Photography by Brenda Washington
After Rachel Forberg had her dictated notes lost by the clinic's transcriptionist several times, she reverted to handwriting each and every note in the patients' charts. It was time-consuming, but less time-consuming than having to re-dictate the notes if they were once again lost. Still, she knew there had to be an alternative.
Rachel's collaborating physician, Dr. David, had been using speech recognition software for about a year with good results, so in late 2006, Rachel decided to be trained.
At the same time, the Oak Orchard Health Center was looking for ways to reduce the clinic's transcription costs and speech recognition software seemed a likely strategy. In addition, since the center will be converting to an electronic medical records system in a matter of months, starting some practitioners on Dragon Naturally Speaking would make the transition a little easier, the administrators thought.
While Rachel says she was somewhat familiar with how speech recognition worked, from having watched Dr. David use it, she says it was "very easy to learn." And soon after she began using it, she found "there was a significant time savings." The biggest advantage? Instead of having to stay until 2:00 am writing up her notes one night a week, Rachel can now leave around 11:00 pm – "I get more sleep," she says.
Besides finishing work hours earlier, Rachel has found "convenience is the biggest piece for me." Notes are neater, since they are typed, not handwritten, and she can generate many letters in the time it used to take her to write up one. "We have to do a lot of letters," she explains – to patients, referring doctors, utility company, service agencies, etc. To help get through the stack more quickly, Achieve Results designed a letter template Rachel now uses to write and print letters in a fraction of the time it used to take her. Other nurses have even adopted the template after seeing how speedy it is to use.
After initially using a headset, Rachel then switched to a microphone, which she finds is much more convenient. "I can turn it off and on much more quickly than having to put the headset on," she explains.
In a matter of months, Rachel is somewhat surprised to find how dependent she has become on Dragon Naturally Speaking. "Now I can't function with out!" And since her switch will save the medical center an estimated $2,500 a year, Oak Orchard doesn't want her to.