mpappert

It's a SpeechMike Pro BC (with Barcode Reader) - Model LFH5284/00.

We recently upgraded (last week) to 5.23 since we got new systems with Windows 7 64-bit (Business Edition) installed. Since then, we've been trying to get the speechmikes to be recognized by Express Dictate but seems nothing we do works. We've tried the current version and the shipped version of the speechmike drivers and nothing. The speechmike works in all other applications just not ED. It would seem that 5.23 is bugged? Also, I noticed that the release notes state 5.25 is the current version yet we can only download 5.23 (not that there is a fix showing for this in the version logs but just curious as to why the rollback two versions?) Thanks! Mark

Is there a way to use eTools to extract encrypted dictations (so that the length of the wave file can be determined)? Or can this be added to the eTools XML file that it produces? Thanks, M.

Can someone from NCH reply to this please? I don't really want to "test" this now as we went live with one client on the new system and I don't really want to take a chance at losing anything. Thanks, M.

oK, so thinking outside the box ... one undocumented feature we've encountered (hopefully it is not a bug) is when a transcriptionist deletes a dictation the next time they "sync" it appears again. It stays in the queue until it's dispatched. So ... using this logic, could we create an email address (instead of a typing pool) and register every transcriptionist with that email address and they will get a copy of the dictations whenever they sync? Theoretically, it should behave that way given what I've seen with a single client setup. Can you confirm whether this work-around could indeed work? M.

Thanks for the reply. So, as an interim solution until an official supported method is released, would it be possible to implement the forwarding feature (which gets disabled when using Delegate) or an option to "return to queue" so another transcriptionist can download the case?

Also, this option is required as there is no "reject" option - i.e. if a transcriptionist downloads a case that s/he cannot type (language restrictions to use the same example as above) they cannot "return to queue" ... the only option that exists is one to dispatch it back which will mark it as completed. It would be nice to see a "return to queue" in Express Scribe but also, when editing the transcription in Express Delegate there should be a way to "unassign" the dictation and return it to the pool again. M.

I've seen mention of Express Delegate v4.01 - if you are looking for people to test the new version, I would like to happily volunteer ... =) M.

I am just about to do a similar test (with Typing Pools) and am hoping that EVERYONE assigned to a typing pool will receive copies of the dictation file. Here is my reasoning as to why this should exist (or at least as an "option" at the bottom of creating a pool - like a checkbox that reads "send to all typists" or something of the sort). We have doctors that dictate in two languages (English and French) - we have transcriptionists for both languages. So, the transcriptionists download the cases and as they get to each one and start listening if it's their language they type it and send it - if it's not, they delete it. If there is a better workflow for this type of scenario then please let me know ... otherwise, I second the request to have at least an option in the typist pools to send the dictations assigned to that pool to all typist recipients. Cheers! M.

Have you tried downloading the latest version (v4.28) to see if the problem has been fixed? M.

Thanks for the fast responses! I've been playing with the system a little bit more this morning (and plan on it for a couple more hours as I want to rollover to this new setup as quickly as possible for all the great new features) ... Here are a few more things I've come across ... When a dictation is downloaded from Express Delegate into Express Scribe (ES) there is a dispatch issue. If you don't type anything (no notes, no word document) and click the dispatch button - then you get the dispatch to delegate window. If you link a word document to the dictation (which is how our work is done) via the word templating feature, when you click the dispatch button you get the send by email window instead of the dispatch to delegate. This might actually be within Express Scribe, but I am going to post all my findings in one post rather than spread them out between forums. Yesterday, it seemed that when a dictation was assigned a "pool" via a rule, it was moved to the "assigned" queue and when it was downloaded by a typist it would move to the "transcribing" section. Today when I tested, it remains in the unassigned after both being assigned a pool via a rule and after downloading it (via automatic incoming) whereas it should have moved to the assigned pool and transcribing pool respectively. I have made no changes to the configurations other than installing the new v4.28 of ES. I can't really think of a logical explanation for this so if you need any more information that can help you troubleshoot - let me know and I'll send it off or post it =) For the deadline feature that you plan on implementing into Express Dictate - I have some concerns on how that will affect a businesses workflow. Specifically, if we allow too much influence on the "urgency" of a dictation from a dictator, then it could have detrimental effects on a companies overall workflow and output. To draw a picture, a client dictates and flags it as high priority and sets the deadline to a date in the past (which the system allows for). When it enters our system, it is now flagged as both high priority and overdue, which should technically boost it to the top or very near it according to how you calculate urgency (Quote from online help: "Urgency is calculated using priorities, deadlines, and the relative ages of dictations.") So, by doing this they have effective bypassed the workflow policies that we have instituted. I know this is a bit of an exagerration, but it's a scenario to simply illustrate my point. From a business perspective, the client can have limited influence on the turn-around times and this functionality exists - low, normal and high priorities. The deadlines, I see, as a tool for management to ensure that contractual and internal policies are met - rather than a method for cleints to "bump" their dictations to the top of the pile. So, I would prefer to see this feature implemented into Express Delegate rather than Express Dictate. I have a suggestion on how this could be done - but still has a potential drawback. My first thought on implementing this, is to allow managers to set default deadlines for "pools" based on priority. So, when creating/modifying a pool - a manager/admin can set the turn-around time in fields marked "low", "normal" and "high". Then when a dictation is assigned a pool, either manually or automatically via a rule, then it would add that time to the dictation time and that in turn becomes the deadline. The potential drawback for this method, is how to handle the changing of pools once it has been assigned. I would suggest that the old "deadline" would just become superceded by a newly calculated deadline based on the new pool (as it's calculated from the dictation time, the effective deadline would be the same as if it was assigned that pool initially - and turn-around time is met accordingly). One last request, specific to ES, is to have more flexibility in the naming of files when using templating. Our clients request our files to be saved in a specific naming format. In order to fully utilize the new Express Delegate system - it would be great if we could have the same flexibility in naming the document much in the same way we can name dictation files in Express Dictate (ie. file name format in Express Dictate - %userid%-%filenumber% %filename% by %username% for example). I can provide further details on what type of fields I would like to be able to include, if this is something you will consider implementing. oK, I lied - this is my last suggestion lol ... and this is piggy-backing off of one of your thoughts in your reply to my original post. In Express Delegate there is a configuration screen already for e-mail. I had originally thought this was to send notifications of completed work (or status updates) ... but from your reply, I may have jumped the gun. An idea, if not already in the works, would be to check boxes on a user's screen to optionally receive notifications of completed work. I say optionally because some clients have a large amount of work they can put through in a day and I'm sure they don't want to receive an email every few minutes as new work is completed lol. Another idea, is to send an "end-of-day" status report of all work that was completed and assigned, etc ... again if this is of interest, then I can definitely elaborate further ... =) Almost forgot to answer your question regarding the uploading of corrected documents. The scenario we specifically face is usually that a portion of the dictation is unclear (due to background noise, muffling, etc) and we mark the unsure transcribed text with ? ... example: ? the quick brown fix jumped over the fence ? Silly example, but we then send the document as such and also comment in the email informing the client to check that document and feedback with what the correct text should be. We then correct the document and resend it. In Delegate, a feature to upload a corrected document is a must for us because we do medical transcription - and if the information remains incorrect there could be legal issues we face. That's all for now ... Thanks again! Cheers! M.

Hi, I'm trying to make our workflow a little more simplified (especially now with the new version of Express Delegate). Is it possible to link in some of the dictation information into Word using fields? For example, instead of the transcriptionists having to type in the dictator's name in a field, can this be populated automatically somehow? And if so, where do I find a list of these fields? I have looked in the help files and found nothing - so maybe this is a feature request =) LOL EDIT -- Is there a way to upload the transcribed document to the new Express Delegate via a "Send" button in v4.27? If not, I guess this makes my second feature request as this would be an invaluable time saver for the typists! Thanks! M.

Let me preface my post with how awesome this new version of Express Delegate looks! I have a few questions as I can't seem to find the information in the help files or by poking around in the configurations of the application and clients. Where does one set the "deadline"? I want all new incoming dictations to be flagged with a default deadline based on certain criteria. As an example, Client A has a paid turn-around time of 24h with "High" priority dictations receiving a 12h turn-around time. Client B has a paid turn-around time of 48h with "High" priority cases having a 12h turn-around time. Is this possible in the current version? There doesn't seem to be a way to reset a user's password - except via deleting the current user (and since you can't transfer the statistics to another account bcs you want it all linked to the real email address) it means a loss of stats for that user. It would also be nice to see the "pools" that a user is part of on the "view" screen (specifically typists) so managers can verify that a typist is setup correctly for all of the pools rather than having to look at multiple pools to accomplish the same task (time saver). Also, it doesn't seem like the current system will handle "amendments" or "corrections" easily. For example, say Client A sends a dictation for transcribing and it is later reported back that there is an error. There doesn't seem to be a way that the typist can "re-upload" a corrected document to the server ... Lastly, where does one set the "purge" policy for dictations - ie. we want to keep up to 30 days of finished work on the server and then purge to conserve space and make information more legible (after 30 days the list would be LONG and the page might take some time to load - in order to keep it fast it should either limit the number displayed with arrows to move back and forth between "pages" or provide a search ability). As I use the product more I might have more questions or suggestions - but it is definitely one great upgrade from the old version! Great work! M.