Saving Keystrokes | 
 enlarge | Author: Diana Rolland
Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Category: Book
List Price: $43.95
Buy New: $31.73
You Save: $12.22 (28%)
New (26) Used (10) from $26.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 283706
Media: Spiral-bound
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 7.8 x 1
ISBN: 0781761077
Dewey Decimal Number: 653.18
EAN: 9780781761079
ASIN: 0781761077
Publication Date: April 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Ready to Ship
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Product Description
Saving Keystrokes will help medical transcriptionists maximize their speed, productivity, and profits by effective use of software programs called abbreviation expanders, speedtyping software, and word completion software. Written by a medical transcriptionist, this one-of-a-kind reference shows how to create expanders and macros for use with this software. The book teaches easy-to-learn techniques for developing accurate expanders and expander lists for nearly everything you type. Included are specific expander techniques for capitalization, punctuation, symbols, headings, drugs, numbers, and phrases and for handling predictable and not-so-predictable dictators and other chart details. Practice and test sections are integrated throughout the book.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Saving Keystrokes July 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a student enrolled with CareerStep, I learned about Saving Keystrokes from the student's chatroom. From Amazon, I purchased the textbook. After receiving it, I promptly read it and I was favorably impressed. I plan to incorporate the suggestions from Saving Keystrokes with my use of InstantText.
Saving Keystrokes May 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book definitely should be on every medical transciptionist's desk. I read it cover to cover and did most of the worksheets. I have been an MT for over 30 years and have my own "system" of saving keystrokes but this had so many ideas I had not thought of; and an organized system that is easy to remember. I plan on reviewing this book regularly.
Saving Keystrokes August 31, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Very helpful if you are in medical transcription. I am not sure how this would work if you were in another field, but for med trans, it is well worth the money.
I found it very useful! January 12, 2006
30 out of 30 found this review helpful
I bought this book about six months ago and have absolutely written all over it! When I saw that the only review on it was rather negative in tone, I was inspired to present my own opinion. I am a working medical transcriptionist and I have used Ms. Rolland's techniques since day one and continue to add more shortcuts to my expander list every day. It has shaved so much time off my transcriptions. I have written extensively in the "white space" as I took the shortcuts I already used and expanded them as she explains with her technique. Although it seems that it would have been lovely to have long lists of shortcuts provided, I agree with the author that providing already-assembled lists of shortcuts would have done very little good. Instead, Ms. Rolland teaches you a technique to develop your own list of shortcuts. I have used many shortcuts that she has suggested and typed them into my own lists, with any changes I deem necessary for the accounts that I actually type for. I have inherited from other transcriptionists their lists of shortcuts and have found them to be extremely non-helpful and in some ways even harmful. The author really wants you to use YOUR thought process in developing shortcuts that work for you, not for her. For example, I am extremely left-handed (my right hand is very weak and not very coordinated), so most of my shortcuts are weighted toward using the left hand: hx for hospital, sx for surgery, rx for prescription, dx for diagnosis, ds for diabetes, etc., etc., etc. But, when I talk to other people, they are shocked because they would never use that many x's. They hate trying to hit the x. Also, your own shortcuts -- that work with the way your brain thinks -- are much easier to remember. I have tried to remember other MTs shortcuts, and I can never think of them. For example, cmpy is cardiomyopathy for me, which really does not make a lot of sense, hoty is hypothyroidism (ditto), apth is adenopathy and so on.
Anyway, I think that anyone who works doing medical transcription really can develop some very helpful skills in speeding up their typing by reading this book and since every stroke you "save" means more money in your pocket, I highly recommend it.
 Rather Useless December 29, 2005
13 out of 20 found this review helpful
Production medical transcriptionists, the tens of thousands of hard-working women and men who document your medical history, know that the key to making a living wage in this era of off-shoring, voice recognition, and EMR experiments, is the use of a word expander, software which converts 'tpcosob' to "The patient complains of shortness of breath." Yet most medical transcription schools and community colleges fail to teach students to use these valuable tools. Diana Rolland wants hers to be the textbook these schools will use when they wake up to the realities of 21st-century transcription. Unfortunately, the book is poorly written and provides little information that can't easily be found on the internet at http://www.productivitytalk.com/forums/index.php or many other sites by googling 'medical transcription productivity' or 'medical transcription expanders.' One should also explore the web sites for the expanders themselves: Instant Text, Shorthand, and Stedman's SmarType being the ones most frequently used by working MTs. Once again the publisher, Stedman's, proves how out of touch it is with the needs of the working MT: This text could have been made marginally useful with the inclusion of a CD-ROM containing a complete, sensibly worked-out beginning glossary list (in each of the above 3 expander formats) incorporating all the standard sentence particles that comprise the bulk of the reports we transcribe, as well as names of diseases, drugs, and equipment, so that those new to expander use don't have to reinvent the wheel. Instead, white space abounds on the majority of the pages as the author has provided hundreds of blank lines so that the reader can work out her or his own short forms and expansions following the examples given. Trees are crying over the publication of this text; if you must buy it, please buy it used.
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