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An error I see a lot - albeit very minor

Posted: Jan 18, 2014

An error I see very often while doing QA, even though it has no impact on patient care, is a missing comma after the year on a full date, or missing comma after city and state. I'm not trying to nag, just trying to help because, when audited, the powers that be will ding you for this and laugh maniacally. Here are the rules in the style guide and BOS for any who want to argue.

"Use a comma after the year when the sentence continues after a date: I saw the patient on May 17, 2010, at the clinic." (TSG pdf pg 12)

In text, use a comma before and after the state name preceded by a cityname, or a country name preceded by a state or city name.

In text, use a comma before and after the state name preceded by a cityname, or a country name preceded by a state or city name." (BOS2 pdf pg 89)

You'll probably see it from me! - Trampled underfoot

[ In Reply To ..]
I usually don't add it because it doesn't seem right; if you were speaking the sentence, you wouldn't pause after "The patient was seen Jan 15, in the office".

comma after year - mt

[ In Reply To ..]
I don't think you would put a comma here after 15. Just put the comma if the year is included.

You may be right - Trampled underfoot

[ In Reply To ..]
But I'm not sure I'd put it after the year either, since I wouldn't pause in speaking after that either, "The patient was seen Jan 15, 2014 in the office".

Lately I've seen a lot of reports that come through with random commas that don't seem right to me, like "The patient is a 65-year-old, white female". Is that correct?

No, it's not - when I see it I remove it - MME

[ In Reply To ..]
It makes me wonder, just HOW MUCH extra income MModal is making off the facilities just for that ONE SINGLE little misplaced comma. Think about it - it shows up in EVERY. SINGLE. REPORT. Most people don't remove it, and most facilities won't care. That one single little misplaced comma is probably a huge money-maker for MModal.

What a relief! - Trampled underfoot

[ In Reply To ..]
I've been removing it and wondering if I'm a fool for wasting my time!

No, not a fool at all - it doesn't belong there - MME

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The scary thing is, is how many aren't removing it, and getting dinged for it on audits?

That kind of nonsense gets to me. - Trampled underfoot

[ In Reply To ..]
To get dinged on it for an audit makes no sense. Comma or no comma, it in no way has an impact on patient care.

I'm from the old school, where we at least attempted to make intelligent-sounding sentences from these dictations and I cannot bring myself to type stuff like "The patient has got" or "A 52-year-old male that presented to the ER". I won't even go into the random chopped sentences.

I know someday I'll be hung out to dry because of correcting some of this stuff, but I can't help myself.

I can't tolerate ugly in the reports either - Val

[ In Reply To ..]
"A 52-year-old male that"...a person is a who, not a that. Ugly sounding. These reports are the face that the doctors present, and when the reports sound like a struggling 7th grader? Pathetic.

Even worse are those ugly scribed reports -- all different fonts, abbreviations, misspellings, INCOHERENCIES!!! I shudder.

yep and its making me money too. im not wasting my time removing it - it adds up

[ In Reply To ..]
they want it there, they got it. Punctuation errors don't impact your audit anyway

OK ... are you kidding? - MME

[ In Reply To ..]
Whoa. I hope you're joking with your punctuation comment because they absolutely DO impact your audit score. Each one is worth .25 of a point. Make just a few of those and you can fail an audit.

Better get your head out of the sand and bone up on what is counted on audits otherwise you're in for a bumpy ride.

last audit I got all punctuation was listed as feedback - did not affect

[ In Reply To ..]
x

Depends on auditor's mood. - set up to fail

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Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I just failed an audit -- 2 punctuation errors.

IMO a punctuation error should only be 0.1 or 0.05 points, NOT 0.25!

I am also sick of ASR misspelling words. There is no excuse for that, but QA refuses to inform IT and IT refuses to input the correct spelling. Spelling should be "hardwired" into the program, not dependent "learning" . As it is, some mistakes go through because of fatigue and also the way the mind works when it comes to the ability to read text missing characters.

money-maker comma - mt

[ In Reply To ..]
Reminds me of something I read:

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first class.

gee I didn't even miss that olive - i hate olives

[ In Reply To ..]
and to think, that probably paid somebody's salary for a year.

comma after year - mt

[ In Reply To ..]
I agree with you regarding removing comma after 65-year-old, but 2014 should have a comma after it because that is a rule of our language (in grammar books).

YES it is correct. - L&L

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Get thyself a grammar and punctuation book.

There are rules for commas, and it is NOT - L&L

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pauses in speaking whatsoever but about clarification in reading.

I was astounded when I found out my nephews were being taught to put commas when they thought they would make a pause in speaking.

This is due to the total dumbing-down of our education system and is completely deplorable.

General comment regarding grammar - ME2

[ In Reply To ..]
This comment is not aimed at anyone and is just a general comment. Grammar evolves. We had no/little grammar not too long ago (oh, say about 1,000 years ago), and were even missing the 's' in many written texts and other letters (I believe 'f' was used--I know, strange). While I realize we must have a few rules for this business, we shouldn't get too retentive with the general idea of grammar. Some forms of the comma are accepted both ways discussed (in everyday writing). I also believe that grammar will transform a lot in the coming years, maybe even go backwards. We have texting and other social media to thank for that. Just something to think about before we get carried away.

Regarding the "f" - Trampled underfoot

[ In Reply To ..]
That thing that sorta looks like a lower case handwritten F in documents actually stands for a double S (as in ss). But you're right; they change grammar rules so that if you look at documents 20-30 years ago, they would be counted as incorrect. I would think 20-30 years in the future, they'll look at our documents the same way. "Look how they used that comma! That's not right!"

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