A news anchor's live mic mishap taught me to double check my own work

I was watching a local news report last Tuesday, and the anchor accidentally called the mayor by the wrong name for a full 30 seconds before they cut to commercial. Nobody in the studio caught it until the producer screamed over the headset. That made me think about my own dental charting. If I'm typing notes for a patient and I swap a tooth number or a diagnosis, it could cause real problems down the line. I started reading every chart note out loud before saving it. Has anyone else had a simple mistake like that make you change your routine?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jake3d ago

My youngest daughter's first grade teacher used to make them point at each word while reading aloud, and I laughed about it until I tried doing the same thing with my material orders. Five years I've been running my crew and last spring I ordered the wrong shingle color because I skimmed "charcoal" instead of "hemlock" on a invoice. Whispering it to myself like a kid now feels ridiculous but it's stopped me from making at least a couple expensive blunders since then.

anthony7634d ago

Yeah but that anchor probably got a talking to after, right? I mean 30 seconds is a long time for nobody to pipe up. It's crazy how easy it is to just go on autopilot and miss something obvious. I've definitely caught myself typing numbers in the wrong order more times than I'd like to admit. I started reading my notes out loud a few months back too, and it's wild how many little things you catch that your eyes just skim over. It's a solid habit, honestly.

jake7474d ago

Oh man, I totally feel you on the autopilot thing. I had a job once where I had to input serial numbers all day, and I kept putting the last two digits swapped. One day I mixed up a 97 and a 79 and it took me an hour to catch it. That's when I started saying each number out loud as I typed it. It feels dumb at first but it forces your brain to actually process what you're doing instead of just running on muscle memory. Now I do the same thing when I'm proofreading anything important, I whisper the words to myself at my desk lol. It's saved my butt more times than I can count.