being treated are actually examined before treatment is rendered?
Wasn't it bad enough medicine when ER docs would proclaim a diagnosis before exam, only to have to backpedal after taking a look?? I guess if they are going to do things in that order, doing physical exams is going to result in their looking stuupid, so their solution is not to do that part.
Big grrrr.
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Other related messages found in our database Some MTs insist that they are good ...
(or even excellent) when in fact they are not. I know of one in particular who insists she is a very good MT and she does not even known which to use -- "there" or "their" or "their." Not to mention she put "tetanus" in an ENT exam when it was supposed to be "tinnitus."
Also why you should insist on having a contract.
Execute and sign a contract that spells out all of the particulars. This will save a lot of grief in the future. If the company doesn't want to use a contract, move on. If a company cuts corners there, where else might they be cutting corners?
As stated above, it's up to the MT to look out for their own best interest, not the employer.
BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Bausch & Lomb Inc. executives are at a loss to explain why some users of its ReNu contact-lens solution have reportedly developed serious eye infections, saying Wednesday that all tests run so far have shown the product is safe and effective.
46.96, +1.35, +3.0%) resumed their move lower, dropping 7% to close at $45.61.
In a conference call held with analysts, Bausch & Lomb's management defended ReNu with MoistureLoc, a popular eye-care product used to clean, disinfect and store contact lenses.
"Every additional test indicates the formulation is as safe and effective as anything else on the market," said Ronald Zarrella, chief executive of the Rochester, N.Y.-based company.
Bausch & Lomb rattled both investors and consumers late Monday, when it announced it was suspending U.S. shipments of ReNu with MoistureLoc due to reports that some users had developed a rare but serious eye infection called fungal keratitis.
The Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration are investigating 109 reports of fungal keratitis around the nation, but they've yet to conclude that the ReNu product is a cause. It was also unclear how many of the reported cases actually involved ReNu, according to the agencies.
While allowing that ReNu could be eventually be linked to the infections, Zarrella also emphasized that all testing to date has shown ReNu with MoistureLoc was safe and effective in combating microbes that can trigger fungal keratitis.
Bausch & Lomb also has been able to test bottles of ReNu solution retrieved from infected users, but found nothing out of the ordinary, he said.
"As far as theories, there's a lot of them, and we've run a lot of them to ground and come up with nothing," said Zarrella.
Fungal keratitis is a painful inflammation of the cornea that can, in some cases, lead to blindness. The infection, caused by a fungus found in the environment, can appear as a result of eye injury, improper use of contact lenses or contaminated contact-lens products.
Zarrella said that FDA officials were currently inspecting the company's Greenville, S.C., plant, where it produces all ReNu with MoistureLoc products for the U.S. market.
Zarrella also said that the company had no insight into how long the FDA and CDC investigations will take and whether it will eventually have to recall all of ReNu with MoistureLoc products from the U.S. market. At this point, Bausch intends only to stop shipping new product to retailers, not to reclaim bottles already on store shelves.
However, retail heavyweights Wal-Mart Stores (WMT :
43.27, +0.26, +0.6%) said earlier Wednesday that they were removing the product from their shelves, pending the outcome of the regulatory investigation.
According to the company, ReNu with MoistureLoc generated U.S. sales of about $45 million in 2005.
Analysts on the call voiced concern that the product alert could end up eroding sales of Bausch & Lomb's other eye-care products, which enjoy great popularity with consumers.
Zarrella responded that Bausch & Lomb intends to immediately embark on a new marketing campaign to promote the integrity of its products, adding: "We're going to convince consumers that our products are safe and effective."
The executive also announced that it was "unlikely" that the company will file its 2005 year-end financial report, or 10-K, with the Securities and Exchange Commission by April 30. Zarrella repeatedly declined to comment during the call as to why the company wouldn't meet that deadline.
True that works should insist on fair SM
compensation. However, strikes only work when the strikers CANNOT BE REPLACED. That's definitely not us, not now. To put it mildly! With our entire healthcare industry in economic crisis, it would be only too likely to push the industry to get rid of our jobs altogether. Many are arguing right now for shifting the money spent on verbal reports to other areas of patient care.
Just BTW, our work would be eliminated practically overnight if the federal government were to refuse to pay Medicare compensation dollars for it. Something that could be done.
Besides, let's face it, many people are still making a decent income because they've upgraded their skills to keep up with technologic change. Should hospitals be paying some people to spend at least half again as long to type reports as others can do them because they don't want to, or can't, add to their skills? Is that really a sensible allocation of our healthcare dollars?
Might also be your thyroid or Lyme disease. Insist on blood work! nm
s
we should just once, as patients (sm)
go to the dr's office and waste THEIR time!!! Let them know how it feels for a change. But then again, the doc wouldn't wait two seconds on a patient, now would they? Wow, whatta double standard! Patients
On a really bad day, I feel like a vampire for making money off of other people's misfortunes.
to see so they don't want to spell things out. Do they cut corners on patient care, as well, when they have 30 patients to see - or is that reserved for us peon MTs? So they're "frustrated" with 30 patients - well, cut your patient load! We're not paid to "guess" or have to look up everything they don't feel like spelling, especially other doc's names. Just won't do it.
By the way, I wonder if they know how many documents we have to type a day (30 maybe?) to even eke out simple minimal wage - but that's OK, I suppose, compared to their 5 or 6-figure salaries.
Just give everybody the bum's rush because you have 30 patients. Suppose we did the same?
A party for our patients...
Every year, the staff in our clinic takes it on ourselves to throw a party for our patients. We all cook finger food, make snack trays, cookies, baked good, cheezes, bread, meat trays, the works. We have breakfast foods and lunch foods. We decorate tables in our lobby to spread this out on. We usually do this one day a week for the four weeks before Christmas so many patients will get to enjoy it. We have coffee, hot chocolate, orange juice, cokes and punch. We have fruits and dips....something for everyone, even diabetics. The patients are touched that we go to the trouble and we are touched by how much they love it! These patients have gone through enough suffering with their diseases and some are elderly and don't have family members. Some tell us this is their only Christmas! We have been doing this several years now and the patients are beginning to tell us to be sure we appoint them to return on the days we are having our "Christmas spread." I just thought I'd share the Christmas party that means the most to me... and this is definitely it! Just the look on their faces as they are enjoying it is Christmas to me.
It is not our job to judges the patients sm
or why or where they seek treatment. It is our job to transcribe the dictated reports. If you don't like the healthcare system, then go out and change it.
Just how many lives do YOUR patients have?
Apparently mine have more than one because I have one dictator who likes to use the following phrase:Patient was told that he might have death and loss of current life.
If the patients were aware of that, they could
nm
Do any of you ever feel sad for the patients?
Maybe it is because I am on my period and am more emotional than usual, but today typing all these terminal cancer reports is making me want to cry. I feel so sad for the patient and their families. I just cannot imagine being told that I only have a few months left of my life. And the doctors sound so cold about it. I know they are very used to it....I just know that I could never be a doctor. I could never get used to telling someone they are going to die.
A question regarding patients' rights
I was just wondering this. My mother was recently sent to a "liver specialist" who is local gastrointestinal doctor because of concern over persistently elevated liver function tests. He drew a LOT of blood work on her and only told her that it looks like she might have a fatty liver. He set her up to come back in six weeks to "get the results of her lab tests." SIX WEEKS! With her being very concerned, of course, we immediately searched the net and found out that fatty liver occurs in patients 1). who drink alcohol (she never has), 2). Patients who are overweight (she is not) or 3). Patients with diabetes (she hasn't got that, either). It says that a liver biopsy is how they find this out. He never mentioned doing one of those. My question is.. would a physician want to wait 6 weeks to find out lab results? You know it doesn't take 6 weeks to get the results back, they probably had them back within a day or two. In the meantime, she is stressing big time about what could be wrong. Not sure when doctors graduate their patients but
I have boys and we stopped when my oldest was 11 because they always made them strip down to their undies for checkups and checked their privates and I didn't feel that was necessary and my boys hated it.
No thanks. Anorexic geriatrics patients don't do it for me.
x
Very true, but a list of patients?
An invoice by the patient? Some clients need to do their own book keeping. It is bad enough you have to worry about the content of the reports. To have to retype a patient name into an invoice with the line count is utterly ridiculous especially as an IC. IC's get taken advantage of. As an IC, yes you should be charging for "everything". If you're an employee, they can put it under "other duties as needed". Business is business. If it takes more time, that takes more money. End of story. Don't do nothing for nothing. Your clients sure do not. They go all this time with this Transcriptionist with her invoicing and then all of a sudden decide they want each patient name and line count? Cut me a break. You don't think there should be a charge for that? You can work for free, but I certainly WILL NOT! To make statements like be paid to walk to the computer is really being a bit of a smarty pants in my opinion. Keep it to yourself if you want to work for free, most people don't! Have a great day making nothing to do A LOT!
Yes, that computer is in fact billing the insurance company because it not only saves not having to pay an MT, it bypasses a billing clerk (eliminating that salary), and if the doctor's office space is paid for by a hospital, that file is sent to the hospital's database where a *scrubber* compares what the MD submits versus coding guidelines. If it is an independent office, the MD can upload all that day's billing before he walks out the door and leave it unattended to update patient accounts and reconcile the days money intake.
In a nut shell, your doctor is no longer just practicing medicine. Your MD is doing the documentation and billing and saving money on two warm bodies.
I understand your concern as I see it more and more in today's medical care, but yes, this is the way things are going. I am fortunate that my MD has been very computer literate for a long time, so the amount of time he spends with his laptop is minimal. Once he enters the info, he kicks his shoes back and we chat and get into a deeper discussion both professionally and personally (we've known each other a long time). Give your MD a chance to play catch up to what he or she is doing with that computer and you should see a more relaxed physician soon.
even cancer and continue to smoke. In our local paper they are following a woman in her battle with cancer. She continues to smoke, as does her husband. They were broke before the cancer diagnosis, having to borrow daughter's babysitting money to pay bills. Just think how much money they've blown on cigarettes.
I've even known one man with a trach who smoked through his trach.
Doctors today are totally incompetent for the most part. YOU cannot worry about it when it comes to transcribing their gawd awful reports. THAT is between the patient and the doc. Just knock the report out as fast as you can and make sure it's accurate and then after that, forget about it.
The docs make the big bucks - you don't! Let THEM worry about things that will eventually catch up with them, one of which is called the Karma bug, and that little bug ALWAYS bites those who don't deal fairly right in the butt! And big time, too!
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