Many times our students refer to the dreaded “do not use” list, the “dangerous abbreviation” list, or the “ISMP” list.
I am here to tell you that 99% of those abbreviations are use on a daily basis when working as a medical transcriptionist.
So, please disregard the lists and go ahead and use those abbreviations.
Quite often I have been asked about the “do-not-use dangerous abbreviation” list. The worry by the JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) is that these abbreviations can be misread. While that certainly is a possibility, speaking from a professional medical transcription and proofreader standpoint I can assure you that the majority of these abbreviations are indeed used and used often.
The most common suspect culprit abbreviation is q.d. for every day or daily. This particular one is typed thousands of times a day so please do not be swayed by this “dangerous” list. If the provider/dictator you are typing for deems it in appropriate, well, their preference is the final say, but otherwise, please continue to use q.d. on a q.d. basis!
Q: When a date is dictated, “April one, two thousand nine,” I must type as dictated and not 04/01/2009 as I had thought. I saw the sample report in Med Workshops with that date format so it seems my assumption was wrong. When the dictator says the date numerically, “Four, one, two thousand nine,” that’s the only time I type it numerically as well (04/01/2009). Is my reasoning correct?
A: Your assumption is correct, you must type verbatim, including dates as dictated.