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

Any Advice on Line Count "Industry Standard" please - Kasey

Posted: May 13, 2011

I wondered if any one on this board can tell me the industry standard for lines per hour or lines per minute are? Mostly what I see on this forum is discussion over CPL or hourly rates without a line per day requirement. My employer recently stated our department was not producing enough and is suggesting 1900 lines per day which seems high as a 5-day-a-week requirement. Right now I'm doing right at 200 lines per hour/approx. 1400 lines per day with template and about 1100 without template. When I applied for a job at a local hospital about five years ago they only required 1100 lines per day. Again, I wondered if anyone can help me as far as telling me what they feel is the "norm" lines per day or how I would convert 1400 lines per day into a CPL figure so I know where I'm at currently and if I am being competitive with industry standards. She did mention maybe going to a CPL method at 65 CPL to calculate our production but I don't understand how a 65-CPL is converted from 1400 lines if that makes sense. Love my job but need to understand if this is a fair jump. I know how to get number of characters but since not all lines have 65 CPL I don't understand that method of computation. Maybe knowing how many CPL employers require or how that is figured might help? Any advice that will help me understand this more, what norms are, free opinions or even suggestions on where I might research this more would be most helpful. She stated that lines per hour varied from around 150 to 300 by other employers but I don't see many 300 lines per hour out there. Thank you!

Line count - 1mt

[ In Reply To ..]
First of all, IMO full time lines would be anywhere from 1500-1800 lines a day. When I was hired 10+ yrs ago, the full-time line requirement was 1500. So figure anywhere from 190-225 lines per hour is about average for straight typing. If you type 1400 lines a day in an 8-hour shift (1400 divided by 8), that would be 175 lines an hour, which is a little low. Achieving 300 lines per hour is possible if you are using a lot of templates or normals. A 65-character line is industry standard, so you would just see how many characters you typed in your document(s) and divide it by 65, and that will give you how many lines you typed; multiply that by whatever rate (CPL) you are paid per line. If you are a full-time employee, 1400 lines per day is a little low. I work part-time and had over 1600 lines today; obviously I had a full-time day today. Does this make sense?

Thanks a bunch for all this info. - Kasey

[ In Reply To ..]
Boy...thanks for much to all of you for this very helpful input. I think I understand how to convert to CPL now. I just want to know what is fair both to me and to my employer as far as production. Thanks again!

You are spot on in expected production - hmmm

[ In Reply To ..]
Are you doing straigh transcription and no editing of voice recognition reports? If so, you are completely within the norm albeit a little on the low side. Although, you did not define how your line is counted (see below).

Suggesting a minimum of 1900 LPD for straight transcription is just ludicrous. If 1900 LPD is the standard, it would have to be for editing VR reports.

Most MTSOs want to see a full-time MT produce about 1200-1500 LPD on straight transcription accounts with 65 characters per line being industry standard.

I assume when you say she mentioned 65 CPL this means characters per line? By saying that, it would appear your line is something different. Maybe I could comment more if you could clear that up.

line count - HoosierMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I was thinking if 1900 LPD is standard, I am really slow! Locally 1000 LPD is standard for straight typing and when I can get that many lines I make good money since I lucked into a job that pays double the standard rate. Too bad most of my 40+ doctors are not doing straight dictaiton anymore!

To clarify - Kasey

[ In Reply To ..]
To answer the "spot on" question, I am currently expected to type 6800 lines per week which averages out to 200 lines per hour with 6 hours of nontyping time allowed per week or 0.75 minutes per day for research of terms, look up doctor's names, etc. This comes out to 1400 lines per hour but we use templates so if I subtract out the lines already on the template that leaves me at right around 1100 to 1200 lines per day approximately. Even though we have a line count requirement we are paid hourly so we don't use the 65-CPL or characters per line currently but my boss suggested that we might go to that to be more "accurate" on our production numbers not for pay purposes and that is where I got confused as far as how to figure that out. This is straight typing, no VR editing so at 1900 per day as her suggestion that comes out to about 1500 to 1600 lines per day if I subract out the templates. Thanks for responding to my post. Appreciate the input!

Short answer - there is no industry standard. Each MTSO - defines their own standard. nm

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nm

hit nail on head in 11 words or less - Thank you!

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.

@Kasey - Hope this helps a little

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Not sure if this will help you, but here goes.

There are multiple factors that need to be considered to determine how you would compare if you worked for a different company. Ease of platform, quality of dictation, understandability of dictators, entry requirements aside from transcription (patient information, referring physician names and addresses, dates of service, etc), and use of expanders – just to name some. Companies try to base their minimum lines per day or minimum lines per pay period requirement based on what their group of MTs is able to produce taking into account the above factors. That could be anywhere from 800 lines per day full-time (because of a slow platform and difficult dictators) to 2000 lines per day (quick platform, easy dictators, lots of normals/templates). There is really no “industry standard.”

In your particular case, however, I think it would be more informative to compare what you are doing now to what may be expected of you in the future, personally.

You stated you currently average 1100 to 1400 lines per day. Your employer wants to increase the minimum to 1900 lines per day (for an 8-hour work day, 65-characters per line, this would mean you would need to transcribe 237.5 lines per hour average). That is a 36% to 73% increase, and would be an increase of 500 to 800 lines per day, or an extra 62.5 to 100 lines per hour. I am assuming that all your lines are from straight transcription and none are from Speech Recognition Editing.

I am not quite sure how you came up with an average of 200 lines per hour. If you work an 8 hour day, your high of 1400 lines per day would be 175 lines per hour, and your low of 1100 lines per day would be 137.5 lines per hour. Do you only work 7 hours or less? If so, you will have to recalculate the above average lines per hour based on the number of lines transcribed per day divided by the number of hours you work per day. Also, if you are currently basing your lines per day on gross lines or a line length of less than 65-characters per line, you will need to recalculate by taking your total character count for the day and dividing by a 65-character line in order to be able to compare yourself with these examples.

At any rate, you should ask yourself, how difficult is it now to maintain your 1100 to 1400 lines per day? Do you currently breeze through those lines? Are you able to take a 5 or 10 minute break every hour and still get 1100 to 1400 lines per day? Could you do 36-73% more lines per day with ease? OR – Do you feel you are already pushing yourself as hard as you can just to get those 1100 to 1400 lines per day? Are you totally exhausted by the end of the day and can’t wait to stop working? Would trying to increase your lines per day by 36-73% be difficult for you to achieve?

If you ask yourself those questions, you should have a pretty good grasp of what the changes will mean to you personally.

If you want a comparison to show your employer that maybe 1900 lines per day is not the “industry standard” given your particular set of circumstances (platform, dictators, etc), the information below might be something you could show them.

There are a few companies who do offer an incentive once you surpass a certain number of lines per hour transcribed. The figures below are old (this company has since changed their incentive tiers to include speech recognition editing), but that was the standard they used a year ago. This particular company had 6 tiers. Once an MT surpassed the minimum lines per hour to advance to the next tier, pay would be increased by a fraction of a cent per line. So, the more lines per hour someone transcribed, the higher their cents per line pay would be.

This particular company had a minimum of 1000 lines per 8-hour day (65-characters per line), which was 125 lines per hour. To receive the first incentive, the MT would need to transcribe 138 lines per hour. The next tier was at 162 lines per hour, and so on.

100% Straight Transcription
(65-character line, with spaces)
Full-time (8 hours per day)

Tier	Skill Level	Minimum Line Per Hour	Lines Per Day (8-Hour Day)	8 Cents Per Line – Per Hour Pay	10 Cents Per Line – Per Hour Pay
	Minimum	125	1000	$10.00	$12.50
1	Standard	138	1104	11.04	13.80
2	Acceptable	162	1296	12.96	16.20
3	Average	187	1496	14.96	18.70
4	Above-Average	212	1696	16.96	21.20
5	High Producer	237	1896	18.96	23.70
6	Exceptional	275	2200	22.00	27.50

If you do not understand something, feel free to Email me with your question, and I will try to clarify my information.

Hope this was not too confusing and gives you a little bit of insight.

Thanks for sharing this chart. sm - Pumpkins

[ In Reply To ..]
My company doesn't pay tiers bonuses, but having an understanding of the labeling for each production level makes it easier for me to set my own production goals.

@kasey..hope this helps a little. - Kasey

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Thank you for all this information. I think this will be very helpful to me because my boss said she would welcome input and factual stats are best. As far as your questions, the doctors in our clinic vary wildly. Some are quite easy because we can use autocorrects for much of what they type and with a template you can finish up a full day of their dictation in an hour. But, like with any office, we have other doctors who are very difficult, no autocorrects, mumbling or eating while they dictate, speed talkers, etc. so in my view, there are numerous variables to consider when asking all of us gals to increase to 1900 per day because 1900 lines of four very difficult doctors would result in definate hand and brain fatigue, i.e, higher chance of making errors while the same of our easiest doctors would be a breeze. Also our work assignments vary because my boss rotates out the various physicians so that no one gal has to do all easy or all tough or at least that is the "theory" we hope to see occur although this doesn't always occur and is part of my concern over moving to such a higher line count because it could feasibly result in 10+ hour days to accomplish 1900 lines. To me, to type for five years at a certain level of requirement and then suddenly be expected to increase that production by almost 1/3rd without any increase in compensation seems like a huge expectation but I'm not sure my boss has really thought this out. There are other considerations too such as the fact that our clinic types in 10 font and has margins that are smaller than is standard according to the other typists so our line count is reduced from what it would be with standard margins and 12 font, which I believe offsets the use of templates somewhat. To clarify, I get my 200 lines per hour by dividing total lines per day by hours worked and then nontyping time we are allowed which for me is 0.75 per day so at 1400 lines, it comes out to 200. I suppose if other typists are not allowed nontyping time and my time really is below 200 lines per hour then I am low. In any event, thanks for much for giving me such a detailed and thoughtful response. I hope to submit input to my boss on this change she is discussing prior to her making her final decision because as I stated, I love my job but would like to see management consider "all" the variables including what other employers are requiring before such a major change is implemented especially if they do so without any consideration of adjusting our pay. At this point I'm really not sure she has considered all aspects including font size, smaller margins, the percentage increase in line count as you pointed out, etc.

I hear there are people doing 200-600 lph - no name

[ In Reply To ..]
I struggle with 150 lph average. I didn't quite make it yesterday. I used to do 200 lph average on straight typing. Totally depends on your ASR and your account(s), but they would have to fire me if they demanded 1900 lpd on my account(s).

600 LPH? ROFL - YeahRight

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The highest LEGITIMATE rate I have ever heard is in the 350s on typing (and that is rad, which is highly repetitive). Someone I know claims to do 500 LPH on acute care (VR), and I happen to have worked on that same account, and there is NO WAY that is happening UNLESS they are churning out complete crap. Everyone else I know who worked it doesn't believe it either. So someone is exaggerating, tooting their own horn.

Quality - Kasey

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I agree with your post as far as turning out poor work quality even though you type fast. I think that a lot of people can churn out high numbers but at the end of the day, the work needs to be immaculate so quality is as important or possibly even more important than speed especially considering the legality of our work.

200 to 600...600? No kidding? - Kasey

[ In Reply To ..]
Wow. 600 lines per hour. Whomever is doing that has my complete respect. On a good day I can do over 300 no problem but again it really depends on the physician. When a doctor decides to eat their lunch while dictating, it slows me right down. :)

Line count industry standard - wswhiting

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Seems high to me. The last hospital job I had was 1200 minimum with bonuses for anything more than that. One MT was averaging 3000+. She was amazing and had her word expander down to a science.

Expanders - Fatigued Fingers

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Expanders are the key to high line counts. I'm up to nearly 6000 entries in my expander and find new ones to add all the time. Even if it only saves me 2 or 3 keystrokes, if I can think of an expander for it, in it goes. Those 2 or 3 keystrokes can add up at the end of the day.

Ws Whiting - Kasey

[ In Reply To ..]
Thanks for your response. Yes. The hospital job I applied for was around $20.00 per hour, full benefits, work off-site and the daily line count requirement was 1100 I believe so I can't help but believe that 1900 lines is high. Sadly our department has some very loyal, very hard working and highly skilled MTs and there are some who are already talking about finding work elsewhere if this goes into effect so hopefully management will think this through a little more before going forward.

Kasey, don't answer, but how many entries do you - have in your expander? How many do

[ In Reply To ..]
others in your department tend to have? IF, IF you guys had been paid by the hour, you'd probably have lacked the incentive to work at building your speed that production workers have had for a long time now.

The previous poster is very pleased with her increased speed with 6000 no doubt heavily-used entries. I bought my first expander a decade or so ago, so have several times that. We're normal these days, raising the bar as we push, push, push to increase our incomes.

Bottom lines are: MT + expander is now setting a whole new reasonable expectation for transcription production. MT + expander + editing is setting yet another new reasonable standard much higher still.

That 1900 sounds like editing or combo transcription/editing. If just transcribing, it does sound high. Your 200 lines per hour transcribing without templates would be considered competent most places, not among the faster MTs but quite decent. At an okay 9 cents a line for an established employee, that'd be $18/hour. Does your manager have a good understanding of what's possible with and without expander, do you think? Is any of it editing, though, and are they going to more editing, requiring a much higher new standard? Could any of you be easily replaced with faster people if it came to that, or would a standard you guys didn't meet require them to rethink?

Regardless of what happens there, though, anybody who doesn't have at least those 6000+ well-used entries and isn't adding more every single day almost certainly is not staying competitive.

It'd be great if you'd come back and let us all know how this works out. We all need to know what's happening "out there." Good luck.

never a matter of how many shortcuts created - its howmany - do you USE.

[ In Reply To ..]
you can have a million but might only be remembering 100.

so the question is - how many does she USE.

You're right. Good point when you can just - download whole dictionaries. NM

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x

That's what I was kind of thinking - Shirl

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I think I've forgotten more than I've created, especially for the ones that I rarely get to use. Some I forget because I had to come up with a different abbreviation than what I wanted because my first choice was already in use. Did I use a first initial of each word and an x? Did I use the first two letters of each word? First three letters of the first word then first of the remaining words? Some of the more complex abbreviations I've thought up end up taking longer to type out than doing several shorter groups of words.

One example of mine is "wehaldatio" for "we had a long discussion about the importance of." I actually use that one enough to remember it; it took a while for my fingers to develop a memory for the keystrokes, though. But others like"the patient comes in today with a complaint of" or something similar, I find it faster to type out several shortcuts that one big one "tpcit w/ a compt f." But that could just be because I'm getting older and my memory isn't as sharp as it once was. LOL

One of the most exasperating things for me is, you've got a doctor and all of his little oddities down, and then he decides to change it up a little.

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