A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

hyphens in numbers - tired of this

Posted: Oct 16, 2009

Hi, I have been gigged for this no matter how I do it...I had one QA person that said it should be written 1- x 2-cm and the other one said it should be 1 x 2-cm (which I prefer)..Any experts out there?

Thanks

If I were typing that, I would type it the second way. - akhan

[ In Reply To ..]
x

Thanks I'm not going crazy - tired of this

[ In Reply To ..]
x

door #1, door #2, or door #3, but not...door #4 ... hyphens... sm - flybye

[ In Reply To ..]
assumption: "1 x 2 cm" is a single unit of measure (SUOM) using the metric system

door #1: no hyphen if the SUOM occurs at the end of the sentence, "the lesion was 1 x 2 cm"

door #2: add one hyphen if the phrase occurs as a modifier before a noun, "a 1 x 2-cm mass"

door #3: if client is following BOS#3 do NOT add a hyphen as a modifier before the noun, "a 1 x 2 cm mass"

door #4: use of a a suspending hyphen for a related series in a SUOM ("1- x 2-cm") is incorrect and can cause confusion.

only exception would be if the metric system was different for each number in the SUOM, e.g. "a 9-mm x 2-cm mass"

personally, i use door #2; age-old grammar rules, technical writing styles, and ICD-9 coding trumps BOS#3 imho

your mileage may vary....

hyphens in numbers - France

[ In Reply To ..]
I hate this one too in the old days you didn't put hyphens just 3 x 3 cm. However, the in the BOS under "hyphens" it states it both ways, examples used in the book: 5 x 3 x 2-cm mass or 3- to 4-cm lesion (under adjectives)

According to the 3rd edition... - hma

[ In Reply To ..]
...of the BOS, it is now preferred NOT to use punctuation of any kind with metric abbreviations (this according to the International System of Measuring Units--SI method--and the Nat'l Institute for Science and Technology). Of course, this differs from BOS 2, which advocated the use of hyphens when numbers are used with words as compound modifiers (i.e., 5-cm incision, which would now be transcribed as "5 cm incision). I wish they'd stay consistent, because it just creates more confusion.

Similar Messages:

Sep 13, 2010

I have a question about whether or not I should use hyphens in the words up-to-date in this sentence, "She is not up-to-date on her screenings." My school was strict about when to and not to use hyphens in multi-word phrases, so I'm a little paranoid about how to manage these types of things in an actual job. ...

Aug 07, 2011

The sentence is: Patient is able to heel walk, toe walk, and do single foot toe raises. Or should it be: Patient is able to heel-walk, toe-walk, and do single-foot-toe raises. Any help please? ...

Aug 11, 2010

would it be mid-right, midright, or mid right? ...

Nov 26, 2010

Left upper lobe lung mass? Where would you place hyphens here? Help appreciated! ...

Sep 29, 2013

I have stumped myself by thinking too much about what is an adjective and when does a noun act like an adjective. I'm very clear on something like short arm cast not being hyphanated (each word is a noun), but what about needle tip placement? Is there supposed to be a hyphen there? Fluoroscopy was used to confrm needle tip placement OR Fluoroscopy was used to confrm needle-tip placement. I would appreciate some feedback about it. ...

Dec 31, 2014

motor vehicle accident-related cognitive symptoms or motor-vehicle-accident-related cognitive symptoms ? Any help is appreciated! ...

Aug 18, 2010

2 sacs measuring approximately 5 weeks’ size should it be 5-weeks size, 5 weeks size or 5 weeks' size ...

Sep 22, 2014

Are hyphens no longer needed in compound modifiers preceding a noun? Can you please provide a reference for your answer. Thanks! ...

Jan 20, 2010

patient has a longstanding history of intravenous heroin abuse, a 300 dollars a day habit. Is it $300 a day or three hundred dollars a day, or 300 dollars a day? ...

Nov 22, 2011

I am typing a document and the doc states that the patient took 16 10-mg methadone tablets. How would you guys write the 2 numbers in a row? ...

Jan 14, 2013

Has anyone noticed that CCMs don't have 800 numbers anymore? They expect us to absorb the cost of a long distance call to talk to our boss. What us up with that? ...

Jan 25, 2013

I've been keeping a Notepad document running of all my job numbers in order to confirm Fiesa feedback (sometimes they get the wrong MT, had that happen 3 times so far, so you need to check that if a correction is not familiar to you) or whatever issues might come up. But occasionally I forget to even log a report, and I realized that I can double-check via Metrics as well as with my ID and date on Search Dictations, so why bother? Just wondering if some don't bother with this and ...

Feb 04, 2010

I know we should type the sentence below as: Advair 250/50 1 puff twice a day but to me, that looks like it could be confusing when the dosage and amount of med are so close together. I know we're not supposed to do it like this but this is what I type instead: Advair 250/50 one puff twice a day. Am I committing a horrible crime here? ...

Dec 10, 2010

How do you type times one week? (x 1 week or x one week) Please help. ...

Apr 07, 2011

I just put some things together that are enlightening. MQ/Spheris has 12,000 MT's in the U.S., not counting those overseas. Transcend has 5,000 MT's in the U.S. and another 1500 in India. Webmedx has 1200 MT's. KeyStrokes has 600 MT's. TT has 200 MT's. Softscript has 200 MTs. NEMT has 200 MT's. Transolutions, or whatever they are called now, has 300 MT's. Medware, again not sure what their new name is, has 3 ...

Apr 13, 2011

My actual ASR lph and what they say I could do if there wasn't any "inactive" time is usually almost double. I have no idea how I can humanly close that gap. And yes, I am not using the dreaded mouse. I put my nose to the grind stone with absolutely no inactivity due to doing anything other than edit, and yet, I still come up with the lph they report I am doing rather than what they think I should be able to do without any inactivity. Interesting that this time they had a mouse click re ...

Jul 18, 2011

Are numbers under 10 still spelled out with the BOS 3 now? Thanks! ...

Aug 16, 2011

I'm on a new ortho account. He states: Contusion of the right elbow clinically improving IC9719.42/812.0 plus 923.9. I have no idea what these numbers are for. Are they for the coders and if so does anyone know the right formattting for them? I transcribed just as he said. Any help is appreciated! ...

Apr 04, 2012

Never get any help here. Never mind. ...

Apr 03, 2013

can anyone give me a clear understanding on what is to be typed in romans or numbers as far as Class, Types, Grades and levels?? Do different work types, i.e., use different ways, such as orthopedics? ...

May 19, 2014

Last time I was notified numbers were allowed at the beginning of sentences anyway. Really getting to be a PIA.. ...

Dec 03, 2014

take into account working 8 hours per day. What happens to part-time people? How will that be figured. Yesterday my C-LPH would have been between 150 and 170, but my total line count for the day was not between 1200 and 1360. How is that gonna work? Anybody got any clues? ...

Jan 03, 2015

Maybe an odd question but do any of my fellow Synernet MTs know, even approximately, how many of us there are? Seems they are always hiring yet we're always still in MOT. I've been here a while and names on IM are always changing. I guess I don't really NEED to know but it's one of those things that seems to be some big secret, we're supposed to be a "team" but on what team do the players not even know how many are on the team much less not know anyone else on the so-cal ...

May 18, 2015

jobs today!!! WTH!!! ...

Oct 27, 2009

Theo-24 200 mg is dictated. As you can see, this puts 2 numbers side by side. In this instance, is it okay to type this way or do I type differently. What page in the BOS 2 is this type of issue referenced? Thanks ...

Jan 04, 2010

I have the BOS second edition. My interpretation of the chapter on numbers is that this would be correct: The patient will be seen in two days. In my client profile, it does not state any specs regarding numbers, but QA changes this type of thing to "2 days." Can someone please help? Has this changed with the BOS third edition? Thanks in advance. ...

Nov 09, 2010

If a number starts a sentence like 5 mm do you spell out the 5 or start if with the 5. TIA ...

Apr 05, 2011

I was always taught to spell out numbers at the beginning of a sentence. Does this apply even if that number is technical and larger than ten? For example, would you type "25-mm sections were obtained." -- OR -- "Twenty-five-mm sections were obtained." Thanks in advance. ...

Jun 10, 2011

we get paid for them, but if we type the #. and it becomes "grayed out", we aren't getting paid for that... correct? ...

Aug 14, 2011

How do you type a sentence that begins with 911? ex. 911 was called. or Nine-one-one was called. ...