IME medical transcription can sometimes become faulty if errors occur during the transcribing process. Irrespective of how prudent you are, human errors are inevitable. Even the best of IME transcription providers could confuse with certain medical terms. For better understanding, here we have listed below some of the common medical transcription errors that could prove costly.

Words that may sound similar: A proper medical treatment can be given only if the diagnosis is proper. A proper diagnose can be at stake due to certain words that may sound similar. It happens many times that doctors leave their patients in the hands of their juniors for collecting medical information from the patient. If the physician addresses hypertension as hypotension, it could lead to the wrong transcription, leaving the patient to a cure that he/she may never need.

Grammar and Spelling Mistakes: Even if the physician doesn’t make any mistakes in pronunciation of words, however, if the knowledge of the transcribers is not dependable, similar sounding words may be misspelt. There can be grammar mistakes as well. It can lead to treatment that a patient may not need.

Numbering Errors: Another common IME transcription error is the mix up of numerical values. These values are important when the doctor starts a treatment. The problem is that every patient needs a different treatment pattern. A doctor may prescribe medicine and dosage on the basis of a patient’s medical condition. For instance, if a doctor dictates 50 and the transcribers write 5 or vice versa, the effects could be life-threatening.

3. Mishearing: You use the incorrect word because you heard the word incorrectly. However, mishearing can cause trouble to the patient.
4. Atomic Typos: An atomic is a small one letter word. You type one wrong letter and type a word that exists, but it is not similar to the intended word. A one-letter mistake can change the entire meaning of a sentence. The sad part is that if you type a word that exists, then even a spellchecker would not be able to catch the mistake. Here are some of the examples of such words;

• Accept Vs. Except
• Nuclear Vs. Unclear
• Peace Vs. Piece

Lab Errors: Physicians may sometimes talk too loudly or fast or fail to pursue while dictating their prescription which can often cause problems for medical transcriptionists. Often times, medical transcriptionists are left to guess only, which can lead to mistakes.

How to Avoid Transcription Mistakes?

Making mistakes can prove fatal especially if it is related to medical transcription. Here are some steps that you can take to avoid transcription errors:

• Get rid of background noise
• Educate your clients about the importance of high qualitative medical recordings
• Check resource materials along with references. Look up for any words with which you are not familiar with. Make use of reliable resources while doing research.
• If you don’t know the spelling of certain words even after researching, ask your client about the spelling or flag the term.
• Even if you are using spell-check or another tool, make sure that you proofread the text.
• Proofread all the medical transcripts once you have completed them. It is the only way through which you can find typing errors, inconsistencies of words that don’t make complete sense.
• Ask the other person to proofread your content
• While checking the transcript, listen to the complete recording
• Pay due attention, use logic and think about the recording content

Conclusion

IME transcription errors could prove extremely expensive. A lot of patients around the world have had fatalities due to errors in medical transcription. A simple typo error can adversely impact the course of treatment and people have to pay for these errors with their lives. No matter how efficient medical transcriber is, life is nothing with which risks can be taken.