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

Can't understand or hear dictators. - cadykat

Posted: Oct 10, 2010

I am currently training and have a real hard time understanding certain dictators or hearing dictactors because of the background noise, or I have a hearing deficiency. I do have quite a few blanks on some report. I seem to have real high errors and blanks on my feed back. Do I have a chance? What kind of ear phones are the best? I am already shoving my earbuds down my ears, afraid I am going to bust my eardrums.

Hearing dictators - eamb

[ In Reply To ..]
I bought a "Boostaroo" at Radio Shack a couple years ago. It works great! Hope this helps!

Bose - cl

[ In Reply To ..]
I use the Bose noice cancelling headphones. They are a much better quality than the ones that go into your ears. Also, when there is a lot of background noise, you have to concentrate really hard on the dictator's voice. Sometimes I will close my eyes and try to just focus on what is being said. Also, knowing the dictator helps and thinking about what makes sense in that sentence. I would tell your boss about all the background noise and see if they can talk to the office contact to see if they can tell the employees to try to keep it down in the background. The office I used to work at would tell the secretaries and MAs to keep their volume down in the clinic and they would for a while and when it got too noisy in the background, we would complain again and they would quiet down. It is a visicous cycle, but if you do not have a good manager to keep the employees under control, that is what you need to do. Good luck.

BOSE - trollbaby

[ In Reply To ..]
Bose over the ears are the best! They cost about 150 dollars and I think BJ stores sell them for 120 dollars. They are well worth the money! Don't worry about your blanks. You will get better with time. I have years of experience and still get blanks from time to time. Don't give up! It is normal. Good luck.

Best earphones - OldPro

[ In Reply To ..]
I use a pair made by SkullCandy which are designed for use by the rock and roll ground, but the sound is pristine. They cost about 40 bucks. Best thing is, they have a lifetime guarantee.

Hard time understanding dictators - Nell

[ In Reply To ..]
Since you are still in training, my advice is to look for another line of work. There are too many bad dictators, both foreign (who could not care less about learning English) and American doctors who are too arrogant to bother speaking clearly and in a concise manner. It is just total disrespect for the MT. And they will dictate in noisy areas (like the ER) or speak as fast as they possibly can and figure you can struggle with the dictation. Years ago it was worth your trouble and you got a pretty good hourly pay. Then these greedy medical transcription companies got the idea that they'd make all the money while the poor MTs did all the hard work and then pay them some cheesy salary (8 cents a line? Gimme a break) If paid by the line you are better off working at Wendy's, at least there you get paid by the hour. Medical transcription is a thankless job and these transcription companies have cornered the market so there is no chance for an experienced MT to make it, much less a beginner. I used to do this work for about 25 years and have never been happier since giving it up. Save your ears and your nerves. Get into something else. You will never make good money doing this and they will use you up, that's what they do.

Nell - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
She did not ask for advice on whether to be an MT or not. Obviously she wants to do it. She said she was having problems hearing and several people graciously shared suggestions. Do you really think it is our place to tell others what to do for a career? I don't.

Speaking my mind, anon, just like you - Nell

[ In Reply To ..]
Since this is a sounding board and people give their opinions, I am certainly entitled to mine. You spoke yours, didn't you? Yes, it is not only my place but my duty (if I care about steering people looking for this as a new career) in the right direction. At least I'm speaking the truth. Why lead people into something you know is corrupt and why not also tell people what this job is really like? What do you care anyway????

How did transcription companies come to be? - Rainbow

[ In Reply To ..]
In a reply back to "can't understand or hear dictators" someone had brought up transcription companies. How and why did that ever come to be? It just seems like you are adding a middle man. I really am quite disappointed that this is what has come to. I worked hard to be my own boss, now it seems that everyone uses them, which means that we are back to working for someone else.

these dictators can make us think we have a hearing deficiency. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
but even with decades of experience, on some reports, with the background noise, the accent, and/or the lousy enunciation, I have to leave numerous blanks too. That is always preferred to guessing. Just hang in there, do your best. If allowed, add a comment where appropriate that background noise (for example) compromised the audio. I also use the noise-canceling Bose earphones. It may well be a tax deduction for you too, so try to help yourself with good equipment.

Don't worry, just practice - Never could understand a word at first either

[ In Reply To ..]
I am a working MT for about 2-1/2 years now, but I can vividly remember what it was like when I started the transcription portion of my course (Career Step). I couldn't understand a single word anyone was saying - I thought that there was something wrong with my hearing, too. It just takes a ton of practice. Don't worry, I can hardly believe myself what I can understand now. Just keep plugging away. It really, really does become easier, promise.

Similar Messages:

May 17, 2014

Today I will make less than half of what I normally get because all I've gotten today are crappy, hard to understand dictators, both ESL and English-speaking. Seems like all I get lately are the hard to understand, mush-mouth dictators. Guess Nuance doesn't want their MTs making quota. Sorry. I just had to vent. ...

Nov 30, 2010

It is difficult enough to understand some of the foreign dictators but when they dictate with monitors beeping, nurses and doctors talking, in the middle of their lunch -brups/cruch/slurp and then they WHISPER ... UGH!!! It sure makes for a long, long work day! Just once I would love for a manager to send that message to the hospital to please ask the doctor to either speak up or move to a quieter place to dictate ... alas that never happens and we suffer through the report ... but at lea ...

Nov 17, 2010

For the first time in a long time, I was in the cesspool. I spent 3 hours with an ESL serial dictator, that was speaking so softly I couldn't hear most of what he was saying, and what I could hear I couldn't understand. In one of the reports I only got 5 random words after spending a half-hour on it - and it was only 20 seconds long. What should we do in cases like this - when you literally just Can't Get It, and not for lack of trying. ...

Nov 29, 2009

nm ...

Nov 16, 2009

She had a bright or right tube placed endengia? I can't figure it out. ...

Dec 29, 2009

What you say is true, BUT when 90% of your work is off-shored except for 10% and you barely have any work, and the work you have is 100% ESL (the absolute worst dictators ever) you make minimum wage. The fact that I'm a much better MT than the ILPs does nothing to comfort me at this point when I have bills to pay. If you don't believe this scenario, then you have not experienced it. Try being in SA3. BTW, I'm scheduled for 24 hours per we ...

Sep 15, 2010

Everyone says with VR you can double your line count. I want to know what was their line count typing? On my account, I can type anywhere from 250 to 300 lines in an hour. I've been doing VR now for almost 2 months. I'm editing around 300 lines in an hour, however, I'm being paid 50% less. I was told I would not have to work MORE hours to make the same, but would work the SAME hours and make more. I have an extensive autocorrect and use it a lot. I'm finding that many of the ...

Oct 09, 2010

this is what it sounds like but makes no sense to me. can any one help. "Some low muffler quantative abdominal tenderness to deep palpation." ...

Dec 01, 2011

An 84 year old monitored for diagnoses of renal failure, anemia and hypertension. 586, 285.9, 403.90. It seems to me that the last code should be 401.90. I don't understand why the code 403.9 was selected. The guidelines say you should "assign codes from category 403, hypertensive chronic kidney disease, when conditions classified to category 585 are present." There is only the 586, renal disease, present in this scenario. Can anybody tell me why a 403 code is appropriate here? ...

Apr 14, 2012

So Amy will have four (4) one-on-One sessions each month. But she will be going on maternity LOA (Leave of Absence) and will actually conduct six (6) sessions this month. Rules: Each month, if any of the US regional or India winners of the 'MT of the Month' are interested in a one-on-one session, they will be entered into a lottery and two will be chosen (one US, one India) for an automatic slot for that month. To express interest for th ...

May 30, 2012

so many people on here have been looking for a position for months. It's not THAT difficult to find a job on here. I applied to a lot of places and heard back from just about all of them. What are you doing wrong that you can't find one when I found at least 10 of them? Perhaps you should all revamp your resumes? ...

Sep 15, 2012

Patient with trigger fingers. Patient was given injections into the A1 pulley of the 3rd digit - "Patient tolerated the injection well and without complaint. Following the injection, he did verbalize some relief of the discomfort. I went on to explain to the patient that this was merely a procedure done to try to *"mil-u-right"* some of the symptoms, however, I strongly recommended that he consider undergoing a redo right 3rd trigger finger release". ...

Apr 09, 2013

You know, I have worked in a health care facility ever since I graduated from college. My supervisors have always tried to foster a spirit of teamwork -- how we all, working together, can accomplish the goals set out for us. As a result, I believe in building people up, not tearing them down. And I have seen such GREAT examples of that here. When I first posted on this board, I was so upset about a job decision I had made that I was ready to quit, and with the ...

Jul 07, 2014

We've been told emphatically to NOT put m2 for meters squared, to instead put sq. m., yet the software continues to put m2. Why hasn't that been changed? ...

Jan 18, 2015

First, let me start by saying I've worked as an MT for 25 years. The company I started with was eaten up my Medquist years ago, now MModal, and I've worked at home for the past 20 years. I've lately seen many posts by MTs wishing they were paid 15 minutes a day for reading emails, paid for taking coffee breaks, and would get cost of living raises, Christmas gifts from their employer, flowers on their birthday, and some sort of gift acknowledgement during MT week. I u ...

Feb 09, 2015

That you tend to use the instruments that you prefer, another doctor uses a different set, and there are a several different ones that can be used for the same purpose. I don't only type for you, I type for about 100 different docs at this point. Please enunciate, it would make my job so much easier and your final product perfect. ...

Jun 19, 2010

A new ESL dictating a DS. Can't speed him up because he's too "new" (to this country?). He is spelling every other word!!!!!! AND then spells it again - extubated, e-x-t-u-b-a-t-e-d, extubated e for elephant, x for crosses, t for tom, u for umbrella, b for .......... get the picture (sigh)? On top of that, the report is 28 minutes long!!! Should never have gotten out of bed this morning. LOL I do feel bad for him that he doesn't realize he doesn't have to spell every other ...

Mar 05, 2010

According to the suits, they whole reason for this locking-us-out-unless-we-are-scheduled thing was because some of us were not working when we were supposed to or clocking in and working when we weren't scheduled. Okay, at any other job, if someone clocked in or out when they were not supposed to without notifying anyone, they would get written up 3 times and then fired. Why do they spend so much time and resources putting this stupid, probably messy idea into play, when they ...

Apr 18, 2010

First off, is "med" an appropriate abbreviation or if I need to expand it. Also, I'm having trouble with a few of the medications she's listing. The first one sounds like Serapril...I know there's Seroquel, and that's a possibility, but it really sounds like she's saying, "pril." Is there anything else that sounds like that? The next one s/l permecidene and the last one s/l kolite. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much! ...

Apr 20, 2010

What do you do when you absolutely cannot understand what the dictator is saying and you work at home on your own. Can you call the dictator? Can you request to review the other medical records because chances are, the dictator is saying the same thing that appear on those records? ...

Jun 14, 2011

The patient s/l FI and brought to the operating room. General endotracheal anesthesia was used as s/l restroom :0. Seriously. This guy talks so fast and I know these are common and could be anything but any help would be great. ...

Jul 14, 2011

I've started trying to understand it. I see lots of software programs out there that supposedly handle this. But if there are multiple programs, how does all the various work put into these programs end up in ONE (!?) place where a persons medical record can be accessed by any medical professional? Or is my understanding already flawed? Will those MDs, or whoever, that choose to continue the narrative dictation (vs point and click or fill in the blanks) can they con ...

Aug 02, 2011

Just sitting here laughing to myself as I listen to an ESL dictator that I've had report after report by, heavy accent, talking about how difficult it was for him to get an exam done with a patient who is "difficult to understand due to language barrier." HA!!!! Welcome to my world. ...

Jun 27, 2012

I busted my butt for 2-week pay period. Looked up EVERYTHING. Did my best. Not only was my paycheck something I'd use to line the bird's cage, but my bonus pay was......are you ready?.........$38.64. Big friggin whoop. So I can understand the attitudes of you who are not afraid to bitch. I'm right there with you as well as the others who are afraid to open their mouths. The only ones sticking up for this mistreatment are the newbies.&nb ...

Jul 17, 2012

Hi! I am currently taking my MT final. My problem is, I am having LOTS of trouble understanding some of the dictations. Is there any tips/tricks to help understand some words that are dictated? Thanks! ...

Jan 07, 2013

How can medical records which are so closely guarded in this country be sent to another country for transcription. I think that most patients would be against having their sensitive medical information going to another country. It doesn't seem that Mmodal could even outsource. Is it because the public doesn't know? ...

Nov 04, 2013

HOW is it legal to require us to check FIESA daily or several times a week without compensation? Worse, HOW is it legitimate to require us to acknowledge/agree to errors in FIESA that we have no way to verify since we have no access to the voice file and no access to even view the report? It's simply here's this error and how much we dinged you for it, no way of seeing/hearing anything. It's ridiculous and I have never heard of any job anywhere in this country th ...

Dec 02, 2013

How is this even legal? ...

Feb 19, 2014

that I type that in the abdominal exam says "no masses or megaly." "Megaly" by itself is not a word. This is not a verbatim account. I did about 5 of her reports last night and changed every one to organomegaly - as that goes with abdominal exam. Now, I'm told by my QC coach that if Audit pulls that job, it could be an error. This is so stupid to me! I was thinking as I was typing her reports ~ if I put just "megaly" that would be considered a ...

May 11, 2014

MM ASR used to be very good at numbers 2 versions ago, but is now getting worse and worse to the point I do not understand how it can be so wrong. 110 sounds like 190??? 90 sounds like 150??? The dictation was crystal clear too. ...