A medical transcription professional will have to handle diverse medical specialties and scenarios and one crucial area is emergency room transcription. ER documentation is quite challenging compared to types of medical transcription. In ER, the patient condition fluctuates based on variable factors and it is crucial to provide proper and timely care as well as ensure accuracy in medical records. ER transcription demands knowledge of medical terminology related to diverse areas including critical care medicine, plastic surgery, anesthesia, cardiology, O&G, ENT, orthopedic surgery, and much more. Good knowledge of common ER slang terms can be a great help in this scenario for those responsible for documenting care. Proper understanding of medical slang and abbreviations helps to a great extent. Here are some of the most important ER slang terms which a medical transcriptionist should be familiar with:
- Ambo – transporting ambulance
- Appy – appendectomy
- Bagging – artificial respiration performed with a respirator bag, such as an ambu bag
- champagne tap- clear tap; no blood
- epis – epithelial cells
- gorked- obtunded or not alert
- four H’s- hypoxemia, hypoglycemia, hypovolemia, and high bladder
- lap coly- laparoscopic cholecystectomy
- nitro paste- Nitrol, nitroglycerin paste
- sed rate- sedimentation rate
- triple A- abdominal aortic aneurysm, AAA
- serum/urine ozm(s)- serum/urine osmolality/osmolalities (lab)
- traked- endotracheally intubated
- Ambu- ambu bag, manual resuscitative device
- tweak score- scale for assessing alcoholism dependence
- vitamin H – ER short form for Haldol
In a professional medical transcription company focused on meeting the accuracy and turnaround time demands of ER, the medical transcriptionists would be well-trained in word differentiation, abbreviations, plurals, foreign terms and slang and jargon used by physicians and other health care personnel. Opting for outsourced ER transcription service is undoubtedly the ideal option for hospitals, healthcare centers, medical emergency centers, and trauma care centers when it comes to ensuring comprehensive emergency room reports.
