Insurance benefits renewals make this a busy field..also, a moment of understanding.

The title says it all.  This week I have been working my fingers off...  Honestly, I have typed so much that I am having to wear braces at night while I sleep to help with wrist and hand pain (darn the early arthritis).  I have typed an average of 80,000 characters every day this week so far!  Today doesn't look a whole lot less busy either!  Just with my first pull for work, I pulled in 1 hour and 45 minutes of dictation!!!   WOW!!!

Why the sudden influx of work??  It is called insurance renewal!  Every January insurance policies start over, so the people who needed to go to the doctor in late November and December are coming NOW because they have benefits again!  This makes us very busy MTs and it makes the doctors very busy as well.  So, this makes their dictations a bit more of a challenge at times because just as we are typing faster to keep up, they are talking faster so that they can get on with their lives!

This also explains the hiring slowdown we all experience in late October to mid January.  It is due to less patients which in turn mean less dictations.  Companies don't need new MTs because the work is slow.  When the work picks back up, so will the hiring processes!  The summer is the best time because so many MTs take their week of vacation and the companies need people to cover them and so new MTs are brought in and a lot of times, kept. 


Now, my moment of clarity/understanding...

I always want to call a doctor and say..."there is someone else on the end of that dictation doctor, please be considerate."

But this week, I have thought about it.  If I were a doctor and had just seen 15 patients in 1 day and then headed to the hospital for rounds, and possibly a few surgeries...would I REALLY want to sit for an hour dictating reports and if I can talk faster and cut this to 45 minutes?  When I realized that I would probably be one of those fast-talking, multi-tasking doctors, I realized that I need to be patient with my accounts :) 

So.  All you MTs out there reading this.  Put yourself in the doctor's shoes.  I know for a fact that 4 of my doctors have young children, how would you feel if you had been away from them all day seeing patients and then had to dictate before spending time with them?

All you doctors out there that might read this, Speak quickly, but please remember that we can only listen so quick and our fingers have their limits.  I really hate slowing down dictation because it makes you sound like a melted record, and quite honestly its creepy...  So, you can speak quickly, but try to speak clearly also...oh, and keep the paper shuffling to a minimum.

One more thing.....
For those "stall dictators" as I call them....  For Pete's sake WASH YOUR HANDS!!!  We can hear the things going on around you during dictation and we KNOW that you walked out of the stall and right out of the bathroom door!!  ...Yes....I went there and now you are either blushing or laughing!  haha.

Okay.. enough for today... I must run, I have doctors waiting for me :)


Sharon ♥