This Was a Long Week

I am still deep in the throes of wedding stuff, but I think once we get past this initial set of decisions and arrangements, most of my work will be done. The kids know what they want. We are just doing our best to make it happen for them.

[Please do not ask me for details. If you have not been given details yet, it’s not because of some big conspiracy to keep you in the dark. You don’t yet know because we don’t yet know. Some things are still up in the air. It’s that simple. And it’s not my wedding, so I plan to be careful about how much I share here on the blog.]

It’s also been a week of finding some equilibrium with the doctors. I did have one day where I said to the husband that I am having second thoughts about working again. I am not unhappy about the change in the schedule. Transcribing fits into the early morning hours nicely. Rather, I am still struggling with the severe decline in the quality of reporting that comes with allowing people not trained in reporting to have access to a patient’s electronic medical record. And I am not the only one. I was doing a batch of reports yesterday for one doctor who made his feelings very clear. The numbered list of diagnoses for one patient had been transcribed all in lower case, which makes me believe it was done by someone other than a trained transcriptionist. He requested—with some associated editorial comments—that everything be capitalized and punctuated properly, so I had to go back and fix all of it. (Not work that I get paid for doing, by the way, as my compensation is calculated on the basis of audio minutes.) His anger was completely justified. A patient’s medical record is critical to the success of treatment, so why would you want it to look like it was written by a fourth-grader? The official transcription style guide that I was trained to use is more than an inch thick, but it’s basically useless now.

I could give you my sermon about how the government completely screwed up health care (and education, and a thousand other things), but I have come to accept that most people can’t think past “More legislation must be the answer!” to realize that government interference caused the problems in the first place. Some days it’s not worth the effort to point out that layering more complexity onto an already complex system never made that system simpler and more efficient. (The physician author of this article expresses a similar sentiment, with an associated graph that ought to make you choke on your coffee.)

I do hear reports every now and then of doctors who are bucking the requirements and hiring their own transcriptionists or switching to concierge-style medicine where they don’t have to be told how to practice by a bunch of lawmakers and insurance companies. Truly, I hope that trend continues. There may well come a time, though, where I cannot bear the mediocrity in the current system any longer.

********************************************************************

I haven’t done much sewing this week. I did slice up some half-square rectangles for the commission quilt yesterday to test out the process of making the Delectable Mountain blocks. They came out beautifully.

I also stopped at the quilting store and bought a new die for my Accuquilt cutter:

This is the die for the Cleopatra’s fan quilt block. It has a very art deco vibe. A few years ago I bought a collection of fabric—also in the art deco style—and a set of plastic templates for making the block. I hadn’t yet started on the quilt because the thought of having to trace and cut all those template pieces by hand was too daunting. And then a few months ago, Accuquilt came out with this die. This should make cutting the fabric for the quilt go MUCH faster. (Sewing them together will be another story. This is not a block for the faint of heart.)

I also ordered the die for the larger Drunkard’s Path block (the store didn’t have it in stock). The one I have makes a 4” block, so I ordered the one that makes the 7” block.

I’ve got to take some time this weekend and sit down and figure out a production schedule. Most of the “loose ends” projects have been dealt with and it’s time to start working on new items. I suspect zipper pouches will be next on the list.