“We just love our transcription service but they have a very hard time hearing our files; why is that?" This was the question of one medical office.
You would be surprised how often this problem comes up, or perhaps you wouldn’t be. Here are a few reasons for poor dictation quality—which results in poor transcription quality:
1) Many will handle papers and charts while dictating. The mixture of the voice and the papers diminishes the quality of the dictation considerably. And you can rest assured that the offending paper noise occurs just at a critical point!
2) Some will eat while dictating. You don’t believe it? Believe it; lunch is a favorite time for some when it comes to dictation. It is hard to understand how some can be so inconsiderate, but the fact is—they are.
3) Sleeping while dictation? I know you think I’m nuts, but we have a client who falls asleep while dictating—and she is a sleep disorder specialist!
4) Using the rest room while dictating (this is where I got the title to the paper). Truly few things can be more disgusting than this—and few things demonstrate the lack of consideration and common decency as well.
5) Using a cell phone to dictate on; cell phones often, even generally, do not have the quality to do proper dictation.
6) The lazy jaw syndrome (they simply won’t open their mouth). What can you say about this problem? It sounds like mush.
7) Dictating as fast as you can. Time is money and it is important to get as much done in as short a time as possible. Of all the problems associated with dictating, this may be the number one offender. If you don’t enunciate, very often you cannot be understood.
8) Dictating in a noisy room is a major problem. People talking in the background, phones ringing and office equipment running create terrible problems for the person trying to hear and type the dictation.
And guess what? The transcription suffers from these bad habits. Do you want to guess who gets the blame when that happens? Yep, the person doing the transcription is always the culprit.
Is there any way to make this problem go away? It’s tough. But consider these possibilities:
1) The best place to start is simply to ask that a certain practice be addressed. After all, “you have not because you ask not". Many physicians are very nice people and if you drew this problem to their attention, they would address it.
2) But what about those that aren’t so nice? And there are a few that fit this category as well.
a. Start with the director of medical records or office manager. Very often this person will be able to go to bat for you.
b. Consider making a copy of the dictation and returning it with the transcription. Ask for help; explain you desperately want to provide quality transcription but that is all but impossible if the dictation quality is poor. Ask them to listen to the dictation and “advise" you.
c. And last, just how bad do you need this client? Sometimes the only option is to fire them. This is not what we are here for. This we simply do not ever want to do. But, there are times….
i'm not really sure what dictation is, or why, in this day and age there isn't an easier way, nonetheless, i liked your article, i thought it was well written and interesting, and i hope you continue writing,
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