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

lots of questions - grannieof1

Posted: Jan 03, 2011

O.K. I have checked out the 3 schools that were recommended. Two of them require 45 wpm I am not that fast yet. How important is this? Approximately how much money can you earn in an 8 hr day doing office notes? When a company test you are they looking for a 45 wpm or better to hire you?

Thank you

grannieof1

REALITY - bamagirl

[ In Reply To ..]
Unless, on your own, you improve your typing speed before going to school, you will be wasting your money/time. I type greater than 130 wpm which is why I went to court reporting school (until it was said speech recognition would put that career under; how ironic) so then went to medical transcription school (which was not cheap).

Having said that, I currently am bringing home about $10 per hour with the above tying speed and creditials. I receive Social Security so have a cushion each month; otherwise, I would probably be homeless.

From one grannie to another....sm - mb

[ In Reply To ..]
In my experience and opinion, it's just not worth it right now to pay the money to go to school to learn transcription. I've been in the business 20 years and have seen my pay cut almost in half. It's a dying profession and a lot of us are trying to find a way out of it right now.

That said, you must be able to type a lot more than 45 wpm to be a transcriptionist. Most of us type upwards of 80+ wpm.

As far as pay, I used to make $75-100 a day doing straight transcription. Since the switchover to a mix of transcription and editing, however, most days I'm lucky if I make $50-60.

This used to be a lucrative, legitimate work-at-home job. But sadly no more. The big companies are sending most of our work to India and we US transcriptionists only get the "bottom of the barrel" transcription anymore, which further slows us down.

Just another viewpoint - Lucy

[ In Reply To ..]
I am one of those old-time MTs who transcribes (not "types," please) well over 130 wpm. I work 6-8 hours a day and make $180-200 per day. I used to be able to bring down $300 per day in the 90s. I am not "special". I have just worked hard at this job for many, many years. I did not expect to leap into the pond and make that kind of money overnight, and I didn't, not at first. Would I advise anyone else to go into it? H***, no. That train has done left the station. The "golden age of MTing" for me was 1970-1997. My income dropped in half after that. I am the head of my household and need to keep working, even after I am old enough to collect SS (which cannot come soon enough). I have loved MT, but I hate the corporate greed that has infested our profession. I blame AHDI and MedQuist for many of the difficulties the American MT is now experiencing. I have a nieces and nephews (and one child, who, fortunately, chose something other than MTing), and I would not advise any of them to choose this as a career. If I were not nearing retirement age, I would become an engineer. I mean it.

Typing Speed - CStablerMT

[ In Reply To ..]
Is that transcription speed using an expander or just typing speed alone??

Typing speed - Lucy

[ In Reply To ..]
Typing speed alone. I learned to transcribe on the old IBM Selectrics looooong before expanders were even known.

old time 'typer' - me too

[ In Reply To ..]
Learning to transcribe at conversational speed (sometimes waiting on the "ummers" on a typewriter set me up for a lifetime of lucrative MT jobs.

If you can't transcribe fast then I fail to see the point of having this type of job unless you don't care about your hourly rate.

Reality - What this job really is

[ In Reply To ..]
It's a PRODUCTION job. You get paid piece-work. If you are not even at 45 wpm (which sorry but my kids could all do in third grade) then this is NOT the field for you at this time.

Competition is tough. IMO, if you type less than 80 wpm you shouldn't be in this job, but that's just that, my opinion.

You'd likely earn $4-5/hr and with that would come lots and lots of angst.

I would keep researching alternatives at this point and see what else you can come up with.

Reality - an MTSO's take on it - Gina

[ In Reply To ..]
Quite frankly, I would not even bother to interview anybody who transcribed less than 80 wpm, MINIMUM.

Grannie - Former MTSO

[ In Reply To ..]
45 wpm is miniscule in the MT world. You need to really improve your speed before you test. Good luck to you!

Typing speed - Sailboat

[ In Reply To ..]
Virtually EVERY MT at my company can keyboard at 120 wpm, some of the "stars" a good bit faster. I personally would not hire anyone whose speed is under 100 wpm for production transcription. And accuracy is as important as speed. If you cannot keyboard quickly, this is not the right field for you.

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