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

Any encouraging words for M*Modal? - MTBell

Posted: Nov 10, 2010

My company just started mixing in some editing in my work pool. I'm really discouraged, especially knowing my pay is half of my regular transcription rate. I just can't kick the thought of how much faster and easier it would be to just type it.

It just seems that speech rec benefits the transcription company and the client, but definitely not the editor. It's a completely different animal than just transcription, but I know that's been hashed back and forth in the forums time and time again.

Does anyone have any words of encouragement for this very painful transition?

I love M-Modal and do very well on it. - Please sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Read the posts on this page and the past pages below from Skilled Editor, VR Trainer, VR Master and others. Don't bother with the negative posts. The posters mentioned give lots of real advice and tips. It takes some time to learn as it is a new skill technologically but you can do it.

Depending on how many LPH you average in transcription, you can make as much or more with VR editing. If you are a low or moderate transcription producer, you'll probably see a bigger increase than if you're pushing 350 or more LPH in transcription.

I don't see how you can ignore some of the negatives - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
You hit the nail on the head when you said you'll probably see a bigger increase than if you're pushing 350 or more LPH in transcription. There are a lot of variables in VR. One being how fast you type in transcription, another being what your company is paying per line for VR, and one more I've found is what platform your hospital is using with M*Modal.

Someone commented to VR Trainer that is is nearly impossible to make 500 to 600 lines an hour on VR, and VR Trainer said that she never said that. She said, "I don't work hard at those production rates. I just work consistently. If I push harder, I can maintain higher production but I have a great deal of diversity with what I do and I just simply don't want to work that hard."

But she never answered when asked if that 500-600 LPH was every hour on a consistent day-to-day basis. She admitted that one has to push or "work that hard" to make 500 to 600 lines an hour, and we all know that a person can only work that hard for a certain amount of time before burnout occurs. So, if you're making 250+ LPH in transcription, you will not CONSISTENTLY make double that week in and week out.

That's where the second issue comes into play. Most companies offer 4 cpl for VR. If you read the posts below, SOME are getting more, but it seems to be outside the norm.

Third, I work on a platform that uses ChartNet with M*Modal and there are a lot of technical glitches with it. Shorthand *may* or *may not* work well with it and oftentimes the function keys on ChartNet on M*Modal will compete with the shortcuts in Shorthand and cause funky things to occur.

I really don't see how a person should just "ignore" the negative comments, especially when basing their livelihood on what they produce. Some of the positive comments are just not realistic if you're a very high producer in transcription, paid at a mediocre rate of 4 cpl for VR.

Depends on the account, but mostly Mmodal goes backward. It gets worse by the day. - transcender

[ In Reply To ..]
The trend this week has been to put out garble, not anything that makes sense. But, no one really cares, so why even take the time to worry about it. Find another profession and run.

VR learns by what is corrected by the MT/editors. - Ex-Transcender

[ In Reply To ..]
This isn't a post debating the high turnaround at Transcend, it's about VR. But one thing I did notice at Transcend is it took a while for VR to start getting accurate and that was because there were many different MTs on the account with different styles. One would correct something to make it look good. (Just one example: Some would hyphenate like high-density, low-dose, etc., although it wasn't necessary in the editing.) There were a lot of other things too, but this is just an example. So, it took a while for the VR system to pick it up. It seemed just as the VR was getting more accurate, new people would be hired on and then the VR would go all wacky again because of the new inconsistencies in the way they were correcting, and the VR wasn't used to it. It was like it was trying to learn all over again because something different was thrown in the mix.

That's why I quit Transcend. They were too big and had too many coming and going on accounts. When that happens, the system doesn't learn. I went to a smaller company with fewer MTs on the accounts and fewer new ones coming on to cause the VR to relearn new styles.

Coud I ask where you went. I need to get out of this place. - transcender

[ In Reply To ..]
It is getting worse by the day and not just VR.

I dont use M-Modal but do use eScription - VREditor2

[ In Reply To ..]
The problem with different MTs infusing their own personal preferences isn't just limited to M-Modal, because I encounter the same exact problem on eScription. Whenever a new MT is turned loose on the account, I can tell immediately just by the changes (as you mentioned above) in the drafts I get for editing.

Right now, I can tell there is at least one new set of hands on the account; all of a sudden CT of the brain with and without contrast is being spit out as "CT of the Brain With and Without Contrast," Doppler ultrasound of the bilateral lower extremities is suddenly "Doppler Ultrasound of the Bilateral Lower Extremities," etc. I've been working on my account for almost 2 years and I've NEVER seen this particular type of error before, so I know somewhere on the account is a new misinformed MT who's insinuating her odd personal preference, lol! For the life of me, I can't understand WHY anyone would think to randomly capitalize studies like that; and these aren't headings, mind you...it's just in the body of the report, starting with, "The patient had a Doppler ultrasound of the bilateral lower extremities."

Sometimes I can tell when a new MT is on board because suddenly standard abbreviations which are to be left intact as per the account specifics suddenly are spelled out (i.e., "kg" suddenly becomes "kilogram," etc.). I figure those are being expanded to pad the MT's character count, but that capitalization weirdness is just inexplicable to me.

So, not just M-Modal that picks up on a new set of hands, eScription does the same exact thing.

VR (voice recognition) any corrections made were from the, sm - computer guy putting in the dictionary

[ In Reply To ..]
Voice recognition corrections itself when it learns the person dictating, not the person typing. Editing is no longer voice recognition. Voice recognition is just that, the voice being recognized and then typed out. Your corrections or lack of corrections is not training VR. Someone putting words into the VR vocabulary (dictionary) is helping VR to search for new words when hearing the voice.

That's not true. Who told you that? - VR and dictionary are not the same

[ In Reply To ..]
A guy putting data into a dictionary isn't going to teach the VR different dictator dialects. The VR learns that by what we correct in the VR. If the corrections are consistent by each VR editor, then the VR "learns" what the dictator is saying even though he may pronounce it differently than other dictators.

LOL Your summation is so out in left field. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Corrections to the learning engine through a match meeting a required formula.

Geesh you can't really think that a person can just enter words in a dictionary can change how the ASR engine recognizes and recognizes text, or do you?

Needed to laugh, though.

LOL

My experience with M-Modal was not good - happy to be back transcribing

[ In Reply To ..]
Everybody is different and some MTs seem to do okay on it. But, it also seems that there are many more MTs who are making less money when they switch over to ASR. And I was one of those who made (*much*) less money on ASR than I did with straight transcribing.

I even gave M-Modal a fair trial, I did it for almost a year and a half and never did get up to a decent paycheck with it, almost sent me into bankruptcy so that's when I knew that I either had to go back to straight transcription or get out of the MT business altogether.

I think that one of the major factors though, on whether you're one of the MTs who makes good money or not, is going to be how your company sets the M-Modal program and percentages. I found out that my company had the percentage set at 75%, which meant that only 75% of the dictator's words needed to be correct, but that also meant that I was editing at least 1 out of every 4 words in the reports that I got. And that made for some very slow going and was VERY frustrating. There's no way to get up any kind of decent speed like that.

So, if you can, try finding out what your company has their percentage set at...because that will probably make all of the difference in the world.

Overall though, I think the highest percentage of MTs end up making *LESS* money when they make the switch over to ASR. Plus, I think that M-Modal is probably not one of the better speech engines out there...unless all of these companies just have their percentages on M-Modal set too low. From everyone I have talked to, the Escription ASR MTs seem to do a lot better than the ones who are on M-Modal.

For me, the ONLY real negative is that pay rates have dropped - Skilled Editor

[ In Reply To ..]
so low that in many cases and places they are no longer comparable to transcription rates, which have themselves dropped. I've been doing VR for some years now and am good at it, but rates have finally dropped so far at my company (almost $0.06/line with heavy editing) that I can consistently earn somewhat more transcribing from scratch.

As for what other editors are reporting regarding pay rates...! It's very hard to sort out the stories of those still learning, those lacking the necessary basic talent, and those exceptionally talented at typing but ordinary at editing (income probably will drop) from competent MTs who have become competent editors, but it does seem that rates in general have probably dropped below what is required to keep good people in the editing field and certainly to encourage good new people to enter.

I have no significant complaints about editing itself or the M*Modal engine, though, and like them both.

I don't mind M*Modal and agree with Skilled Editor - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I agree with Skilled Editor. I prefer editing over straight transcription but the drop in pay is killing me. I feel the industry should be taking a look at how it pays us and go to an hourly rate. The amount I am paid per line in VR is lower than when I first started in the late 1980's.

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