and have 20 accounts and more than a thousand dictators and SR that is useless, there is not much way to speed up the process. I only stay because of my week-day day-time schedule. That is the only perk left for me.

At Transcend I never work more than 2 accounts - and usually only the one

[ In Reply To ..]
That's a major difference between Transcend and others; we are assigned one primary account, and a secondary and a tertiary for when the primary slows down. So yes, there is a LOT of repetition, and thus the ability to build up some speed.

Yes Absolute Success! - it can be done!

[ In Reply To ..]
I average 550 LPH editing plus both at Transcend and on Dictaphone ExText. It can be done! If I knew how to help you all attain it, I would!

I wish you help me attain 700 lines in VR an hour to make up - for the 350 lines an hour and above I used to type

[ In Reply To ..]
That my friend would be a success story for VR!!

The words "VR" and "success" don't even belong in - the same sentence, unless the speaker - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
is one of the slimeballs who managed to sell their pile-of-junk VR platform to some starry-eyed, misinformed hospital administrator.

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