Okay...where are all the MTs?
Okay, calling all medical transcriptionists and those that wannabeone....where are you? I think it would be great to get this message board going strong. What a great support system that would be.
Just to introduce myself a bit...Ive been a transcriptionist for what seems like forever. I work for a great company doing transcription for a large medical college and all types of transcription, from infectious disease, heme/onc, genetics, neurosurgery, etc. Very interesting work. I had my open RNY December 31, 2002, and have lost 150 lb., with about 43 more to go. Then, PS, here I come.
Hope all of you MTs out there will come on down and participate in this board.
Teresa
Hi Teresa! I agree that this messageboard could be an outstanding resource.
I've been an MT for over 30 years and type all specialties and prefer large hospital work so I don't get bored. I was originally trained 30 years ago using an Olivetti electric without any correction mechanism. We actually had to erase by hand or retype the whole report. Can you believe it??! Actually in retrospect it was a great way to learn because I learned then to avoid common mistakes and to listen ahead to see if the doctor would change his/her mind.
A funny story--I remember when our hospital got our first xerox machine. It was put in Medical Records because that's where it got the most workout. The insurance and other departments would come in to use it. The paper was real shiny and came on huge barrels and we'd have to rip off each sheet. And slow....It was molasses! It made a loud, distinctive noise when it was working, and I still remember how people from the other departments would come running into our department and go "oooo" "aaahhh" when we saw the dark and slightly fuzzy but still legible copies coming out!!!
Then there was the time we got the IBM selectric with the CORRECTION key!!! We thought we'd died and gone to heaven!! Except we all typed so fast (120-140 wpm) we were all jamming up the "golf ball" typing element and the guy from IBM was always in our office having to unjam it. He was not very happy with us. ("Why can't you girls just slow down??)
Then I started staying at home typing for a service that gave me a computer to use with a typewriter that served as a printer!!!! Wow! I knew I'd arrived in the space age watching reports I'd typed an hour earlier printing out on the other side of the room.
Then we got these Lanier word processors that had floppy discs about 9" square. The hard drive was about 3 feet high and large enough to serve as a piece of furniture, but we thought it was quite portable!
Well, I could go on and on...but you get the picture. I'm an old lady (49) who's seen and heard it all pretty much. .....I should tell you when we got our first fax machine!!!....
Oh how funny, Judi, but I truly can relate. Okay, I trained on the old IBM Selectrics. I remember that correction key quite well. Of course, I also took dictation in shorthand and then had to transcribe my own notes. Remember that? That Gregg shorthand was fun, wasn't it? I used to get so nervous during those shorthand tests, there was NO way I could transcribe them. What would we do without our computers nowadays? I'd be totally lost. Remember those little strips of correction tape?..or better yet, remember when we had to type with carbon paper in between the paper and erase mistakes on each copy with those doggone typing erasers that ALWAYS seemed to make a hole in your paper? LOL Boy, those were the days.
Glad you found your way to this board. Let's see if we can get it going, okay? I think it would be so great.
Are you ready for your surgery? You'll have to let me know how you are doing. I'll be praying for you.....remember He is the Master Surgeon.
God Bless,
Teresa
Oh yeah! I remember everything you're talking about! Remember those dreaded consultation reports with 5 carbon copies? I was working at Glendale Adventist Medical Center when the got their first Lanier Text Editor, and it felt like entering a ****pit or something. As I recall, it was all one piece - keyboard attached to everything else. One night I was working and drinking my usual mug of Constant Comment tea with honey and spilled it into the keyboard. ACKKKK! I was a young thing of about 19 and was sure they were going to charge me to replace the whole darn machine! I still spill things in my keyboard (I know, I know, but some habits are just impossible to break!), the last time it was a whole bottle of water in my new Goldtouch. My son the computer guy just rolled his eyes when I asked if I could dry it out or something. "No, Mom, just order another one." So I did. I am drinking coffee and working this morning, just taking a break to check the list.
I have been doing this for about 32 years now, since I was in high school. I started out on a manual Olympia, working at home for a local neurologist. While I was in high school I had worked as a summer intern at a local hospital as a medical records clerk and noticed that the transcriptionists drove nicer cars and had better clothes than the clerks, so I told them I wanted to learn. Those were the days when they just sat you down in the department and let you learn by doing! It has been a great career, although it is a real love/hate relationship at times. I work for Medquist Sacramento now and feel like I am having my cake and eating it, too. Great company to work for, and I really like the dictators from the Bay Area accounts that I work on; they talk talk talk and pretty good English, too!
Well, gotta get back to work! Duty calls, 
Best to all, Kim
Best to all, Kim Hi Kim! I love your posts! It sounds like we have a lot in common. I used to type for Signal out of Baltimore, MD which was then bought out by Medquist. I loved working for Medquist Mid-Atlantic (even though I live here in North Dakota). I also work for my local hospital and that work got to be too much and I couldn't handle doing both. Does Medquist still send out the gifts at Christmas? I still have my Medquist "Going beyond what's excpected is where we begin" clock and my Medquist ergonomic anti-carpal tunnel gloves (very fashionable electric blue color) which I use when I crochet. Well, glad to meet you!
Hi Judi!
I'm pleased to meet you, too! When I started for this company, they were Transcriptions, Ltd., in Hayward, CA. They were bought out by - can't remember, it didn't last long, and then quickly by Medquist. The Hayward office has just recently been phased out and Sacramento is now the hub for the region, which is fine with me as I live here in the Sierra Foothills much closer to Sacramento than Hayward. Yes, they still send out the little Christmas gifts, and they really make working for them as easy as possible. Lots of support, referral bonuses, QA merit bonuses, production bonuses, new technology as it comes up, an education partnership program for new MT's, and always on time with the paychecks. Lately there seems to be a real shift in attitude at the management level which is shifting down to the local offices and ultimately to us, which is much more positive and upbeat, lots of strokes and much more communication about what the company is doing and what they need from us, including a company newsletter and emails at least a couple of times a day showing where the work is, what hospitals need help and how many minutes are being transcribed and dictated. It makes you feel like you're part of a team instead of sitting here alone at home with nobody really caring about what you do. So, just when I was *really* ready to quit last year (just because I'm so tired of medical transcription in general because I've done it for so long), I decided that maybe I could stand it for a while longer! Speaking of which, I'm in the middle of a report right now and better get back to it before it hangs up on me! Kim
Hi, my name is Dana. I have been a medical transcriptionist for 15 years and I was a unit clerk in hospitals for 12 years before that. I used to work for years for a big hospital and then we were "outsourced." They got rid of our whole department. We were not a money making part of the hospital "team." I now work for a small private company and have even been given a promotion to doing QA. I really love my bosses, great people. The woman who started my company, Healthline, Inc, is a transcriptionist who started in her home 30 years ago and now there is a huge office with over 80 employees. If anyone is looking for a job, we hire people who live in most places in the United States, as our system is internet based and all work is done on the internet.
My mom was a transcriptionist before she retired and she tells me all the horror stories of typing on typewriters and having to start all over again when a doctor would say, "go back and add...." Luckily by the time I started transcription it was on the first computers. Though I used to have to type on a typewriter as a unit clerk in the ER of a hospital so I know what that was like.
Glad you all started this. There must be others of us out there. I have a friend who has had WLS, but she does not go on this site. I will have to tell her about it. She just had a hernia repair and tummy tuck done last week as she has been at goal.
Talk to you all later, I have to get back to work.....
Dana in Phoenix, AZ
Hi Dana! Welcome to the MT board, good to have you here. When I was a young girl, I used to live in a tiny Arizona town called Kearny (population 3,000 then). I used to take piano lessons at ASU in Tempe. We'd drive in to Tempe every Saturday. I can remember when Apache Junction, Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, and Phoenix were all completely and totally separate from each other. Now they're all fused to gether and then some!
That is so cool that you were able to go into the same field that your mom was in. Well I hope you get your other friend who has had WLS to come onto our boards and share with us.
Well, I've been naughty today. I have a ton of typing to finish so I can take off for my surgery on Tuesday, and I haven't been typing nearly as much as I should have during the day. So I guess I better get going...
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