I would
have not gotten the expert treatment as I eventually got. Sometimes, you
have to really "jar" the minds of the physician to really get
out of them the diagnosing and treating skills specific to your particular
illness or ailment.By definition, the physical examination includes those
procedures performed directly by the physician as he relies on his own
senses, with the aid of hand-held instruments. X-rays, laboratory studies,
electrocardiography and electromyography, various scans or other techniques
may eventually be absolutely essential to make a precise and accurate
diagnosis. These are not considered part of the physical examination.The
word "diagnosis" in medicine is an interesting word to think
about what it means. First, it is the intellectual process of analyzing,
identifying, or explaining a disease. The diagnosis forms the subject
matter and means the explanation proposed for a patient's problems. Physicians
speak about arriving at a diagnosis or of making a tentative diagnosis.
So that the history and physical examination report is a physician's report
of his findings during the interview with a patient and his own examination
with a goal of moving toward a diagnosis for this patient.Upon dictating
the history and physical report, the physician will include patient's
name, patient's date of birth and other identification information such
as hospital number or private practice number, etc. The medical transcriber
must be very careful that he or she transcribes the patient identification
information accurately.
The medical report
of a thorough history and physical contains more negative than positive
statements. This is due to the fact that a physician is not concerned
only with compiling a list of abnormalities about the patient. He or she
must establish a complete picture of the patient's condition; therefore,
he must also say what common or relevant symptoms and signs are not present.The
language of medicine is like a "foreign language" that a Medical
Transcriptionist must learn as well. It is sort of like while in Rome,
you must be like the Romans and speak and understand as the Romans. When
transcribing medical dictation a Medical Transcriptionist is in the foreign
land of "Medicine," and he or she must or will learn the language
of this foreign land.The language in which a physician writes or dictates
a history and physical contains many recurring terms, phrases, and formulas.
Some of these terms and phrases are formal medical terminology, while
others are highly informal, perhaps regional, institutional, or even individual,
and do not appear in conventional medical reference books. For these types
of phrases and terms, a Medical Transcriptionist usually learns them as
she goes.