Hi Mercy, Generally if you type for a hospital, they are more strict about everything being spelled out (JCAHO guidlines). However, alot of times in private clinics, on office chart notes, abbreviations are used quite a bit. Actually I prefer to spell it out because it makes the report look more professional. The report has a potential of being read by many different people and not everyone knows what the abbreviations stand for. It takes a lot of time to look up abbreviations if they're used alot. Also, there's the danger of misinterpreting or misunderstanding the abbreviation. A simple one is I&D, does it mean incision and drainage or irrigation and debridement? Often you can tell from the context, but sometimes you can't......S&S could mean swish and spit OR it could mean swish and swallow. AC could mean three different chemo combinations (Adriamycin with either cyclophosphamide, carmustine, or cisplatin). For an outstanding resource to help you, I highly recommend a little book that I constantly use called "Medical Abbreviations by Neil M. Davis. He updates it all the time and you can order right over the Internet. Website: www.medabbrev.com (I think it costs around $17.) Neil lists some horror stories at the front of the book of how healtcare workers misinterpreted abbreviations and endangered the patient. He has a little section printed on the front cover that says..."73 YO WDWNAAF BIBA admitted to CPETU c/o PND & DOE. TBNA in EDTU last wk for CP relieved by NTG. Prev Adm for PTCA 1986, IATT 1997, & LARS 1999. ATSO Dr. Jones." I've been transcribing for over 30 years, and it would still take me quite some time to decipher that! (Can you imagine if it was an ER situation and they were trying to get the patient's history in a hurry?? Yikes!!) So thats some of the rationale behind spelling things out. Hoped it help, Mercy!

Hi there, I also love helping new MTs get started, so if you need any help, let me know. There's lots of websites and resources on the net for MTs that I can tell you about. Welcome to the message board. Take Care, Teresa 333/185/150ish 150 lb +/- gone for good!!

That's too funny about the sausage. What guys won't do to try to impress us, huh? When I worked at our local hospital (which I still do on a p.r.n. basis), we were forever getting men in the ER with foreign objects lodged in their rectums. What is up with that? I mean REALLY weird things....like candles and cucumbers.....I would be SO embarassed, those items would just have to stay their until the cows came home....whenever that is. LOL

Oh, this is a good thread! For some reason, the one that sticks in my mind is from way back in the late 70s or early 80s during the disco craze, and a patient came into the ER after an auto accident with a large sausage taped to his upper inner thigh under his stretch gold lame pants, apparently trying hard to impress the ladies with his, um, size. I remember the ER doc going into great deatil about the taping job, where it was applied, how the guy hadn't shaved his leg first, and how they removed it, as if it was a procedure report or something, all serious business and never a snicker... Then there was the woman wandering the streets of San Francisco naked; she told the police officer she was a German Shepherd, was married to the pope, was Jesus Christ, that she was naked because her wheels had fallen off, and that she needed some chili to eat. Just a normal day for the San Francisco PD, probably. I love doing ER notes! Kim

This is a great idea; I hope more MTs join. I'm pretty sure there are more than a few overweight MTs who are looking at this surgery. I can tell I'm distracted; I've been catching little QA errors here and there, thankfully before the reports are sent off (like transcribing "The urologost licked his way into the bladder" (instead of "looked"). Eww. Anyway, my surgery is a week from Tuesday, 2/10, and I'd appreciate any positive thoughts that day. And I'm looking forward to visiting here. Susan InGA 250s/preop 2/10/2004