I shamelessly swiped this off some wonderful soul who shared it a long time ago. It is totally a great time saver!

For drugs and their dosages, you can take this example: Seroquel, and have ser25 for Seroquel 25 mg, ser100 for Seroquel 100 mg, and so forth for all the dosages. Believe me, though it takes some time to build up a substantial base for all the different drugs we hear in dictation, to me it has been so worth it! Also, if they just give the name and no dose, I generally put serz - and that would expand to Seroquel. (A z or any letter of your choice, of course). In the case of conflicts, I just give maybe an extra letter instead of the first 3, or perhaps more than 1 z at the end; it works out quite satisfactorily and I now have many drugs entered and no, they don't come out screwy. It works great with IT, and though it's been awhile since I used Shorthand, I can't think why it wouldn't work well with it, too. It may be this is a common thing to do, not sure, but I thought I'd share it. There are also drug glossaries out there for sale, but I have so much fun doing them myself, I've never tried them! :biggrin

This is also great for when they slur an uncommon drug name and you aren't quite sure...then having the dosage already entered in will help you make the determination of what they are saying. (not meaning to ever guess, of course, just saying it can put you on the right track). And I love it for the long ones we only type rarely, then I don't have to look it up yet again to be sure whether it's capitalized or not, because I've already put it in there correctly!

Okay, systems, systems! What works for you?

Bumping this to top, as it's just another good "system!"

I will add a trick on medications that I "borrowed" from someone else a few years ago. "I use shorthand, so I am able to use punctuation or symbols in front of shortcuts to make them work."

1lido=1% lidocaine
2lido=2% lidocaine
2xylo=2% Xylocaine
1xylo=2% Xylocaine

but I reverse the location of the percentage for use at beginning of sentence:
/1lido=Lidocaine, 1%,
/2xylo=Xylocaine, 2%,
etc.

Marcaine abbreviations
qmwe=0.25% Marcaine with epinephrine
hsmwe=0.5% Marcaine with epinephrine
hsmp=0.5% Marcaine plain
hsmwoe=0.5% Marcaine without epinephrine.
hspm=0.5% plain Marcaine

Also
hsns=0.45% normal saline
fsns=0.90% normal saline

hperox=hydrogen peroxide
hshperox=half-strength hydrogen peroxide.

Yes, those are all so important, it's awful to type those out! I do miss being able to start an entry with something other than a letter.

I really like your trick for when those begin the sentence, Mary Anne!

Here are some of my examples:

xy1 = 1% Xylocaine
xy2 = 2% Xylocaine
l1 = 1% lidocaine
m025 = 0.25% Marcaine
m05 = 0.5% Marcaine
m075 = 0.75% Marcaine

I need to get with it on the with and without epinephrine score, and other additions. Thanks a lot for the post.

A thought along the lines of this discussion:



I think one of the goals in creating any expander system is to have your expander think for you! Let the expander "remember" which drugs are capitalized. If the transcription platform you use lacks a convenient way to pop physician's names into the text [Ctrl-N in DocQscribe], then code the initials of the more frequently used [or difficult to spell physicians] combined with a unique character and let the expander remember how to spell the names; you might want to code "Dr. Brown" with one unique character and "Jane Brown, MD" with another. I also code nearby facility names the same way; making allowance for the different ways that dictators refer to the same facility: XYZ Hospital, XYZ Medical Center, etc.

Medication Names

Many people vehemently dislike moving their fingers off the home keys to the number keys. I guess I lean that way, although I'm not rabid about it.

I have always advocated adding a character at the end of each basic medication abbreviation to represent the most common dosage of the drug. I started my system using "x," but I'm thinking good ol' "q" would be more useful. Here is a sample of my entries:

benaq = Benadryl 25 mg
clonq = clonidine 0.2 mg
hctzq = hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg
norvq = Norvasc 5 mg
raniq = ranitidine 150 mg

"The most common dosage" is quite subjective -- it should be the most common dosage for the particular account(s) the MT works on. The way you code the abbreviation for the medication will also likely be different. Maybe someone will be inventive and post a comprehensive list of suggested abbreviations for the most popular drugs.

I can't come up with one most common dosage for some drugs; with these I'm stuck with using numbers.

This is definitely a work in progress. I rely on a list of the 200 most popular drugs that is an appendix in my Quick Look Electronic Drug Reference 2004. I think I've seen a similar lists at www.rxlist.com too. [Sorry, I'm scribbling this idea during work, so I can't take the time to search for the lists and write the links.]

I do my drugs with a "v" at the beginning. That way it frees up the letter for other words. Like vaug is Augmentin while Aug is August. It might not be the most popular, but it works for me.

Debi

Hey Debi, I think that sounds 100% perfect for drugs, too! I sure can't imagine v and the first three letters of a drug having conflicts pop up! Good one!

Joi, that's quite an interesting idea, having a "q" or other letter at the end to have the most common dosage pop up. I like it!

You're right, the most common dosage is quite subjective and probably peculiar to accounts, but then, lots of people have docs who will almost always prescribe the same dosage every time. Seems pretty workable. Thanks for the idea!

Thanks for the information about adding medications. I have been transcribing for nearly 20 years and have never thought of doing it that way. I have now entered about 50 medications throughout the course of the last couple of days and I love it. Thanks again!

And I love that you came here to say so! Thanks a lot, typertyper! Pleased to have you as a member!

I am just in awe of this board. I have been using ChartScript for about 5 years now and the information on this board is more than I have ever seen about the SoftMed/Chartscript set-up. I have had nearly all of my questions answered today.

I'll have to come up with more!!!!

Beverly

Please do, Beverly! It's amazing, what comments and questions can lead to sometimes! Things you don't even expect! Like that post I made about IE and FF emailing for links - it led to a big great thing for me, personally!

Welcome aboard!

Not sure if this is the correct place to mention this, but.............. something I have found that is useful for me on drugs. It just clicked in my head. Others may already do this, but it was great "new" idea to me.

You know how drugs seem to go in pairs? i.e. albuterol and Atrovent, Lovenox and Coumadin, Atrovent and Xopenex, Rocephin and Levaquin, Zyvox and rifampin, etc. I put them in Instant Text in the pairs. It is a timesaver for me.

Another thing I do......... If I search thru Google on something (drugs, procedures, equipment) ........ that "something" gets added to my IT. Since it's a term I'm not familiar with, having it in IT keeps it at my fingertips. Before long, it's old news, but while I get adjusted to the term, it's so very handy.

Georgia

Hey! I'm putting that albuterol and Atrovent in my expander this morning! Nice one, Georgia! Rocephin and Levaquin, too! :thumb

I do the same, putting terms I've found after searching in IT. If I don't, I'm sure to be sorry later. That "I'll never hear it again" thing doesn't usually hold water!

Another thing I like to do........a few weeks ago I had some doc saying what sounded like "Roxatrol." I looked and looked and looked and was like, there is no Roxatrol, he must mean Roxanol! But then I came across UroXatral, which is for BPH. He was just cutting off the U sound! So I put that in. But yesterday, I came across it again and thought, "I have it." But every combo I put in didn't yield results, because I had forgotten it started with a U, LOL. So now I have it both with a U, and I also have it so that if I start it with an R, it will show that drug!

Yea Harrie....... I've learned to do the same. Docs are forever cutting off the first syllable of a word, which almost sinks you trying to "look it up."

Sometimes I also have sounds-like terms/drugs entered into IT. I ran across one yesterday. Gevratonic........... sounds like Jevratonic. I put in both entries so that Gevratonic pops in regardless of how it sounds!!

Georgia

Yep, yep, sounds like a good one!

I wanted to thank you again for that combo idea. I really like it and had never thought of it!

I thanked you before but I feel the need to do it again, Georgia! Plavix and aspirin, aspirin and Plavix...... all the rest, too. Love it!

You're very welcome, Harrie. Glad I could contribute something useful to this wonderful site! Georgia

Here are just a few I like to use; that is, putting in the first 3 letters and then XR, or XL, or whatever. I checked all these against the latest 2005 Drake and Drake to be sure they are all hyphenated/not hyphenated as I had them! That's why I like to always put them in, who wants to stop to look and see about that!

ditxl = Ditropan XL
gluxl = Glucotrol XL
lesxl = Lescol XL
nifxl = Nifedical XL
topxl = Toprol-XL
welxl = Wellbutrin XL
cipxr = Cipro XR
tegxr = Tegretol-XR
gluxr = Glucophage XR
effxr = Effexor XR
fleds = Flextra-DS
robdm = Robitussin-DM
welsr = Wellbutrin SR
axiar = Axid AR
anuhc = Anusol-HC
esths = Estratest H.S.

I had one today that I hadn't ever heard of before....

Sandostatin LAR

I truly thought the doc was trying to say simvastatin and spelling out something that sounded like LAOR...I was thinking...what the heck? I used RxList and just put in *statin and found the Sandostatin which is a cancer drug I believe. Anyway, just thought I would throw it out there for y'all to add in case any of you type chemo reports or discharge summaries.

I've had that one recently myself, 2busy!