Table 3. Error Types in Dictated Notes by Note Type and Processing Stage.
| Note Type (No.) | Note Stage | Total Errors, No. | No. (%) | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Errors, General Typea | Errors, Semantic Typea | ||||||||||||||||||
| Deletion | Insertion | Substitution | No. | Punctuation | General Englishc | Clinical Information | |||||||||||||
| Enunciation | Homonym | Nonsense | Otherb | Medication | Diagnosis | Procedure | Symptom | Laboratory Test | Physical Examination | Imaging Test | Otherd | ||||||||
| Discharge summaries (75) | SR | 3892 | 1395 (35.8) | 1031 (26.5) | 655 (16.8) | 5 (0.1) | 272 (7.0) | 186 (4.8) | 133 (3.4) | 215 (5.5) | 3314 (85.1) | 127 (3.3) | 76 (2.0) | 13 (0.3) | 60 (1.5) | 50 (1.3) | 30 (0.8) | 25 (0.6) | 197 (5.1) |
| MT | 195 | 87 (44.7) | 36 (18.5) | 35 (17.9) | 0 | 5 (2.6) | 20 (10.3) | 9 (4.6) | 3 (1.5) | 133 (68.2) | 14 (7.2) | 9 (4.6) | 2 (1.0) | 7 (3.6) | 2 (1.0) | 14 (7.2) | 2 (1.0) | 12 (6.2) | |
| SN | 163 | 74 (45.4) | 29 (17.8) | 29 (17.8) | 0 | 1 (0.6) | 19 (11.7) | 8 (4.9) | 3 (1.8) | 114 (69.9) | 6 (3.7) | 9 (5.5) | 2 (1.2) | 7 (4.3) | 2 (1.2) | 14 (8.6) | 2 (1.2) | 7 (4.3) | |
| Office notes (83) | SR | 2513 | 875 (34.8) | 549 (21.8) | 608 (24.2) | 10 (0.4) | 178 (7.1) | 128 (5.1) | 41 (1.6) | 124 (4.9) | 2166 (86.2) | 55 (2.2) | 60 (2.4) | 27 (1.1) | 40 (1.6) | 15 (0.6) | 10 (0.4) | 8 (0.3) | 132 (5.3) |
| MT | 128 | 39 (30.5) | 26 (20.3) | 39 (30.5) | 1 (0.8) | 11 (8.6) | 10 (7.8) | 2 (1.6) | 0 | 108 (84.4) | 1 (0.8) | 7 (5.5) | 2 (1.6) | 2 (1.6) | 1 (0.8) | 0 | 0 | 7 (5.5) | |
| SN | 53 | 16 (30.2) | 17 (32.1) | 10 (18.9) | 0 | 6 (11.3) | 3 (5.7) | 1 (1.9) | 0 | 44 (83.0) | 0 | 5 (9.4) | 0 | 1 (1.9) | 1 (1.9) | 0 | 0 | 2 (3.8) | |
| Operative notes (59) | SR | 1756 | 559 (31.8) | 620 (35.3) | 226 (12.9) | 13 (0.7) | 124 (7.1) | 77 (4.4) | 40 (2.3) | 97 (5.5) | 1393 (79.3) | 4 (0.2) | 39 (2.2) | 140 (8.0) | 8 (0.5) | 1 (0.1) | 5 (0.3) | 1 (0.1) | 165 (9.4) |
| MT | 138 | 48 (34.8) | 37 (26.8) | 25 (18.1) | 1 (0.7) | 15 (10.9) | 9 (6.5) | 1 (0.7) | 2 (1.4) | 96 (69.6) | 0 | 5 (3.6) | 15 (10.9) | 4 (2.9) | 0 | 1 (0.7) | 1 (0.7) | 16 (11.6) | |
| SN | 112 | 43 (38.4) | 35 (31.3) | 19 (17.0) | 1 (0.9) | 5 (4.5) | 6 (5.4) | 1 (0.9) | 2 (1.8) | 85 (75.9) | 0 | 4 (3.6) | 10 (8.9) | 2 (1.8) | 0 | 1 (0.9) | 1 (0.9) | 9 (8.0) | |
| All notes (217) | SR | 8161 | 2829 (34.7) | 2200 (27.0) | 1489 (18.2) | 28 (0.3) | 574 (7.0) | 391 (4.8) | 214 (2.6) | 436 (5.3) | 6873 (84.2) | 186 (2.3) | 175 (2.1) | 180 (2.2) | 108 (1.3) | 66 (0.8) | 45 (0.6) | 34 (0.4) | 494 (6.1) |
| MT | 461 | 174 (37.7) | 99 (21.5) | 99 (21.5) | 2 (0.4) | 31 (6.7) | 39 (8.5) | 12 (2.6) | 5 (1.1) | 337 (73.1) | 15 (3.3) | 21 (4.6) | 19 (4.1) | 13 (2.8) | 3 (0.7) | 15 (3.3) | 3 (0.7) | 35 (7.6) | |
| SN | 328 | 133 (40.5) | 81 (24.7) | 58 (17.7) | 1 (0.3) | 12 (3.7) | 28 (8.5) | 10 (3.0) | 5 (1.5) | 243 (74.1) | 6 (1.8) | 18 (5.5) | 12 (3.7) | 10 (3.0) | 3 (0.9) | 15 (4.6) | 3 (0.9) | 18 (5.5) | |
Abbreviations: MT, medical transcriptionist–edited notes; SN, signed notes; SR, automatic transcriptions by the speech recognition system.
a
Percentages are equal to the number of errors of each type divided by the total number of errors; percentages may not sum to 100 because of rounding.
b
Includes suffix, prefix, dictionary, and spelling errors.
c
Includes general English, stop word, and date errors.
d
Includes patient or physician identifier, interpretation, psychological test, and ??? (unintelligible or otherwise unclassifiable) errors.