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

Wondering if anyone else has this observation... - wise1

Posted: Dec 29, 2009

Lately I have been setting a timer for an hour and have actually done this for a long time, just to see what I do in an hour... seems of late is getting harder to make more than 18.00 to 20.00 an hour... and I have 28 yrs experience... seems to me something has been set that makes it impossible to do any better, no matter the dictators, the difficulty of the dictation, etc, etc. etc...

Anyone else seem to think something is up? Not mentioning company...

I do that periodically and - depending on what doctor I am trans-ing

[ In Reply To ..]
I can make up to $50 an hour with my whiz kid, or as little as $8 an hour on my one guy with a speech impediment who talks too fast and literally trips over his own tongue.

I am strictly IC for private practice, non-MTSO clients, and pay taxes and expenses myself. I really don't know how much it averages out to, factoring in that stuff.

"Not mentioning company" - makes me think you may indeed be referring to a specific company so maybe my situation is not of interest. But there you have it anyway.

I have done this for years and years - Thirty years and counting

[ In Reply To ..]
I do not have a timer but have a clock setting on my desk. I have timed myself on an hourly basis probably for the last probably 15 years, just comes second nature to me.

Me, too. I compared accounts, dictators, ESLs - and changes in MTSO software. sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Although all play a part to some extent, lately the changes in the employer's transcription software have been slowing me down more and more. Takes longer to log on, downloads are slower, pulling up info (hospital MT lists, etc) is slower.

More of the good dictators are going offshore or to VR, leaving us with the crap. I'm willing to type the crap, mind you, but I think their compensation for typing harder work, which takes longer to do, and more time looking things up because they were unclear to begin with, just isn't realistic at all.

Then you gotta figure in all the nitpicking everyone's QA seems to be doing these days. They get all apoplectic over a hyphen or a comma, or a capitalization, that doesn't change the quality of the report one iota. And yet the company is sending 50% of its work to India. If it's really that crucial that every period and comma that THEY believe should be there, is there, and if missed TAT and blanks are so upsetting to them, then why don't they get a little more proactive about (a) Requiring a little more care at the client's end, which would save EVERYBODY time and money, and (b) insist that the client upgrade their voice-recording equipment?

The idiocy of this entire field never ceases to amaze me.

Not all places have QAs like where you work - Thirty years and counting

[ In Reply To ..]
I was working at a place and the QA thought they had to either email or IM you continually on every little thing. I left 1 day when the higher ups got their IMs going in the wrong direction with their talk being against me. I now work for a company I hardly ever hear a peep out of, very seldom an email and I do my work and that is it. No one has to breathe down your neck, or shouldnâ��t have to, in order for you to do your work. As far as looking things up, if I have a cc to a Dr. Grant and I have no first name, I can choose a nondoctor and just copy to the doctor at the top. It is up to the hospital to find out which doctor this goes to. I do not spend time looking this and that up. I have had maybe 2 patients this year that were not in the system and then I pend those to the company and they take care of it. This field can be a piece of cake if they would just leave us alone.

it is getting more difficult to make money - 35 years MTing

[ In Reply To ..]
but in my case, and with various companies, hospitals and offices over time, I believe that now VR is taking the easier dictators so there's no balance between diffi and smooth dictators, and we have many many more rules and account specifics to be mindful of, having to often jump from acct to acct and dealing with inconsistent work flow, which kills my momentum.

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