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The clock does play into how much time is spent with patients

Posted By: Not just your experience SM on 2007-01-04
In Reply to: What is the deal with EHR anyway? - IN/MT

The way the CPT codes bill insurance have guidelines for the physicians built into them that give amounts of time spent with the patient (in addition to certain information covered in the ROS/PE), especially in consultations (whether inpatient or out), hospital discharge codes and critical care time (inpatient or out).

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.

Good luck.


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Can someone help with Windows 98 time/clock? I'm losing about an hour a day (sm)

I have Windows 98 and the same computer since 1999.  I have never a problem until this week.  The clock setting is losing about an hour a day.  I reset it every morning, but around afternoon, it's about a half hour off, but night, its an hour off, etc.  I haven't noticed any other problems with any other programs. 


Does anybody have any ideas what is causing this and how to fix it, other than just keep resetting it?


Thanks you guys!


TAKING A POLL-PUNCH TIME CLOCK
Who works for a company that requires you to punch a time clock?
it is some type of time clock application..just wondered if anyone used it.
x
Time spent...
Think about this....There will always be other jobs in transcription or heck anything else you might find of interest, but the bottom line is...Your kids are growing every second, and the time that you miss with them, you can never get back.  So, if it were me, I would choose my time with my son any day.. Good luck to you.
Virtually never. Time spent doing that is time SM
that could be spent typing. Instead of stopping to listen, then typing to catch up, I scan AHEAD of the dictation as I type, looking for upcoming questionable areas.
At one time, someone posted a link for a free clock timer. sm
I've searched the archives but could not find it. It was for timing your actual time spent transcribing. Anybody remember what it was. TIA.
Some people like to keep a Time Clock thing showing on their monitors, too. But
s
If you would take the time you have spent here today

and work on building your expander, macros, etc. you could get your line count up faster.  Don't know if you have a line per day committment or hourly committment, but if you have lines you can get them finished quicker with a better expander and have more time to play or do whatever.  I am NOT a morning person, but I feel so much better when I do make myself get up and then by 9:00 I've made my line committment and I've got the rest of the day to do what I want/need to do and if I need more lines I can work an hour or two after dinner.   I almost feel like I have a 3-day weekend because I'm finished so early that on Friday I'm done early, my DH has an early day at work and is home by 10 usually so we have an almost full day to play.  


Reassess your situation.  What were your reasons for coming home to work?  If you didn't have to work at all, would you spend all day sitting in front of the TV watching all that mindless garbage and letting the housework go?  Maybe you're burned out or depressed.  Maybe you just lack self-discipline as somewhat else suggested and you really need structure.


Just some things to think about.  Working at home isn't the fairly tale that most people think it is. 


 


Too much time usually spent working (sm)
Like the saying goes, "How many people at the end of their lives say, "I wish I had spent more time working."  NOT - being with those who mean the most to us more important, of course.
Time spent with your mother will be a much better
gift than anything you could buy.   I'm sure your mother has every material thing she needs or wants.  
If you spent some time working instead of
you might make some of that money that you find so elusive.  All you are trying to do is stir up trouble.  I dislike AAMT as much as the next person.  I am an MT myself first, and MTSO only because I have more work than I can handle myself.  I get 14/15 cpl.  That's it.  I know in your dreams you think MTSOs are making so much more and getting rich.  I am telling you it's not true.  Maybe Medquist is getting rich, but I'm not and neither are any of the other small MTSOs I know of. 
When I tried them, spent much time toggling
x
not all the time is spent in the bathroom..
one has also to eat, wash etc...don't you?
This whole discussion is just ridiculous.
Don't you find something better to do?
I do reports all the time where patients have asthma, COPD, emphysema, and

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 patrolling themselves? What a joke! They barely have time to see ALL their patients....

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!  


I spent the entire time after the show trying to vote
/
Cheaper health insurance or time spent with
Why would you want to work until 11:30 at night?  You risk driving late nights being exhausted in the a.m. when you are trying to get your children off to school.  Why not wait out the nursing school call and continue working at home until then.  You will be so busy once you start nursing school that I can't see you having the time or energy to work a full-time job on-site (3-11 p.m.)  I'm not so sure why you believe that a secretarial job will prepare you more for nursing school.  If you want to prepare for nursing school then why not purchase some anatomy books and get a head start, stay home with the children keeping the typing job.  Believe me, you are going to learn way more doing transcription than you will doing secretarial work.  JMO.  Good luck in whatever you decide.  Is there a reason you are trying to get away from your children/husband at nighttime?  I feel it is more important to spend time with your children than at some hospital being a secretary especially at night.  ???????  
Should company pay for time spent on a required conference call? (sm)

My company has been having conference calls on one of my accounts in which they request that you attend (they take roll call) to learn new rules, changed rules, updates, etc. on the account.  This has turned into a real pain because it takes so much time out of your production that day.  They say it will become more "routine" as time goes by because of the volume of the rules, etc. 


I was wondering, do any others have had that situation and, if so, have you been compensated for that time? 


I should note, I am an employee, not an IC, and am paid by the line.


Thanks!  


I spent about a month in India and they do speak English but sometimes I had a hard time
understanding the way they pronounced the words so I would ask them to spell it.
Or less play time.
nm
I absolutely love Pogo, although not much time to play these days...nm
x
Who has time to play at this stuff when it's all about churning out those lines?? I envy you your
n
You need something to play the files like free download of Express Scribe. Need to play with your
s
IF you can get it to play, just play it over and over a billion times & fill
s
Anyone know what a web clock is?..nm

To get your clock back...
Hover your cursor in that area (taskbar) and right click, then select properties, and on the taskbar tab click to check off "show the clock."  That should do it for ya.
She's actually taking meds around the clock for it
Vicodin, Percocet, aspirin, ibuprofen, and drinking.  She has a rheumatologist, but its so hard to get in to see him.  One of her problems is she is really obese, and his first advice to her is lose the weight, taking some strain off her joints.  I feel so bad for her, she shouldn't have to live in pain.  She doesn't have a quality of life.  Maybe it hits people harder than others.  But I would be like you, take a more natural approach so you don't get caught up in depending on pain meds.
I don't trust myself. I set the clock or I know I'd wake up 4 hrs later.
x
ATOMIC CLOCK website
http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Pacific/d/-8/java

you just have to choose your time zone, and it will give you the currect time.
I get it, "real job" as in you can actually CLOCK OUT AND GO HOME!
I know exactly what you mean.
How do I get my clock back in the taskbar? sm
I removed it long ago and now I want it back and can't remember what I did to remove it!  I looked on the internet but could not find an answer.  I have Windows XP incidentally.  TIA!
sorry... but what is an online punch clock??
i feel so out of it!
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.

Maybe sometimes we have too much time to think! I don't know.
Just because 2 patients have the
same dx does not mean they are treated the same and symtoms are the same in many dxs. Do you have your degree?
Well, too bad that they have 30 patients - sm

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? 


...and then we'd be on a clock, taking breaks and lunches just like SM
we were sitting in an office slashing throats over the thermostat.
Yes, but I power nap for 10 min (set a clock) and freel great.
h
What company lets you work off the clock?

I prefer to work off the clock for my extra lines.


I used to have that myself. Feeling dread upon the alarm clock sm
going off. Xanax helps that, too. You should try it. Good luck. I can't wait for this to be OVER!!!
Icon in rt lower screen, by your clock....

Looks like a keyboard and screen, very tiny, set mouse over it and it should say safely remove hardware -- click on it, and it will tell you what peripherals need to be clicked on before removing it.  If your peripheral is a USB and it has been installed before -- no, I don't turn my machine off UNLESS, I need to for it to be recognized -- I have an external hard drive that I have to do that with. 


Hope this helps


I have a computer program that is an alarm clock for this use nm
nm
That's alot more polite than grabbing the clock and
ROFL !!!! ;D
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. 


Now we have to insist patients
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.
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.
re: post about internal clock, there is a web site address
given to us by our MT leader. I've never tried it, but it's supposed to keep the clock in sync. The addresss is www.clock-sync.com/help.html.  This may help you with your problem.
some sort of stop watch or alarm clock
nm