Reasons for FDS/FQA

False Direct Send (FDS) and False QA (FQA) Explanations  |   Reasons for FDS  |   Reasons for FQA  |   Common Reasons to Send to QA  |   Mandatory QA Send   |   How to Handle an FDS/FQA

FDS - For quality and training purposes, each Scribe will have a percentage of their DS jobs randomly reviewed by a QA. This percentage is referred to as your QA%, and it can fluctuate between 2% and 100% on a daily basis. The exact percentage will be determined and set by a supervisor, and is based on individual Scribe performance and our current operational status. QAs review these random DS jobs for accuracy. If the QA finds little to no corrections were needed, they will edit the job as necessary, and send their job to the customer. The original Scribe will not receive a copy of the job back for review. However, if the job has substantive errors that require fixing (Standards, Common Terms, clear spellings, clear instructions, etc.), the QA will mark the job as an FDS, the QA's version will be sent to the customer, and the Scribe will get the job back as an FDS for review.

FQA - When sending a job to QA manually, Scribes are required to appropriately bookmark any sections that require a bookmark as normal, and to leave comments on any questionable areas of significance that did not require a bookmark. The QA will review the job in its entirety and edit as necessary. Once the QA has completed this process the final edited job is sent to the customer, and a copy is sent back to the initial Scribe with clear comments on any important areas that were changed. Jobs sent to QA are expected to have sections of text that may not match up with the audio, due to questionable dictation quality or audio quality. However, Scribes are still responsible for avoiding mistakes made in a QA-send that are independent of the job's audio quality (Standards, Common Terms, clear spellings, clear instructions, etc.). A job can be marked as an FQA if there are substantive errors in accuracy made within the job that were not bookmarked appropriately nor commented on, or from overuse/misuse of bookmarks, or if the job was perfect/near perfect, had no comments, and was therefore sent to QA unnecessarily.

QAs - The QA’s function is to provide quality and training by assisting with difficult and confusing dictations. They ARE NOT there to fix what a Scribe should have done before they sent the job out. As the QA processes a job, they take note of each mistake and mentally add up how it impacts the quality of the job as a whole. They have some latitude to make judgments about what would be an FDS/FQA, and they will consider factors such as Scribe experience, quality of the dictation, length of dictation, how avoidable the mistake was, total number of mistakes and how much each mistake changes the meaning/readability of the job.

New Employees - New employees in their first two weeks will be set to a QA% of 100%, and all jobs will go to QA for review. New employees are still expected to make the right decision on each job, whether to send the job to QA or DS, based on their own evaluation of their performance of the job and the guidelines laid out in the Common Reasons to Send to QA section of this document. All jobs sent DS by new employees will be automatically marked as an FDS, in order to return the job to the new employee for review (even if the job was perfect). This is for training purposes. For your first two weeks, it is beneficial to re-listen to each review job when it comes back, because listening for comprehension is far more effective when listening and reading alone, after the job has been completed and reviewed by QA, as opposed to when you are first scribing the job.

We realize that even the most experienced Scribe will make an occasional mistake, and our goal is to minimize the frequency and severity of errors in order to maintain a high quality and consistent product. Certain mistakes will always count as an FDS or FQA, while others require the QA to make a judgment call. Please understand that the nature of the job prevents us from being able to have all possible scenarios well defined. The purpose of this document is to provide clarification into the FDS and FQA process to Scribes and QAs alike.

Automatic FDS- These mistakes will always count as an FDS, regardless of the situation. Incorrect Recipient – This could be misspelling an e-mail address a customer spells out or not selecting the correct Nickname. If the customer states the recipient as an unspelled e-mail address or a nickname that is not an exact match to the customer’s NickList, the Scribe should mark the job as [xNo valid recipients. Numerical Information – All phone numbers, account numbers, Social Security numbers, dollar amounts, etc. must be correctly transcribed appropriately. If a customer says a number that isn't clear, bookmark it appropriately according to the Bookmarks document. Misspellings – This includes misspelling common English words, multiple homophone mistakes, acronyms, or something a customer spells out. All Scribes are responsible for using the spellchecker correctly. If a customer spells a word, but the spelling is not clear, bookmark it appropriately according to the Bookmarks document.

Other Reasons for an FDS

Inaccurate Transcription – Text that does not match sections of the customer’s dictation, where the customer clearly states something and the Scribe transcribes it incorrectly. This includes omitting words/phrases, not following the customer’s formatting instructions, and/or scribing sections of nonsensical text.

Standards – All Scribes are responsible for following the transcribing guidelines on the Standards document. Ignoring these guidelines makes the product look less uniform and less professional.

Grammar/Formatting – Minor mistakes are acceptable, unless it alters the meaning or readability of the text. Errors that would warrant an FDS: Comma/period placement, not capitalizing the first word of a sentence, not capitalizing names or proper nouns, scribing incomplete sentences that do not match the dictation, or English language mistakes which alter the meaning of the dictation.

Common Terms – All Scribes should be familiar with the Common Terms list and should have it as a reference on their screens. Missing multiple Common Terms or very common Common Terms may result in an FDS. QAs will take into account the difference between Common Terms that are difficult to find if heard wrong and Common Terms that were heard correctly but the Scribe mistyped it due to non-use of the Common Terms List.

Changed Meaning – Mistakes that alter the meaning of the dictation. For example, “no” vs. “know,” or substituting “did” for “didn’t,” or “We will go to the store” when it should have been “We will not go to the store”.

Improper Use of Bookmarks – Using the wrong bookmark, not putting bookmarks where they are necessary, overusing bookmarks where they are clearly unnecessary, and/or sending a job direct with many bookmarks (mainly qms and garbs). The proper use of bookmarks is important. Adding unnecessary bookmarks makes the reader doubt the accuracy of the transcription, whereas not adding bookmarks where they are necessary gives a false representation to the quality of the transcription. Click here for more information on bookmarks.

Incorrect Use of the [X Error Codes – All Scribes have available to them the Error Codes document on the home page for reference, and are responsible for knowing how to correctly use the Error Codes.

Improper Use of the [Z Field Comments – In particular, comments that are judgmental or critical of the customer, or ones that demonstrate a lack of knowledge of the correct use of the Error Code.

Lastly, anything that makes us look bad can be considered an FDS: Scribes using profanity where it's not dictated, Scribes typing things that were not said, or if the job was of such quality that it should have been sent to QA (or was a Mandatory QA Send that was not sent to QA), etc. It's impossible to give all examples of this, but the QAs use their best judgment here.

Incomplete – Scribe drops the job, sends it to QA unfinished, or there is a noticeable lack of effort to accurately transcribe parts of the job.

Bookmarks – Incorrect use and/or overuse of bookmarks, where the QA feels an average Scribe could have easily transcribed those sections. Click here for more information on bookmarks.

Quality – There’s no obvious reason why the job was sent to QA (see below), the dictation quality is clear, the transcription quality is good enough to be a Direct Send, with no bookmarks, or a few bookmarks that were easy or unnecessary, and/or no valid comments to the QA were left.

Mistakes – Scribe commits noticeable mistakes that could have been caught before the job was sent to QA (typos, incorrectly bookmarked guesses, mistyped numbers and misspelled words, etc.). Misspelled words and mistyped numbers are just as important to avoid in a QA job as they are in a Direct Send, and while they do not count as an automatic FQA, they will weigh heavily in the QA's decision to FQA.

Common Terms – All Scribes should be familiar with the Common Terms list and should have it as a reference on their screens. Missing multiple Common Terms or very common Common Terms may result in an FQA. QAs will take into account the difference between Common Terms that are difficult to find if heard wrong and Common Terms that were heard correctly but the Scribe mistyped it due to non-use of the Common Terms List.

Other Mistakes – Scribe commits a mistake with Standards, recipients, or Error Codes that the Scribe did not comment on. These mistakes are understandable when the customer’s dictation or instructions are confusing, but not if the dictation is clear.

Inappropriate Comments – Scribe leaves inappropriate comments in the text or to the QA in the F2/Comments section.

The following jobs must ALWAYS be sent to QA after transcribing them. As well, there needs to be a comment explaining that you are sending the job to QA because it is a Mandatory QA Send. For QAs: if you receive a Mandatory QA Send job, we expect you to use your judgment on whether the job should be sent to QAQA. In the special case where you send the job to QAQA, you must leave a comment.

• The job contains Questionable Content as outlined on the Standards document.
  
  
• You had trouble with a name or a number in the subject line.
  
  
• You had one or more bookmarks in the subject line.
  
  
• The content of the job is addressed to Copytalk customer service.
  
  
• You left a bookmark on a section that you believe to be related to Copytalk's CRM Integration.
  
  

The decision to send a job to QA is based upon the number of bookmarks in the job and your overall confidence in the accuracy of your work. Bookmarks are used to indicate where there are questionable areas in the text. A job with lots of questionable areas should be sent to QA for review.

When we refer to bookmarks as a reason to send to QA, we are referring mainly to <?>, <Garbled>, and <sp?>. Because the <Lost Signal>and <Background Noise> bookmarks are used to indicate the audio being interrupted by either static/call-drop or background noise.  There's typically nothing a QA can do to figure out or fix these bookmarks, and they do not count as a reason to send a job to QA.

A general guideline is if there are 3 or more bookmarks per minute of audio, the job should be sent to QA. However, there will be a few instances where a job has less than 3 bookmarks per minute, yet it should still go to QA (i.e. Garbled bookmark in the subject line but the text is near perfect). There will also be a few instances where a job has more than 3 bookmarks per minute, and it should not go to QA.

If the job has less than 3 bookmarks per minute, it should still go to QA if:

• There is at least one bookmark in the body of the job, which you believe to be of great importance to the content of the job.
  
  
• There was a garbled bookmark that represented four or more words that you believe a QA might be able to understand, which you believe to be of great importance to the content of the job.
  
  
• You left comments indicating that you were unsure of whether to use a Garbled Dictation, Multiple Items, or an Unintended Call.
  
  
• You left comments indicating the customer's formatting instructions were confusing, and your question is not covered on the Standards document.
  
  
• You left comments indicating that you feel the job should be marked as one of the Other Problem Error Codes.
  (Only QAs should be choosing the Other Problem Error Codes. Here are a few reasons why they would choose it: Job is a pre-recorded dictation of bad audio quality, recording of a book on tape/radio show/promotional recording, there are multiple speakers in a non-Note job, customer speaks in a foreign language at parts in the dictation, there are multiple unspelled medical/legal/pharmacological terms, dictation has odd/weird content and is extremely difficult to understand the speaker, etc.)
  
  
• Any other scenario for which you feel the job should be sent to QA leave a clear comment as to your reason for sending to QA.
  
  

• You are an experienced Scribe with over 200 hours, and the majority of the job is extremely poor audio quality. Put forth your best effort to transcribe the job, bookmark it appropriately, and send the job out Direct-send.
  
  

How to Handle an FDS/FQA Read the Comments – When you get a job back for review that has been marked as an FDS/FQA, make sure to check the F2/Comments screen to read the QA’s reason for the FDS/FQA. Review the Job – Relisten to the dictation and read along with the text to catch what was wrong. It is much easier to pick up on the context of the dictation by reading along with it, as opposed to typing it. This is one of the best ways to learn from your mistakes and improve. The QA Is Not Always Right – QAs are human and may make mistakes. Contact a supervisor if you receive a job back for review that you feel was incorrectly marked as an FDS/FQA, if the QA made a mistake of their own in what they changed, if the QA’s comments are not clear enough, or if the QA left inappropriate comments. Your supervisor should be contacted via Psi with the following information in order to speed up the process: Job length, name of QA, and the issue. After messaging a supervisor with the necessary information, you should send the job and continue working in order to maintain a review XF of equal to or less than 1.0.

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