I would love to hear your opinions on the autopsies. There was so much redacted that it's hard to get much info. Of course, that's the point. Any info to help me understand the part that isn't redacted would be so very appreciated!
In looking through all the autopsy reports, the unredacted portions are pretty routine phrases. My years of experience have mostly been inpatient/outpatient reports that are medical/surgical. I have typed a couple autopsies, though.
I can tell by reading from one individual's report to the next that there are a lot of "canned" phrases used. This means there are predetermined "normal" phrases that are automatically included in all autopsy reports for this particular examiner, and then the examiner will just need to dictate changes which pertain to each individual.
For example, under the heading of "external examination, general" in each of the eight autopsies the first sentence is pretty much the same except for information specific to the deceased person. The "canned" text is "The body is that of a normally developed, well-nourished, ___ who is ___pounds, ___ inches in height, and appears appropriate for the stated age." Based on my experience,
in my opinion, the examiner probably dictates something like this, "Under external exam, general, insert normal for adult male, 222 pounds, 71 inches." The transcriptionist then inserts the phrase into the text and puts the right info in the blanks.
Using "normals" like this really saves dictators a ton of time, plus keeps them from having to constantly repeat the same phrases over and over again multiple times a day for every patient they see. Many physicians/nurses do this type of dictation, especially medical examiners. It is common for them to have "normal" phrases that are inserted under each heading in the report, and then they only have to dictate the deviations from the "normal" text.
This is JMO based on my work experience.