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I'm wondering what sorts of entries other MTs have in their expanders - NKC

Posted: Dec 19, 2010

to make them more productive? Do you try to create a normal PE and ROS for every single dictator you come across? Do you find it faster to use templates and delete any headings you don't use?

I'm trying to up my production and I'm having a devil of a time doing it. I have a pretty good size expander file that has 300+ entries, but I can't seem to really put out the lines. So I'm trying to get ideas from other MTs on how they use their abbreviation expanders to their benefit.

Thanks!

I have nearly 8000 in my library - MY2c

[ In Reply To ..]
which goes back nearly over 10 years. Of course these are from many different accounts, so I maybe only use a couple thousand at a time. Other than just long phrases, words or PE/ROS type stuff, every word you type frequently should have an expansion, i.e. with becomes w, from becomes frm . This takes time, but is well worth the effort (efrt)! I am looking to add maybe another 2000 words in the new year.

A couple I learned from this board... - starstruck

[ In Reply To ..]
...common meds and their dosages like aspirin 81 mg and aspirin 325 mg or those that generally have only 1 dosage (Flomax, etc.). Any verb form especially those like that I hesitate over ("visualized" = vsd) or phrases (blunt and sharp dissection = "blash" etc.) as well as whole paragraphs for dictators I know well. I usually put up a sticky note as a prompt until I remember them without making an effort.

I don't know which expander you use, but - ICManiac

[ In Reply To ..]
there is a free download for over 13,000 abbreviations to use with Shorthand. I included the download page link. It is a simple system to learn and some things are in the download with different abbreviations that allows you to use the one that fits you best. I have close to 20,000 entries in Shorthand and I've lost count of the number that I have in Smartype.

I do save templates from whole documents to just certain parts of reports with blanks to fill in the rest as dictated. Example, Dr A and Dr B share a practice so they basically have the same template, but one uses a couple of different headers. I use a template for each of them with customized specific headers.

I also use a lot of phrases. One doctor uses blank cc of blank lidocaine. So I set up a phrase where I can stop in the blanks to add what he says...sometines 1 cc of 2% lidocaine or 2 cc of 1% lidocaine. Almost all of my drugs are in my dictionaries.

I also converted my Smartype vocabularies (medical terminology from the Stedman's dictionary) into a text file so that when I want to research a word, I can use the search and find feature and know I am spelling the word correctly instead of what is being published on the internet.

Here is the download link. Chose the ABBSV2.zip file

Here's a few of mine - FlaMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I definitely have shorcuts for MDs that dictate most of their reports the same way, uses the same terminology, etc.

For instance, Dr Jones uses the same exact format for his physical examination, so I make a shorcut using "pejon" that will expand out his entire physical examination. I also do this for entire reports, just needing to fill in sections, like for procedure notes. "jonorif" would expand out a procedure note for Dr Jones' ORIF notes.

There are tons of ways to use expanders, including for medications (i.e. "s10" expands out to Singulair 10 mg), signature lines, acronyms, etc. The possibilities are only limited by the shortcut program itself.

It can be time consuming to make all of these at first, but in my experience, has been well worth it.

My expander dates back 20 years of more and - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I add more every day. I have a file that has normal dictations from specific doctors that say the same thing 99% of the time, but not for all as there are some who do not. I have phrases, misspellings/typos that I make constantly, words in all forms (i.e., ing, ed, tion, etc.) and still add things all the time.

When it comes to adding things, I found in the beginning I would just abbreviate things the way I wanted them and what was easiest for me and have continued that.

Examples =

tr - treat; trm - treatment, trd - treated, trg - treating etc.

For abbreviations COPD is COPD, but COPDD is spelled out, etc.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I just started a new job - NKC

[ In Reply To ..]
a month or so ago. I went from an hourly wage to being paid on production and I've struggled a bit. I'm so used to taking my time and focusing on accuracy and doing my own research, that it has been hard adjusting to being paid on production.

I feel like I'm in kindergarten again and when I read that an MT has 8000 entries in her expander, I really feel like I'm waaaaaay behind!

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