Say What What?

Everyone loves a boner. Reader’s Digest has practically made a career of them, as they comprise a good percentage of their various humor columns. I’ve always found their articles to lean toward the superficial and sappy, but hey--who isn’t agreeable to skimming through Laughter is the Best Medicine when sitting in the bathroom or whilst waiting for your tires to be rotated? MTs seem to especially love them--I suspect because so many of us are working from home and a good, “Can you believe the goofy thing this dictator said?” thread can quickly become a pile-up of hilarity and commiseration. It not only reassures you that you’re “superior” to someone out there who apparently doesn’t know that “chiefically” isn’t a word or doesn’t click that Mr. Smith shouldn’t have a hysterectomy in his past medical history, but it lets you know you’re not crazy, and there are other MTs out there who see this stuff, too. Doesn’t matter if you can top or just marvel at someone else’s bit, it’s all in good fun. We get our camaraderie where we can, to help stave off that feeling of isolation. Even Advance has taken advantage of this with the column, “Say what?” wherein MTs are invited to share their favorite gaffes. It was always one of the first things I read on the way back from the mailbox.

There’s been a disturbing trend in these submissions, though, thanks to the spectre of speech recognition. . . Many of the submissions are not spoonerisms dictated by some tired doctor or finger-tied transcriptionist who catches herself before sending a typo or Freudian slip. Nope, more and more, it’s the ridiculous gibberish churned out by SR that poor MTs-turned-editors are getting to correct (this month, I see gems like, “Wound will heal by secondary infection.”). Despite the wild claims of vendors and MTSOs who seem to think this technology is the greatest thing since electricity, most of us are seeing the ugly truth behind that. Much of it is so nonsensical that the only way to fix it is to scratch it and start over.

Of course, it’s been my contention for a long while that SR has been eyed to replace us. MTSOs who are implementing it assure us that MTs will never be replaced because there are so many dictators who will never cooperate and learn to dictate coherently. The Organization Formerly Known as AAMT assure us that we’re now “more” than MTs, we’re “medical language specialists” (gahh) and if we use our magic parachute, we will float effortlessly into our future roles as minimum wage editors.

But wait. . . according to an article this week, even AAMT bigwigs like Claudia Tessier (what acute care MT doesn’t consider her Surgical Word Book to be a requisite?) is sounding the death knell for MT (article here--you may need to register to read it):

“The movement is toward real-time documentation, which improves patient care and patient safety,” she said. “As this happens, it diminishes the need for medical transcription as we know it. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it’s a reality.”

***

The goal is for all MeritCare clinicians to fill out electronic patient records in other ways, such as by pointing and clicking and using voice-recognition software to add notes, she said.

At first, those notes will need to be edited and proofed by a transcriptionist, but eventually the health organization wants technology to allow physicians and nurses to self-edit, eliminating the need for those services, Hewitt said.

***

Completing patient records during an examination or visit is the goal of the industry, said Tessier, who spent 20 years as chief executive officer of an association for medical transcriptionists.

Technology can make that happen, but clinicians also need to be willing to use tools like handwriting recognition software and direct data entry, she said. Some adapt readily to the technology; others don’t.

The $28 billion a year industry won’t disappear immediately, but she expects it to diminish over the next decade.

Say what? Not exactly the AAMT party line of “MT isn’t going anywhere,” is it?

I have personally suffered at the hand of our local hospital's new point-and-click EMR, wherein the same information was laboriously reentered every time we were shuffled to the next room and spelling errors were shrugged off as unimportant. Sure, it's funny when we see that SR has declared that, "both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation," but somehow, I get nervous thinking that my chart could be one of those travesties lost in translation. It sounds like it's every man for himself in this brave new world, and I think I'll take charge of my own health records and just come armed with my history already transcribed and in digital and hard copy formats.

Maybe it'll get so bad that MTs can start marketing themselves directly to consumers.