I have to chime in here...sm

Posted By: Just trying to work on 2008-01-16
In Reply to:

I don't particularly like doing ESL dictation, but have far more American doctors who are worse in a lot of respects and we have talked about that forever in this field, so won't go further on that.

My beef is not so much with the ESLS, but with what the company expects from us in interpreting them. In particular, I will use the example of one ELS that I just started getting a few months ago.

The first report I got from him was long and I was worn out by the end trying to figure him out, but muddled on through it and waited for feedback. Feedback was no help... I work for MQ and they disabled their new feedback system shortly after I started getting this dictator and now we have no feedback... but that's not my complaint on this subject and I won't go there.

This dictator has no command of the English language. I can understand 99.9% of what he is saying, he ennuciates very well. The problem I have is trying to figure out what me *means* when he says it. Many times I have wished I could post verbatim one of his reports on this forum and get advice. Here is a sample of what I hear from him on a daily basis... in my own words, but in no way an exaggeration:

The patient, a 36-years-old female, a lady, married for 4 years, become in trouble, with 4 children age 4, 6, 8 and 10, when she was young, but now divorced for 8 years, with drinking and drugs, admitted and hospitalized for suicidal ideation. Her history is when she became about 20 or 24 years old starting drinking first drink at age of 14, and at about 26 or so, doing heroin when she become about 22 years old.

Okay... that's enough. I kid you not... his whole long psych reports are a whirlwind like this. I can't tell when he switches tracks or even IF he is switching tracks. Sometimes I can tell what he really means and will correct that as the client profile states verbatim, but with minor changes if necessary... but when you don't know what the heck he's talking about, how the heck do you know what to change it to? I did finally figure out when he says *on day base* he means *on a daily basis,* but that's really about the only liberty I take in changing his dictation.

I started out cringing when I'd get this guy, but now I really feel sorry for him because after getting to *know* him, I really think he is probably a good doctor and is trying, but I also think that he thinks he knows what he's talking about and what he is saying is making sense!

I had another ESL today on the same account, had never done him before... and he had the patient in the room with him while dictating and was referencing dates, etc., with the patient while dictating and had talked about a bedwetting problem in childhood and when he asked the patient at what age he stopped the bedwetting, the patient thought he asked about his bad wedding and he told him they *never really had a wedding,* his marriage wasn't that bad, etc., and I swear they went on for 2 minutes with the doctor explaining to the patient that he was saying bedwetting, not bad wedding... it was such a struggle for the patient... and I heard the whole thing!

I'm sorry but if a patient is giving an answer pertaining to a bad wedding experience when the question is about bedwetting experiences, someone needs to be in that room interpreting for someone.

ESLs also don't know and understand our English sentence structure. I have done numerous ESLs where you can't tell where they mean to end a sentence or state the sentence backwards, which could totally change the meaning of the report depending on punctuation. This is dangerous in my opinion and I'm afraid to take a guess as to what I think they mean.

I have no idea how to handle my first dictator I talked about... I just transcribe verbatim when I don't know what he's talking about and correct what I can when I can figure it out, but maybe that's too dangerous to do too. I think I'm danged if I do and danged if I don't... QA will ding me for straying from verbatim and on the other side ding me for not fixing something.

The companies need to come up with something for this. Either talk to the facility or the doctor or something, but records like these are a nightmare. I have stated more than once to my supervisors that I am a transcriptionist, not a linguist, not a translator. At least when the account is verbatim, we always have that option, but still...

I'm really starting to hate my job anymore.

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Have to chime in here as a....
There are several things in your post that would make me NOT want to be this woman's friend, which is irrelevant, I know. Anyway, at this point, I wouldn't do anything. She is mad and won't be calling back, so problem is over. I just don't see how you can be friends now. If you tell her the truth...friendship is over; if you don't do anything...friendship is over; if you make something up, it will just eat at you because you lied, you will hate being around "them"....friendship is eventually over. I had an extremely close college friend I lost because my then husband suspected her husband of hitting on me...which he didn't....but it ruined the friendship because we couldn't be around them any more. I really don't see a way to save yours either. Maybe someone lots wiser than me will have better advice for you.... Let us know what happens.

please, may I chime in here?
We had an IT person at the hospital who did not bother to consult with us on computer transcription issues, but rather took it upon herself to just change or set up things (and not bothering to mention anything to us) because she "typed really fast and knew what we were doing". And, of course, she managed to screw things up. Amazing how everybody thinks it is so easy, yet none of them ever wanted to do it!