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Medical transcription or healthcare documentation deals with the documentation of voice files which is prone to many errors due to the kind of work it involves. Healthcare documentation specialists have to listen to various physicians’ voice files with different accents and document them in a prescribed format. Often there are issues with the voice files regarding the background noises, the clarity in the physician’s speech etc. that give a challenge to the medical transcriptionist. Moreover, many people in healthcare documentation jobs work remotely without any immediate supervisor to rectify errors if there are any. This kind of work needs that the medical transcriptionist is independent, self-motivated and responsible towards the work being done. Being an indispensable part of the healthcare industry, the healthcare documentation specialists take pride in their jobs and work relentlessly for the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the documentation they do.
Although the medical transcriptionists do their job with utmost dedication, there may be errors that occur while transcribing and proofreading is required to eliminate these errors before sending the final document to the client. Healthcare documentation jobs call for of excellent proofreading skills that involve identifying any mistakes and correcting them in the documents prepared. In order to identify mistakes, one has to know the kind of errors that can occur. Here given are some commonly seen errors in the transcribed documents. Use of wrong spelling for the words used. Omitting important words dictated by the physician.
- Use of a wrong word in English or Medicine due to errors of homophones and homonyms.
- Typo errors caused due to the usage of a wrong alphabet or numerical character.
- Grammatical and punctuation errors that can change the meaning or context of the sentence.
- Errors that result due to lack of consistency in the use of words that creates confusion.
With a fair idea regarding the kinds of errors that are likely, it becomes easier to proofread. Like all other skills, proofreading skills need the practice to improve. Here are few quick tips to improve proofreading skills.
- Maintain a record of your errors and check regularly to understand your weak areas and polish your skills.
- Categorize your errors into English and medical errors. You can further categorize these into sub-categories based on the specialty for medical errors and spelling and grammar for English errors. Try to work on these errors and not repeat them.
- Build up a good library with reference books and reference sites to look at new or challenging words.
- Use spellcheckers for both English and medical words to ease your proofreading.
- Adjust the speed control of your transcriber unit to avoid any word omissions and misunderstanding of words.
Proofreading skills improve only with persistent practice and ensure that you read your transcribed document thoroughly from the beginning to the end for its completeness and accuracy. For the best of experience in this field, join Avontix, one of the best providers of healthcare documentation services.
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