Medical Terminology case studies
Medical Terminology · Put your knowledge to work in context.
Medical Terminology is a foundational knowledge assessment for people who need to read, write, and speak the language of healthcare accurately - medical assistants, coders and billers, patient care and phlebotomy technicians, administrative staff, and students in allied health programs. The exam is delivered in multiple-choice format and is organized around five equally weighted content areas: word building and word elements; prefixes, suffixes, and combining forms; body structure and directional terminology; terminology of body systems; and abbreviations, acronyms, and plural forms. The Medical Terminology case studies are 5 cases and about 3,213 words.
1Grading Word-Building Appeals: Vowel Rules and Element Order
A community-college medical terminology instructor is grading a word-building practical. Students build terms from elements, and the rubric awards points for correct root order and combining-vowel placement, not merely for a recognizable word.
574 words, about 3 min2Two Charts, One Auditor: -ostomy vs -otomy and Sub- vs Supra-
A 71-year-old man with sigmoid diverticulitis undergoes laparotomy. The dictated operative note reads: "The diseased segment was resected, and the proximal bowel was brought out through a circular opening in the left lower abdominal wall and sutured to the skin." Two lines later: "A small opening was made in the transverse colon and closed primarily." The claim was submitted with the code for colotomy.
580 words, about 3 min3Reproducibility Audit of Directional Descriptions
A teleradiology quality reviewer audits 30 reports for directional accuracy and asks a new hire to sit in. Three excerpts are questioned: (1) "A 1.2-cm nodule is seen in the right lung, located on the left side of the displayed image." (2) "The laceration lies 3 cm proximal to the left wrist on the volar surface, extending medially." (3) "The patient was positioned prone with the head rotated to the left for the lumbar puncture; the entry site was marked 2 cm inferior to the L4 spinous process." The standard is that a second clinician must be able to reproduce the location from the words alone, without seeing the image or the patient.
667 words, about 3 min4Speech-Recognition Errors Across Body Systems
A 58-year-old with COPD and heart failure is admitted with worsening dyspnea. The discharge summary was produced by front-end speech recognition and never edited by the attending.
687 words, about 3 min5Do-Not-Use List, Ambiguous Abbreviations, and Plurals Before a Survey
A 240-bed community hospital reviews order sets and transcribed reports 10 days before a Joint Commission survey. Four items are flagged: (1) "Regular insulin 5 U subcut qd" - pharmacy calls the prescriber about unclear insulin orders roughly twice a week.
705 words, about 4 min