The kinds of things ASR will never catch. - Coco

I'd love to know how my old hospital feels about the reports that they're putting in their charts, now that they've outsourced everything to a company that uses ASR (which, incidentally, they were not told would be used when they contracted with the MTSO....although they may have assumed it--I don't know).  

There are just soooo many things that ASR will never, ever catch--especially in cases where the doctor is just being absent-minded.  For instance, I once had a doctor say that the patient had "decreased urinary intake."  If you're skimming the report, listening and reading along to see that it matches what you'e hearing, and being a little absent-minded yourself, it is so easy to miss things like that.  

Another time, the doctor was giving the dates of admission and discharge for a previous hospital stay as being, say, 10/15/2012 and 10/17/2012, when it was, in fact, only March 2012 at the time he was dictating.  

The list could go on and on...I'm sure all of you have other examples.

My guess is that not many on the hospital end are even noticing errors like this; or do they not care as long as it's easy to figure out what the intention of the dictator was?  When I worked for the hospital, I was being compensated fairly for my knowledge and attention to catch those errors.  The big problem, as I see it, is that with ASR pay, we are no longer being compensated fairly for our brains and efforts, so many MTs are letting things slide or not caring, unless they don't mind earning about $4 to $5 an hour.  It's hard not to adapt the attitude of, "Well, if the hospitals and doctors don't care about the quality, I guess it doesn't matter."  

I couldn't work for that kind of money, but my conscience and make-up wouldn't let me not care about my quality, so I've left MT'ing for now.