Dictation Equipment

From Judy Cole, 2/96:
Holly Jenson wrote:
I foresee problems:
1. You go out and buy a lot of neat equipment with cool-looking lights and buttons and then you find out that the account you want has equipment that is not compatible with yours.
2. You get the account FIRST and tell them that you'll be set up to do it as soon as you order all the equipment and figure out how to use it.

Unless you are planning to contract with hospitals or large medical centers, however, the digital issue may not even be applicable. None of my accounts here in California are digital accounts. I have a Sony central system which receives dictation calls via 800 lines and gives me cassette tapes. It is not state-of-the-art by any means, but extremely workable in my situation. As the dictation calls sometimes exceed my number of decks, I have alternate phone lines covered by answering machines with conversation (2-way record with no 15-second beep) capabilities, and had the phone company put "hunting" capabilities on my phone lines. When the central system is busy, the calls roll over.

I can't see how you could get an account first, and buy the equipment later. Most clients you may contract with want you to start "yesterday". If your marketing is going to be effective, I think you have to have some way of recording long distance before you approach them. Your emphasis on getting a long distance contract needs to be placed on getting the reports back to them, and this is enough to think about.

If I were starting from scratch I would:
1) Approach all the medical offices and ancillary service offices in my area (local accounts are still the nicest, as when necessary you can materialize at their door with minimal effort). I still pick up and deliver my local accounts.

2) Purchase an answering machine (with the features described in my earlier post) for each of my phones. Minimal expense here, but maximal time commitment (your telephones must be manned by someone all the time, at least during "office hours"). This is a drag, but I started on a shoestring, so had to do it this way. If you are able to make a sizable investment in a central system, do that instead. A 24-hour unattended dictation system is much nicer.

3) Supplement local accounts with out-of-town accounts as necessary. Your same marketing approach should work here, but you have the added burden of convincing the offices that their transcription can be processed just as easily from another town as it can be from their own. You should be able to present long-distance service as being as close as their telephone, and perhaps even better than having a transcriptionist in the office, as space formerly occupied by a transcriptionist can be used for something else. Don't forget that payment for outside transcription can frequently be less expensive than the salary and fringe benefits for an employee. You might make up some hypothetical black and white examples, based on the rates and salaries in your area to demonstrate this fact.

4) When the dictation volume warrants another arrangement, invest in a digital system. They really are more versatile than the cassette systems, and the prices have come way down.

More important than the dictation problem in long distance accounts is the problem of getting the reports back to the client. The better the compatibility between your computer and your client's computer, the more trouble free your transmissions will be. If you are using an IBM compatible computer, theirs should be as well. Their computer must have a data modem, of course. You must have compatible telecommunications software. If you are using WordPerfect files they must be able to read them, or you can also transmit generic files which can be converted on their end to whatever they are using, but most formats suffer badly during these conversions. Another problem I've encountered is I can't transmit to an office actively running Windows, because my telecommunications program is DOS based, and I have to wait for them to exit Windows to DOS before transmission is commenced. This, too, is a thought when you are selecting your software. So there are compatibility problems in several areas when servicing long distance accounts, but they are easily solved. The only client so far I could not provide service to was one using a Mac. We perhaps could have found a way, but at that point I was busy enough that I didn't want to fuss with it.

Sending tapes by FedEx gets the job done, although it limits the types of accounts you can get. No stats. However, it is very expensive compared to the expenses of tele-transcription. I started out using courier/carrier combination and found it to be somewhat unsatisfactory, and I was always nervous that something might be lost. But at the time it was better than not working.

When possible, it is best to send to your client's computer during night rates. You should be able to find a carrier that will be able to provide you with a 10-cent night rate; flex plans and volume discounts can help. I transmit a lot of lines per month, and my phone bills run right around $25 per month for report transmission. I couldn't pick up and deliver for that, even locally.

I do about half of my transcription work on an older system with a 14" monitor and the other half on my newer system with a 20" monitor. I still use the old system for work because it is loaded with the software that communicates directly with an agency that I work for. My other system is used for both work and everything else from household stuff to games. I am so used to working with the two different systems and the two different monitors that I really don't notice any sort of difference when I compare the two, except that on the larger monitor I can see a full page of text, even with an 80-character line, whereas on the 14" monitor I lose sight of about 1 1/2" of the right side; however, I am used to it.

The preference for a larger monitor comes into play though when it comes to working within a Windows environment with my personal computing and playing games. The large screen is very easy on the eyes and it gives you a bigger desktop, more room for multiple windows. My husband also has a 20" monitor, and my sister (who lives with us) has a 15". She likes our monitors so well that quite often she does her work on one of our computers and then transfers it via diskette to her own hard drive for storage.

I keep a close eye on prices when it comes to computer, hardware, software, etc., and I have always noticed that while CD-ROM drives, modems, and even printer prices fall dramatically within months of introduction (usually due to an upgrade within months) while monitor prices hold pretty steady. I feel this is partly because a monitor upgrade is a very sound upgrade you can make to your system and it will not be become obsolete in only a year or so. It will enhance your enjoyment as it enhances working within a Windows environment.

I do use the standard Dictaphone headset draped around my neck most of the time, but the stereo headset is a good alternative. It didn't take the girls long to understand it was a very bad idea to sneak up behind daddy and tap him on the shoulder to get his attention when he was working.

The normal hi-fi headphones with an adaptor for monaural jacks works very nicely, fits snugly and allows me to move freely. The Sanyo that I have also accepts standard headphones you can buy at any Radio Shack or Kmart. I know I'm in the minority because most of the MTs I worked with were quite content with the headphones that came with the machines.

Try Dolbey Systems at 1-800-878-7828. They have everything for the transcriptionist and the client, and are a sleeper of a company. They are family run, technically advanced, good people. I learned of them this summer when I did some consulting for a health care staffing agency expanding into transcription, and we were researching systems.

I am in the midst of checking out the new technology to see what kind of system to get when I pay off my older Lanier VoiceWriter 800 phone-in digital dictation system. Dictaphone, although it may seem prohibitive, is really keeping in touch with the smaller home-based transcription companies. I started out with a Lanier P-95 carousel tape machine, and then went to the 5-hour, 8-port Lanier system 3 years ago.

I usually get EVERYTHING used. It saves a bundle and since they put maintenance into their lease agreement, it will be maintained as if it were new. One of the nice things about the newer Dictaphone equipment is that if you have a client who will agree to use a Dictaphone hand-held for doing his microcasettes, Dictaphone has an inexpensive tape reader that will read the information into your home machine and this will eliminate the driving to pick up tapes. You might consider having the doctors either purchase this, or sign a lease agreement with you and you lease the equipment to him (the hand-held equipment) And you could have the tape reader at his office and his secretary can just run the tape(s) through it and download into your system.