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

So, so bummed :( - sadmt

Posted: Jul 11, 2012

I just got this fabulous job with this company a few months back that is strictly straight typing. I have been an MT for over 20 years at this point. I took a job with a MTSO doing editing for a couple of years and think I lost my rhythm.

My problem is is that my production is supposed to be 1200 lines per day (8 hour shift). I have awesome docs, plenty of mixed work, use a ton of templates, use IT, autotext and autocorrect for expanders, but still can't make it even close to 1200 on most days despite my sitting here for nearly 8 hours without a break except for the potty. The company gives you a 90 day trial period, but I'm not sure how much stock they put into my not being nearly close to 1200 (I've managed to do 1100 on two days, but usually average 900).

Does anyone have any idea how to get my line counts back up there? Has anyone had a difficult transition from VR to straight typing?

Any helpful hints would be most appreciated! Thank you!

I'm never able to get 1200 lines in 8 hours - - so I always have to work - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
more than that (usually 10+) to get the lines. Except where I work they don't pay overtime, and we have to put on our time cards that we worked "8 hours".
It's all such B.S.

I'd be willing to do that - sadmt

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but I don't want to take work away from someone else on their rightful shift. There's nothing I like less than to run out of work because others are working my hours to make up time. :(

Increasing line counts - Cathy

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In order to increase your line counts, I think you first need to think about what is slowing you down the most. Is it spending time on research? Looking for dictation samples? Entering demographics? Looking up account specifics? Platform really slow? Lots of distractions? Are you getting enough sleep or are you exhausted?

First take some time and observe how you are working. Try to figure out what factors are affecting you the most (from those mentioned above and others) and then try to determine how you could be faster.

Come back and let me know what you find. I would love to help.

I have recently cut back my hours from full time to part time (couldn't afford the insurance anyway) and have noticed that I can get almost the same amount of lines working 6 hours per day instead of 8 because I am no longer completely exhausted (lots of other responsibilities in my life) and can focus better. I have some tips and suggestions to share with you that might help, but I think you need to figure out what areas you need help with first. You can maximize your expander usage by making sure you have entries for common words and also dictator-specific entries where you can just type a few letters and get a PE or ROS, etc., for a specific doctor. What version of IT do you have? What platform are you on? You can utilize scripts and macros to help speed things along if you are spending a lot of time looking things up or copying demographics. Again, come back and give some more info and I will be glad to help in any way I can :)

How do they count the lines? - Alice

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Maybe they aren't counting spaces or something and that's why you aren't getting the high line counts that you previously accomplished elsewhere?

I should add - sadmt

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that my lines are counted the regular way...65 characters including spaces, so I don't think that's the issue. When I check the platform against Word's line counter, they're pretty much the same plus or minus a line or two.

Just a thought - transitioning MT

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I recently changed keyboards on a whim. Interestingly, my speed and accuracy has improved (I had gotten sloppy and relied on spellcheck quite a bit). I also use MSWord and auto-correct shortcuts.

Also, instead of daily, I set hourly goals for myself, kind of like a challenge. This keeps it interesting.

I know these sound like simple tips, but they have helped me.

Thank you...that's interesting - sadmt

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I work from a laptop and used to work on an ergonomic keyboard, which I liked better.

I love the idea of hourly goals and might have to incorporate that. I always think at the end of the shift that I've reached the 1200, but am totally shocked to find that I hadn't, so I'm willing to try anything!

Wireless keyboard? - transitioning MT

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I am slower on a laptop too. Might I suggest getting a wireless keyboard? I have found that even just the change to "chiclet" keys on the wireless has helped, which is weird, but I'm not gonna complain!

I believe the standard used to transcribing should take no more than three times the length of dictation. I try to keep to that and my reports are between 5-15 minutes long as a rule.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

Great ideas! - sadmt

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I will look into a wireless or a wired ergonomic keyboard like I used to have. I'm not sure why that never occcured to me! Thank you!

The reports I usually get are more like 15 to 30 mins each, so you think my line count would be through the roof!

that explains it - transitioning MT

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Long reports burn me out, FAST. That is the reason I give myself a set amount of time to type them. Otherwise, I zone out midway and throw off my line count goal.

Another suggestion, type a couple hours, then get up and walk around, go outside, anything, then come back and get back to typing. It helps me.

Wow, Transitioning MT - Keyboard Goddess

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I do the exact same thing with long reports. Unless it's by a really great dictator and an interesting psych eval or infectious disease consult, I start zoning out about midway through. I never used to have this issue and loved the longer reports because they had a huge impact on my line count.

And, if it's a long report by a dictator who constantly pauses to shuffle through the EMR or paperwork between sections, I seriously have to get up and stretch 2-3 times during the report just to maintain my focus.

Not sure if it's because I'm getting older or if I've just grown more impatient. When I sit down to a 30-minute report, I want 30 minutes of solid dictation as opposed to 5 minutes of dictation, 3 minutes of silence, 5 minutes of dictation, 4 minutes of silence, lol!

Glad to read I'm not the only one who gets burned out on lengthy reports!

Thank you for your - sadmt

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thoughtful reply Cathy.

I don't spend a lot of time looking for samples, filling in demographics, etc. I just simply feel like I'm in perpetual slow motion.

I have teenagers, so I don't have a lot of distractions. I know I do have something akin to fibromyalgia, as my muscles are extremely and deeply painful and I am constantly exhausted. I could literally sleep the entire day away. I've been to my PCP, who tried me on one medication, but it just made me more tired than before. So I'm at a loss.

As for expanders, I have IT Pro and am thinking of getting the new version, though it would be a huge expense at this point, but may be worth it. I also use autocorrect and have imported all of my expansions from the last 20 yrs into IT and add to it as I go along, but I put it into one big .glo and am wondering if I should break it up according to physician or discipline? I type in Word as a platform. I think IT is helpful to some degree, but I also think I was doing better before it by just using autocorrect. It's time consuming for me to have to glance down all the time maybe?

Thank you for your willingness to help!

SadMT, you can turn off the list prompter, or whatever - it is called, and just work from memory or

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system. That's what I do. I've never worked with the prompt list on. Instead, I developed a system of shorts so that I know what the short form is going to be. This allows me to always keep my eyes on the text I'm editing.

Regarding setting short-term goals, I also found it really helped me to forget measuring my workday by time put in and instead by lines produced. I take a break every 400-500 lines on normal days, depending on what accounts I'm getting. This means that, instead of glancing at the clock to see if I'm near break time (no amount of looking ever got me there faster), I push to produce faster. Much better incentive.

This can be flexed any way desired, of course. I cut myself a break on those days when all the work is horrible and slow or when I'm unusually tired. The goal's lowered, though, not abandoned. It really makes a difference.

I don't have fibromyalgia, but I do have an autoimmune disorder that can cause fatigue when it gets away from me, and I'm always low on energy, so I really sympathize.

Suggestions - Cathy

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Sorry to hear about your pain and fatigue. That is very tough. I got 4-5 hours of sleep at night before I cut back on my hours. I was a walking zombie, and it did improve my production quite a bit by just getting another hour or two of sleep at night. If you could somehow figure out how to get more rest, that might help.

Anyway, I also have IT Pro. I have one big glossary for general things, one glossary for meds, and a separate glossary for each account I am on. I really just rely on the main glossary as all the other glossaries are included in it. I have separate glossaries for each account I have because my accounts are switched so often and that way I can remove the glossary when I no longer need it and my main glossary isn't clogged up with so many entries that I no longer use. I think it would take me more time to switch back and forth between glossaries if I had them set up exclusively for each doc, unless I did the same doc for extended periods of time each day. I just took a class on increasing your productivity with your expander. If you have ever read the book "Saving Keystrokes" that is also very helpful. Some of the ideas were to create a system for making expansions and not trying to memorize them. There are a lot of different techniques you can use to do this. I have a singles glossary that is different than the one that comes with IT for common words that are typed often--the, and, he, she, with, of, patient, hospital, etc. I use the common abbreviations, like COPD, and have them expand in all caps. If I want to expand that out, I add an x at the end, like copdx=chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. That is probably what you do too. I have expansions for common words and all the possible endings, like wrs=worse, wrsn=worsen, wrsg=worsening, wrsd=worsened, etc. I have expansions for headings as well to make those go faster. I like the nesting technique where you use your "base expansion" and add onto it for additional words that are often dictated with it, like tis=tissue, htis=healthy tissue, ntis=necrotic tissue, etc. In the class I took the instructor said that it was helpful to have expansion for common body parts, like larm=left arm, rarm=right arm, etc. Another technique that I use is to use the first 2 letters of each word in a 2-word combo that I want to expand, like acex=acute exacerbation. I also use the first letter of each word for sentences, like tpttpw=the patient tolerated the procedure well. The rule I was taught was that if you type the same thing 3 times in the same day you should create an expansion for it. The great thing about IT is that you can have more than one entry for the same expansion. You can use all the techniques listed above for the same expansion and hopefully you will remember one of them and not have to look at the bottom of the screen at all.

Creating your own normals for each dictator also will help save a lot of time. I'm not sure if this is what you are referring to with templates or not. I create a normal report for each dictator that has all of their standard phrases (especially for things like the ROS and PE). You can store these in IT but sometimes it is a bit slow when they expand out. It might be better to store them in MS Word. I work in a platform and we can store our own normals there and pull them up pretty quickly.

Another thing that helps is to have expansions for account specific things, like your physician names and AHP names so you don't have to constantly look those up for correct spelling and to make it go faster. I also try to have expansions for common hospitals, towns, employers, etc., in the area.

I thought about upgrading my IT to the new version as well. The new features are great, but not worth the expense for me. I use a free program called AutoHotKey (AHK) that can do the scripting functions that the new version of IT can. I use AHK to "automate" whatever I can to help things go faster. It depends on how you work and what would help you save time. I have an AHK script to look things up on Google, onelook, drugs.com, etc. I just highlight what I want to look up and then hit my shortcut key right from where I am typing to look it up. I also have a script for dates, long format or short format. I have scripts to navigate around in the document (go to beginning of document, beginning of line, beginning of paragraph, delete a paragraph, delete a line, etc.) Those are helpful especially for editing but also helpful for straight typing when you make a mistake, the dictator changes their mind, or you are working in your normal and need to delete something. Along that line, having jump codes to use within your templates/normals in Word would help save some time if you don't already utilize those. Using your expander or scripts for marking reports for QA saves time too. I have too many scripts to describe. To understand what I am talking about better, I will give you an example. The account that I work on most frequently now is an account that has very short reports (usually 2-3 minutes or less) and requires frequent worktype changes and demographics to be added. I have an AHK script for each of the dictators on that account. My AHK script for each doctor varies based on what I usually need to do with their reports. When I get a report, I see which doctor is dictating and then I enter my AHK shortcut for that dictator. I use the account initials and then the doctor's initials. For Dr. Example, I get a demographics screen that pops up with every report. My AHK script sends an F8 to cancel out of that screen, a mouse click to select the dropdown menu to change the worktype, a 2 for the number of the worktype I want and then a return to select it. It then brings up the normal entry screen and types in my normal code for me and sends a return to pull that normal into my report for me. Now I start typing. I typed 6 keystrokes to accomplish all of that and it goes much faster than if I did it all manually. It is easy to make an AHK script to do what you always do with each report. You just have to know what keystrokes you use to do it and then have AHK send the keystrokes for you. If you have to use your mouse to do things a lot, you can also you AHK to send mouse clicks for you so you don't have to take you hands off the keyboard and use the mouse. This has saved me some time. When I first started on this account I was only able to do about 125 lph but now I am able to do about 200 lph. I used to be much faster on a different account that had longer reports and where I didn't need to change the worktype and add demographics, but you just have to do the best you can with what you have.

I hope that helps and wasn't entirely confusing. I would be happy to help if you need help creating AHK scripts or have questions about that.

Cathy, I just want to say... - (see message)

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....that you are very sweet to want to be so helpful. I'm not "sadmt," and I'm not even quite sure why I read over this thread (just bored, I guess--haha!); but I want to tell you that your replies are very kind, and I can see that you've put a lot of thought and effort into helping a fellow MT here. Just want to give you a pat on the back for that. You are my kind of people! :-)

Yes Cathy! - sadmt

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Thank you sooo much! I already use most of your suggestions, but will double check to make sure! You've been more than kind and I really appreciate all of your effort in trying to help me out! Thank you so much! It's people like you that restore my faith in the MT field. :)

Thanks - Cathy

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Thank you for your reply. That really makes my day ;) I have seen things going downhill in the MT industry over the past few years and just want to help out fellow MTs as much as I can since it can be very difficult.

So, I think I'm abandoning Instant Text - sadmt

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While I think I have a good grip on how it works, it seems time consuming and distracting. Now I think I'm going to try ShortCut and though I've downloaded it, I can't figure out how to merge my autocorrect and .glo files to get it into the program.

Can anyone help me with trying to figure out what I'm supposed to type into the box as a file pathway?

Can you tell me - sadmt

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what you have your IT settings on as far as compiling, glossary lines, etc? I'm at a loss as to what they should be. Some of my compilations and enriches aren't anything I would use.

IT settings - Cathy

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I have my glossary lines set to 3 since that is how many will fit with my platform. I don't use the compile feature because I like to have set expansions that I know and when I did a compile in the past it changed things around too much for me. I have found that you can get good continuations if you have some full sentences and/or paragraphs in your expansions. That doesn't mean that compiling a glossary would be a bad idea for you, though. You could try a separate glossary created by compiling your past reports and see how that goes for you.
I have started focusing much more on being as productive as I can since cutting back on my hours. Even small things (like adding a common phrase used by 1 dictator to IT) can have an immediate effect on your productivity. I have been looking at my productivity stats in IT a few times a day to try to encourage myself to be more efficient as well. I would love to know when you to get to that magical 1200 lines per day :) I know you can do it.

You are an angel! - sadmt

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Thank you so much Cathy! I will certainly take every one of your awesome ideas (and also the ideas of the others on here!) and put them to good use! I'll update you when I reach goal! :)

love all of these suggestions!! One more idea, use online timer - anne

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Cathy, I use IT extensively and love it and do many of the things you suggested, but excellent post! I have heard how great auto hot key can be but haven't tried that, and you motivated me to look into it!!

The only thing I have to add that helps me as far as motivation is the use of an online timer. There are many free ones offered, I minimize it and have it on my task bar and I usually set it for 2 hours. I try to totally focus during that time and eliminate any other distractions and it really helps get up my speed! Sometimes I have friends on line or on FB and we will do it together to motivate us. Then I stretch and take a 5-minute break or so and it really helps me keep on task, and my line count has really zoomed doing this!

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