of course, I know 'bout as much as the docs do...sm
Posted By: drwannabe on 2005-08-02
In Reply to: Tell the truth now. Does anyone diagnose other people based on what they transcribe? - Dr. MT
yeah, and that's why I'm here typing and they're out on their yacht somewhere, right?  But I do try to diagnose, even did this when I worked for a doc in the back office. And sometimes I was actually right!
Complete Discussion Below:  marks the location of current message within thread
The messages you are viewing
are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select
the boards given in left menu
Other related messages found in our database
How'bout docs can't decide if patient...sm
is a He or She, goes between genders throughout the course of the dictation. (Especially with ESLs, who really need to get their grammar straight, much less their enunciation). Hate to send my loved ones to this doc...can't tell if it's a "he" or "she". 
how 'bout this one?
I was reading through a patient's H&P and saw this:
"Patient is 73 years old, stool spry and lively."
Quite a visual, that was...
How 'bout going further than that, and
actually starting a UNION?
It could be 'USMTU' (United States MT Union', or maybe
'MTWA' (Medical Transcription Workers of America.) It'd be nice to actually put 'AMERICA' back in the name, (and Indians need not, and MAY not, apply.)
'bout time!
:
and soon new Sopranos...or how 'bout...sm
Extreme Home Makeover....that's my favorite show...
new Sopranos in March...new Deadwood soon, and new Carnivale soon and too bad they canceled SIX FEET UNDER but you can still catch the first 6 seasons in reruns.
I love that HBO....
LOL - how 'bout dysfunctional since
How 'bout Amphion?
As well it SHOULD! 'Bout TIME, too!
nm
how 'bout a camera on that spot?
How 'bout comparing us to PA's, RNs, or even doctors? (nm)
x
how 'bout Bay??? Or a local auction house, or
take pictures to local jewlers. (Wouldn't recommend taking the original on first visits). ebay might also give you some information re: comparables.
how 'bout a lovely gift certificate...nm
I hope they get put out of business. 'Bout time the
HMOs are ruining the health industry. Many fine docs have quit 'cause they don't like pencil-pushers telling 'em what to do. And you KNOW they're behind all that 'bottom line' BS that has driving our work offshore.
Glad to see the suit being brought against them, and hope that THIS time they get taken down.
Here's what I gots to say 'bout all diss stuff...
1. How long have you worked as a medical transcriptionist? 5+ years.
2. What certification have you received? None.
3. What attracted you to pursuing a career in medical transcription? The ad in the local paper and the fact I was penniless and willing to do anything...even if it was morally/legally questionable.
4. What type of environment do you work in (i.e. from home, physician’s office, hospital, other). Home.
5. What do you think are the most important skills a medical Transcriptionist should have? A sense of humor and ability to acquire sedatives easily.
6. Did some skills come naturally to you, while others required more practice? Always been zippy on the keys and always been willing to learn or teach myself whatever I needed to, to get a job done. I could use a hand with anger management 101 though.
7. In addition to transcribing medical reports, do you engage in other forms of business writing while on the job (such as memos, proposals, or progress reports, etc.) to clients, coworkers, or supervisors? Nope.
8. What do you think is the most difficult aspect of medical transcription? Continuing to do it despite it messing with your head knowing this line of work is steadily going down the globalization crapper.
9. What do you find to be the easiest aspect of medical transcription? X about it. :-D
10. As a medical transcriptionist, do you often need to collaborate with others to ensure that all the information in your reports is correct? I don't understand this question, so I guess I don't do whatever this is.
How 'bout we all shut up and go to work, loool
Parents and children? How 'bout fishing, sports, his job, etc. nm
v
Curiosity piqued.....whatcha excited 'bout??? nm
.
'Bout gave me a HEART ATTACK, but no pay cute here.
Somehow I dont think they would cut MTs' pay 30 percent without some sort of advance notice, done in such a way that people such as me, who didn't get any email, would find out about it on MT Stars. That's why I don't believe it.
ESL Docs
That is SO true!!!! There is definitely a problem with dictating the appropriate gender when it comes to ESL docs. They tend to go back and forth umpteen times during one dictation, so you really have to pay attention.  Verb tense can also get very confusing.
I agree that sometimes slowing down and concentrating can actually increase productivity. Even though I feel like I'm transcribing like a tortoise, I'm really getting more done than I think when I slow down and allow myself to think. 
Just hang in there with QA. They are just doing their job and you need to take a good look at what they are telling you and concentrate on that issue. It's really hard not to take it personally, that's for sure, but it's gonna make you a better Transcriptionist in the long run. On the other hand, if you feel they are truly wrong about an important issue, then challenge them!! But you'd better have major references to back up your challenge. 
Ellen S.
ESL docs
are you on VR yet? you can choose to have a 20% cut on your baseline rate and get the "better" dictators ?? or you can choose to keep your MT 100% baseline rate and probably get all of the ESL docs -- what a choice - not fair, huh??
This is almost as bad as the docs
I got three of them yesterday...three different docs. I think this is soooo rude! I'm almost to the point where I'm going to refuse to attempt to do them. Surprisingly, it's always a female doc who is dictating either a GYN or breast cancer related report.
I can picture a couple of these ladies hopping on a Harley Davidson riding home from work.
I think they should ask all ER docs
if they even know the English language to begin with, 'cause if they do, they don't practice it.
I know everyone knows that a lot of docs don't
read the reports after we have transcribed them, but I just had a doc on my account dictate that he wanted the line "Dictated but not read" added to ALL of his reports from now on. He was mad because he said he requested this to be done a few weeks ago and has been "keeping track" and it hasn't been getting done.
Amazing.
All of my PAs were better than the docs before
I switched companies and along with my new account came all new PAs (and might I add, quite a few of them) who all make me miserable. They botch the dictations beyond belief and I am left to fix the sentences which look like riddles and are actually confusing after they get done with it.
Change thoughts in the middle of a sentence...start talking and forget where they left off so I am sitting there for another 2 minutes waiting through the ummms and ahhhs and the start of sentences "the patient umm.... ahhh" and I'm waiting for them to say something and they just hang up.
Mine are good for this too... they will dictate an incomplete report and then a few dictations after they will start finishing incomplete dictations, adding in something they forgot to say, or they will say CC a copy to: Dr. ____ on a 4 second report and not say whose report it goes on. This would be easy to figure out if they didnt have 40 dictations and at least 5 hang-ups with about 8 of those 40 dictations being something they want added on to some nameless patient's report.
Had I not switched jobs, I would have had a hard time believing any PA was hard to transcribe...just because I had a good bit of them on my other account and they were all PERFECT speakers.
Now when I see that I have to transcribe a PA-- 
ESL docs
Hey there,
Hang with it a little while longer. You'll probably find that it gets easier. Those ESL doctors do say the same thing over and over again and it takes practice to get it. Try listening a few seconds longer than the phrase you aren't getting because sometimes that helps. I agree that samples help an awful lot so be sure to request as many as you can. Good luck! You can do it!
I would always rather have my ESL docs over the sm
English as first language docs, who speed talk, slur words, and don't seem to care about the patients. I am usually very impressed with the patient care given, and the understanding of the human issues, by the ESL docs. I think the problem with the original poster is she needs to learn to transcribe these docs, with all the suggestions, especially getting samples, mentioned above. She doesn't really seem that concerned with patient care, but her inability to transcribe difficult dictators. It is, quite simply, the nature of the business. The easy docs go on voice recognition, and the transcriptionists transcribe the difficult dictators.
I tell ALL my docs that I'm an MT...
...and I transcribe and read my own reports (I work for a large healthcare co). Hubby signed a HIPAA form for me to transcribe and read his reports, too. Now the docs are more careful
how many docs know?
When I mention to physicians that if they send their work out it might be sent overseas they are appalled! Sometimes they say things like, "So that's why there were so many mistakes." Companies don't always tell them where the work is being done or by whom.
I still fault them for trying to save money at our expense, but in a certain sense some of them are being taken advantage of as well. Perhaps our "enemies" could turn out to be our best allies should a good case make it to Court TV.
We need to educate the physicians as well as the public.
docs
Or I like when they make up their own spelling of words, especially meds.
docs
sorry made a mistake above...I meant the docs take me to the bathroom with them LOL!!!
docs
Let's face it ladies and gents - doctors have absolutely NO respect for what we do for them so they can make $$$$$$$$$$$$$$....
My ER docs do it alot
I guess it gives them the right to charge PREMIUM prices,  although I
think ER prices are quite pricey enough. My friends trip through the ER
the other night was a cool $10,000 and all she got was an aspirin. (she thought
she was having a heart attack and it was GERD. But to rule it out they gave her
the works; CT scan, CXR, blood work, cardiac enzymes......and on top of that came the doctors (including the cardiologist, oh my) bill.
Cheap docs
They absolutely don't care about quality or any of that jazz, which is why I have always wondered why we as an industry keep beating each other up over issues that doctors couldn't care less about. Not that I think we should all just transcribe any old way we want, but it seems like we act like the slaves out in the mud pit slapping each other around about how much or how little straw to use for the bricks while the slavedriver sits on the side line with the whip completely content with end product either way.
I suppose the answer most would give is that we should take pride in the quality of our work whether they (the doctors) do or not, but I can't get passed the notion that these are the same individuals that the powers that be seem so intent on pleasing and are also the same individuals who would see us all in the soup lines tomorrow looking for the next homeless shelter to sleep in if they had their way. They (the medical profession) will not think twice about putting all transcriptionists out of business at their first opportunity, and yet we as an industry continue to bow to their ridiculous and uninformed demands concerning how to do what we do or their complaints about how much we charge or that we shouldn't charge for line count generated by short forms or macros, etc. They have no clue how many times their butts get saved by transcriptionists on a daily basis.
I've never met a transcriptionist who wouldn't readily agree with the notion that we are part of the health care team, and yet many of us continue to act like we still work for the doctors instead of the patient. Oh well, go figure.
Just venting as well.
also, most docs won't do certain tests (sm)
without your consent, if they are not considered standard and will probably have to be paid for by the patient out of pocket, unless the patient agrees to pay either up front or if the charge is denied. At least that's been my experience! Good luck, I hate insurance companies, too!
Isn't she cute? 
Do your docs talk 2U?
I have one doctor who, when she wants to correct something or other always says "This is an aside to the typist." ARGH. I feel like I'm in a Shakespeare play or something - don't those have a lot of "asides"? I always want to scream at her "Don't you know I'm not a TYPIST?? I'M A MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTIONIST, DAMN IT!!!!" Of course she's 80 or something so I shall forever be "the typist" to her.
I have a resident who always says "For transcriptionist, would you...." to get my attention - but when he was new I thought he was saying "Poor transcriptionist..." I always nodded my head in sad agreement until I realized what he was actually saying....
And then there's the doc who loves to complain about his job to me, sometimes in great detail - "Here I sit, waiting for some x-rays to come in so I can make a buck" and "I cannot believe this hospital."
They crack me up!    
docs talk to me
I always get one who says, "uh, secretary, please correct..." and then I have one who always says "oh, operator, could you kindly...." Does he think that because he dictates into a phone it's a telephone operator on the other end or what?
Docs don't have those guidelines because... sm
they realize how stupid they sound and look. They learn the language of medicine and stick with it. They don't bow to some silly-*ssed organization's whims.
Hoo yah. I hear ya. Then you have the docs that. . .
think for some reason you know exactly what they are going to dictate for ROS so they just basically babble right through it and take a big deep breath at the end.
Or the one like I had today that sounded completely wasted off his butt and even with the speed up or down it still sounded like a drunken drawl. It was ridiculous. It was also dicatated later on Thanksgiving night, so who knows? Maybe doc had a few too many rounds of Thanksgiving cheer and then thought, "Ow thith, I thstill gottsa do my dictatheen."
Report them to your supervisor. It's worked for me in a few cases. It's up to them to pass the word along that the dictator needs to slow down.
I had one guy that I do locally on tapes that suddenly decided that he was going to take his machine and dictate on his way home in the car. I don't think so pal. I called my local boss and said I wasn't going to do it. His tapes have been clear as a bell ever since because he's doing them in the office again.
that won't do nothing but give you a bad name and p*** off the docs...sm
that is definitely NOT the professional way to handle this. Give a little bit more time to get the check, ask for more details (in a neutral tone of voice) about when the check was sent, the number of the check, etc. Document the answers. Then consider filing a claim in small claims court. Sometimes it's a scam but sometimes it's a cash flow problem.
Chiropractors and other alt med docs?
Does anyone know of a good site for this? I usually use WebMD or AMA but chiros and the sort are not listed, and I can't find a good resource for them.
contacting the docs re. this sm
What she did does seem cruel to you and perhaps she is cruel, but those accounts are absolutely hers to deal with and I think it is wrong for the subcontractor to contact the contractor's clients, totally wrong. I do feel for you. As an IC and MTSO, I have been "kicked to the curb" for cheaper price undercuts by "so-called" friends, etc. You must let it go and move on, perhaps contact your local church if you need help with food, utilities, etc. I do feel very badly for you, but I think to contact her clients would be "tacky" and make you look bad. Perhaps one day you will own your own accounts and see what I'm saying is true. Good luck to you, I am sure you are very hurt, I have been there as well. Not much you can do but log it into your "experience" book. Stay well, things will get better. Sometimes change forces progress, I hope so for your sake. With all my best wishes to you.
Hopefully docs will realize
that their time is better spent seeing more patients than doing data entry..glad that your docs realized this. I had one lone hold-out who refuses to do the clerical entry... but doesn't dictate either... still writes ShortHand notes in charts....Ugh!
Lots of ESL docs
Have worked for prison system in Tx. They hire lots of ESL docs but work is not hard as they outsource serious cases to general hospitals. As regards pre-employment testing all I did was a typing test and gave my references.
Ask the docs what they are paying now and go from there. nm
x
foreign docs
And why do a lot of those same ones who speak such poor English also make no sense in putting together their sentences? I have several that sound like they are clenching their teeth together and straining to get the words out which makes it even worse. I know exactly what you mean. Their oughta be a LAW!
inconsiderate docs
I had one doc who gave me a bad checs. So, I found another account to make up for his lack of funds, but I picked up his work as usual. I did the last two tapes he gave me, but I didn't give him the work and I returned blank disks to him. His OM hated him, so she called me when she had a deposit and I met her at the bank with the checks and a bill for the new work. She gave me a new check, we took care of business, I got my all my money, and he got his work. I then notified him that I would not do his work for him any longer since he tried to stiff me for several hundred $. Boy was he mad. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Wow, there are some rude docs out there!
I guess I am very lucky to have such appreciative doctors. They tell me thank you for the wonderful work about everytime I see them. I dont get a Christmas gift from everyone of them, but out of my 7, I usually get 3/4.
Sorry you all have to deal with such unappreciative and lousy dictators
Rude docs
Judy, I have 6 docs like that. First of all, I insisted on a sample for each of them. That helped a little. When blanks were happening in a place I knew I would be getting over and over, I would email or call to force them to find out what he was saying and let me know for the next time. Believe or not, every day gets a little easier. I've had them for almost 9 years now and get 99% of what they say. It's rude and disrespectful, but just depends on how badly you need the account. You will get it eventually. Every new dictator is tough at first.
fast docs
Why don't you get with the office manager and get copies of their standards and then all they have to do is say "use my usual or make changes". Mine were too happy to do this because they HATE dictating as much as we hate hearing them like that. And, I still got my line pain in spite of using normals.
When ESL docs use interpreters...
I just laugh when I hear an ESL doc on my account needs an interpreter to explain the risks and benefits of the procedure...LOL!
That's funny because my docs are
just the opposite. slow as molasses through the h&p and then speed up to warp speed through the diagnosis. I don't understand it, but you are right, it can be annoying.
|
