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I have died and gone to semicolon hades - anon

Posted: Jan 03, 2014

MME here working on global reports and I'm wondering ... when did semicolons become an acceptable substitution for commas and colons? In my last report I swear there were no fewer than a million of the little suckers - on every line of the report there were at least a few.

PAST MEDICAL HISTORY:

Includes; hypertension; diabetes; hypothyroid.

SOCIAL HISTORY:

Nonsmoker; nondrinker; no illicit drug abuse; lives at home; works as a cashier.

I can't stand it!! swear to gosh the perfectionist and OCD Virgo in me wants to correct every single one of them but I just HAVE to turn my head and back away. I could go crazy (er) in this little semi-colon padded rubber room I'm in today.

Uh, India? Hades called and they want their semicolons back.

H; E; L; P;

I agree! - Looks terrible

[ In Reply To ..]
You are right, anon. That looks horrible. It has to be from another country. Maybe another planet. I; love; your; sense; of; humor; though!

Ha! Gotta laugh or I'd lose my mind - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
It's just wrong!

Can you imagine a world where we just started substituting? random, punctuation: for the "correct", one'

PAST MEDICAL HISTORY:

Hypertension! Diabetes? "Hypothyroid".

SOCIAL HISTORY:

Nonsmoker? Nondrinker? Lives at home! Works as a cashier .....

For God's sake someone teach them the correct usage for punctuation before I throw myself off a bridge?

Thanks for the laugh out loud today;@'! - ChiMT

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Don't jump! - hee-hee

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

That's hilarious!! - XYZ

[ In Reply To ..]
OMG I am laughing sooo hard! True ... why do they substitute every punctuation sign with a semicolon? I mean, why those? It makes no sense.

Can you imagine if we did that with question marks, or quotation marks?

PAST MEDICAL HISTORY:
1. Anemia?
2. GI bleed?

PAST SURGICAL HISTORY:
1. Bunionectomy?
2. Hysterectomy?

Or, what about ...

SOCIAL HISTORY:
"Lives alone".

OMG I'm laughing out loud! It makes as much sense as the crazy semicolons, I agree they're in every sentence!

SEMICOLON ;SEMICOLON; SEMICOLON - gltrgrammi

[ In Reply To ..]
LOL!!! You are hysterical. I needed that laugh today. I was wondering the exact same thing. I think it just depends on what QA person we get. I think MM has totally made up their own BOS. They are correcting things in my reports that are exactly what I already typed. Really?? I have never seen some of the critiquing that they have been giving me. Like: VS: Blood pressure 123/88. Pulse 60. Respirations: 18. These are not complete sentences people. But, not all of them do this, only some. Talk about confusing. What do you want from me? Cannot wait to QUIT this &^%$# job.

I got back a list of 'errors' done by QA - anon2

[ In Reply To ..]
They 'corrected' the whole list of Past Medical History by taking out my commas and putting in...semicolons. Grrrr.

What! OK that's proof that India is QA'ing reports - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I think the semicolon has become India's national punctuation mark. I don't think there is an American QA person on earth who would take out all the commas and add in semicolons. I think people in India must have shrines for semicolons in their houses. I think they have them tattooed on their butts. I believe the semicolon must be sacred punctuation and they pay homage to them on Sundays.

You would NEVER catch an American QA sprinkling semicolons into a report like that.

Big mistake - Nana

[ In Reply To ..]
I believe this could very well be right, that some of our auditing is being outsourced. I had the same "corrections" on some of my reports in the last couple months. This company is really going to screw themselves because when our BOBs check these out and see what messes they are they are going to be looking for alternatives out of MModal.

QA Qualifications - Passing by

[ In Reply To ..]
What the worst part of the QA people is that many times they are WRONG but you have no recourse to defend yourself. If you put anything in the comment you will be flagged and told not to do it. The QA has an open wand to do as they feel, whether it is right or not and there is no recourse.

SEMICOLON - Sad MT

[ In Reply To ..]
India IS QA'g reports on at least one of my accounts. REALLY?? If I ever get an audit or feedback from one of them I will totally go off. They cannot transcribe, how can they QA??? I have an ESL in one of my accounts who always dictates "semicolon" which I totally ignore and so far have had no negative audit/feedback by not doing so.

and yet they still refuse to use a - colon

[ In Reply To ..]
I too have started seeing the semicolons everywhere but they just will not use a full colon. It's always CBC, blah blah blah. Chemistry, blah blah blah. Xray, blah blah blah.

Exactly! I've seen that too - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
I can't possibly have all the time it would take to correct the tsunami of semicolons that cross my desk every day but I DO correct the lab tests. It's almost as if they don't know what to do with it so they just toss in a semicolon .... everywhere.

DIAGNOSTIC DATA:
CMP; sodium 135; bicarb 20; chest x-ray; clear; shows no infiltrates; EKG; sinus rhythm.

Or, how about ...

The patient was sent to the lab for the following; CBC; chest x-ray; EKG.

I'm not kidding, global reports literally look this way, all day, every day. If we had this kind of teary-eyed, shaky hand rabid obsession with question marks or exclamation points failing audits would be the least of our worries.

the semicolons have just started - my suspicion

[ In Reply To ..]
I wonder if the semicolons aren't coming from the Philippine ILPS since they just recently started. But I've seen the commas for years from India.
Always a comma where a colon should be, unless it's a capitalized subheading in an H & P or a ROS>

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