A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry
AHDI BOS 3 - Baffled
Posted: Oct 10, 2014
I recently began a new position where they adhere to the AHDI Book of Style 3 guidelines. Obviously, not having used this version before I was not aware one of the wonderful changes AHDI has made. I understand AHDI exists to set the standards as one of their main objectives. I also was under the assumption that AHDI had been made up primarily of MTs (at least that is who made them to start with) and has grown to include MTSOs.
What I find so infuriating and baffling at this point is why would an organization began by MTs, made up of MTs, certifies MTs, etc., want to alienate those very people by setting the standard of ONE space between sentences, after colons, etc.? This DRASTICALLY cuts an MT earnings - in an environment where their value (or pay) is ever decreasing to begin with?
Can anyone tell me WHY they would adopt this as a standard for MTs and cut our pay even further?
This is one reason why after 25 years, 15 as a member of AAMT/AHDI and CMT that I did not renew either my subscription or credentials and will no longer support an organization that backstabs their own people.
WOW!
It's because they're not for MTs, they're only - for their own inflated bank accounts.
[ In Reply To ..]I always refused to get a worthless CMT "certification", and in recent years I refused to buy into any more of that "Book of Style" cr_p anymore, either. It's all nothing but a sham and a scam.
I have always and will always put two spaces after periods and colons. - GrumblingMT
[ In Reply To ..]I learned to type inn typing class in high school on a typewriter many moons ago and the standard was always two spaces after punctuation! It was two spaces after punctuation when I became an MT and started transcribing on a computer.
I personally would love to here AHDI's explanation as to why this standard needed to changed. Is there any reasonable/rational explanation? I don't think so. I could sit down with the so-called BOS and amass quite a list of so-called "rules" that I feel are unnecessary or just plain ignorant.
Actually that's not a bad idea. I think I will take my highlighter to the BOS and then compose a very long, comprehensive email to the fat cats AHDI asking why these rules or changes to long existing rules are necessary?
Because believe you me, I have had conversations with doctors and they couldn't care less about spaces after punctuation or disc vesus disk, etc.
Face it kids, we are on our own. There is no organization that champions the American MT.
Space change - TomQ
[ In Reply To ..]Two spaces was the standard on typewriters and early computer systems because the fonts were monospace. That is, every character occupied the exact same amount of width. Thus, two spaces were needed to make an 'end of sentence' or similar text event stand out.
Once graphical-based computers (Macs, Windows, etc) came along and started using proportional fonts (fonts where characters were not all the same width) with proper kerning (varying space between characters) engines baked right into the operating system, two spaces after a sentence were no longer needed. This is because the font and kerning engine ensures an appropriate amount space after punctuation.
The standard is changing because technology has made the old way of doing it obsolete. As technology tends to do.
Many fields recognized this particular change long ago, but the MT field has been very slow to catch up.
Interesting, TomQ. I had no idea - nm - Anon
[ In Reply To ..]Xxx
All very fascinating TomQ, but it begs the questions - GrumblingMT
[ In Reply To ..]who cares and what difference does it make?
Woo Hoo for technology and all that, but my old brain was trained to double space after punctuation. So I'm wondering who that extra space hurts?
It hurts - TomQ
[ In Reply To ..]If you are in a job where the MTSO requires adherence to guidelines that prohibit the use of two spaces, then that second space hurts *you*.
Not to be blunt, but if the job specifications call for a single space, then that is what you must use. We don't have to like or agree with such things, but as employees we either do it the way the company wants, or we go elsewhere.
That's just it. The MTSO wants to cut the extra space, - GrumblingMT
[ In Reply To ..]not the doctor or the even the hospitals or with whomever the MTSO have contracts. And while TomQ's explanation was very concise and completely true, that isn't the reason the MTSO wants only one space. Nobody cares about fonts and character spacing. The MTSO wants to cut the extra space for one reason and one reason only - GREED.
One space or two spaces, does not change the meaning of the sentence. I have worked for MTSOs and now I work for a hospital in the office and I will tell, the hospital and the doctors do not care and I guarantee that they are totally unaware of TomQ's explanation. It is only the MTSO that cares.
A few years back I left MT all together because I was laid off from my hospital job, there were no jobs working directly for a hospital or a doctor's office, and I REFUSED to go back to work for any of the MTSOs because I am not a robot. I will not blindly adhere to a set of nonesensical guidelines simply because they said so. I won't do it. I was lucky to have found the job I have now and believe me I am holding onto it as tight as possible. I love being a transcriptionist, but I cannot stomach what is becoming of the industry. So I'm going to grumble every chance I get.
Grumble - TomQ
[ In Reply To ..]Grumble on, and more power to you! My explanation covers the general reasoning, but yours is certainly a viable alternate explanation to cover the transcription industry.
Silly, misplaced focus - sm
[ In Reply To ..]That is all well and good, TomQ, but those "other fields" you admire for getting caught up with the times do not, for the most part, involve hand keyboarding, nor do they involve work where medical content is the most valuable element.
One reason for our ... to you ... unseemly delay is that many of us learned to keyboard so long ago that we have been unable to stop keying two spaces. After 15 or 20 years, it can be impossible.
As for your contention that the fonts adjust, you are incorrect. They do in typeset, published works, but for what we do, not all of them adjust nor is the adjustment sufficient for some eyes.
This focus on something so freakingly trivial as an extra blank space is one reason the MT profession went downhill. When you focus your attention on superficial appearances like extra spaces and whether headings should be in all caps or something be written with a 3 or a III, you reduce the job to clerical busy-work.
It is EASIER to focus obsessive, hand-wringing attention on trivia than it is to focus attention on the real problem in the industry, that many MTs and editors no longer have any idea what they are hearing or how to find out, and thus transcribe absolute nonsense while thinking they are doing a great job because they use only one space after a period.
When a job is reduced to something a computer can do, and when there is no intellectual component to redeem it, that job is ripe for automation.
The fussbudget ladies and gents in Modesto did the industry in with their silly, hysteroid focus on this and other issues.
This field never needed to change because it makes no difference to anyone if one or two (or is that 1 or 2?) spaces are used. It doesn't even matter for billing VBC.
One reason I left MT was the spacing issue. Not only could I not seem to change, but it was such a stupid issue that I could no longer stand dealing with people who cared about it. I work for a major medical center now, in HIM, and I can assure you that YOU are the only soul who knows about this, much less cares. The folks you transcribe don't care one whit about the superficial appearance of your work, but detest your inaccuracy in content and meaning, along with the unconscionable delays in returning it, if you don't just lose it entirely.
And that is why they are actually pretty darned pleased to be able to just do it themselves with templates and front-end SR.
You see? All those areas for improvement were ignored while the tunnel-vision OCD crowd handwashed themselves right out of a career field over one extra blank space.
Guess you never heard about... - OTIROPerson
[ In Reply To ..]the IBM Executive Typewriter....used it in the 1970s at a hospital.
Try transcribing on that baby with a 5-part carbon pack....
OMG Carbon packs! I could type near perfect until - GrumblingMT
[ In Reply To ..]I had to use carbon and then forget it! And changing the ribbon and elements in the typewrite - I think my fingers were perpetually stained!
Oh, the carbon packs bring back memories - not always good
[ In Reply To ..]Back in the mid 80s I worked for the US Dept of State in Wash DC. I worked in assignment office for the Senior Foreign Service. We occasionally would be tasked with drafting letters for the signature of the Secretary of State or other higher ups in the administration.
These are the steps that we had to go through. My office chief would draft the letter and I would type it on the Wang word processing machine. Anyone remember those? :)
I had to do the letter on the Secretary's letterhead - we always had to do it as if it was good to go the first time. This included 5 white carbons, and pink and green carbons, I think 2 or 3 of each, because every office who signed off got their own copy. Then the letter went to our department chief, who would make corrections and send it back. We'd reprint with the letterhead and all of the carbons and it would make it through our department chief and up to the office of the Director General of the Foreign Service. His assistant would make changes and we would start all over again. Once it got through the DG's office, it went to the Undersecretary of State for Management and his office would make changes. Here we go again.
Once it got through M, THEN, finally, it would make it's way to the Secretary of State's office. I kid you not, one time when it finally got to the Secretary's office, he was out of the country and we had to redo the bloody letter again for the Deputy Secretary of State.
I can't tell you how much paper and time was wasted doing it that way, but that's the way it was done.
BOS - not what it seems
[ In Reply To ..]You are not baffled, you are misinformed. AHDI does not set the standards, the AMA does. The doctors. The people you do work for. ADHI only publishes that book so we know what is being requested by the AMA, to standardize reports, and ensure quality. AHDI/AAMT doesn't decide what is included, not included, or adopts a standard that cuts our pay. They don't tell MTSOs how to pay, what to pay for, or what fonts to use, etc. You are mad at the wrong people. But, that is my opinion as a transcriptionist of 23 years.
Still Baffled BOS - Baffled
[ In Reply To ..]I am still baffled BOS - for an association started by and made up of MTs, and one who supposedly represents MTs, why would AAMT/AHDI GIVE IN to the AMA and turn their backs on their own people in such an important matter - their PAY in an already/ever shrinking pay/value industry? But, that is my opinion as a transcriptionist of 27 years!
And, still further baffled BOS - Baffled
[ In Reply To ..]No, BOS does not tell MTSOs what to pay, but their clients do dictate to them whether or not to adhere to BOS Guidelines that BOS/AAMT/AHDI prints (which in turn agrees to or would not advocate their use by publishing them as standards of style). In fact, going to one space versus two also cuts the pay of MTSOs when requested by their clients (based on BOS), so let's not blame MTSO in every case. It still lands with AHDI/AAMT/BOS in my opinion - again why I no longer belong to and refuse to renew by CMT credentials with an association who stabs their very own in the back.
OKay, maybe I misunderstood..... - Baffled
[ In Reply To ..]Sitting here for a second thinking about this, maybe I have thought of this incorrectly - maybe what you are trying to say is that AAMD/AHDI is just a front or a mouthpiece for the AMA and has just let it be assumed that it is an organization by and for MTs - that AAMT/AHDI just does what it's told and prints under their name what they are told??
I do not think the AMA gives a you know what about style - the docs are way too messy for that
[ In Reply To ..]I really don't think the AMA has anything to do with the AHDI BOS but if you've got some concrete documentation showing the ties between the two, I'd love to see it.
I just know I see the crap my doctors enter into the EMR when they have the option to do it themselves and it's so full of abbreviations, etc., it's sometimes incomprehensible. Let's not even start on the misspellings, etc., that they put into the record because they're in a hurry.
Plus, if the AMA was that concerned about it, then you would find ALL MTSO's adhering to the BOS, and not all of them do or are that anal about it.
The AHDI may have been for MT's at one point, but they haven't been for years. I'm not sure who they support, but it ain't us.
BOS, smosh, in my career I have typed/transcribed - PhD dissertations, books, and
[ In Reply To ..]many professional journal articles. There are much more professional style books (such as Turabian) already on the market. Even the AMA has its own style book (NOT bos) which I used to own.
Don't get me started on that worthless self serving ADHI organization. It was obvious even back in the 1980s they were just a bunch of old biddies out to serve themselves.
There never ever was a need for BOS, but they sure managed to bribe enough MTSOs to make them think it was some kind of bible for dictation. I hope no one ever wastes a nickel on their crap.
Thank you! - Baffled
[ In Reply To ..]Thank you - I couldn't have said it better about the 80s - thought so too at the time, but then credentials got a 1/2 penny more from some MTSOs, so thought I'd better just suck it up and get my credentials - which I did, and because of the silly way to renew (like we didn't get continuing education every single day on the job) I let it lapse and then had to redo the entire mess to get them again - and because of their website messing up it cost me my renewal yet again - so then it was like nobody pays more anymore, so why do it. But, unfortunately I had to give them more money lately to get the BOS 3, only to find out it cost me much much more!! UGH, I've had it with people masquerading as one thing and turning into the wolf!
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