vent on failure in patient care
Posted By: K on 2007-06-04
In Reply to:
My husband took my son to see the doc for a tetanus shot after he stepped on a nail. I'm always transcribing and couldn't go there myself. After coming home from the doctor's office, my son and husband tell me that his foot was never even looked at by even a nurse, let alone the doctor. My son got the tetanus shot, and the paperwork said "do not give if a fever is present." Woops, they didn't even take his temperature. Rather than looking at his foot to determine if it was infected, they just asked my son if it was infected. I called the office totally irate, and they reduced the charges from $88 to $7. Wow, didn't expect that. It's a crying shame that we're a society so hung up on paperwork and billing (HIPAA, etc.) that a doctor or nurse would not even take the time to actually look at a patient's wound. What's really ironic is that very day I transcribed a report where the doctor states the patient shouldn't self-medicate with vitamins and supplements. So, we're not smart enough to determine what vitamins and supplements to take, but we are expected to determine whether or not we have an infection?
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Need to vent acute care/vs clinic
I just have to vent and get some opinions on this. I have started a job at a hospital. I have done clinic notes for about 4years about 3 different specialities. I type normally 175 lines -200 at the most on a good day. Since I started the hospital one week ago, I cannot get past 550-600 in a 7 hour day. They told me until I get my line count up to 1000, I cannot go home to work, which is what I am suppose to be doing. There are so many specialities, operative reports and procedures that I have never done and so many things to learn, I am losing so much of my speed looking stuff up. Does this take a long time learn? Was I crazy to think I could do acute care vs clinic these past 4 years. I am starting to doubt my intelligence here and thinking I am way out of my ballpark taking this on. Has anyone else gone from clinic to acute care? Help!!
Probably something in patient care, maybe CNA. sm
They make about as much as I am making and with benefits on top of that at the hospitals around here.
Do you think patient care will suffer any?
will treat the laptop like it is you, and ignore you, the patient.
I think the average patient would care and
would think, 'Wow, they sure don't know English.' And what about all the abbreviations a lay person woudl certainly not understand.
where did you get the idea we were involved in patient care?
We are typists with a specialized vocabulary. If we were doing this for NASA, it would not make us rocket scientists.
I am neither advocating, nor participating in, low quality - I do the very best I can with the experience, knowledge, and tools that I have. The fact that employers do not want to pay me enough to survive, thus making my trips through *QA* a little more thorough, ensures that I will get through reports as absolutely expeditiously as possible.
My bottom line is MY survival. Good luck with altruism - it doesn't buy much at Safeway.
OR, instead of being funny, it could hurt patient care.
nm
A 2-day strike will not hurt patient care
it will give the physicians something to think about when they have to hand write their STAT H&P for patient's surgery tomorrow.
just like quality care for the patient is going out the window-nm
nm
Anything an MT can do when you have grave concerns about patient care?
Is there anything at all an MT can do when you have grave concerns about the care a patient is receiving? I know the answer to this is probably no, but I am so completely frustrated with my one of "my" doctors right now. I know that one of his patients is not receiving the proper care, and I am really worried for this patient. I wish I could contact the patient's mother and let her know my concerns, but I know that is not allowed and I would be fired for doing so. I know that I'm not anywhere near as smart as a doctor, but my son has the same condition that this patient does and I know that the patient is not receiving the proper care or even the correct diagnosis. It is hard to go into all of the details for confidentiality reasons. I just know, 100% sure, that this patient deserves better care than he is receiving.
Sometimes the virtual world that we work in is great, and other times it really stinks. If I were working in the doctor's office I could gently share my concerns (maybe I would still be fired but I could give it a shot). Here in this virtual world where the doctors don't even know I exist I can do absolutely nothing.
I'm just so frustrated at the doctor and so very worried for this patient.
ONLINE nursing program? Do you not care about the patient's well being?
/
I agree that if it hurts the patient's care you should speak up.
s
And all this time I thought the bottom line was patient care. nm
nm
Could your hubs become a patient of a home health care agency and then you could work for them
s
The hosptial administrators aren't interested in safe patient care.
I venting as a patient! No doctor cares if I live or die--could care less in my eyes!!!
Study found that electronic health records did not boost patient care. sm
Link to article on yahoo news stating that electronic health records fail to improve care, study says.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/records_dc;_ylt=AsT2t1nasUEaoOxgIsyoMUOs0NUE
Putting patient versus The patient (sm)
When did this "rule" come about? I've been an MT/Editor/medeical records tech/ART for 30 years - Never, ever was I told to put that. You cannot make the sentence be "The patient sent to Radiology" but you can put "Patient sent to Radiology."
Thats just insane.
To FAILURE: SM
I tried to give some hints and tips above...I'm happy to help with more if I can.
Please don't let this smart-mouthed poster above get to you.
Those who want to know how to increase their line counts absolutely should be asking and we should be sharing all the information we can on it.
you are not a failure
i dont have normals either. I cant remember them enough to be fast with them. however, i do use my autocorrect in word for words. Like wo without, ht for hypothyroidism, hyt for hypertension, bid for b.i.d., etc. Amazingly this really saves you a lot of time. words that any one says or words that you misspell a lot and want to fix while typing or have to fix spell checking. This is one way I have become faster.
Also, I found that if I do 10 reports at a time I am faster. I download 10 reports and I type straight through. Not stopping for ANYTHING. Then I either download 4 more and say to myself you can sit through 4 more or I will take a quick break. But I try to make myself sit there as long as i can without stopping at all. I MAKE myself do it for at least 10. Before I know it, I have 20, 30 reports done and 3 or 4 hours has gone by!
Above all, once you reach your 1000, don't stop with your groove. If you reach 1000 in 4 hours and work an 8 hour shift, dont stop. Keep going and pulling 10 and sitting as long as you can. You then will have done around 2000 in your workday!
I'm a failure!!!
What is going on??? Is this really happening?? I failed the MT test. I don't understand. I have been a Transcriptionist for 7 years. I wanted to work from home again after taking a few years off. I took a job at a hospital making extraordinary money just a year ago. They didn't have a problem with me. At first I thought it was because I have been away, but I don't think a year can make that much difference. HELP!!
No - you are not a failure -
I feel the same way about my company. I worked at a 600+ bed facility and never had as many different dictators as the place I work for now. I can't make line count either and getting tired of it.  - I'm tired of working on my days off trying to learn more and when I learn that ----- they ZAP me with something else.
CMT failure sm
I am so sorry you had this experience. You sound like you have an unforgiving back and like myself, probably will have trouble in this profession down the road. I was a CMT for 18 years. I am now part-time only and can't afford it, but when I was a CMT it was a small town and no credence was given to the certification; in fact, they were afraid I would ask for more money. I did have the certificate on my wall though and was proud that I exceeded my necessary credits each time I recertified. Don't pay attention to the insults, just ask if you can take it again, although I doubt it. Be proud that you tried and you did well! Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate, don't let them get you down!
I would never classify anyone a failure or
call myself a failure. As for me, I can do at least 2,000 in 6 hours because I have done this same account for 10 years, and I have normals. I may have to change a few words but mostly its all normals.
You're not a failure.
I agree with the poster who said to use lots of phrases. I never ever tell how many lines I transcribe because people don't believe I can do that much in one day or they say I must have worked 24 hours a day. Some even accuse me of cherrypicking. I've never done that and never will. You have to take the good with the bad in this industry. I earn every line I transcribe.
I've been doing my accounts for a very long time and have transcribed everything from the simple docs to the mumbling ESLs.
Use the expanders for phrases. TPWG the patient was given. TPIG the patient is given. TPWS The patient was started on. Set it so you don't have to use your shift key to capitalize things like copd. Type in smaller case and it automatically capitalizes for you.
I used to put post-it notes on the front of my computer of macros I recently made so I would remember what they are. It would help get in my memory faster.
Another thing I do for every hospital or clinic that I work with -I see if they have a website and print out the copy of their physician list. Saves me a lot of time from looking up physician names. I print it up 2 or 3 times a year because most of them keep their lists up to date.
Hope some of this helps!
REVIEWS FOR FAILURE
The things being taken off on for the review is pathetic too. "During this hospitalization" being marked wrong because the reviewer states the dictation said "during this hospital stay", etc. and so on. These so called reviews are jokes. We are educationed professionals and don't appreciate slave driver tactics.
If he's a failure, what's that make all of US?
more sour grapes
dog liver failure
Mine died from Deramaxx too. She developed liver failure and had a horrible death at home in my husband's arms. When I heard about the Vioxx recall I immediately called my vet, concerned about Deramaxx, and they assured me it was fine. She was dead a month later. We blame ourselves because we had also given her Revolution, prevention for heartworms and fleas, and she became lethargic and vomiting four 2 days after that, which probably weakened her liver further.
Failure to pay and your options
If you are currently an Independent contractor, you are a business. You are hired as a business to conduct work for a MTSO. I strongly urge everyone to be sure that any contract they sign with a company includes a date of expected pay. Also, when hired, note that late payment of services, after a reasonable amount of time for posting, will be cause for a late fee or interest. Be sure to save e-mail or correspondence. The fact that a company notes when payment of your invoice will be ill give them a set time with a reasonable amount of time for postage to get to you.
If, payment is not made, within that reasonable amount of time, and conversations give you the assumption that they will not be paid (especially if it is said we did not get money etc) then it is theft of services. Contact your DA, and the DA of the MTSO. Think of it this way, if you were any other professional, late fees get tacked on if YOU DO NOT PAY, so pass it on. Put it in your correspondence and stick to it. You are an independent contractor supporting your business.
Now, for all of those who think they are an independent contractor but have any of the following terms, you may be considered an employee through the US Labor Board - including scheduled hours of work.
These factors are used to determine if an individual is classified as an Independent Contractor:
* Is the worker required to follow INSTRUCTIONS?
* Does the firm provide training to accomplish the work?
* Is the worker REGULARLY employed at the firm?
* Is the work performed personally by the worker?
* Does the firm DIRECTLY pay the worker's assistants?
* Is there a continuing ongoing work relationship?
* Are there a set number of work HOURS?
* Is the worker engaged full time by the firm?
* Does the worker work on the firm's premises?
* Does the worker work according to a SCHEDULE set by the firm?
* Is the worker required to submit regular reports to the firm?
* Is the worker paid based on time rather than by project?
* Is the worker REIMBURSED for his/her expenses?
* Does the firm furnish the tools and/or materials?
* Does the worker have a vested INTEREST in performing the services?
* Can the worker realize a profit or suffer a loss?
* Does the worker work for more than one firm at a time?
* Does the worker make his services available to the general public?
* Does the firm have the right to DISCHARGE the worker without incurring a legal liability for non-performance under the contract?
* Does the worker have the right to TERMINATE the relationship without incurring a legal liability for non-performance under the contract?
Depending on your responses, you could be an employee or IC - check with your Labor Board BEFORE a problem pops up.
As a professional, we all must protect ourselves and information is key.
I hope those who have problems get them cleared up sooner rather than later.
sorry - power failure - cut off my post!
SORROY - OWER FAILURE CUT OFF THE END OF MY POST!
Don't worry about the little things - she has good parents that are concerned about her. Just make the love, trust and open communication the priority!
You're not a failure! Those tests are brutal!
With 17 years of MT I thought I had it made. I was sooooo frustrated with the testing. I just barely made it and when I got an email that said "congratulations, you passed the test," I was in tears. Probably in tears because I didn't have to take the horrid thing again.
You'll do fine. Test somewhere else. Good luck to ya!
You're not a failure for wanting to quit.
If it isn't working for you, for whatever reason, it doesn't make you a failure.
Individuals cannot be failures. Failure is a process, an action. You are a person.
You know, typically it is considered professional to give a working notice of 2 weeks. What about offering a 2-week notice with an altered schedule?
Generally, employees who do not give a 2-week notice are considered ineligible for rehire - an important question when others may call them for past employment information. Usually all that is asked/given are dates of employment, compensation, and whether the employee is eligible for rehire.
Yeah, most MT's I know have an MBA - you must be a failure in your fictitious field then
LMAO
nice try though
Thanks! Maybe I'll remove the caps from Failure!! I do use all expanders
almost exactly as you have described! Its my account that specifically wants verbatim and NO canned text. They must "know" about that, and want to make sure they get their pennies worth out of the MTs!!
Your first boss really sealed your fate! You had failure handed to you at the start!
How on earth can you even believe that?? There are thousands of MTs who have worked, and full time, with small children at home. Boy, talk about an encouraging post! Doom and gloom for sure! The continued negativity of the MTs on this forum is astonishing. You don't have to spend thousands and thousands of $$ to get an education, and if she's a single Mom, she'll probably qualify for complete financial aid! And the company board the last week has been full of posts from newbie grads who are getting jobs across the board, and good ones! This business is constantly ebbing and flowing, changing, but always is a lucrative career! Come on! And the person below, fg, who is negative 24/7 calls it dog meat??? I'd like to see any comparable career where I work the minimal hours I do and make fantastic $$. And, gee, me, a lowly self-educated CMT! Doom and gloom is yours if you choose it. From your own post, your first boss set the tone for you, and you accepted it. Think POSITIVE! 
Kinship care versus foster care/adoption
Having been placed in a position where I now have custody of my 3 YO granddaughter and going through the legal system, I sought an online network of relative caregivers for children. I would encourage you, especially since you are in Georgia, that if you take any children into foster care with the idea of adopting them, there is federal law that requires the state to take certain actions in a specific time frame. When a child is removed from it's bio parent(s), the state is required to investigate any possible relatives who can take the child before foster care is considered, but even before that, reunification with the parents is the priority. Once a child enters the system and is in the system for 15 out of any 22 months, the state is required to find permanent placement for the child.
The problem with this is that there are case workers who may favor a foster family and do not seek out relative care. I have a good friend in Georgia who had to fight all the way to the state level to get custody of her grandson after the child was placed from the hospital into a foster care home with the promise that the foster parents would be allowed to adopt. She has now adopted her grandson, but it was a long, hard battle to get the state to admit their own interests were placed above those of the child and/or family.
If you get a child placed through the state, please make certain there is not a relative who wants that child before you get your hopes up. The courts are now favoring return of children to relatives even after a child has spent years with a foster family who hoped to adopt them.
States get bonus federal funds by complying with the time lines and being able to close the case, so some states place children in foster care because it is easier than trying to locate relatives.
Didn't mean to go off on a tangent, but I can't imagine my sweet bella going to someone outside her family.
If it was a clinic, it might have been urgent care, but it was NOT acute care. sm
Acute care refers to work in an acute care setting, a hospital, doing at least History and Physicals, Discharge Summaries, Consultations, Surgery notes, Emergency Department notes, and much more, including GI procedures, Cardiology procedures, Neurological procedures, Pulmonary Function Studies. It goes on and on and it means and acute care hospital setting, not a clinic.
I have 2 middle age couple friends. One couple became pregnant from condom failure.
This is not just "irresponsible" behavior! Both couples are "fixed" now, because for them, reliable birth control was NOT. But it's an error to assume this stuff happens to people who are unmarried or irresponsible. Both these couples are raising 2nd families, now, but it wasn't "irresponsibility" that did them in!
I always figure if they don't care about their dictation, they probably don't care about their
nm
Dont care how many languages you took. Care
x
Just a vent.
I have a note (discharge summary) that is 27 minutes long, dictated by RN, that goes into such detail that it might as well be the H&P, every consult, every operative report, and every lab report rolled into 1 document. She is even dictating problems the patient had on previous hospitalizations that have nothing to do with this admission. To make matters worse, she is jumping back and forth between prior problems (that aren't related) and current problems for the hospitalization, as well as listing every single lab test/values from all prior admissions and comparing them to this admission, as well as dictating the whole report for every x-ray the person ever had in this one report. The guy came in for nausea, vomiting, and dehydration and she's dictating x-ray reports for fractured ankle and rotator cuff MRI from 2 years ago...THE WHOLE MRI REPORT. Good gravy, missy. It's good to be thorough, but then too much information just confuses the reader. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
All better now. Thanks for letting me vent. 
sorry, need to VENT.
I have been working since 5:30 on itty bitty reports - so far I'm making less than minimum wage with all the crap I have to waste time on in the headers etc.....and my back is killing me.
I hate wasting my life like this.
OT: Cat vent!
I've already had enough problems working this weekend with technical problems and down time and now that I'm breezing away and making good money, what happens? My stupid cat decides she needs attention! First she rubs on my leg and purrs (so far so good, not really a distraction) but THEN she has to move to look at my face through the crack in my desk where the drop down keyboard rests and reach her stupid little paws through, hit the function key that saves and closes the report (which I cannot alter once it is sent through) on a report of over 100 lines!
ARRRRRGH!!! I was almost finished and needed to spell check it!!! That just cost me $10. Her food costs that much!
Anybody wanna a free soon to be hungry cat??
d~ 
need to vent
Is his boss willing to make things right by paying your husband's back salary for the months that he was unemployed? If so, I think hubby should consider going back to work for them (while searching for something else that pays better than what he is making now).
Need to Vent Out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am so mad at these big companies. I know this is has nothing to do with my job as a medical transcriptionist, but I just need to vent a little. My husband works for the government as a meat inspector and this "BIG" meat packing company just decided yesterday that it was going to up and close with no warning to any of the employees. It was just "At the end of the day, you will be out of a job." I cannot even begin to express my feelings for the workers at these plants. At least my husband still has a paycheck coming in from working for the government. Today, he is working in a plant that is a 6 hour drive from our home. We will probably be sent out to the east coast for relocation. We have 2 daughters that are in high school and a 3 year old that do not want to move. We have always lived in a very small community of 125 people in the Midwest. My daughters are so upset and I am just mad. How can a big company do this to its valued workers without caring? I am just missing my husband as I know he will be detailed out to just about every state until they decide where THEY want to put him. I AM SO MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Would you put up with this? (Another vent)
I have worked with a company for over seven years as an IC. I work part time and whatever work I do that morning has to be turned in at 3:00, which gives me around a six hour turn around. I have two young kids and another account that I work on that has stats that I have to take care of too. I have only gotten one raise in seven years, and a crappy one at that. Every other company I have worked for gives me at least about 24 hours to get it back to them. I am trying to get my kids ready for school and I also have other things going on at the moment. I get an email in all caps "I NEED THE WORK NOW." I am just so fed up with this. I don't want to quit because the work is easy for me since I have been doing it so long, but I feel the need to put my foot down.
Don't use this to vent - I'm
simply asking a question and wondering what other people have dealt with. No need for "??!!! and get an attorney, etc." I know that. I'm just asking people for thier "experience" not their "opinion." Chill out.
Just a dh vent...
I'll try to make this to the point... ;o) My husband got bought out at the end of January so has been off work since then. His buyout will last us until about next January so for now he's enjoying the time with the kids. I on the other hand have gone from working very part-time to full-time, at home, "just in case" and to help pay off some debt while I've got Mr. Mom here home to take care of the kids.
For the most part, he's being excellent - doing the majority of the housework, all the cooking, taking care of the kids all day. My only gripe is he sleeps in until 9:30 every day while the kids (ages 4 and 7)are up at about 7:30-8. Mind you this is spring break for the 7 yo but when it's school time he gets him off to school and then goes back to bed. The kids play pretty well on their own but if they come into the bedroom he'll put the TV on for them. This leaving them on their own w/o even getting them breakfast and/or the TV thing drives me batty. I've been a wahm since my first one was born and always made them my priority (working around their schedule very part-time), getting up as soon as they got up, rarely turning the TV on to "babysit" them, etc. I feel like he's undoing what I spent years working so hard at.
Now I get up at 5 to go to the gym and then get my work done ASAP so that I can have time with the kids later as I'm finding it very difficult emotionally to be so unavailable during the day. This is making me even more resentful of my dh with him snoozing until 9:30 while I'm so tired a lot of the time. Then to top it off, he gets hurt that I'm usually too tired to be "interested" by 10 at night and I want to go to bed early... He supposedly understands that I'm tired but still is putting the guilt trip on me.
I know that a lot of this is my own resentments and largely there's nothing wrong with what he's doing and he needs to do things his own way with regards to the kids - I get that, but I'm still resentful. Any thoughts? Thanks for reading the novel and just letting me vent. So much for it being to the point!;o)
We all have to vent sometime
and it was just your turn. I think we have all had similar experiences with the frustration and lack of understanding by dh's about this type of work and how much it takes out of you. Good luck!
Need to vent. I'm fed up!
I am so sick and tired of day after day trying to figure out what in the heck these ESLs are saying. I'm tired of them preventing me from making a decent line count and making decent money. Why in the heck don't they learn English? From this day on I refuse to make any sense of what they are saying and will type verbatim, stutters, poor grammar and all! If the company I work for doesn't like it - then fire me. It's about time MTSOs put it back on the docs to better themselves and NOT us!. I've been doing this for over 6 years and it gets worse and worse.
Please do not reply with "I'm sure your ancestors were from another country, etc......" They were ----and--- now I was born here - AND I SPEAK THE LANGUAGE.
MTSOs want to send work overseas. Send all the ESLs. Also, when it comes time to me "editing" overseas work --- Ha-Ha.... that will definately be my LAST day on the job! Let the owners of the companies edit the overseas work and see how they like it.
Thanks all.
NEED TO VENT
Why on earth would a doctor prescribe physical therapy to strengthen a patient's muscles who is in the end-stages of myasthenia gravis? Money? A patient with nothing else to do but go to physical therapy? I don't get it. This group of doctors are a pain in the ***s. One has such a high incidence of infections in his surgical patients that I cannot believe he is still allowed to practice - and this one puts everyone into physical therapy - unless they are a 4-limb amputee. Does anyone know the # to the California Board of Medicine - because I think it is time to call them on this one - work or no work - I am sick of it. i feel better now.
NEED TO VENT
No, I am not a doctor and would not care to be one. But over the years I have seen so many cases go bad and with doctors policing themselves, very few ever suffer any consequences. My husband works with a doctor who was using cocainen while in surgery. At one point he was doing a prostate biopsy and passed out on the patient, jamming the needle through the prostate gland. The other doctors in the group encouraged him to get treatment or they would kick him out of the group. So, he got some rehab. The patient sued, thank God. But guess what, he is back in the operating room - snorting in the lounge before each case. The surgery center personnel are afraid of losing their jobs if they report him to the police, so he just goes on doing surgery under the influence. Perhaps my animosity comes from being abused by several different physicians at different times in my life - and regret at not reporting them. However, knowing the system, I realize that it is a losing battle. But, having been through these experiences I can spot these docs a mile away. Sorry if I offended anyone - but doctors are human and our lives are at stake, as well as the lives of others when a doctor practices bad medicine. I appreciate all of the input and understand your anger. I posted this more as a person than an MT. I just thank God for what I do know - and wish that there was a way to fix the problem of poor physicians, drug abuse in the medical world, and the patients that suffer at their hands.
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