Our Meditech counts BLANK lines...

• Help, please regarding Meditech (should read) - GaPeach
  • It depends on how the system is set up...sm - tia
  • I used to work for a hospital that used Meditech and we found the line counts to be inconsistent. SM - MissourMT
  • meditech - Stephanie
    • Our Meditech counts BLANK lines... - sm

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

I work for a hospital that uses Meditech and I did work for a company that uses Meditech.  Both gave access to line counts but both were different.  The hospital has an employee in charge of the setting up Meditech program i.e. updates, forms and screen access.  I am cleared for medical records also so it is easy to look of drugs, tests or ther procedures the patient may have had or is taking if I have a problem with typing the report.  They can also set the the margins on the reports, ours have changed over the years.  Do you type regular reports or radiology in Meditech?  Radiology is different from regular.  I do not have access to line counts but the counter is on each report but counts every line and space, etc.   The only Expanders I use is the system Expander which is not really good except for normal reports or very long or time consuming phrases or words.   Meditech's line counter gives the line and character counts.

I also get paid on a per minute basis, not line counts.  I was told when I started (about 12 years ago) that 16 minutes of dictation an hour was to be done.  I not sure that is correct though because dictation varies so much.  I do anywhere from 15-25 minutes an hour with probably an average of 20 minutes.  This is with doctors that are fairly easy with the exception of a few.  I do not do that with other companies, as I am just starting to try to find my fit for a part time company.   Your line count could way down if you have very slow dictators (although aggravating but is good for me getting paid per minute) but I also have one that dictates super fast and I do not make much with him (A whole report with 10 lines might be 0.2 minutes of dictation).

I hope I answered some of your questions.  Meditech does have a line counter, just be sure to ask the length of the lines on each report (radiology and regular reports differ, so do psych).  Each department may request their set of differently.

Please feel free to e-mail me.

I used to be a supervisor and was trying to find a way to monitor productivity on Meditech and found that line counts fluctuated greatly!  I did all kinds of comparisons - typed reports in word and counted the lines in word with MP Count and then compared it with Meditech and there was sometimes near a 200 line discrepancy at the end of the day.  Then we found that running a line count twice in Meditech on the same MT and same reports would get us two different numbers with about 20 lines difference.

Meditech is just not MT friendly, but unfortunately MTs are at the bottom of the list of considerations when choosing an EMR system.  I gave up and started keeping track of minutes of dictation.

 I have always used Spybot and Adware SE, but read they sometimes miss things, so I just bought NoAdWare. Was I surprized at the stuff it found compared to the other ones (including Norton AntiVirus, and my server software)!  I had 4 "dangerous" and 92 "severe" the very first day...that have been on my system for quite a while.

Since then, I have also been receiving blank emails. I'm now up to 5 every time I receive my mail. I've been getting a lot of junk mail all of a sudden and have no idea why. My favorites are winning the lotteries. If I believed them, I would have a bankroll of well over $100,000,000,000. The other ones where I am named in someone's will. Love it. Dream on.

Don't know what to say or what else to do about it without changing my email addess again, and I sure don't feel like doing that. I just did change it 3 months ago.

It doesn't happen to often with my line of work as I only do clinic notes.  I do know which drugs are used for what and  the differences between similar sounding drugs. I have reference materials to help if I don't quite understand the pronounciation, as long as I have been given a particular diagnosis for which the drug is used.

If I am completely unsure (i.e. med list for PMH with no given symptoms or diagnosis) I ask or leave a QA note.  That is much safer than putting the wrong med in the patient's record and that is the extent of what MT's should be expected to do.

As far as the doctor dictating the wrong side of the body for any reason whatsoever, there is no way an MT could possibly determine in a case of it being left rather than right.  In the event of a dictator switching between left and right, that is a red flag to leave a note that simply says, "dicatator is indicating left and then right but does not clarify by end of note."

When my son had his mastoidectomy a year ago, the surgeon came in and drew a big blue circle around his left ear and looked at me and said, "This is the ear that I am operating on. This is his left ear.  Are you in agreement with me that I have the correct ear that needs surgery?"  Well, I kind of chuckled a little bit as my son looked rather strange at the moment and the doc said,  very nicely:  "In all seriousness, we are human and we do make mistakes, but I don't wish to make a mistake with your little boy."

I heard about this but it sounds kinda strange.  Anyone ever run into this kind of account?  How do you not leave blanks if you don't know what they are saying?

I always do much better filling in the blanks if I don't stress too much over it, finish the report, and go back and listen again after the report is finished.  So often the blank can be figured out with the context of the rest of the report available. 

I always do much better filling in the blanks if I don't stress too much over it, finish the report, and go back and listen again after the report is finished.  So often the blank can be figured out with the context of the rest of the report available. 

I always do much better filling in the blanks if I don't stress too much over it, finish the report, and go back and listen again after the report is finished.  So often the blank can be figured out with the context of the rest of the report available. 

1.  For me, when a person I used to babysit from infancy until school age has completed his internal medicine residency and is in a private medical practice.

2.  When I get up in the morning my knees and back crack so much that you can hear them at times in the next room (daughter asks "what's that cracking noise" will confirm this!)

If the MT cannot understand the dictator, they always have the option of sending it upward for clarification.  They are doctors, not English language specialists.  I know you would like them to be, but that is not the way it is.  We listen, we transcribe, and if we don't get it, we send it upward for clarification. 

It isn't easy, no one said it was.  But I hate to see people complaining about foreign doctors all the time.  They give excellent care, and a lot of us can understand them.  It is a knack.  If you don't have it, then send it to your QA.