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New editing platform rules inquiry - MT Lady

Posted: Oct 08, 2013

Hello,

We are preparing to switch to editing and are working on a fair guidelines for the MTs. What are the industry standards of expections for things such as correcting if a dictator says something like "laboratory studies" and the draft comes through as "laboratory data" - do you correct it or leave it? What about things like numbers that begin a sentence? Correct or let it go? Any advice you can give would be appreciated.

Before taking a 66% cut in salary... - Rose

[ In Reply To ..]
Originally MTs corrected everything, per client specs or the Book of Style. When our hourly salary was reduced from about $15 to $20 per hour to half of minimum wage or less, many needed to cut back on the free labor. Remember we are only paid for the keystrokes on the page, not all the research needed to find ascertain which "Dr. Johnson in Miami" should get a cc., search demographics not entered by the doctor, or sit through dictators who do not use the pause button while they review a chart, or the few dictators who do use the pause button and don't know each time they cut off a word. We no longer have communication with the client so these dictation atrocities are never corrected.

So the old established MT standards of perfection have changed because we have to put food on the table while making sure that the records are accurate and do not adversely affect patient care.

The .16 or so cents per line you pay the service owner trickles down to us at .04 cents per line now, which includes all the free labor that does not put keystokes on the page.

When it comes to fair guidelines for the MT, if you pay what we earned in the 1980's and 1990's you can expect perfection.

there's a thing called - overediting

[ In Reply To ..]
If you get real nitpicky with voice recognition, it will never learn. So yes, when it comes through as laboratory data, leave it. If a sentence starts with a number, leave it. Basically, if it's technically correct, leave it.

Agree with the above (I think Rose missed your point) - CB

[ In Reply To ..]
I helped train our MTs on the system at the first MTSO I worked for. Per the guidelines of the actual software developers themselves:

1) VR is NOT designed to be verbatim.
2) Do not over-edit. If it does not affect the meaning of the sentence, do NOT change it. For example, if the dictator says Chrohn's disease with an "s" LEAVE it. They pointed out that changing something like this just inhibits the learning process of the software. The same went for date formats (dictate what the doctor said, not follow some arbitrary rule). For things like mL vs. cc, there were settings to change on the program where you simply put in that if the VR 'heard' cc, to change it to mL.
3) Formats/headings were standardized across the facility. If a doctor wanted a special format, he dictated it in that order. It was not the MT's responsibility to move headings and paragraphs around, which absolutely confuses VR.
4) It was emphasized to physicians that it was their responsibility to input correct demographics/worktype numbers, etc. (I work for a company now who makes it OUR fault if the dictator makes the mistakes).
5) The worst dictators were left on straight transcription.

All this information was communicated with the 500+ doctors (yes, we had an open line of communication - imagine!) and there was absolutely no problem. The result? Our software VR was fantastic, the best I've ever worked on. In fact, editing was so minimal, I averaged 450-500 lph an hour as an MT. We all loved the program. Of course, since we did it the RIGHT way and had a great company, it eventually closed due to under-bidding by an offshore company. I heard through the grapevine that the new company immediately had QA making nitpicky verbatim changes. As a result, VR was less efficient, TAT suffered, and doctors were complaining about more errors.

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