Comments on dictator input/swiss cheese reports

Does anyone from *Quality* ever question the dictator input? Have any of you higher-ups ever actually listened to what is being put into your high-tech systems you pay so much for?

Is it any wonder that *Experienced* MTs leave blanks in reports? I've been in this field for a loooong time and some days I am appalled by what comes through my headphones. I don't believe some dictators even know the English alphabet (evidenced by attempts at spelling, even when reading from a report). I won't go into foul pronunciation, either by American or ESL docs.

Just a few examples: Dictator says *Coumadin 200 mg daily*, or *fentanyl 250 mg*, or *(drug name spelled) Trincyxohen*, or *patient has Troponin pallidum*.

Yes, QA/QC, we do catch these *errors*. Sometimes that is why you have reports that look like swiss cheese. Some dictators will continue to be downright sloppy, and race through the dictation without inhaling even once. So we piece paragraphs and try to make some sense of that.

I'm not commenting on New People, Inexperienced People, or People Fresh Out of School.

I'm saying that if Quality rode the input side of their business and made sure the dictators could understand the concept of Clear, Intelligible Input of patient name, acct # (again, some appear unable to read/interpret English alphabet/numerals), service date.... that in itself would lessen QA burden. If dictators who continually cannot/will not conform to *Quality Practices* during dictation would be barred from dictating (offenders would have to provide their own scribes), that would lessen QA burden.

It's not always the MTs fault that reports don't go through 100% clean. So please take that into consideration when looking at your financial bottom line.

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. You want 3-cents per line workers, you'll get 3-cents per line quality. With what is coming through as dictation these days, no wonder your newly-hired MTs are fainting by the wayside. Us *experienced* MTs get slammed repeatedly with pay cuts, damn ridiculous QA incentives (either give the bonus or don't). I myself do not appreciate ANYONE tinkering with my pay over whether I left out *the, and, or but* in a sentence that DOES NOT alter the sentence meaning.

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Comments on dictator input/swiss cheese reports - SeaMT

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