Apparently some doctors need some training in how to do medical transcription. Tonight as I’m typing all their dictation I’m pondering on why they don’t teach these things in medical school. I think if doctors had to dictate a report, swap dictation and type someone else’s maybe they wouldn’t be so cavalier about how they do it. Maybe, just maybe they’d take 2 minutes extra and make the thing understandable.
I’d like to do my part to make sure that your medical record is transcribed correctly. Mistakes in your medical record can make life very unpleasant as far as insurance goes. Trust me on this one.
Anyway, the suggestions rules:
1. Do NOT chew gum, eat your meals, chew cud, eat ice, or whatever it is you do when you’re dictating. Keep your mouth clean of debris and your dictation will sound like the English language.
2. Do NOT belch into the telephone. If it’s unavoidable, could you please excuse yourself? You may not realize it, but there really is a human being on the other end of that phone and I really would appreciate it. Especially if it sounds like you need to wipe the phone off. Ick.
3. Do NOT take your hand-held recorder into the bathroom with you. Please. I don’t want to hear my own husband in the bathroom, it’s a sure thing I don’t want to hear you. That’s all I’m going to say about this one. Your mother should have taught you better.
4. Read the chart BEFORE you dictate. Seriously, if I were sitting in a hospital making $20 bucks an hour doing transcription I really wouldn’t care how long you have to review the chart after you dial in and before you begin speaking. But I’m not. I’m sitting at home making less than 10 cents a line and I really don’t want to waste time sitting here listening to papers being flipped while you frantically try to remember who this patient is. In the 5 minutes you waste during your dictation I could do 2 good reports. I’m not kidding.
5. Just because you know what you’re saying does not mean WE (transcriptionists) know what you’re saying. Maybe you’ve dictated a tonsillectomy 10,000 times. Maybe this is the first time we’ve ever worked for your hospital and we don’t know what you’re saying. I had a doctor at one of my hospitals could dictate a T&A in 57 seconds. Could I understand him? No. But I worked for that hospital only and I learned that he said the same thing every single time. So it really didn’t matter. But when I’m in Yahoo, Nebraska, and you’re in San Diego, California, working in a hospital with 800 doctors chances are I have never transcribed a report for you. Please slow it down. You know, malpractice insurance is expensive….
6. If a name is hard for you to pronounce, it’s probably hard for me to spell. Could you please spell names, especially doctor’s names, in reports? And if you want a copy sent to Dr. Smith in New York City, do you think you could possibly give me a first name. That would be nice.
7. If your beeper goes off while you’re dictating please don’t hold the beeper up to the mouthpiece of the phone while you read it. I’m probably going to lose my hearing early from doing this job anyway, you really do not need to hasten the process.
8. Do not tell jokes, yak with the nurses, or answer another phone while you’re dictating. I know there’s a pause button for you to use. I really don’t want to hear the details of your son’s Bar Mitzvah or your golf game this morning. If it’s not part of the medical record can you wait until you’re done dictating? See #4.
9. I love dictators who tell me thanks at the end of dictations. Especially on holidays. We don’t want to be working either.
10. Enunciate. Don’t be afraid to open your mouth. Slurring is only acceptable when you’re drunk. And if you’re dictating I hope you’re not drunk.
11. Don’t whisper. If you’re dictating where everyone and their uncle can hear you, you probably shouldn’t be dictating. If the people around you can’t hear you, chances are I can’t either.
Okay, that’s it for now. I do love my job. Really I do.
7 Comments
August 27, 2006 at 12:19 pm
Thank you for that! I too sit at home making less than 10 cents a line typing for 4 hospitals/surgeons listening to some of the worst dictators of all time.
“How To Dictate Properly” along with “Dictation Protocol” should be taught in medical school by people who can actually dictate. ALL MEDICAL STUDENTS should have to transcribe their own dictation for an entire month so they can see how bad they really are and can improve on their weak areas. This way, by the time they actually become doctors, they will know how to dictate.
As far as thanking us for making them sound intellegent, usually the only ones that thank us after each dictation are the ESL doctors. Most, but not all, of the American doctors just hang up without saying a word.
Medical Transcriptionists are some of the most intellegent people I have ever met. They can make sense of some of the garble that comes out of dictator’s mouths.
August 28, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Amen, Natalie!
March 29, 2007 at 12:35 am
Well, well, it happens on the other side of the world too !!!
Greetings from your sisters down here in Australia with the same problems.
March 30, 2007 at 1:47 pm
I’m glad to know we’re not alone up here! Greetings!
April 15, 2007 at 12:25 am
oh, I just love it. It seems dictation is getting worse by the minute. It is quite annoying, I only make 8 cpl. and work my fingers to the bone. I have been doing this almost 10 years now, only make 8 cpl. and struggle everyday. I am completely stressed out.
I sit here all by myself everyday and start to believe I am the only person who feels this way, but after reading this, I feel better that I am not alone.
Thank you
Thank you !
October 27, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Hello:
I would like to recommend an audio transcription company that could help you out tremendously. There are so many out there to choose from though. Have you tried a service already? I would like to recommend WeScribeIt.com. They truly offer great service.
August 10, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Hey, medical student here. Just want to say I agree that they should teach us how to dictate in school! Instead, they shove charts at us and say, “There’s the phone” and we have bad doctors rambling into a phone to learn from.
I appreciate you transcriptionists and I often tell our hospital’s that I feel sorry for you for having to put up with the things you do! And I’m learning, but I know I’m really slow and get things out of order. So, thanks for putting up with us and thanks for the rules. I will gladly follow them!