Just about anybody prefers blanks to guesses.

• Blanks in tests - Apprentice
  • Just about anybody prefers blanks to guesses. - deb
  • I tested this morning, left blanks, and I have 17 years' experience. (sm) - steady eddie
    • Steady eddie - Patty
    • Sometimes those giving the tests - catsxoxo
      • Thank you - J1
  • If you are not 100 percent sure, - CrankyBeach
  • In my opinion on a test it is always better - JT

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu

I haven't used Meditech for about 4 years but ... yes, it does work with a number of Expanders ... but, yes, if you are using a company provided machine, you need their approval before installing anything. ... yes, it's possible they don't know how the system works ... but I wonder how many other duties you have ... answering the phone, faxing reports, dealing with other issues.  They simply may not want to deal with the can of worms "incentive plans" create. {When I supervised a small office, virtually every new hire politely asked me if they could be excused from answering the phone, and just type reports, even without an incentive plan -- similarly some people felt filing was "beneath" them}.

FWIW, at my last Meditech job, we had not only Instant Text but also stedman's dictation and some pharm software loaded on ALL machine (I worked from home).

If you have Word or even the ability to copy/paste into notepad and save files into a folder, there's no limit to the number of personal "normals' you can easily store and retrieve once you've worked out your filing system.

At that same job, I also used to transcribe into Word, when Meditech was down (infrequent but it happened) and then copy/paste report into Meditech (having recorded all the log-in info) -- while this could be done on a regular basis (with permission), it isn't terribly time-efficient and there are glitchy problems unless you use a strict TXT or RFT file format (but the Word Expander and spell check have their attractions).

Hope this helps. It's also worth noting that some departments (quite understandably, imho) really avoid being "too efficient" ... it can lead to staff cuts and other upsets.  Your boss may well have his/her own reasons, reasonable or not. Irrc, a 5-desk license is really awfully reasonable dollar-wise and isn't hard to justify a fast-cheap upgrade/improvement. But having had several "if it ain't broke don't fix it" bosses, sometimes it's a lost cause.

Look around you -- installing this would be "great" for you -- how would it impact everyone else in your office, particularly the  slower, less proficient, less skilled?

Meditech has it's drawbacks -- god knows -- but in my experience it's always been a very reliable workhorse and the ability to shift between modules to look stuff up is glorious.  But, I'm definitely "old school"

Good luck!

xx

Can anyone out there clarify how a company penalizes for sending in a report to QA and how do you know if your company does that?  Thank you upfront!

Can anyone advise  how long an MT should spend researching an item as opposed to letting a blank? The company I work for is very reasonable about 1 blank per document etc. I was just wondering if there is a general rule.

Thanks for the opportunities this board offers to learn, vent and feel less isolated.

Hello, I am having a very tough time with  blanks, especially with doctors who have accents.  I try listening really close to how they pronounce the word, but after listening for a good few minutes, I find I still have to leave a blank; this is so fustrating. Are they any tips to cracking blanks?

This annoys the heck out of me about some transcription companies.  How in the    world can they set a limit  of  one, two or three blanks per report?  That's   unrealistic.  What do they want us to do, make it up?  Well I sometimes wonder if that happens, or some things are just "skipped over".   It's tempting, but I haven't gotten to that point yet.    I don't care how long someone has transcribed, there are things you just cannot  hear, understand, or  find.  I'm finally working for a company that has no limit to blanks.  They have a great editing system.  I do a reasonable amount of research on terms I have not heard of.  But if I can't hear it....I CAN'T HEAR IT.  And don't even get me started on the subject of blanks in ESL dictation.   Even  the editors can't grasp a lot of it.  I used to spend LOTS of itme on blanks, but I've wised up now and let the editors figure it out if I can't get it after a minute or so of research. 

There is nothing wrong with a report going to the hospital with a blank.  If I were a doctor, nurse, or other medical professional, I would rather deal with a blank than incorrect information.  The doctor can fill in blanks when he signs the report. 

I leave blanks for even slightly unclear lab values.  I see when I review the QA'd report later that they have been filled in by the Editor and it amazes me that they could hear it clearly.  Unless they called the nursing station at the hospital and asked them to look it up....which of course does not happen

Maybe I'm too naive about it.  I could make a lot more money if I'd just ad lib and send it in.  But, I never have been a good liar. 

Hi!

I am looking for an opinion please. I have been taking my very first at-home test(hoping to come home and leave the politics behind). I was wondering if it would be counted against you if there was a blank in the one of the trascrption samples. My current employer prefers blanks to guesses but then again they are familiar with their employees' strenghts and weaknesses.

Any advice welcome.

They can't have it all if they won't let me have it all, IMO.  If they want to block the site where I could look up the doctor's names, then they'll get a blank if I can't spell it.  Let them waste their own time vs mine until the light dawns on their end, I'm not losing money because they force me to be less efficient.

!

with the majority of the blanks being unnecessary and due to just plain laziness.  They don't want to pick up a reference book or they don't own any reference books and they are too lazy to Google it. 

It's almost as if I've transcribed the entire report myself!

with tons of MTs on all these accounts they cant do well. Dont they have any amount of brains up there. Well what goes around comes around.