A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry
How many of you have started guessing rather than leave too many blanks? - Invalid Blanks
Posted: Jul 06, 2013
I am so over this company who seems hell bent on destroying the integrity of medical documentation in this country singlehandedly.
Have you ever heard this quote? - Speculation
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Not sure who said it (Abraham Lincoln gets credit for it and sometimes Mark Twain), but your question reminds me of the following quote:
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt."
In answer to your question: No. I won't guess. IMO, I think if you have to leave a blank, then you have to leave it. If you're not sure what is being said, guessing is never a good idea.
I suspect other companies will find a way to exploit Nuance's new policies that will encourage and reward the practice of guessing and use it to relieve Nuance of some of their customers.
Sales Pitch: "Nuance's new policies are going to hurt your patients and ultimately end up costing you the money you thought you saved because they now punish their MTs for leaving blanks and reward their Editors for filling in blanks and 'adding value' to your documents. I hope your lousy dictators are good doctors because their reports are going to be loaded with best guesses and misinformation from both ends of the spectrum. Nuance's modus operandi in systematically dismantling the pay structure of their seemingly endless string of acquisitions has virtually guaranteed this outcome. And did I mention that much of this guessing will be done by a large group of employees that call English their second language?"
That sounds about right to me.
LOVE LOVE LOVE the sales pitch!! - I will be copying
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and saving that one for sure....maybe to paste into an article for the local paper, directed at our local hospitals??? Hmmmmmmmmmm.....
Not singlehandedly. They're partnering with MModal and, ironically, AHDI towards that goal. - Des
I never just guess. I've chosen to learn, thereby allowing me to know. - Des
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Guessing is for scared newbies and lazy MTs/QAs. True medical profressionals NEVER put their own selfishness and ignorance above patient care and safety.
One thing you have to realize is that some MTs - choose laziness over blanks. Not
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all blanks sent to QA are even possible to fill in. If you've done your research and are unable to fill that blank, chances are the QA people will not be able to either, or will have to really do some research. I left Transcend QA a couple of months ago but I can tell you from my experience, there are some really lazy, inexperienced MTs out there who take advantage and rush through reports leaving holes without any effort whatsover.
Let the bashing begin, but unless you've experienced for yourself what some MTs are capable (or incapable of) don't assume the object here is to search for unjustified blanks and errors.
Blanks - uniquemonique
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I used to do QA for another company,and our job was to fill in blanks that the MTs could not get. While I do agree that there are some MTs out there who don't want to take the time to do the research, there are also bad bad dictators, who, no matter HOW many resources you check, a blank cannot be gotten for the MT, but perhaps the QA person is used to that dictator and canunderstand it. We are supposed to use 3 resources and take no longer than 3 minutes to fill in a blank and if we don't get it, then we sent it to Qa. and if they are lucky enought to get it, and we are over the ALLOWED SPECS PER SITE FOR BLANKS we still get dinged for blanks that are filled in by QA. That is across the board unfair.
Why assume anything? - Speculation
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Not trying to bash at all, but you do realize that getting paid to edit a report for errors, fill in as many blanks as you can, and then determine whether each blank is justified in order to calculate a total point value deduction is the actual job, right?
There's actually nothing to assume here. It's the object of the job. You approach each report with the attitude that people are lazy or lousy (as written in your post) and now you can make more money because of it, and the company gets the outcome they want.
leaving blanks - new but old
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I looked at one of my FIESA reports and they actually marked me off because I left a blank because I could not clearly make out the date that the physician stated, so I left a blank and they marked me off and put down that it was an invalid blank. How can it be invalid if I didn't clearly hear it in the first place????
Not me, but I also do not take it personally when-- - anon
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QA notes a blank as invalid or whatever. I have been doing this work long enough that I know my capabilities. If it is a term new to me and the physician speaks it clearly, I will spend the time on research. Often times searching for physician names can be a crap-shoot so I will not spend too much time looking for that one in a million. I am not overly worried about my QA score, either. I do my best with every report and if I cannot decipher it, I leave a blank. I am on a no-blank account and even so, my # of reports to QA is within the realm of reason, so no guessing and no getting worked up if QA can get it or not.
Never, one reason I left for amphion is....... - smeeps
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Same pay but no dings for blanks, actual one on one training, but most of all....respect.
Sorry to be nosey but.... - nosey nellie
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What does Amphion pay and do they have health benefits? What type of account did you start with? Clinic, Acute Care?
Just was notified by my TSM that an account isn't happy. They feel the MLS are guessing and they have found errors to prove it. Someone needs to let these clients know how Nuance is enticing some MLS to guess. They would surely reconsider outsourcing their work and maybe this is the start of hospitals hiring their own MLS again. Wouldn't that be wonderful?! ...
Hi, I'm a newbie. If an employer's test instructions say it is not ok to guess, is it ok to leave a "blank" with what you THINK the dr. said? In other words, perhaps like this: <tachycardia>, or is it better not to put what you think he said and just put a plain old blank?
any help on this would be great. thanks! ...
So if we have a 4 line report we can leave 2 blanks and if we have a 150-line report, still only 2 blanks. Doesn't make sense, just like ANYTHING else at this ridiculous place.
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Can anyone tell me how to leave a timestamp for blanks in Editscript so that QA can jump to this spot? Also, how do you look up the doctor roster to verify doctor name spellings? Thanks for any help. ...
Cant believe the crap they are dictating today..Must be the solar flare. they make up drug names that could be one of maybe 3 possibilities..Im pretty sure I know which they need but Im not the DOCTOR,,I just play one on the computer..Im leaving the blanks let them figure it out..Do your jobs correctly for a change..Kind of makes you scared to ever have to go to a hospital for anything. ...
All this talk about guessing is not to the point. Even if you do not guess, you are going to make mistakes - we all do. Some of the worst and fastest dictation I get is for the lab data and drugs and dosages which should be the most careful part of the dictation. The responsibility to see that these values are correct in the medical record belongs to the doctor, not to us. ...
It really grinds me that we're told repeatedly not to GUESS in order to make the sentences "make sense." Yet, that's exactly what VR on M*Modal does! Adds words that were never said, takes out important verbs and (God forbid! an article!). I spend more time taking out commas that are substituted for "and." This VR program not only edits, it MAKES WORDS UP! So now, we have to edit the lousy dictators and the In-*******-Credible VR too. Only 2 more yea ...
Would rather not say which company, but I am in my initial training period and the lack of support is like nothing I have ever encountered before! I am not a new MT and I am not a job hopper. In fact, I've been called a suit on here because of my enthusiasm for this line of work.
My edited reports look like somebody slashed their wrists and bled all over them. There is either no explanation for the error or cryptic comments that make no sense. Errors are inconsistently flagged. Em ...
when the doc says something like the: Skin is pink, warm and dry and intact. Is that how you would type it? Not sure about the proper comma usage. Nothing looks correct to me anymore!!! ...
I have just had it. I was switched over to a horrid account, and every time I ask about being switched back, I am told to just keep on working. The account I was switched to have horrid AMERICAN doctors as well as ESLs. I have sat here for months listening and re-listening to no end. We are always sent emails not to guess, send everyting to QA, well I have just started too. No longer am I sitting here trying to guess, only to have to send the report to QA anyway.&nb ...
I am so brain dead. Are we supposed to be sending reports with blanks again? I thought this was held off until March 14th or is that just with unchecking the QA box if you do not want it to go to qa? thanks. between audits,lengthy emails, deleting this and that,its just a bit too much anymore. sigh. ...
Utterly confused. I took a big, BIG hit with the QA deduction in paycheck this week. So, I decided to investigate.
Like everyone else, I have about 10 "regular" accounts. No blank rule is mentioned anywhere on any of the Account Specifics. I wrote the QA person for my CMC questioning how many blanks were acceptable without sending to QA, and got the "first time right" explanation. This is BOGUS...if I have one blank on a lengthy report and hafta send to QA and they take the total line ...
I got a complaint from corporate that my lph are not where they should be via my TSM. I have been at MModal 6 weeks and just got off training. I was hired in at tier 3. My lph are gradually going up every day but not to suit corporate. I do straight transcription, no VR, on Futurenet. A lot of ESL bad dictators. I am still getting new dictators every day I work. It's hard to be up to par when you are still learning dictators. I work on 11 accounts.
I think I am spending too muc ...
I'm just sayin....as a radiology MT in this company for 14 years...we have always sent radiology reports straight through to the docs to review and sign (because of turnaround time)....never knew they did QA until I got new accounts 2 years ago....and have had some pretty bad foreigners. I believe it is docs job to go over his reports anyway...he is legally responsible.. ...
It just occurred to me that MQ could have another card up its sleeve in order to knock down our pay, yet another scourge to get us to quit. All it takes is more than 1 report sent per day to put my percentage of reports to over 5% to QA, which would result in 50% salary decrease. I just had a report where ALL of the blanks were from horrible sound quality. Words were missing, the surgeon was speaking from his speaker phone which picked up shuffling papers, you know those s ...
They are more and more following M*Modal. Now if a report is QA'd with a blank, you will be penalized in your score for that blank, and this has been verified by a QA person, who received the new directions recently. As I understand it, you are penalized if QA was able to find the blank either in old reports or by research, or just knowing the term.
So you have a choice, spend a lot of time on research and see your LPH plummet to minimum wage, or blank it and then be pen ...
I'm on accts that do not allow any blanks at all through to the cliient. ALL blanks must go to QA. I haven't ever worked on an acct that would not even allow one blank to the client. Anyhow, might not would be so bad but the dictators are TERRIBLE! Many ESLs also.
Combine no blanks allowed with terrible dictators = sending more to QA. That means docked pay if 5% or more. Oh, and don't let me forget, no samples yet. So you have to ho ...
I just looked at my review for March and I see all these 0.5 deductions for "blank filled in by reviewer." There are also Valid Blanks that take off no points.
Sorry if this has been asked but did they say they were going to do this? And if so, when? Also, I listened to these blanks. There is no way they can tell me 100% what was said in any of them, which is why I blanked them. So they are guessing.
Two reports I have gone through so far are for real ...
I have been taught better safe than sorry and I have been a transcriptionist for 15 years. I am docked .05 for each blank, but the standard 3.0 (CPSE) if I got it wrong it happens to be pullled for QA. I know this is a rhetorical question as we are all professionals, but would you leave a blank and take the 0.5 right off the bat or risk the patient on a lab value, drug name, dosage or diagnosis and take the 3.0 IF that report was pulled for QA? ...
Is it common for the transcription services to deduct from our QA score now, or is this exclusive to Nuance? I'm pretty frustrated today: VR had said 14 cm, but it sure sounded like 40 cm, but it was an orbital rim fracture (a small area), so I was reluctant to change it to 40 without another pair of ears. I put this in an elaboration (which we're not paid for) and found I was dinged 0.25 for my efforts (only thing "wrong" with the report). I'm not sure I c ...
I thought I just saw something on here that said that we were being charged for blanks? Are they actually doing this? If so I have not seen anything stating it.
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Yep, way back when they started this 99.6% to 99.7% junk that the clients would be complaining about blanks. ROLF As predicted, their little policy bit them in the butt. Since they implemented the 99.6% to 99.7% requirement, I have left a lot more blanks out of self defense that I normally would not have left, but if it is the least bit iffy that QA might not agree, there goes a blank. Although, no way could I "win" a contest for most improvement as I do not leave enough blanks. And, again, ...
Just wondering if anyone knows what the formula is on how they calculate your percentage of blanks left? They show me a percentage but a percentage of what? Lines? Words? Reports? Ugh. And, one blank may count for one word or an entire sentence.
I just don't get it. ...
I wonder if this is their way of seeing who leaves the most blanks and those who do will be the first to be let go when they choose to have another lay-off. We get an email from our TSM showing our Ultipro numbers and the percentage of blanks by each MT plus the number of reports done. ...
Anybody else receiving "counselling" for leaving blanks. Received e-mail stating some of my reports were pulled and they wanted to go over my blanks. If I can't hear them or understand them, I don't guess and leave a blank. Dreading this one. Seems you can't win for losing. How do some of you handle the blank situation? ...
I have noticed that on some reports I get back from QA that I am marked down for the blank and other reports I have gotten back I am not. Does anyone know if you are suppose to have points taken off for that? ...
I would say 1/4 of my reports have at least one blank. 99% of the time, it is due to client profile demands - physician name not in database or spelled, must put in a blank. ...
I am a very experienced MT who never leaves blanks unless the dictators us just plain undecipherable, which was the case with one ESL idiot who was such a poor dictator I had to leave about 25 blanks. I struggled with this jerk's utterances (can't call them actual words) for an HOUR, replaying over and over, trying to figure out what he MEANT to say. I made way under minimum wage on in that hour, and put in a lot of free time to try to get thro ...
Does Nuance have a percentage to QC you have to maintain? Seems companies are making the juggling act more and more difficult ... all for less money. ...