Questions about templates, pay, etc.

• Questions about templates, pay, etc. - Wondering

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I just recently went back to work in the office at a local hospital. We type in both Meditech and Cerner, depending on what you are typing, i.e. Medical Records reports versus Radiology.  We are currently typing blindly in Meditech, meaning we do not have access to our line counts and must depend on management to give us our totals.  In Cerner, we are able to run a line count report and print out a hard copy of our line counts at the end of the day.

We are finding that 800 lines in Cerner equals about 500 lines in Meditech.  We are not paid per line nor do we have an incentive plan, but we have a new HIM Director who would like to institute an incentive plan and the administrator over our department has laid down the law and decreed that all transcriptionists not making minimum in the department will be written up.  Problem is according to Meditech line totals that we have been given, that would be about half the department.

The transcription supervisor has taken our concerns to the new director who told the MT Supervisor to hold off on writing people and has taken home all the line counts from the last month and she is going over them with a fine tooth comb this weekend.

I am not a very trusting soul by nature, so I am doing a little research on my own.  I've been in this business for about 15 years.  I started out in a hospital and have worked for a few services at home and am now back in the hospital setting.  So I know a few things about line count and I consider myself to be pretty well informed on trends and technology in the industry.   I would like to walk into our next department meeting armed with as much knowledge as possible.  So I have come up with some questions that I would like some fellow MTs to answer, give opinions, and maybe even direct me to websites or individuals who could give me a better understanding of Meditech and Cerner.  Here are my questions:

1. Is it possible for an MT to have access to her line count in Meditech or is strictly a management function?  Any MTs that work in Meditech on this board, do you currently have access to your line counts and if so, how do you check them?  Is it an option on the main menu after you log into Meditech?


2. How is a line defined in Meditech?  (i.e. 65 cpl, with spaces, without spaces)


3. How is a line defined in Cerner?


4. What abbreviation Expanders work with both Meditech and Cerner?


5. Examples of incentive plans (if anyone would like to share that with me that would be great, if not I completely understand).


6. Measuring productivity by minutes of dictation versus typed lines.




1. What would be the minimum minutes required for an 8-hour day?


2. How would one structure an incentive program based on minutes?

I was thinking of presenting the idea that we keep track of productivity using minutes instead of lines since there is such a discrepancy in Meditech.  I also worry that if an incentive plan is put into place and we are still typing blind into Meditech, what's to keep management from shaving off a few lines here and there?

Feel free to email me or post here any responses.  Either is fine.  I really appreciate any input, comments, or just plain old supportive posts would be nice too! 

EMR has many templates: ROS, HOPI, lab orders, Plan, health histories, immunizations, specific diseases, etc.  Each template has many fields with corresponding questions that can be checked off indicating a yes/no response or severity level.  Similar to filling out a survey by checking the boxes that apply. After completing these templates, the physician can click a button that automatically pulls the information that was entered in each of the templates, and generates a "document" in a determined format.  Thus, no reason for the physician to dictate a tape for someone to transcribe.

We implemented an EMR where I work and it did result in less transcription. 

Yeah really... we get screwed over enough, let us keep SOME things that work to our advantage.

I have a question about during a physical exam portion, I know what it means to "flush left, sub headings all caps," but what is the other instance of "stacked form". thanks. 

Really need your thoughts. One of my doctors has about 50 templates/shells. When doing combined procedures he will tell me to just combine the 2 or 3  or 4 shells he has for the individual procedures without taking out whatever is redundant or conflicting. I have to do that. Several of these individual op reports are 3 pages long, so can end up with a 6-page final report.

On his follow-up notes, he will use a shell and then say "add this to the physical exam" but he does not say what to take out of the standard note.

Many of his op notes have numerous variables. He oftentimes does not tell me which to use and/or which to delete.

For "risks" he will dictate some and then say "and add whatever Dr. X uses."

I am requesting a meeting with him and with the office administrator, but would like to know what you think and what you would do.

Thank you

Okay, I have a new question.  I'm trying to create a form or template that I can insert information on. How do I create the form with lines so that I am able to insert information on these lines?  Is this possible?

Hi,

MPLite templates are Word documents in the TransMP Formats folder whose filename is used to differentiate which templates belong to which clients. All the templates you have for a particular client will show in the Document Information screen.

1. Start with a blank MS Word screen, and create the template you need there. Use the codewords (eg Last? First? MR? DOB? etc) to tell MPLite where you need this information put. Make sure each contains the ? at the end of the codword, and you'll find a complete list of available codewords in the help file in the chapter Formatting Templates. You can use headers / footers and any other formatting features in your templates.

2. Give this template a name in the pattern FacilityInitials_DescriptivePhrase.RTF. You have to save them as RICH TEXT FORMAT in the Save box, and save them INTO the TransMP  Formats folder. The Facility Initials must match what you entered for that when you registered the facility. Keep the descriptive phrase relatively short, eg, CON, FU, XRAY, HP, DC. If this is a template for a hospital or clinic, you can has as many templates for a facility as you like and can differentiate Dr. John Smith's Consultation by use the descriptive phrase CONjs, and Robert Youngs as CONry or CONyoung. (Note it is an underscore _ and not a dash used in the template filename.)

The list of available templates is refreshed when you start a session. So if you create a new template while in a session, cancel the session, and then reset it so the template list is refreshed.

If you have other questions about the templates, please ask.

Best wishes,

Vann Joe Turner

I would like to take an existing letterhead, scan it and create a template for it that can be pulled up and typed right into.  Someone I used to know did this for one of my accounts at one time, but I have no clue on how she did it and no contact with her anymore.  It doesn't seem like this should be anything difficult to do, but I have played around with it and just can't figure it out. 

Would really appreciate any pointers, or even links/websites where I might be able to find simplified information on how to do this.  I am a little "behind the times" and not very experienced on much besides typing at this point.  I will be changing direction soon and need to update my ways of doing things.

Thank you in advance for any tips or direction. 

These contact your auto text entries.

Anyone familiar with creating report templates in Word ?