When  it comes to writing about myself I always seem to have a problem…but I want to introduce myself to all of our members, so I’m going to do my best without under- or over-doing it!

I am originally from Provo, Utah. I came into the world on September 2, 1944.  (Egads!) We lived in Provo and during my tween years we lived in Ontario, Oregon; Nampa, Idaho; and Caldwell, Idaho.  In fact, we moved back and forth between Nampa and Caldwell a couple of times!  Moved back to Orem, Utah when I was in the 9^th grade and it seemed to stick for a while.  Graduated from the original Orem High School in 1962 (home of the Tigers with a brand new school this year), and attended Utah Trade Technical Institute, earning an Associate degree in Business.  I then was employed at  such companies as Geneva Steel (part of U.S. Steel back then), IBM Corporation (worked there when the first PC came out), Northwest Pipeline Corporation, and several smaller companies along the way.

I am the middle of 3 children to Byron and Jean Jensen… my sister, Jeri Dixon, who lives in Blackfoot, Idaho is 7 years older and my brother, Barry Jensen, who lives in Salt Lake is 6 years younger… so when I say middle, I really mean… MIDDLE! :0) Had the same trials and tribulations most middle children have… always getting the blame for everything (not saying I didn’t deserve it :0) but seemed to muddle through okay.  I married in 1966 and had twin girls (quite a surprise).  Decided to stop at that point! I now have an additional 2 stepchildren, 12 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren! That marriage, unfortunately, ended in divorce in 1978. Married again to an Ogden native and it has been almost 25 years. He is an avid golfer and lives for golf.

I quit working outside the home in about 1998 and formed my own company for transcription services, excluding medical as I had not been trained as yet.  In 2000 I decided to “broaden my horizons” and enrolled in an online medical transcription school, the Medical Transcription Education Center, Inc. (better known as M-TEC).  I was fortunate enough to have Susan Francis, a co-founder of the school, as my instructor, and she is still a good friend to this very day!  She steered me in the direction of AHDI (back then it was AAMT), and I have been an MT and an active member in AHDI ever since.  I have been an MT, a QA editor, a VR editor, and an instructor in the Healthcare Documentation profession.  I was fortunate enough to be assigned to a school in Barbados (in the Caribbean), and taught online and inhouse in both Antigua and Barbados as well as being able to live a year in paradise (Barbados).  At the current time, I am working as an independent contractor as an MT, and anticipating continuing my education with a Bachelor’s Degree.

I was the first president of the new concept of the Online Chapter (now the Online Association), and helped introduce AHDI national office to all the wonderful online offerings they embrace today, such as the webinars, online meetings, online forums, online newsletters and websites, etc. I have also been an officer in the Utah State Association, served on the national AHDI board of directors for 3 years (2006-2008), and am now proud to be president-elect of AHDI-West, another ground-breaking concept for AHDI.  I also serve on several national committees.

What do I do in my spare time? Well… could someone define “spare time”?  :0) I started exercising about 3 months ago, doing “walk-at-home” exercise CDs, and am currently training for and hoping to walk in the 3-day Walk for the Cure (breast cancer) in Phoenix in November (a total of 60 miles over 3 days) in honor of my mother who passed away at the age of 93 of this insidious disease.  If you would like to help out and contribute to both my event and to the cure, please visit the donation page at http://tiny.cc/sokuy

If you have someone you would like me to honor by walking for them, I would be happy to do that also.  Even without having this as my goal, I have lost some unwanted fat, gained some needed muscle, and am getting healthier every day, so it is all worth it!  My highest mile walk so far in one day is 10 miles… I’m working up to it!

That’s enough about me… now, let’s hear about YOU!!!! Please send me a short bio of yourself and we’ll be sure to get it published in the “Getting To Know You” section of this great newsletter, and ALSO on the website!  I look forward to hearing from all of you!

I attended the VOTS symposium held in Phoenix, Arizona last fall where I actually met my mentor face-to-face for the first time. I also met many wonderful people in this business. I attended lectures on a variety of topics and learned so much.

I then heard about the Phoenix Rising Convention being held in May. I attended and was totally enthralled and “blown away” by the whole event; by the lectures I attended, by the informational seminars given, by the wonderful fellow medical transcription professionals that I met, by the vendors present, by the positive attitudes of others, and the encouragement I was surrounded by. My roommate was a wealth of information, sharing with me all kinds of information about the transcription business. My mentor introduced me to many wonderful people involved in helping to run AHDI and AHDI-West. I was able to help with this convention in ways that helped me to meet others and establish some relationships. Needless to say, I came away from that convention feeling that I was indeed an important part of the healthcare industry, important to the physicians and medical specialists, and especially important to the patient. I am not just some isolated person out there typing endlessly for hours. I am part of an important medical profession that is coming into the healthcare limelight, and our voices will be united and will be heard!

I also came away from that convention with some personal goals: To keep learning from others, to keep improving my skills, and to aid the public in becoming aware of healthcare as something that they own! I have put together a presentation teaching the public on what your medical record is, why you need to know what is in it, you have a right to your records, what to take with you on national and international trips, how to carry documentation of your blood type and medications, and other valuable medical information necessary in emergencies. I have a speaking engagement set in early fall for the local Soroptimist group and am looking for other groups to speak to. My new slogan: “It’s all about education, personal and public!”

FYI: Susan’s mentor is Kat King and her roommate, believe it or not, was Terry Naleway!! Susan is an amazing artist and is completing the Med-Line School RMT Study Group. We wish her great success when she sits for that exam.

Presentation at PHOENIX RISING! “Sense & Sensibility: Successful Social Networking Strategies”

Jay Vance has been active in the medical transcription and health information technology fields in a variety of capacities since 1999. He is a Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) and works as a technology product specialist for Superior Global Solutions, Inc. He is also President and CEO of Vance Digital, LLC, a digital technology and HIPAA compliance consulting firm to small MTSOs and independent contractors. He has served as a technical consultant for the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) and played an integral role in launching a number of technology initiatives for AHDI, including co-founding the association’s first online component, introducing webinar technology for continuing education and web-based meetings, and providing the original design for the Professional Practices Network. He is currently the Administrator/Moderator for the AHDI Lounge blog and chairs the AHDI Outreach Workgroup for News and Networking (OWNN). He also created MedTransition, an innovative school-to-work externship program for new graduates needing additional experience to successfully enter the MT field. Jay is married to Carol, also a medical transcriptionist, and is the father of four children and grandfather of two.

This presentation will focus on combining personal and professional social networking strategies in order to successfully engage association members, other healthcare documentation professionals, and the healthcare community at large. The presentation will provide information on specific popular social networking sites and tools and suggest ways to use them efficiently.

I learned to type in 8th grade because my penmanship was awful. I’m sure turning in typed reports raised my grades all through high school. I began my transcription career while at Butte Community College in Northern California. I was on my third major, and after 7 years, I had finally found the career that fit for me, medical transcription; helping people and blending the science of medicine with my love of language and an ability to work my way around a keyboard. Three years later, I graduated with honors, with a certificate of achievement in medical transcription and an associate’s degree. My favorite classes were anatomy and physiology. I took the practical portion of my CMT exam on February 21, 1998. That same day I left my home of 10 years and moved to San Diego to follow my heart. Guess you could call 1998 the year of change for me. That’s also the year I became an AAMT member.

I was a member at large for almost 4 years before becoming a local San Diego Chapter member. Even that was in a roundabout way. I’ll never forget Marie Mendez of the Orange Empire Chapter. She said to me, “well, if you’re willing to drive all the way up to Riverside to come to one of our meetings, you might as well become an OEC member.” Of course, I was sitting there asking myself, well, heck, why don’t I just join the San Diego Chapter. Many of you know bits and pieces of the rest of that history. Having served my local and state chapter in various capacities and having served national as Co-Chair of the Name Change Task Force and Legislative Issues Group chair, I now serve as a director on the AHDI board.

Medical transcription/healthcare documentation has a greater depth than just being able to type fast, and I’ve found my niche in advocating for our profession in various ways. As an AHDI director, this year I am board partner to Alaska, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and the Educational components. I am board liaison to the LIG and education alliance. I am a firm believer that we play a critical role in telling the patient’s health story. We will have to retool ourselves to stay relevant in the electronic health data environment and credentialing is a key component to that success.

In my everyday work environment, I’ve transcribed in-house at a local hospital in Paradise, California, been a transcription/QA manager, had my own business, FoxTx Enterprises, for over 10 years, and am now back to working as an IC from my San Diego office. You might say I’ve come full circle, and on the days that it happens, it feels good to be back in the “zone.” I also teach healthcare documentation at a local community college (well as soon as I get a class that has enough people to meet California’s budget requirements). I’m an advocate for career technical education and building a career path that will place the healthcare documentation specialist at the forefront of risk management and continuity of patient care.

California born and raised, I really could not imagine living anywhere else. Remember I said I followed my heart back in 1998. Well, I’ve known my spouse for over 30 years. We exchanged private vows on a rolling hill overlooking the backside of Mount Tamalpias in Marin County on February 22, 1998, and became legally married in California on July 8, 2008. My advocacy work spills over into securing equal rights for our community nationwide, and I am a member of the political action committee of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) here in San Diego. My spouse is 3rd generation in our San Diego home, and we work hard to create an uncomplicated life. We have 3 dogs, 4 tortoises, and a cat named “kitty-kitty,” can’t get much simpler than that.

I have been an MT since 1980, having gone to school to be a medical secretary. Interestingly, the instructor “discouraged” us from doing the boring job of medical transcription and always promoted being the medical “secretary.” Nevertheless, even with that bias instilled, I ended up being a medical transcription as it incorporated my love for language with my love for typing. I then grew to love medicine and the medical language. Voila! A match made in heaven…

I worked in hospitals and had my own service for many years. I was introduced to AAMT around the year 1982 and went to a workshop sponsored by the Greater Boston chapter that was being done by Claudia Tessier on style and practices. I had no idea at the time that I would eventually actually work for this woman, but was in awe of this person’s knowledge and passion.

I started to get involved in chapter activities and went to my first national AAMT meeting in the mid-1980s. Soon after I applied for a position at the AAMT national office where I was hired as Certification Coordinator and later became the Director of Certification. I was employed by AAMT from 1989 to 1995 after which I was on the national board of directors.

In 2001, my husband and I became domestic missionaries in a program for troubled teens and I left the profession for about 3 years. However, once our term was over as missionaries, I returned to my first love, medical transcription. I have had a varied background in the profession, working as an MT, QA, manager, business owner, volunteer, customer care and medical editor.

I love to cook (especially baking), making bead jewelry, and my husband and I recently relocated to the warmth of Arizona from New England. I have a rescued pug named Princess who keeps me company while my husband is away as a truckdriver. He used to want me to learn to drive a truck and so we could become a team; however, he changed his mind after I spent a 2-week vacation with him on the truck (thank goodness!).