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


My vent an VR/SR - sm


Posted: Dec 13, 2014

I'm just venting..I don't care whose fault this is.  Not asking questions or looking for solutions, just feel like venting, so here goes.

Dear makers of VR - It is so screwed up I'm changing every sentence and having to retype what is said for half of what it should be.  Why even have doctors if you are just going to input whatever you want.  Why not have a patient go up to a VR machine and tell them what's wrong and let you print out a report because you are not following any of what the doctors say.  In fact, why not no longer use MTs to do VR, since the system is supposed to be so accurate (which yes, some reports are accurate, but more are not).  Lets have the people who are responsible for inventing VR be the ones to blame when a report is wrong. 

This is not one or two reports, its almost every report.  VR is putting in whatever it wants and it is nothing remotely close to what the doctors say.  The doctors say 80, VR puts 45 - What the heck is that?  Do these places not read about people dying because of wrong medication doses.  The doctors say even though she sleeps well and VR puts in the morning she gets herself dressed.  No where in the report is the doctors saying what VR puts.  Additionally, if VR knows when a doctor says "I'm sorry I didn't mean to say that" and VR actually takes it out, then why is VR not putting in words and sentences that are very clearly spoken.  What kind of system is this, but they love to pay us 4 cents.  It takes longer to do VR reports than to do regular typing.

Some people claim they are typing 2000 and even 4000 lines a day, but you know what...you are not.  I'm a very fast typist.  What you have is templates and shortcuts, so while you may put blood pressure in the report you type bp, so you don't actually type those 14 characters, you only type 2, and if you have a template you insert that is 20 or 30 or even more characters you are not actually typine 20 or 30 or even more characters, you are typing 0 (Z-E-R-O), so to come on here and claim you type 2000 or 4000 lines a day, that is incorrect.  Most of it is shortcuts and templates and most likely you are typing less than 1/2 of what you claim to be.  It is literally impossible to actually type 4000 lines a day, even with just reading.  And if you are averaging that many I don't want you doing my reports because guaranteed there are mistakes going that fast.

Okay, that's my vent.  Don't care if anyone does not like it, I'm sick of having to retype everything for half of what I get paid to normally type.  Not asking for solutions, and you can write any rude response you want.  I don't care.  I still say get rid of VR, let it vomit out anything it wants and let the creators of VR be responsible. 

It seems to me that you are just not that good - on VR because why be bitter

[ In Reply To ..]
about what can others make and you cannot? I personally have done over 4000 per lines on VR and have no shortcuts or templates. Every once in awhile I will have an ortho doctor who will use a template but not every single day. I would not want to do your medical reports but I will say this, my company holds us to high standards and if mine were bad I would not be working for this company. You don't have to (or want to) believe others can work and make a decent salary but why the bad attitude just because others can? I do not know what platform you work on but Escription is the one I use and I have said it time and time again thank the sweet Lord above for VR with all the ESLs because it is able to pick up on their dialects really good so I don't have to strain as much with my ears.

Not bitter. If people are actually typing all that then that's great - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
and they should be compensated, but I find it very hard to believe anyone is actually doing 4000 lines. I'm a fast reader and I have my system set to the fastest speed it will go. On a good day I've hit over 1200 lines. But my ears and eyes can only go so fast (and I find myself a fast person) before I find I am missing out a lot of words they are saying. Slow it down and there are whole sentences not there. I think (and of course this is only my opinion) that even the fastest of fast readers is impossible to do that many. Maybe they can and that's great of course they should be compensated, but I personally find it hard to believe that someone does that many.

Second, I don't have a bad attitude at all. Every day I wake up and tell myself it's going to be a great day and I'm going to do very well. Every time I have to look up something I consider it a learning experience. Most of my days are spent laughing with my husband and playing with my cats and enjoying my life, but even people with the best attitudes and brightest outlook on life do get frustrated (and I'm not the only one). But when every single sentence in the VR has to be changed and whole sentences added in and words taken out, and paragraphs separated that should be together, and paragraphs thrown to the bottom or beginning or middle of the document have to be hunted for and then extra steps taken to move them to the proper area, words in sentences the system put in capital letters for no reason, and sentences that sound nothing evenly remotely similar to what the doctor dictated, it doesn't mean a person has a bad attitude, it means that everyone even with the brightest outlook on life gets a little frustrated and sometimes comes here to vent, not caring that posters try to tear them down. That's one of my biggest life changers here, not caring that other posters try to make me feel inferior rather than the system.

I believe you 100% when you say it is the system. I tried looking up what companies use escription, I am not having any luck except finding one companies name (that name shall not be named here - sort of like Voldemort LOL) associated with it - no thanks (and that's not a bad attitude, that's knowing what lies ahead with that company).

I fully believe that I am the only one who can change my situation, and I can tell you without hesitation that I am trying everything to improve my situation. If you have any suggestions I always appreciate that, but I can tell you that you are 100% wrong when you say I have a bad attitude. In fact my sister-in-law once told me I take every bad situation and try to make something good of it.

You absolutely have the wrong system if you only can - do 1200 a line or so per day

[ In Reply To ..]
Years ago I did a timed test, back in the days, and my speed was 130-140 wpm. I knew how many straight lines I could do per day. I accepted a job, trained and my line count was dismal, horrible. I liked the account but told the people could not stay because I knew what I could do. Got another job and sure enough that was their platform. By the description of your VR it is no way close to what I work on. Your platform sounds like a nightmare. I assure you there is better. Once I do a report, unless there is a word I am intent on finding, I never reread over again and never have caught flak for missing words, leaving out paragraphs, adding whole sentences. I guess if I had to do VR in that manner I probably could not achieve the count I do per day. When straight I always hit over 2000 lines a day and that was straight. I personally love VR, would never want to straight type again. Oh, BTW, I had 2 boss ladies that I would be willing to say they probably got get straight over 3000 per day, they were that fast.
Thank you for your input - poster you replied to
[ In Reply To ..]
It has to be the system. Looking back at my records about 2 years ago I was typing around 175/hour on one system and about 250 lines on a different system (this was before VR came out). Then they kept making "improvements" to the system and no my line count is lower than it ever was. Each time there is an "improvement" my count goes down. I'm really happy when I hear other MTs are doing well because it gives me something to look up to. I never think down on people, just when I read someone was doing 4000 lines a day I did the math and thought this was just literally impossible, but hearing it's the system I believe you are right.

I have got to find a better system.

Thanks for your input and I hope I didn't offend you or say anything out of line.
For me, it's the dictators - gonesoon
[ In Reply To ..]
I get. I am trained on both ExEditor and Escription. if I get good dictators on ExEditor, I can get 2000 lines a day, but on Escription, the best I've done is 197 lines/hour. I worked on both tonight - escription was 160 lines/hour because the dictators were all basically speaking with their heads you know where, and I had to edit every single line of their reports. The report I just got done with on Exeditor was 2 pages long, and I had to make 25 corrections - 4 in the first paragraph alone - mainly because the dictator kept changing her mind. Smart Rewrite ain't that smart - we've been making the same corrections for 10 months, and it still doesn't get it, and the original poster was right - the VR is so far off on some words that it's ridiculous.
Amen! Agree! - MTtoo
[ In Reply To ..]
I totally agree with SM, the original poster. I would like to state for the record that it is speech recognition. I was corrected on this point myself by one of the main programmers of voice recognition (I took one of his classes). I thought I'd pipe in here because I thought some might be interested in his background. The main programmer of voice recognition (not to be confused with speech recognition) worked for the government at one point, works on classified projects, and teaches. Medical transcription utilizes speech recognition, though. I observed one thing, though, while transcribing and that is that the easiest doctors to transcribe for tend to disappear quickly--their dictation gets learned quickly by the software. Speech recognition is successfully utilized by other fields (authors when 'writing' books) and often is trained by the author within a week. My mind is blown when I think of how the world has changed since 1990! Oh . . . and he has a doctoral degree in computer linguistics.
speech recognition - morano
[ In Reply To ..]
I think anybody who would be thankful for a speech recognition job is an idiot as it has done more to our pay and our work to take it down the drain than anything has. It has basically just destroyed our livelihood.
See comment - MTtoo
[ In Reply To ..]
I made more in medical transcription 20 years ago than I did when I left the field not long ago. Morano's stated comment is why I found other opportunities. Ironically, I might be purchasing a speech recognition program to further my new path.
Unlike your statement I would never refer to myself as an idiot - just because I like, or love, VR
[ In Reply To ..]
I am working 3 days per week with 1 weekend per month. I make anywhere from $800 to $1000 every 2 weeks just part time. The reason why many people so dislike VR is you are working on a platform that apparently does not learn and gives you what I term a "salad" report, just everything thrown together. I first started on Escription in the early 2000s. It within a week picked up almost 100% of each dictator on there. What my company does is make sure everyone working on the same page. We all have to use the same terms, i.e. milligrams instead of mg, every night instead of qhs. We have everyone on our system, including many, many difficult ESLs. I have very few dictators who use a standard report. All of my reports are done as is without the so called hot keys we were taught to use. I still use the mouse and have never done anything else. Every once in a great while I have a report I have to straight type and literally hate it. My reports need very little correction, probably the worst thing is not ending a sentence and then you have to put in a period and capitalize the next beginning. I guess for people who do not have a good system and continue to work on ones that are totally below par, well I would not call them an idiot because don't like to be that low but they should question their own self. I think for the most part women have gotten into a profession where they are not willing to leave the house to attain other work, stick around when they make low wages and the cycle just goes on.
VR - morano
[ In Reply To ..]
Well, saying idiot is a strong word and not very nice but sometimes that's the way it seems. It just seems like we're helping the enemy really by doing the VR as it eventually will probably just take over our jobs. And it's always about doing much more work all for less pay and there's no fairness to that at all.
I do not think that VR will take over, that is - unless it is Grade A perfect and
[ In Reply To ..]
after working on the same account, same platform for over 10 years, it has never reached the perfect place. If the client wants to accept an almost perfect report maybe then out of our job but nah, I don't see this happening anytime soon.
VR - madonna
[ In Reply To ..]
but what it has meant is lower pay for all of us and less jobs to be had, because with VR more work is used up and done up due to the fact it takes much more VR lines than straight lines to make the money. But there's not anything we can do about it. It's here to stay. We can either work to get out or stay and accept the sad reality of it.
Actually, VR and transcription itself are being - bypassed by touchscreen technology.
[ In Reply To ..]
It happened at the place I got laid off from.
I shudder to think about the touch screen and - not for any fact other than my story
[ In Reply To ..]
Information taken at orthopedic's office was that I was allergic to a leg brace. Never even had a leg brace. Information taken at the hospital showed I had HIV. Real news to me, never had that either. What is funny is how many times have you been to a doctor's office and the ones inputting on the touch screen (or keying in) have no clue how to spell your medications, stumbling over them? I don't intend to work even the next 10 years so no skin off my back if it all goes kerplunk.
I have read - still typing
[ In Reply To ..]
things that have been printed out from the touch screen program at my MDs office and it is just awful with misspellings and grammar atrocities. I can't believe what they are accepting into medical records now in the name of progress when they held us to such high standards for so long.

They don't get it - tired

[ In Reply To ..]
"Corporate" is told how accurate VR is and corporate believes the lies because they are going to save so much on their transcription bills - they do save and the editors make $3.00/hour. First MT editing job I did edit on average 400/hour. That company lost the contract and I edited for the company who got the same contract for the same doctors and I could not do more than 250/hour. Obviously the line counting is set at a different rate and not counting what you really did. There has got to be something that can be done because that is cheating and actually stealing from the editors.


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