A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Doctors with terrible dictating habits - Tiger

Posted: Aug 01, 2012

I have noticed in my years as a transcriptionist the horrible sound effects I hear from some doctors. I just now transcribed a doctor who throughout the entire dictation must have coughed and loudly cleared his throat 20 times. I had another one who used to burp, chew food and yawn; dictating the entire time without pausing. AND believe it or not, I had a doctor FALL ASLEEP while dictating, no joke. I find this so rude it is not even funny. Not to mention the doctors who think they are in a race while dictating. Is anyone else getting this or am I the only "lucky" one?

if you have been doing this 20 years, - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
You know you are not the only one. Come on. You know darned well that they all do this and complaining will not make it stop. It is part of the job.

I have been at this more than 20 years also and I agree. - Times are changing.

[ In Reply To ..]
It was all cute and funny when we used to get paid by the hour and it was not a problem to figure it out. Now, with the audits and pay by production, it is not so funny - and should no longer be considered "part of the job." Many of us no longer work in-house and directly for the doctor dictating.

With the evolution of the technology we are using, including VR, a dictated medical record needs to be taken a little more seriously and done professionally. Cost of medical transcription is a very major expense for most medical practices. Now, if you are paying for transcription by the dictated minute, you should not sit there and read your chart, or take a phone call, etc. Even if you are not paying by the minute, when your dictated reports come back constantly with blanks all over them because you were busy multitasking while you were dictating, dictating on a cell, etc., the money you are costing the practice is going to add up. Blame the MT all you want, but there is a middle man now to verify that you are horrible at dictation and that you waste a lot of money. If these doctors are not willing to become professional with this and change with the times, it's expensive. You can have a report come back with 10 blanks in it, and still have to pay for it.

We still have a doctor like this. I think he is catching on that we cannot do his dictation for him, we just transcribe.

Also been at this more than 20 years. sm - oldie

[ In Reply To ..]
It seems to me that this type of problem dictation has gotten A LOT more frequent in recent years. I've been at this a long time, both in-house and remote at-home service transcription, and the quality of the dictation (and rudeness) has become more frequent over a variety of doctors. It used to be you'd have one or two that would dictate in this rude manner (eating, slurping, burping, talking fast, whispering, etc.) but it seems that in the last few years there are more that are doing it. In fact, there are some that have been told not to do whatever behavior it is they're guilty of and, ya know what? . . . .THEY DO IT EVEN MORE ON PURPOSE!!! How childish is that of these "professionals"???

The worst of rude - steppinout

[ In Reply To ..]
was at the end of a very long report a doctor (using full words) dictated F.U. over and over again. I too have noticed dictations being more rude and difficult to get through, especially in the last few months.

And this garbage is put on VR all the time. Can we change this - What can we do. SM

[ In Reply To ..]
MTs have come on here quite frequently of late asking how we can change and/or improve what is happening.

I may be mistaken, but I believe that in order for a piece of dictation to actually qualify to be on VR, it must be 80% accurate or better. Unfortunately, it is the VR system itself that decides on that 80%, which we all know is far from the truth. It appears that companies are putting anything and everything on VR, simply to get the work done at a reduced rate of pay. The report one of the above MTs described actually had to be typed. If that is the case, why is she not getting the typing rate even if the dictation is in VR? The systems calculation of accuracy is WRONG!

Supposed we could get as many MTs as possible, regardless what company they work for, to investigate their platforms and see what percentage of accuracy it claims. Check that against the problem dictators, and COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN that it is not accurate. State the number of corrections you had to make or the amount of typing you had to do for a lesser rate. Ask specifically why that doctor is on VR. I have 3 doctors on VR who do not belong there. If I have many dictations for them in 1 day, it ruins my production and my income. I have complained numerous times and they are still there. I am going to keep track of changes made and the amount of typing that I do in their reports, perhaps a whole day's worth. I know this is a lot of trouble to do, but we as MTs are doing this garbage without question or complaint. We need proof to make our case, which we have available to us on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, all of us do not work for M, N, etc., but it would be my suggestion that if you have access through this board to co-workers, you could spread the word about addressing this with management. This may take time, but it is simply the only suggestion I can come up with to eventually resolve some of these issues and, really, we are the only ones that can do that.

I certainly would appreciate any suggestions or ideas from anyone here short of "strike," or quitting my job. That is not a practical answer for me. Has anyone resolved any issues with their management on the misplacement of dictations on VR? Please share.

Loopholes - steppinout

[ In Reply To ..]
Complaining until the wheel gets greased or replaced is the only option I have experienced. I work for a company who will look into if there are enough complaints and put these docs on a probation period. However, the loophole is that residents can punch in an attending # and use it for VR without being cleared and the vicious cycle constantly repeats. Bring it up at a meeting if you can, keep a log of dictator and job # that should not be on VR and flood managers with these logs and hope for the best. Taking time to count each VR correction you make will only hurt your pay. I'm pretty sure they already know how many corrections you are making on VR as they can tell how many keystrokes you make, how much pause percentage you have, how much time in system, report etc., but also make sure you are not over-editing. Hopefully someone will hear ya and get something done.

MTSOs - Elssa

[ In Reply To ..]
Whenever I've asked a manager at my MTSO to talk to the hospital about a dictator who is not audible (often because they're using a cell phone), they either ignore me or say it doesn't do any good to say anything, so why bother?

Don't you think the MTSO should at least try to pressure the hospital to ban cell phone dictation? That seems like such a reasonable request. You can't ask a dictator to get rid of his/her thick accent, but how difficult would it be to ban cell phone dictations? Are MTSOs so cowed by these hospital administrators to even request something reasonable like this, or are they correct that it would just be a waste of time.. Just wonderin'. When I get a combination of accent and cell phone, I usually have to leave over 10 spaces, and that's very frustrating. Can't deal with both those problems at once.
:(

Worked in-house for a while and they did try - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
Have you ever met a doctor????

Arrogant, rude, obnoxious. The admin tells them NO CELL phone dictation and ours even installed dictation stations all over the hospital and guess what, they didn't care and still did it.

The reward? Many, many blanks in their dictation.

There is nothing anyone can do about it. Docs work long hours and they hate dictating and so squeeze it in wherever they can.

Okay..that's what I figured - Elssa

[ In Reply To ..]
I did always kind of believe my MTSO when they said it would do no good to ask for no cell phones, etc, but you've confirmed it.. Doctors just don't give a damn about quality, IOW they don't care about their patients. They just want to do what's easiest for them. I used to work in hospital, and it was rare to find one that was a decent human being. I remember back when Hillary Clinton was trying to reform the health care system, they put a large picture of her up on the wall and scribbled curse words and put tacks in it. What a creepy group of radiologists they were. :p

My service contracts state landline only... - just me

[ In Reply To ..]
This is one MTSO that absolutely does address it and other dictation issues. Cell phones are risk management issue, as they do not record well, and doctors are further distracted. My service contracts with clients specify landlines only (although I do get an occasional cell dictation). If I get more than a few (only 1 out of 96 does this to me), then I charge accordingly. VOIP is even worse. I also transcribe, and sound quality is extremely important to me, using landlines on my dictation system despite the enormous costs and arguing with my phone company (they are trying to phase out landlines).

landline only - Elssa

[ In Reply To ..]
That's heartening to know that you can actually insist on landlines and that they cooperate (most of the time anyway). :)

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