Verbatim radiology. Should I not punctuate when punctuation is clearly indicated?
Posted By: When are there exceptions? on 2005-09-19
In Reply to:
Should I leave it up to the doctors to add their punctation for this verbatim account? Not putting commas around the word "however" is driving me crazy!
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Stop telling me how to punctuate!!!!!
I have at least two doctors that say *comma* after every single sentence. It drives me crazy!! If they had their way the whole report would be one long run on sentence. UGH!!!
Verbatim is verbatim, but I defintely to the little things to make the doc look better such as..sm
an eye problem instead of a eye problem. I definitely wouldn't change too much. Stick with what they say and only make changes when you absolutely think it is necessary. I took a test last night and have an interview today and this is what I did. FYI, I do clinic work.
Verbatim = verbatim......flag it...NM
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Radiology transcription, what type of reports are considered radiology
I have lot of experience with everything and I would like to know what exactly is considered radiology so I know if I qualify for that type of work? I've had many types that I think qualify for radiology.
Punctuation
I would punctuate:
I told him to clean the area with hydrogen peroxide; and, after that he can apply the Neosporin ointment.
No, it is your punctuation. nm
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Punctuation question
Which is correct, longhaul truck driver, long-haul truck-driver, long haul truck driver?
Quick punctuation help!
I told him to clean the area with hydrogen peroxide, and, after that, he can apply the Neosporin ointment.
How would the punctuation be on this sentence? Did I do it right?
Thanks in advance for the help..
Quick punctuation help!
Thanks so much for the help!
Quick punctuation help!
Thanks, I have been doing a grammer course.
Quick punctuation help!
Thanks so much!
Quick punctuation help! sm
Sorry, but it does not seem you received much help here. The truth is every typist has her own style. It seems that quite a few want to place a comma every time the doc pauses to take a breath or shifts a page. If that is what your own doc prefers, then go for it. Most do not, however.
Grammatically, you may use commas or not in this sentence, but none are necessary. It has been my own experience that doctors would rather have less rather than more in the case of commas. Believe it or not.
Quick punctuation help!
Thanks so much for the advice!
Is question about punctuation? (sm)
If so, I'd change it to:
MUST HAVE: Two years' experience.
Transcriptionists that do not know punctuation
I just had a dictation in which the doctor specified (correctly) where the quotation marks were in relation to the period at the end of the sentence and stated that he was tired of having to correct reports where it was incorrectly placed. I was aghast! How could anybody transcribe and not know elementary punctuation?
punctuation problems
HI,
I am taking my medical transcription course through Allied Schools. I am having a problem trying to punctuate the dictations properly. I would like to know if anyone can help me with this problem. What I thought was proper punctuation seems to be different with medical transcription. Are we supposed to transcribe the punctuation as the doctor dictates or correct it to what we believe is correct?
Also, I have an assignment that I just transcribed that is impossible for me to punctuate. If anyone can help me, I would truely appreciate it.
Grammar/Punctuation
I would mark it as a grammar/punctuation error, however they both hold the same weight score-wise, so it really doesn't matter if you call it g/p or spelling. If it were a case of having 2 different point values, I would go with the lesser of the 2 - I always try to give the MTs the break.
punctuation issues
I was very careful about punctuation until I had to research things and found that the MTs at my hospital NEVER use commas. I could barely understand some of the long, strung out sentences. I always researched obscure medical terms to make sure my work was accurate, yet I make $10 less an hour than others there because the pools are set up so some MTs get the profitable work before the rest of us. The point of this is, I don't feel that my excellent work is appreciated, and I don't believe the pool situation is fair, so I just do minimum to get by. I also work IC to supplement my income, and my IC work is much better because I feel appreciated.
Docs and punctuation
Regarding the posts down the list about the docs who dictate run-on sentences or add bunches of periods, etc. I am wondering why they are not instructed to not include punctuation at all. Our company has us disregard what they say anyway (since it is usually way off), and it seems they are making it extra rough on themselves.
I have one who says comma practically every other word. It really threw me off at first, but now I hardly even hear it (so used to ignoring it). But think how much easier it would be for them to not even think about it. What works the best is when they just use their voice inflection to signal the end of one thought/subject and the beginning of another. Being someone without a whole lot of medical background, it gets confusing when they don't.
Why is it no one seems to communicate with the dictators about such things?
You are not wrong, Punctuation goes
inside the quotation marks.
Need help with punctuation and caps
I have MS Word 2003. This program has always capitalized the first letter after a colon (:) and for some reason today it stopped. I cannot figure this out for the life of me. I have been in Tools, etc, and see nothing that addresses this problem. If anyone has had this problem and knows how to correct it, please enlighten me. LOL
TYIA
Misspelled words, punctuation
I would love to be an Editor some day, love reading the typos in the newspapers, etc. However, I nor anyone else is perfect and we all have our days. On the other hand it depends on what you are accustomed to. I have typed radiology periodically and on one account told to use punctuation where needed and another account that I worked clinic in-house radiology was told by the radiologists not to use punctuation unless they told us to because it could change the meaning of the sentence. So, I obliged and no longer use punctuation unless it is dictated to me. Unless I hear differently I will continue to do as I am told.
Per BOS2 - there are spaces, no punctuation between T N M (nm)
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There are misspellings and punctuation errors.
NM
Punctuation "is not important"?!!
Consider these sentences:
The patient said her mother is insane.
The patient, said her mother, is insane.
Two commas that completely reverse the meaning of the sentence. We are not merely "word-slammers". We are expected to convey the meaning of the spoken word, and that is the role of punctuation. Punctuation substitutes for the pauses, etc. that are used in spoken speech to convey how the words are to be interpreted.
I'm no fan of the BOS by any means, but I can't agree with the extreme statements you make here, either.
You don't have to be an "English major" to know the fundamentals of proper punctuation, either. You should have learned that in grade school. And if they ever do scrap the BOS, you can be sure no one is going to scrap the basic rules of English grammar that you're expected to know and apply.
All that punctuation nit-pickiness was brought about by
They needed a reason to do it. (And to sell their anal little BOS). Get everyone so freaked-out about commas and semicolons that they either quit, or their production falls off and they can be 'justifiably' let go, forcing the 'poor MTSO' to have to look offshore for bodies to fill their sweatshops.
All that punctuation nit-pickiness was brought about by
They needed a reason to do it. (And to sell their anal little BOS). Get everyone so freaked-out about commas and semicolons that they either quit, or their production falls off and they can be 'justifiably' let go, forcing the 'poor MTSO' to have to look offshore for bodies to fill their sweatshops.
...your E-mails have to have proper English and punctuation.
Am I alone?
Are you from India? Your punctuation and grammar are giving you away. nm
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AAMT has rules on punctuation that are a great help.
Review them??!!??!!?!
Okay, I didn't renew with them this year, but it still doesn't negate the fact that you could use a calming influence. If AAMT causes you stress, remove it from your memory banks rather than fretting about it. It is what it is.
We don't correct grammar or punctuation on this board...nm
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Re: expanding with punctuation, more info inside
I have been working on this platform for over a year and absolutely LOVE it. It is not the same as autocorrect expansions. This platform offers a LOT more.
I will type this directly from my manual to explain how the ESP abbreviations are expanded:
Press or type a delinter (a spacebar, enter, period, colon, semicolon, comma, question mark or exclamation point) that is appropriate to the sentence text or punctuation. The exapansion appears AS SOON AS you type the delimiter.
You can highlight entire sentences, paragraphs, etc and enter them directly into the ESP list and make a short abbrev. to retrieve them.
To add an ESP, press control, control and type it directly in, or highlight text in your document and then press control control and name your short abbreviation for it.
Sometimes, depending if your sentences are really LONG you will have to copy/paste directly into ESP and then give it a short.
In addition, with ESPs you can format words to be BOLD by inserting a tag. You can also put a tag in for something underlined, italic, etc. They also allow you to insert pauses and backups in your ESP so that you can type yof and get the hyphen first -year-old female.
Pauses are really neat when you want to nest an ESP inside another one. For example: if you put the following entries in your ESP:
lt (left)
tphp (The patient had pain in the)
(The ESPs need to first be created and exist)
Now you type the abbreviation containing the pause then press spacebar. The sentence expands to the point of pause and then type the abbreviation you want to nest, press the spacebar and hit enter. The complete next appears in your document. Believe me, this is something Autocorrect cannot do and really comes in handy especially when you have really repitious dictators who always give the same order on vital signs, etc.
You can also run a microsoft word macro as part of an expansion if you want. There is a special dialog box that the ESP uses for this.
ESPs also allow suffixes to be added to root words (another feature) but this is something I haven't used much yet.
You can also create more than one list of ESPs (can have 2 open at a time).
This platform also allows you to make "normals" for really long documents. Say you have a 2 page op report that a doctor will use over and over. You can just bring the entire document in. You can edit these normals at any time. These are like templates that you can insert jump codes, all your headings, numbering formats, etc.
On this board, I've been reading a lot about how people run to buy either Instant Text or ShortHand (as these are compatible with Dictatphone) but this is not something you have to run out and purchase. The ESPs offer a lot more than autocorrect.
So far, my one list of ESPs has over 20,000 entries and my line counts daily for 8 hours average between 1500 and 1800. Not bad.
The platform is REALLY easy to work from as another poster said you can pull up previous dictation from another Transcriptionist and copy/paste directly into the document you are typing. This is a really great feature when you have those really lousy dictators who pretty much say the same physical exam, etc. You can then just follow along and edit as you go.
It really is easy to use, and personally I love the Expander and have no complaints. Good luck.
Well, grammar/punctuation can dramatically alter meaning, so it IS important. nm
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Verbatim for ESL too?
Geez, if that were the case on my account (not MQ), you wouldn't believe the crap I'd be putting out - "59 years old pt, denies of chest pain, comes to ER for short of breath," and I could go on and on.
Verbatim
I still don't understand, for example I have a doc who does about 20 lengthy bypass operations a week. I have a 4-page "standard", that I just immediately pull up. He never dictates it the same way twice, I just simply pull up my standard, put ears on, follow along and delete, insert, change and so on as he dictates, and that is as good as verbatim.
Since I am on verbatim also, I use whatever s/he says..
Jim for James etc....however, if the doc is clearly off track, he starts calling Mary by the name of Frank for instance (it has happened) then I flag it.
verbatim
The docs at a big teaching hospital I formerly worked for did not put punctuation marks after the word HOWEVER. That's the way they wanted it and we were marked down if we added the comma.
verbatim, really?
Of course verbatim means typing EVERY SINGLE word they say, even when it's a side conversation, a snide comment, etc. One thing I do that may not help them at all but makes me feel that I've at least let them know that I know - I enclose such words in quote marks to set them off from the real words.
Verbatim
As a private IC there was a prominent heart surgeon from Iran whose dictation I "cleaned up" constantly or he would have been the laughing stock of the community. Sometimes you have to "save face" for the client. If I worked for a national and they QA'd me from saving someone from a drastic error, I would immediately "quit." Another ESL went to hospital admin to tell them I was "his friend," I did not change the meaning but there were several instances when I had to make sense of things for him to cover the hospital's reputation. I was taught never to "change the meaning" and to put certain language "in quotes" although as an IC, I would always call the client first and they usually thanked me. When you work for another service, you can't do this, so it makes it very difficult.I guess you have to go with who pays you, but I would never, never type a senseless sentence.Good luck to those who have "bad QA assessments." They should know better.
verbatim
it's stupid and dangerous to type verbatim. Some hospitals stupidly insist on it cuz they believe we can't think for ourselves. They say "We've always done it that way." Well God forbid you should TRY TO IMPROVE. they say "well, you don't KNOW what he meant." My answer to that is "well, YOU may not know, but I do!" They just don't want to be bothered with having to actually think about it. Any decent trx with many years' experience and worth her salt GENERALLY knows what the doc really means but can't spit out, for one reason or another. I'm married to a doc - I know. But he DOES want us to leave blanks if we DON'T KNOW - better that than making something up, which he does see all the time from Spheris trxs. That's what happens when you hire people with one year of experience and don't monitor them closely, of which Spheris is guilty. And leaving a message for them on ESA doesn't work, cuz the doc won't see it till he goes to sign if off, and by that time, he has no earthly idea what he said. Nor does he care!
IF they got verbatim EXACTLY what they said,
they'd probably be in total shock at how ridiculous they actually sound when they dictate. Don't you just want to give them what they give you sometimes?
Verbatim
The problem is with the client profile. It should not ever have the word "verbatim" in it because the word by definition means "word for word" and we all know all of us from time to time and doctors especially speak garbage and have to be cleaned up. If with followed the client profile and transcribed "verbatim," screams would echo across the country. So I am all for removing that word from all the client profiles unless they truly want reports transcribed verbatim, word for word. We could do that, but it would not be much of a record.
verbatim, no BOS sm
Who are they? I would love to throw the BOS out the window, please e-mail me. Sick of all the new rules which don't amount to a hill of beans anyway at most times.
verbatim
I must be getting old. I'm finding it more and more difficult to "follow directions" as I age regarding this subject. I can't believe these younger physicians don't want us to fix the glaring errors. The real trouble is there's no one who will be the intermediary between the transriber and the doc, maybe, like back in the day. Way too many cooks stirring the broth and complicating what used to be a common-sense and less complicated situation, transcribing, that is.
i do verbatim too, but still BOS has
many points of reference that are helpful. I am one that hated the idea of a BOS, but when i finally succumbed, found there was a lot of useful info in it. Its not a bad idea to have a common reference point.
They may want verbatim, but if they are in
an acute care facility BOS overrides what they want. JCAHO can give/withhold accreditation based on the medical records and they say follow BOS. It isn't that is is an issue of style as much as it is a patient safety issue.
Verbatim
The hospital I work for now is a verbatim account, but we were told to spell out everything in DX, Impression, etc. I spelled out a lab abbrev and it looked so weird, but QA/Trainer told me to spell it out. Very contradictory so if it ever comes back as getting "dinged" for it I am going to tell QA who told me and they better not takes points off my audit.
verbatim is hard for me too
It is very hard for me to deliberately type wrong words, phrases, etc. It makes me think someday someone is going to read that document and say "gads where did they get that transcrptionist!" not knowing we have to type it as dictated.
verbatim accounts
I thought the idea was to correct their poor dictation in most circumstances...I'm wondering why any client would prefer it verbatim, for legal reasons?
that is verbatim. QAs are only human too. nm
you could fix it if you wanted to or is it verbatim? nm
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