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

I really miss straight transcribing - hate VR - tryingtostayawake

Posted: Jan 28, 2011

I have my first job ever with VR and absolutely hate it; I hardly make any money at it; get tired of constantly changing he to she, adding commas where the machine left them out; I feel like my talent of being a fast typist is being wasted. I might type 2-3 reports a night and of course they are always the shortest reports of the night! I am so glad I was in transcription at its heyday but those days are long gone as is my love and enthusiasm for this career that I have dedicated 38 years of my life to; at age 55 I am not sure what direction to take.

Whatever it is, - aka: Broken Record

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make it definitive! So many are hanging on and on, watching incomes plummet, being unhappy, not taking on the job of developing the skills needed to be good at this new work. Others are leaving, but not retraining, just abandoning valuable skills to go work at low-pay jobs.

So: Back to school for retraining to a whole new job you can enjoy, income not less than $40K? Maybe in the medical field to build on your valuable experience?

Or build on your big experience asset by retraining in place (i.e., do that it takes to be fast) for editing? If you choose the latter, maybe start by making this the very last time you say you hate it. You'll like it a lot better when you're better at it.

Oh, a big tip for staying awake: Break the information into proper paragraphs (something good MTs do anyway). You have to understand the material to do that, which requires paying attention to what it means, which is incredibly more interesting than scanning meaningless blocks of text for wrong verb tenses. After all, we were always supposed to be more than just typists.

Baaad news, Trying. Our talent as typists is - losing out big time to

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the talent of computers. Even with every possible aid, we can't approach the speed of light. We HAVE to have something else to offer. BTW, it's not just us (silly idea). Typists everywhere are becoming/have become obsolete. Many tens (hundreds?) of thousands of jobs have disappeared over the past 20 years and are not coming back.

Not just typists, but jobs are disappearing for everyone these days - The problem is too big for us to fix

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The problem with jobs disappearing all across America is way too big for any of us to fix. In the old days people could jump to another job, but these days there aren't any jobs to jump into. As a matter of fact, it isn't just America. This problem is global. I'd love to talk about who did it, but that doesn't even matter anymore. It is what it is, a big problem. Those who have a job at all are blessed, even though those jobs aren't as good as the good old days. In some cases the good old days were actually never as good as people seem to remember them.

"There aren't any jobs to jump into". You hit the nail - squarely on the head. Been looking - sm

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for a better job than my current company for a couple years, now. the problem is, if I stay in MT, the problem will be the same, just a different company logo on my ever dwindling paycheck.

Coding? nah too boring, plus I'm skeptical about where it's headed. I looked into court reporting, but from what i hear they're currently fighting the automization battle. They've won so far, but we all know its only a matter of time.

my back won't let me do anything that involves lots of standing, but very few sitting-only jobs out there. too old to be a nurse, physician assistant, vet tech, and most other fields either pay nothing or i have no interest in them.

if i can find a niche-type MT job that pays by the hour, I'll jump into it. but so far the only jobs like that always seem to be in other areas, and usually other states than mine. dont want to move, and couldn't affort to even if I wanted to.

If i were any good at it, i'd probably start taking in laundry at this point. or figure 0ut something i could sell on eBay.

"skills needed to be good at this work." Please, if you can type - you can do VR,

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The pay is the issue for most people. I'm sure those transcriptionists already putting out 300-400 lines an hour have no problem editing a document. We all edit our documents as we type already, so having it all there to just edit would not be some huge task to learn. The pay, pay, pay, pay for VR is the issue for most people, not whether or not they are better at it, cannot make the same amount of money if you cannot VR 800 lines in an hour. Those doing less than 200 lines an hour shouldn't have any issues. I'm not sure why you would assume that someon who hates VR just doesn't know how to do VR, please!!! if you can't do VR because you cannot learn to do it, you shouldn't be doing straight transcription either!!!

TO "If you can type you can do VR." - Not so fast.

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That is a little harsh. You do state that the pay is the problem. Of course it is. However, I have done VR on a platform that was absolutely horrible. We even had MTs delete the entire record and type it (admonished by management of course) because it was much faster to do so. I generally type 2000 lines per day, but considering that particular platform, I could barely edit above that. The demos, which we did not get paid for, were a nightmare. Yes, we could DO IT, but it was far from profitable for anyone, even the company, which is why I left. The situation was not going to get any better, especially considering the number of dictators from that hospital. Yes, the work is horrid and the PAY is not worth it. Now, if the company adjusted the pay to a fair wage for 8 hours work - why did they invest the money in the platform to begin with? Work was not being produced at the volumes they expected. They were paying 5.5 cpl for the editing but when you have to nearly completely re-do a report, it is not worth it.

I think some of these companies have jumped the gun on investing in some of these platforms. Many can not accomplish what their goal was to begin with and now find those goals were unrealistic.

On a brighter note, I now edit on a Chartnet platform. I consider the design of it to be the best on the market that I know of currently. IMPORTANT: The system calculates the percentage of accuracy on each report dictated. If the percentage falls below 80%, the report is automatically kicked out for manual transcription. For a long time, those reports that make the percentage to remain in the VR system will be calculated in the 80s percent range. Eventually, they move up into the 90s. Those are the reports that are profitable to edit at a faster rate. Unfortunately, it is the computer that decides the calculation so that 85% may really be 75%, but when you get up into the 90s it is a lot more accurate. I actually make more money at 4.5 cpl than I did at 5.5 cpl.

I believe the design of the Chartnet system should be demanded by all MTs and MTSOs. I did straight MT on Chartnet for years. The system was tweaked in this manner for VR. If they can do it, other companies can do it. Personally, I would not work on a platform without it. The platform makes all the difference in the world. Yes, while you CAN DO VR - do you really want to if the design of the system prevents you from making much more than minimum wage?

If these companies want professional, skilled, knowledged, certified, and reliable MTs - they will have to make it worth their time. So many VR platforms just don't do that, so I think when you say if you can't do VR you shouldn't be doing transcription either is a bit unfair.

my point was not about learning a new system to do VR, sm - which has to be done

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on any new system you do straight transcription for and is new to you. My point was the fact that the pay is not worth those producing aa large amount of lines in a day, which you verified in your own post. Are you doing VR on 4000 lines a day? Not to mention you have to get in and out of each one of the reports. When I saw if you cannot do VR you shouln't be doing transcription either, I was not referring for the system one would be working on.

Just FYI, NotSoFast, all companies calculate those %s - and decide what % to loose on us. NM

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NM, begging your pardon, but they definitely do not. - BTDT - no message necessary

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No, not ALL. - should be a law. NM

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Okay, not all the little ones. I've worked big for - years and tend to think of them. NM

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VR Platform - daisy

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Can I ask who are working for that has the Chartnet platform?

VR - ManyyearsMT

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I couldn't agree more. As a former service owner, I was aware of the different platforms out there, but the company I most recently worked for went to Cornerstone (Vianetta) and "frankly, my dear," (to paraphrase) it stinks! This is not to say that it doesn't have some very desirable features, but the keyboard operations to activate and deactivate the highlighter make getting up to my old transcription speed far more difficult than they need to be.

You're not the first to have a positive review of Chartscript. I have a friend back in MA, also a former service owner, now employed by another company, who raves about it.

At a typical company some will be doing very well, others - okay, and some going broke.

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Yes, I also believe rates have dropped too low, but even so lots of people at my company are earning literally double--a few even triple--what many others are, still making a very decent living in spite of lower line rates. Not one or 2--MANY. People not making an adequate living at editing at my company are producing far fewer lines, either because they're just plain too slow and/or because don't work their full shifts.

Whatever, sitting around blaming others may provide some bitter satisfaction, but doing it for months and even years as they slide into poverty...? New plan needed--RIGHT NOW.

It all depends on your yearly income, it you were making $25,000 a year, - no reason not to make more on VR

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If you were making over 50,000 a year, with a cut in pay and having to spend a large amount of time on VR reports, your pay is going to go down. As stated above, someone doing the minimal amount of lines for a company 1200 lines a day is probably go to see an increase in line count on VR, a high producer is probably going to be working double time trying to make what he/she did on straight typing because it is a large number of lines to have to VR.

High producers may see a decline. I did. But certainly - Partially true, but not all by a loooong shot.

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nowhere near 50%. Most high producers aren't supertypists, but are smart and conscientious. That pays off in editing too. My decline is about 10% now that I've worked on it, although it was higher initially.

Likewise, yes, low producers can see more benefit to some degree, but (but exclusion for newbies), whatever is causing someone to be a 1200 liner instead of a 2400 liner will still hold his or her income down as an editor.

I totally agree with you, but a loss is a loss, who wants to take a loss - on something they have been doing for years

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.

Not me, but I'm speaking to those who are afraid they - cannot make a living at all. After years of consta

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pressure to get faster to make up the lost income with each rate decrease, I am pretty darned fast, in spite of klutzy fingers, and thereby making enough to be serene if not the world traveler I'd like to be.

One problem for experienced MTs is - in my opinion as an experienced MT

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Most of us who have years of experience as MTs are used to working without having to learn anything new or follow very specific instructions. That's where we get in trouble. The newer MTs may come out of school knowing the importance of following instructions when we old-timers are out of the habit and/or don't think we should have to change.

Excellent Message - I agree with almost all of it - sm

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I agree with almost every part of your message. Retraining for a whole new job is not realistic for most people in an economy where almost every job in every field is suffering.

Your idea about retraining in place for editing is the best idea I can think of for most people who are not doing as well as they would like.

I feel for you. Would not consider doing VR again. - SuzyQ

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After having the wonderful new technology called voice recognition introduced during employment at my last job, I sought employment elsewhere. I now work for a company that does not use it currently and does not plan to implement it in the future. What a blessing!

I agree - MT2long

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No matter how many training sessions, no matter how I talk myself into how cool it is to be an editor, bottom line is it is much less pay... that is the bottom line for them (the MTSO) but that is the bottom line for me, as my bill collectors do not care about MTSOs and hospitals paying me cheap. They want me to pay for their services. So, I am very happy thank you with my small MTSO which gives me straight typing, ESLs and all. Yes. It pays the bills. On time every time. That's my bottom line (aside from a good night's sleep).

I don't like VR either... my first job as well - ncMT

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when the recruiter called me, she said I'd have some VR.. hired me at a good cpl rate, only to have NO straight transcription and all VR. Don't like it at all. Got another job doing straight transcription but having to work both full-time to catch up on bills. Love my new job at least but again, there's not enough work. always something.

Hate VR editing? Uh oh, I just accepted VR editor job - daisy

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I have been MT for over 5 years and recently lost my job. I just accepted a part-time VR editing position. Why do you hate it so much? Can I be so bold as to ask what you are being paid per line (65 char. or gross lines)?

Daisy, strongly recommend you seek input from - the many people doing well.

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There's more than plenty to read from the We-HATE-Editing crowd, but watch out lest it pull you down. There are also lots of posts from people trying to pass on what's working for them.

Info on rates per line is fairly meaningless in itself because, as NotSoFast pointed out, how clean the documents are when they arrive for editing varies greatly.

Some are so good I've sipped coffee as I listened and scanned. At my current job, I have to stop the dictation altogether if I want a sip but am paid almost 6 cents per line to make corrections in nearly every sentence. That's too low, BTW, needs adjusting up to at least a bit over 7 for this particular work. I know because I now earn more on transcribed docs although I'm good and fast at both.

It's also important to know that all companies keeps the numbers NotSoFast mentions and that the % set for each account is negotiated between the company and provider client.

The question is not whether the line rate offered is 3 cents or 6 cents, but whether that line rate is appropriate to the amount of correction needed. This is what you need to know and is found out by, hopefully, finding out how ALL others are doing on the accounts you'll have, not just the complainers (always far more vociferous), for your own sake, and then by your own experience. Note that my complaint isn't about the amount of editing needed (their decision, after all), only am I properly paid for it.

Hope you do very nicely.

I think you need to go 1 step further. CPL is irrelevant. - What you make per hour is SM

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what you need to know. If easy platform that pays less or clunky platform that pays more doesnt matter. Also platform doesnt really matter. Whatever platform, what matters is can you make money on it? It is like a puzzle trying to figure out how to squeeze every second off that report. Time is money, after all.

SO true. My average hourly and paycheck gross are - the figures I work from--and work for. NM

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