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

Something interesting I noticed..... - mtmtmt

Posted: Jun 15, 2011

I work in-house at a clinic. When I'm reading over reports from the transcription service, I noticed there are no periods after "Mr.," "Dr.," and so forth. The transcriptionists type them as Dr, Mr, Mrs, etc. Is this yet another way to cheat the MTs out of keystrokes? If so, that's pretty pathetic.

I know I put the periods in... - hmmm

[ In Reply To ..]
Wonder if it is a software issue, or maybe whoever the service is is telling them not to use periods. Nothing would surprise me anymore. I know with Transcend, you cannot put real quotation marks around quotes because the software doesn't recognize them. We have to use an apostrophe around quotes instead.

It is a way to keep costs down. - sweetgirlsmom

[ In Reply To ..]
Companies have to stay competitive. If keystrokes are eliminated here and there, they all add up; especially when a company has hundreds of MTs and large accounts. Then the company can bid lower on new accounts because they can charge a penny less per line (or whatever it actually is) instead of seeing that account go to another company. And when their contract is up for bid, they can keep the account if they keep the price down.

The hospitals probably like it too because they can pay a penny less for the same work. Hospital costs have gone up and revenues have declined. They are looking everywhere they can to save money. Skipping the period after Dr, etc, does not hurt the content of the report. If a large hospital saves $1000 a week (for example), that is $52,000 a year they have to hire another nurse or buy a piece of life-saving equipment. Patient care is more important than having periods in the reports.

It may feel like MTs are being cheated. But that is the end result, not the motivation for cutting keystrokes.

noticed . . . - regarding periods . . .

[ In Reply To ..]
Alot of companies utilize the BOS and below is a refernce from the BOS regarding the periods in titles . . .

"Courtesy titles include Mr., Mrs., Ms, and Miss. Their use is diminishing
except in letter salutations.
Abbreviate courtesy titles when they accompany a full name or surname.
There is a trend toward dropping the periods following such titles."

I personally do not like NOT typing the period for Mr., Mrs., etc. but if the company follows BOS I have to go with it. I personally think Mr., Dr. looks more professional with the period than w/o, JMO.

BOS says there is a trend toward dropping the periods. - sweetgirlsmom

[ In Reply To ..]
What is the reason for that? It could be economics.

One could say there's a "trend" toward spelling like "wordz" and "kewl - Hi there!

[ In Reply To ..]
This is not a slam at you or the OP, by any means. I just hate it when AHDI comes across as some kind of Don Corleone for English. The tendency to drop periods is most likely an offshot of texting, laziness and a poorly-educated younger generation.

The BOS is a just a convenient weapon for companies to use for QA. I'd like to see everyone go completely to account specifics and finally end AHDI's attempt to "rule the roost".

Trend-Hi there! - MT

[ In Reply To ..]
You said that so well! I have no clients that use the BOS and most have never even heard of it.

BOSsy - Bootz

[ In Reply To ..]
I was the only person at the entire company who knew about BOS style guidelines.

Hi there! - Old Pro

[ In Reply To ..]
I love your analogy of AHDI as the Don Corleone of English! Brilliant! I actually have another name for AHDI, but I don't think I can print it on this board. :)

Mostly becuz BOS is a product of that ADHD organization that has - cuz

[ In Reply To ..]
done nothing but cut the throats of the MLS since the day it was started. Those old bags don't know 1% of what they think they are experts at.

I think a better way to keep costs down.... - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
would be stop treating all these illegal immigrants, people using ERs as PCPs, getting these ridiculous people off of Disability because they do not want to work, stop treating all these able-bodied welfare recipients for free and make them work, not screwing all of the hard working people in this country by trying to save money and cut corners on flipping periods!!! This country is going down the tubes because of thinking like this. We reward mediocrity (sp) and punish achievment. I probably spelled a lot wrong, but this just has me steaming mad and I don't care. MT, as well as many other professions, are going to be nonexistant because we are going to be a country of welfare people or super rich, in between is just getting squeezed out...PERIOD!

I don't put those periods in, my expander does it. - Rita

[ In Reply To ..]
Why type those 3 keystrokes for "Dr."? No one should have to do that anymore.

Who gives a rip what the BOS says? - Old and Tired MT

[ In Reply To ..]
Can you say "ripoff"? Since their membership numbers have dropped like a rock, it's about the only way AHDI/AAMT has left to screw people out of more hard-earned money. Who died and left those people in charge anyway?

Not me, and I refuse to use it - Buncha Crap

[ In Reply To ..]
I wouldn't work for a company who required it.

Luv - Ya!

[ In Reply To ..]
x

Luv Ya! - Too!

[ In Reply To ..]
x

Luv Ya! - Too! (I think I just posted Luv Ya Too! to myself)

[ In Reply To ..]
x

If they wanted to save keystrokes off the MT they would set their - line counter to not count those when typed S/M

[ In Reply To ..]
and still put out a professional copy. Never in my 40 years has a company said don't type a period on MR., MRS, DR., etc.

FYI - Line counters can be set to count common hits (a, e, i, s, t) as many times as they want each. Same goes for common words. The reverse is true to skim off the MT. Counter softward comes with many, many ways of calibration.

But to put out garbage for the sake of a tic here and there is, in my opinion and experience - just not done. Perhaps there is another cause for this phenomenon.

CounterFraud - Sleeping with the Enemy

[ In Reply To ..]
This is my understanding: As a result of the lawsuits against a certain MTSO, the allegations being fraudulent line-counting practices for the MTs (class-action lawsuit) as well as fraudulent/negligent billing practices for clients, one would imagine that the AHDI would be a proponent of eliminating line-count compensation (it would be challenging to cheat via a report count or a unit-of-dictation count). But, then, silly-girl me...who received the MT "class-action" cash settlement of $1.5 million? BOSsy Bootz. No less than one million of which (oops! 1 million) the AHDI was provided to fund programs for the general benefit of transcriptionists. The attorneys received $250,000. The MTSO did not admit guilt (they bailed early in the class-action process); the MTs' claim was not proven. Whether or not MTs who "withdrew" to preserve their right to individually sue the MTSO, I don't know.

Clients have successfully sued the MTSO for the billing practices. For example, the MTSO paid a settlement of $6.6 million to the United States (government contracts--a VA account, for example) to "resolve allegations under the False Claims Act...The False Claims Act permits private citizens to bring lawsuits on behalf of the United States." Both of the whistleblowing private citizens, referred to as "relators," who brought the lawsuit against the MTSO were awarded six-figure settlements ($450,000 and $144,000). The profession(s) of the whistleblowing private citizens are unknown to me; whoever they are, they were privy to the overbilling practices.

Clients/private citizens had proof of their claims and the class-action MTs did not? Or, maybe the clients/private citizens could afford to hire a law team to investigate and prove their claims...and an individual MT could not? Really, what law team wants an MT for a client, to pursue income lost as a result of fraudulent line-counting practices; the attorneys fees could/would exceed the settlement.

Where was the support from the AHDI to the MTs during this ugliness--this class-action unfair-compensation claim? The AHDI, to my knowledge, offered no support to the MTs to pursue their claim as a group or as individuals. Yet, the AHDI, who squeezed "MT" out of their acronym, wants MTs to join their club and pay dues and to buy their books.

At least, that's my perspective on "what's wrong with this picture?" matter.

GoodGodGirl, you gotta learn to condense. - no time for this. NM

[ In Reply To ..]
hi

mtmtmt - Old Pro

[ In Reply To ..]
Not putting periods in is pathetic--and also incorrect.

There is also a trend for only one space - between sentences

[ In Reply To ..]
That is not only for MT'ing, but in word processing altogether, although I'm sure there is something in BOS about that being the norm now too.

Da BOSs - Sit, Stand, Heel, Gimme Paw.

[ In Reply To ..]
Maybe their mission statement should be: "Every day, and in every way, we are getting better and better at getting rid of you."

that would be getting better and better at making you worse. - gotta admit, they got it down.

[ In Reply To ..]
ok

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