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

Researching ... Suggestions? - blondie

Posted: May 05, 2010

I have been working for at a new job for a few weeks. The acute care account has a lot of ESLs and a lot of operative reports. Well I haven't done a whole lot of operative reports in my 3 years, some but not a lot. I am spending so much time researching things to fill in blanks. I have some good websites, but if there are any good tips anyone wants to share, I would be thrilled.

Your best source is usually your company. Ask QA for samples-- - SM

[ In Reply To ..]
--of both the difficult dictators in general (to get their usual patter, which is often the same or similar from report to report) and for samples of the various op note types you're running across.

I love op notes because I secretly "wanna cut." :-D - Hayseed

[ In Reply To ..]
Man, if I had the smarts and the $$, I totally would've loved to be a surgeon. So, because I love all that stuff you hear about in those op notes, I have a fetish for going on line and finding surgical videos.

I find that seeing what they are doing, as well as explaining it (subtitled if you are lucky), is a HUMUNGUS help with the job. When I had TV, we also had some medical channel that did surgeries and had "grand rounds" on it every now and again. Way, way cool. But again, I'm a sicko like that.

So, for me anyway, the internet--with all its resources from text journals to videos, has been amazing learning tool for all the stuff this job requires.

:D

Some of my favorite tricks... - CrankyBeach

[ In Reply To ..]
Google can help a LOT for filling in blanks. It all depends how you create your search terms.

For instance, and I'll use something really obvious as an example because I'm too tired to be more creative... say you heard "congestive *burp* failure" and you didn't know what should go where the *burp* is. So your Google search would look like this, including the quote marks:

"congestive * failure"

Chances are very, very good that the search results will include what you are looking for.

This morning one of my co-workers sent me an IM asking if I knew what the blank might be for "The middle turbinate was gently medialized and ______ to the nasal septum."

I didn't, but I suggested she Google like this:

turbinate medialized "nasal septum"

Sometimes you can pick up the missing words that way.

Another trick has to do with a drug name you can't quite hear, but you can understand the dose. If it's an oddball dose like 180 mg, you just would Google "180 mg" (in quotes) and see what comes up.

But if it's something very common like 150 mg, here's the trick. Google "150 mg" and then start eliminating. What do I mean by that? Well... you revise your search term so it now reads "150 mg" -diflucan -ranitidine and then search again. On the next search, you could add -trileptal -wellbutrin and then search again. This way, you are eliminating things you KNOW it isn't, so those ones won't be in the next set of search results. (Unless, of course, one of the above IS the one you're looking for.)

By the way, that's a minus sign, which removes those terms from the search criteria.

Clear as mud? Best of luck!

Those are fabulous hints - Happy MT Robin

[ In Reply To ..]
I thought I was pretty good at Google searches, but those are great tips. Thanks, Crankybeach.

A website that I have found to save my bacon a time or two is this one:

http://www.acronymfinder.com/

When they refer to, say PCD, and I need to either spell it out or want to make sure I'm hearing it right and I'm pretty sure it's not Pussy Cat Dolls, this website will show me that it is Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia.

You may already know about this one, but it's one of my favorites that I've found so far.

My tips - tm

[ In Reply To ..]
The best thing to do is to ask for samples of the same docs. However, if there are no samples or very few to help significantly, you can refer to credible online websites. I find this one particularly helpful.

http://medicaltranscriptionwordhelp.synthasite.com/

It has some word lists with common op terms dictated by specialty, also some useful sample reports. There is also a link there to a search engine just for MTs, which I've found quite helpful in doing OP reports. You may want to check that out.

Best of luck!

Nice, thanks for sharing! - bd

[ In Reply To ..]
Wasn't aware of this site before, bookmarked it! Thanks again for sharing!

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