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

Should we be counted off for blanks. - zh

Posted: Jun 07, 2013

I have been taught better safe than sorry and I have been a transcriptionist for 15 years. I am docked .05 for each blank, but the standard 3.0 (CPSE) if I got it wrong it happens to be pullled for QA. I know this is a rhetorical question as we are all professionals, but would you leave a blank and take the 0.5 right off the bat or risk the patient on a lab value, drug name, dosage or diagnosis and take the 3.0 IF that report was pulled for QA?

docked for blanks....sm - LoveMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I too have been a transcriptionist for 15 years. Just the other day, I posted a reply to someone else about being docked for blanks. I had told that person that I had submitted reports with blanks to QC and had not been docked anything for the blanks, BUT I just so happen to check my Fiesa today, and BAM! There you go, I sent ONE job in with about 7 blanks in it toward the end of the report because the audio was terrible and the dictator was even worse....

Don't you know, WHOEVER did QC on that report, docked me 0.25 for 3 of the blanks with the reason being "invalid blanks", which states that 0.25 will be taken off if QC feels that too many blanks are being sent in on one report or something to that effect!!

The best part about this little story is that the very person who reviewed the report for QC, COULDN'T FILL ALL OF THE BLANKS EITHER!! Only 3 blanks were filled, and those were the ones I was docked for! It's ridiculous to say the least because I WILL NOT guess if I'm not sure.

They can just whittle away at my percentage all they want. I'm so tired of this job that it's not even funny anymore. I'm looking to get out and I don't care what I have to do in order to get out of MT. I don't care if I have to work at a gas station, convenience store, or freaking McDonald's. Enough is enough with the petty little nitpicking crap they keep doing to wear us down.

I KNOW I'm good at what I do, and I won't let some huge corporation take away the dignity and pride I have always had in my transcription. And I refuse to start job hunting for a medical transcription position anywhere else. I'm just so done with this crap!

blanks - assassin

[ In Reply To ..]
I asked about this before and then I found a recent email about how to look in Fiesa since it changed. I think you need to choose post audit or something like that in the drop-down box. We are not really marked off in our counted scores. I asked why they did this and my supervisor said they are actually grading the dictator and see who has lots of blanks.

They put invalid when it gets to no more allowable blanks from that specific facility.

Ask your manager. They should have details. I recently got a different job elsewhere so I can't look it up.

I was really spittin mad at first too. :)

The motivation I think is to get them all to go through ISR so bad dictators need to get better, but that is just my opinion.

Please excuse any typos---on a laptop and this keyboard is so spread out. Argh.. and I don't use QWERTY usually so that makes it extra difficult.

Thank you so much!...sm - LoveMT

[ In Reply To ..]
Thank you for the input! I was doing so good and my score was 100%... right up until I misspelled a word in a report they did QC on for blanks, and that dropped me to 99.8%, which was fine with me.

Then, when I went in yesterday and saw that report with all those blanks and 3 of them marked off only because someone was able to actually understand what he was saying through his freaking cell phone and mumbling mouth, I was really livid! I mean, really?? That was my first thought, LOL

I will get with my TL or TSM (whatever they're calling them these days). She's really great about going to bat for our team. Maybe I jumped the gun a little. I'm going to go into Fiesa and see if I can do what you explained.

I'm pretty new to the Fiesa thing, and even after reading the instructions sent to us, I still have problems finding what I want. :)

Thanks again! And God bless you!

Yes, there should be deductions for blanks - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
left for indecipherable mumblings, but from a dictator's pay, not an MT's.

How dare a doctor possibly compromise the safety of any patient or hold up the works while an MT and then QA deliberate over what the hell he or she was too lazy to enunciate? These people are not royalty. I hate that kind of cavalier attitude, like it's too much bother to do their job correctly. Part of their job IS to communicate information to the transcriptionist so it can be entered into the record. By the way, I looked up the definition of 'communicate,' and several entries contained the word "clearly."

How would they like it if someone had such a casual attitude about clarity in relaying data for one of their loved ones? They also probably wouldn't be too thrilled with not being able to do their best to care for a patient because someone else in the healthcare chain was too apathetic to make sure that doctor had what they needed to perform their job in a timely and effective way. The truth is that some (not all - not even saying most) doctors/nurses/PAs see dictating as an unpleasant, time-consuming task that they just don't want to do, and that as long as something remotely audible comes out of their mouth, they're doing their job.

same thing here - new but old

[ In Reply To ..]
I had the same thing but mine was not on FIESA, mine was in where if I have pended a report for having more than 2 blanks I always get it back with a QA score, not post audit but it still irks me. I have never been marked off before, but I had the same person and she marked off 0.5 for every single blank I left, I emailed my supervisor and they all were taken off and should not have been marked that way. I do not leave blanks unless I truly do not understand what is being said. Out of 65 reports typed today, 3 were pended for more than 2 blanks and there were at the most 4 blanks in any of them. My supervisor said she was going to speak to the QA person because this should not have been done.

yes, there should be deductions for blanks. - ep

[ In Reply To ..]
I agree with you. I think that the doctors should be made to listen/type what they dictation. If they can do it, good. If not, they should redictate it (at their own expense) and try again and keep trying until they can do it correctly. I have been there and it bugs me to try and understand what they are saying especially when they are tired, chewing gum or dictating while they are eating.

See below post for QC QA change in - Blanks

[ In Reply To ..]
SM

Blanks - Chavera

[ In Reply To ..]
I think getting docked for blanks is a TERRIBLE idea. I remember the good old days, when my education and experience was trusted! If I put a blank, it is either because I REALLY cannot comprehend what the doctor is saying or because I am too scared to make even an intelligent guess. I don't know how this is going to play out, since I just got notification today about this concept of "Valid" versus invalid blanks. It seems the email is saying there is no disputing these, either. What a bunch of crap.

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