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

Gauging Speed - CW

Posted: Feb 24, 2011

I was wondering how long it would take an experinced MT to transcribe a 1:20 (one hour and 20 minutes) report?

I am new at this and I think this took me waaayyyy longer than it should have. Can't help but to think I chose the wrong path....lol

I guess my speed was about one hour per 9 minutes....The company told me a good transcriber would be one hour for 15 minutes....Is this correct....Turn around time was 24 hours and I barely made the deadline....

Generally x2 or x3 - For Me Personally

[ In Reply To ..]
The doctors I can zip through, I calculate double time, i.e., 10 minutes of dictation = 20 minutes of typing, one hour dictation = two hours typing, etc.

On docs I have to copy/paste or clean up their grammar and construction, I calculate triple time, i.e. 10 = 30, one hour = three hours, etc.

On brand new doctors or specialities, I calculate it at x4 - doing 15 minutes of dictation in one hour.

I have been doing this 28+ years, type 100+ wpm. The above figures are where I have settled out at.

If I got a 1:20 dictation, I would figure it to take me between 4 and 6 hours - depending on the above factors.

How long did it take you to get to that speed? - CW

[ In Reply To ..]
I am double your time...oops. The 1:20 took about about 8 - 12 hours. I am working without a foot pedal and on a laptop. My fingers cannot seem to find the right letters on the flat surface. I know several years ago I was faster at typing. I want to blame the keyboard. What do you think...

How did you -

[ In Reply To ..]
stop and start your dictation without a foot pedal? That would definitely slow you down without a foot pedal, I would think.

Oh my! - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I'd have been in tears by the end of that 1 tape!

My 2 cents -- You have to get a foot pedal and really should get a proper keyboard or you will never get "up to speed." I'm guessing a lot of what slowed you down were those 2 things.

Like the poster above stated - how 'fast' you get through a dictation depends on many, many things -- how often do you have to stop and look up medications, lab values, etc; how often to you interupt yourself (get up to do something other than work-related); how good is the dictator (lots of ums, ahs, or 'go back and change this'); how clear and easy to understand is the dictation and the dictator (accents, mush mouths, background noise); how fast of a typist are you; do you use InstantText or other word expanders; do you have templates available; etc.

On average, for a 'good' dictator I usually take double the time to do a report (5 minute dictation = 10 minutes transcribing). For a more difficult dictator or a more difficult report (such as a complex op note), I average triple time (5 minute dictation = 15 minutes transcribing). For the completely awful dictators that hem & haw around, change their minds, skip around, etc., I can sometimes take up to 4 times as long (5 minute report = 20 minutes transcribing). On average, I hit somewhere between 2-3 times as long as the dictation.

I have no idea how long it took me from newbie to now (13 years later) to get to that speed, as I didn't keep track when I first started. I don't think my typing speed has increased that much over the years, but my knowledge increases every day so that I don't spend nearly as much time looking things up as I did at first. For me, I think that is one of the biggest things to increase my speed. That and learning to not be my own worst enemy/not interrupted myself.

Thank You! - CW

[ In Reply To ..]
I was about to tear my hair out...lol
I am not sure which pedal to chose from since I don't know who I will be working for. I think I will just buy a USB foot pedal and cross my fingers.
All of your comments have been so helpful...THANK YOU SO MUCH!

You must get a foot pedal and use some sort of expander - For Me Personally

[ In Reply To ..]
I can't say how long it to me to get to that speed. I have been doing this since 1982 .. way back in the pre-digital, microcassette Dictaphone days.

A foot pedal is a must. I was without mine for a week this past summer and it slowed me down terribly. Hot keys and keyboard shortcuts are no substitute for the foot action.

Also definitely use some kind of text expander. I just the AutoCorrect and AutoText in Word and it serves me fine.

Check out the Classifieds Board here at MTStars for a foot pedal before paying full price elsewhere. A basic USB is likely all you will need no matter where you work. I think I have seen a 9-pin required once in the (many, many, many) jobs ads I have looked at.

Time and practice, and building your own little cache of tips and shortcuts, will get you there.

Don't give up. You can do it.

First of all --you will be a whole lot faster with - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
a foot pedal. Secondly, if your keyboard is not comfortable to type on (I can't type on a laptop keyboard) get one you are comfortable with and plug it into your laptop--Your speed will increase tremendously. No matter what, you have to use a footpedal to maintain any speed at all.x

No foot pedal, poor keyboard - Em

[ In Reply To ..]
Frankly, I think it is a miracle you didn't find a building and jump. Do you at least have hot keys you are comfortable with set for your player? A foot pedal is really going to help. And buy a real keyboard for your laptop. Plus, are you wearing GOOD headphones?

I, no lie, just took 2 hours to do a 10 minute file. I have several, several years of experience (not to mention a foot pedal, a keyboard, and good headphones). But this is a brand new (to me) account. I needed to learn new specifics and there were some unusual ones. I also, save me, had to learn a new accent as it was a European country that I had never actually transcribed an accent for. There were some drug names I was unfamiliar with. Just for you, I figured out I made $7 (yes, total) in that 2 hours. On the account I have been doing for years, I make almost $30 an hour. It SHOULD have taken me 40 minutes or so, probably, 25ish when I am familiar with it. However, I was slow, overcautious, and listened to the file 4 times (which alone is 40 minutes LOL).

Be patient with yourself. It is hard at first and (for me) a new dictator on a new account is always tedious. For heaven sakes though, please buy a foot pedal. You'll be amazed.

Similar Messages:

Apr 10, 2012

I've been transcribing for 23 years. I recently got switched to pretty much all ASR and I really like it. However, the pay is only 4 cents per line plus my shift differential, so that's 4.75 cents per line. I started ASR three days ago. I find it totally non-stressful, pleasant, and interesting. But I am averaging about $7.50 an hour! I don't necessarily need to get tons of money, but this isn't even minimum wage in California (which is $8.00 per hour). How can I get speed? I ...

Jun 09, 2012

Does anyone know what a safe speed is for QA? Some MT's I know can edit at 180 to 190 on the speed bar on Nuance Escription. Managers say these are their "top performers," but I would like to be a fly on the wall to see how their reports are finished on QA. ...

Nov 04, 2012

So tell me, how do I pick up speed? I average about 184 lines an hour. The stats they send out say most of you are doing 220 lines an hour. What can I do to pick up speed? My accounts do not allow templates of more than 75 words. The 7.1 is better with regard to looking up reports, but I still don't know if I am supposed to hit enter after one section before moving on to the next one (history and physical...enter???, then past medical history, for example).&nbs ...

Jan 26, 2010

Just wondering how many lines and hour an MT who uses no expanders or macros whatsoever can type. Anyone know? The fact that there are so many variables kind of sucks because an MT can't really argue if their company gives them a hard time about their speed since there may be no one else to compare with (in an fair way). ...

Mar 15, 2010

I am just curious as to what speed setting to most of you keep it on when doing ASR? I try to keep mine between 8 and 9 unless it's an extremely slow dictator. I would like to increase my line count, but I'm afraid if I speed it up too much I might miss something. ...

Sep 25, 2010

Does anyone have any hints/suggestions/help for working more quickly in Powerscribe editing radiology reports? The program seems a bit sluggish and you have to wait on it when you want to go on to the next step/next report. Any hints for copying/pasting more quickly, etc? Any info would be greatly appreciated as I am trying to increase my speed. TIA ...

Jan 21, 2011

I'm wondering if anyone else likes to keep the VR speed above 100% when doing VR? What number are you comfortable with? I know there are some docs that have to be slowed down to 100% speed or below, but what's your comfortable speed? I have mine set at 115%, but I'm trying to creep up to 120% to see if it helps the line count a little. ...

Feb 17, 2011

No one seems to talk about typing speed these days. I see a huge difference in earning ability of an MT by their typing speed. I get resumes and people don't even put their typing speed on a resume often. I have to go back and ask them. It is the best ruler out there. Are there any 100 wpm typists out there looking for clinic work, M-F, 9-5? Since we all work by production, obviously the faster you type, the more you will earn (and happier you will be) bu ...

Jun 07, 2011

Does anyone know what the expected typing speed is to get a job - have lots of experience, but ASR work has slowed my typing speed! ...

Aug 08, 2011

I know everyone's different, so just asking for an avg. Just found out today (after finally getting to a somewhat stable line count) that my former Spheris acct w/ be switching to it shortly. ...

Aug 29, 2011

I am so tired of these docs and PAs screaming through their PEs that I am just so tempted to just put a big fat QA marker for the whole thing. Yes we can go back and look at old reports (full of conflicting info, blanks, plain wrong) but between that and listening over and over, geez we sure do spend a lot of time "working" for which we are not paid! ...

Sep 08, 2011

How long do you give a new job a shot before you know whether or not you will be able to be productive with it? I really want to give up my current full-time job, but I have tried a couple of other MTSOs and their platforms are so much more time-consuming and I end up not being able to make any money. I know that it will take a bit of time to get totally up to speed. Just wondering how long it takes others to get up to a comfortable speed at a new company or when you know you have to throw ...

Mar 01, 2012

Not only their mail server but the DocQmanage server as well. Its ridiculous. There have been so many times where I knew I could fill in one of my blanks if I could just look at some of the old work in DQM, but when doing a search, it takes so long, I end up just saying the heck with it and sending it off with the blanks. It's not like I have a slow connection either. I'm on fiber at 10 mbs, so that's not the problem. ...

Jun 20, 2012

A lot is being said about stepping up speed and productivity as far as keyboard techniques, but I think my problem is mostly that I cant think that fast as far as sentence structure and meaning. And if I speed things up, I worry about whether I actually heard it right and if I have left out words here and there. I like to quickly proof the report but I have read that an MT should proof only 2 reports per day. Any advice? ...

Sep 26, 2012

On every single report, the speed starts out so fast that it is hard to keep up with even the dictators I am familiar with. I have to adjust it on every report. Can some one please tell me a way to fix it permanently? Thanks. ...

Apr 30, 2013

I am planning to purchase Speed Type within the next couple of days and would appreciate hearing from others who use it. I'm wondering: Do I actually need to purchase the training resources in order to learn how to use it? About how long did it take you to learn how to use it? Just how beneficial is it for an MT to have? ...

Jan 05, 2014

Same speed that I always have it marked, but sounds like the dictators are dictating at the speed of light today..Bet the company changed it to try and speed us up ...

Mar 27, 2014

Don't you just *love* it when the system decides to speed up certain dictators to so fast that no one can comprehend - and theoretically they want you to edit them that fast? Gees - so annoying to have to slow them down to a reasonable level all because some idiot who doesn't do transcription thinks we can go faster! ...

Nov 23, 2009

Would someone be so kind as to tell me, does Medquist pay at least minimum wage after formal training, but while you are learning your new account and trying to get up to production requirements? Or, do they pay strictly on production only? Thanks! ...

May 14, 2010

I've been working for a while on the Editscript platform. My company pays me 3 cpl for VR (ridiculous) and 6 cpl for ST (also ridiculous). I felt like I had to take this job because I was a new grad and it took me three months to find it. I am unable to make over $10/hr at my very fastest, even using Instant Text. Most days, it's more like $7-8/hr. I can't survive like this! Anyway, it's good that I'm learning the platform, and it sounds li ...

Aug 25, 2011

I'm switching up my office stuff and i'm thinking about getting an ergonomic keyboard. I have been typing on a laptop and every once in a while my hands cramp up. I was just wondering if anyone had a learning curve with the ergo keyboard and if it slowed down their production at all. Thanks! :) ...

Sep 14, 2011

The offer packet says we have to have 4 to 8 MB download speed. Do you really need that much speed? Living in the country, my average high-speed is 1.5 MB download and 0.54 upload. What I have works fine for me now, but will that be a problem working for MQ? ...

Mar 17, 2012

I need some help/opinions. I think I transcribe fairly fast, i.e., lines per hour. I have been looking to get out of MT and into something related and have been given a typing test (in person) on a couple of occasions. The problem is that I stink at typing from written copy as opposed to from hearing it via dictation. My brain just isn't wired to pass these tests :( ...

Nov 18, 2012

On both my Win XP and Vista computers I had tremendous slow downs and freezes while using Internet Explorer. In checking the Task Manager/Processes it showed several iexplore.exe files running and getting bigger, up to 500,000K. By shutting down the biggerst one I had immediate improvement in speed, but sometimes this would shut down the Internet connection. I was constantly having to shut down one of these files. I switched to Firefox and what a huge improvement! It consistently runs on about 1 ...

Jan 10, 2013

I don't get it. Suddenly companies are asking about download & upload speed of my computer. My computer has worked just fine for MT work for over 9 years now. Nobody has ever asked about the speed before, and I've never had any problems. Now I'm looking for work and because my upload speed isn't 1.5 or above, places won't hire me despite my qualifications. ...

Mar 21, 2013

My work computer seems to be slow doing research, etc. lately. I recently had unfamiliar work given to me and keep quite a few tabs and manuals open, so thinking it could be a RAM issue but not sure. I did a speed test during a slow spell, and my download speed was 15.75 mbps and upload speed was 2.90 mbps. I'm really not sure what a good speed is. - I have a personal computer as well, but it is barely running these days, so it's always very slow (so can't judg ...

Apr 23, 2013

I do transcription for a hospital conglomerate, and we have thousands of doctors. I find that ever since we started a new program last year, I no longer get a lot of the same docs like I used to, but I get different dictators, different work types and different specialties all day every day. It's very frustrating because I find that I'm learning new specialties all day but, because there's apparently nothing I can do about it, I have to just live with it and work on getting m ...

Sep 28, 2013

I am having problems with my Speed Type program not keeping up with me. I do not understand the pause feature and cannot understand what to do to give it time to catch up. It almost works perfectly if I do not continue typing after an abbreviation is typed, but that makes me pause too much. If I put a period or space in, sometimes it just does not type anything but the first character of the abbreviation and at times the abbreviation cue I give it also remains attached. Such as, tp for the patie ...

Jan 16, 2014

I've always kept mine on 0.8 and thought it was perfect but turned it up yesterday to 1.0 and didn't really notice too much difference. I like it right around there because I am able to hear every nuance of what is dictated and rarely miss any of the small details. I read on a different thread that someone else kept theirs much faster so it got me curious what the "average" is. Is mine ridiculously slow or are some of you just ridiculously fast? :) ...

Apr 15, 2010

Was wondering if anyone has used Verizon High Speed Internet and what your experience as with it? I am considering switching as it 50% less my current cable service. TIA! ...