BrianPlummer

I haven't started using Delegate so I cannot really help you with that. Have a look at what happens to the file movements between the folder from when it is sent as a job to it being picked up by Delegate (remember there is a default inbox and outbox folder in Delegate, these aren't pointing to the original folder are they? they seem to be temporary holding folders) and also does Delegate delete it from the source folder when it puts it out to the destination (scribe) folder?

 

Watching the folders in real time should give you an idea. And if you close Dictate then reopen it (same day) do the files reappear in Dictate? COuld it be some smartypants backup or replication tool doing the deed?

 

What is your opinion on Delegate? Do you use it live or do you have it set for automation?

 

Good Luck,

Millsey

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Millsey,

Thank you for responding so quickly. I apologize for not getting back to read your response. I have been swamped with projects and have come across yet more problems with the NCH suite of programs... I'll have to set myself a reminder to check back for updates.

First, I will address the original problem of dictations reappearing.

It seems that (and I am still testing) if in the Settings page on the Options tab, if we check both "Prompt for Data" and "Use Additional Prompt", we do not see notes reappearing. The only visible difference to the file names (as viewed in explorer) is that they no longer contain "dictation ##" but have the "date of service" shown as that is the data we put in the new field.

Ex: "38783-234 Dictation 230 by Clinician Amanda Martin.dct" becomes

"38783-234 06-13-06 by Clinician Amanda Martin.dct"

Before changing the naming convention of files, once you deleted the files that came back (first thing in the morning), it did not matter whether you closed and re-opened the Dictate software or not; they would not show up the same day. They only came back with the next log off and log on (usually the next morning). No, we do not have any backups restoring the files or any replication setup on this server.

We are using the Dictation "live" as we are not sending out files from Delegate regularly yet as we are attempting to regulate load on the individual transcriptionists. It is not nearly as convenient to pull files from one person and give to another with Scribe as it was to take physical tapes and give them to someone else. Asking them to go through and "save as" on 30-40 files to move them to another person is not reasonable.

The new problem seems to be that some files are not reaching the transcriptionists after being sent from Delegate. I will detail the flow of files from the time of dictation to transcription below:

When the therapist (using wkstn0001) finishes dictating for the day, they highlight all files and send to the "\\server01\dictation\%username%\A" folder. Delegate (on wkstn0013) looks to those specific folders and picks up the files and MOVES (delete from original location) them to the "C:\Program Files\NCH Swift Sound\Delegate\In" folder, which is on wkstn0013. Once our Transcription Supervisor decides which of the transcriptionists are going to type which files, she highlights them and sends them to the \\server01\dictation\transcription\%username% folder. Delegate also copies them to the "C:\Program Files\NCH Swift Sound\Delegate\Out" folder on wkstn0013. Then, the transcriptionist on wkstn0024 opens Express Scribe. The software looks to "\\server01\dictation\transcription\%username%" to download the new audio files.

Unfortunately, now I have noticed that Delegate does not seem to send all files to the \\server01\dictation\transcription\%username% folder. When sending multiple audio files for multiple days (Ex: 25 total files for 5 days worth of dictation for one therapist), only one file for each day shows up on the "\\server01\dictation\transcription\%username%\" folder for the Scribe software to pick up although all show up in the "C:\Program Files\NCH Swift Sound\Delegate\Out" folder on wkstn0013.

Other problems we have with Delegate:

When you attempt to sort by any of the columns, they seem to sort by some internal value that makes no logical sense from the user's point of view. They will not sort by date, name, or any other field that would be helpful to organize what is close to 1,000 files and growing. (Makes for one "not so happy" transcription coordinator when she needs to find 5 files in the list to send!)

Periodically, Delegate will stop downloading new files (the color scheme of the program changes) and has to be completely shut down and restarted (not just minimized to the taskbar as it will to run as a background service).

When the transcription coordinator has a sizeable amount of files selected (not in a contiguous grouping either) to send them to one of our transcriptionists and someone upstream sends from their Dictate program causing Delegate program to find and pick them up, the list she so painstakingly took time to select is lost. She has to start over and find the files again (all while risking loosing the selection again).

Overall, I am not impressed with either the Delegate or Scribe programs; (insert sarcasm) but what should I expect for the price tag... Express Dictate only redeems itself because our technologically impaired staff have been able to figure it out fairly quickly and we have been able to recover lost dictations when Delegate and Scribe loose them.

Thank you,

Brian

We have found that using a UNC path works better than mapped drives. We had issues where files could not be deleted even though the permissions were OK. This was solved by using UNC paths such as \\dictate\jobs\matlegal\stacyrostron\ as the target folder in ED.

 

Millsey

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Thank you for the suggestion. I changed my data directory as well as the delivery address from mapped drives to UNC paths but it still did not make any difference. All old files keep showing up. Also, the doctor informed me that it is taking extremely long to send files now as compared to when she started using the software. I emailed NCH support over a week ago and still have not even received an acknowledgment of my request.

NOTE: This is getting to be very frustrating not to mention the problems we are having with Delegate and Scribe...

Thanks,

Brian

I've downloaded the VEC USB driver, installed it, but still the computer won't recognize the VEC foot pedal.  The pedal itself definitely works-- I tested it on a Mac running OS Tiger and it worked fine.  Just won't run on our Gateway AMD PC with Windows ME installed.... any suggestions?  I tried to reinstall the Windows USB drivers too, but no luck there either...

 

Thanks!

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I had this problem with one of our systems here. Have you verified that the petals are not installed and you hava good clean boot when you install the software? I found that if I had the petals plugged in when I installed the driver it would not work.

I am in the process of rolling out approx. 30 users for Express Dictate. I have 5 using it regularly now to dictate case notes for a Mental Health counseling center. The problem is that some of the therapists are seeing what appears to be files "coming back" after they were sent. To further explain: Person A creates 5 new dictations. They send them to the file store like always. Express Delegate picks them up like normal. The next day when Person A comes back to work and opens up Express Dictate, they see the files that they sent the day before. It appears as though they hadn't sent them although the transcriptionist has already received them as sent through Express Delegate. What is happening here?

Person A's "Data Folder" is set to "Z:\dictation" (a user specific folder on a mapped network share on a Windows 2003 server). The "Send" to location is "J:\A" (a different user specific folder on a different mapped network share). The workstations are running either Windows 2000 or XP Pro.