NUMBERS

• Numerals, or figures, stand out from the surrounding text and serve a functional purpose in medical reports, where they should be used almost exclusively as opposed to spelled-out numbers.
e.g.
She was seen in the emergency room 1 hour after the accident.
He tried 3 different medications without success.
The specimen weighed less than 2 pounds.

Adjacent Numbers
• when two numbers are consecutive, spell out one of them to avoid confusion.

e.g.
The patient was instructed to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of GoLYTELY before bedtime.
Discharge Medication: Os-Cal 500 one daily.
two 8-inch drains

• Use a comma to separate adjacent unrelated numerals if neither can be readily expressed in words and the sentence cannot be readily reworded.

E.g.
In March 2002, 2038 patients were seen in the emergency room.

Fractions
• Spell out or use numerals for common fractions. Use the dictation style as guide.

E.g.
An hour and a half before presentation, the patient slipped and fell.
or Approximately 1-1/2 hurs before presentation…. (if dictated “one and a half hours” or “one and one-half hours”)
The glass was two-thirds full or The glass was 2/3 full.
7/8-inch wound

Beginning of A Sentence
• Spell out numbers that begin a sentence, or recast the sentence.

E.g.
D: Fourteen days ago she started having severe cramping.
T: Fourteen days ago she started having severe cramping.
or She started having severe cramping 14 days ago.

• An exception of this exception: A complete year that begins a sentence need not be spelled out.
E.g.
2005 will mark our hospital’s 100th anniversary.
Note: Although it’s acceptable to begin a sentence with a year, it is better to recast the sentence if possible.
E.g.
D: 1995 was when her symptoms began.
T: Her symptoms began in 1995.


ZERO
• is always spelled out when it stands alone.
E.g.
The patient had zero response to the treatment.
Her symptoms usually appear when the outside temperature drops below zero.

But:
Gravida 1, para 0 0ºF

Numbers Commonly Spelled Out
• Common or accepted usage may dictate that a word be spelled out. For example, use of a numeral may cause confusion by placing emphasis and implying a precise quantity where none is intended.
E.g.
His symptoms went from one extreme to the other.

Nonspecific Numbers
• Spell out nonspecific (indefinite) numeric expressions.
E.g.
She described hundreds of symptoms (not 100s)
Several thousand people were tested.

Ordinals
• Ordinal numbers are used to indicate order or position in a series rather than quantity. Ordinals are commonly spelled out, especially when the series goes no higher than 10 items. However, as with all numbers in medical reports, AAMT recommends using numerals: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.
• Do not use a period with ordinal numbers.
E.g.
3rd rib (or third) 5th finger (or fifth)
She is to return for her 3rd (or third) visit in 2 days.
She was in her 9th (or ninth) month of pregnancy.
His return visits are scheduled for the 15th and 25th of next month.
The 4th cranial nerve.

Punctuation
Hyphens’
use hyphens which numbers are used with words as compound modifiers preceding nouns.
E.g. 5-cm incision
3 x 2-cm mass
13-year 2-month old girl
use hyphens to join some compound nouns with numbers as prefixes. Check appropriate references for specific terms.
E.g. 2-D
use hyphens in compound numbers from 21 to 99 when they are written out. (Note: The only time they should be written out is at the beginning of a sentence.)
E.g. thirty-four one hundred fifty-three

Commas
use a comma to separate groups of three numerals in numbers of 5 digits or more, but omit the commas if decimals are used. The comma in 4-digit numerals may be omitted.
E.g. Platelet count was 354,000.
White count was 7100 or …7,100.
12345.67

do not place commas between words expressing a number.
E.g. four hundred forty-eight
Not four hundred, forty-eight

Plurals
• Use ‘s to form the plural of single-digit numerals.
E.g. 4 x 4’s
• Add s without an apostrophe to formt he plural of multiple-digit numbers, including years.
E.g. She is in her 20s
She was born in the 1940s.

Multiple Digits
• when dictated in a form such as “four point two thousand” or “five point eight million”, numerals may be transcribed in one of two ways:
(1) 4.2 thousand or (2) 4200;5.8 million or 5,800,000.

Proper Numbers
• Use words or figures for numbers in proper names, according to the entity’s preference.
E.g. 20th Century Insurance
Three Dollar Café

At End of Line
• when possible, do not separate numerals from the terms they accompany. Do not allow a numeral to end on one line and its accompany term to begin the next.
E.g
………………………………..grade 2. Not ………………………grade 2.

No, #
• Abbreviation and symbols for number. Note that the abbreviation capitalizes the initial letter and has an ending period: No. When the symbol # is used, the numeral follows it with no space between.
E.g. No. 4 blade
#4 blade

Position or Rank
• use the abbreviation or symbol with a figure to indicate position or rank.
e.g. He is No. 4 on the appointment list.
or He is #4 on the appointment list.

Model and Serial Numbers
• use the symbol with Arabic numerals.
E.g. model #8546 serial #185043

Sizes of Instruments or Sutures
• Do not use the abbreviation or symbol if “number” is not dictated. Either is acceptable (with the symbol preferred to the abbreviation) if “number” is dictated. Be consistent.

E.g. 5-French catheter, #5-French catheter, No. 5-French catheter
3-0 Vicryl, #3-0 Vicryl, No. 3-0 Vicryl

Street Addresses
• do not use the abbreviation or symbol before the number in street addresses.
E.g. 166 Wallingford Avenue Not No. 166 Wallingford Avenue
Not #166 Wallingford Avenue

Ages
• Use the numeral for the ages mentioned in the dictation.
E.g. 7-year-old child 15 years 3 month old

Alphanumeric Terms
• Use the numeral for a alphanumeric terms.
E.g. G6P5 L4-5

Clock Referents
• use the numeral for clock referents.
E.g. The lesion was seen in the left breast at the 8 o’clock position.
The incision was made from the 7:30 to 9:30 position.
Decade References
• use the numeral for decade references
E.g. The patient’s father is in his 80s.
The patient hasn’t been to a dentist since the ‘80s.

EKG Leads
• use the numeral for decimals.
E.g. V1 through V6
leads I, II, and III

Eponyms
• Use the numeral for eponyms.
E.g. Apgar scores were 9 and 9.
Clark Level II melanoma
Billroth II anastomosis
Hunt and Hess neurological grade 3
LeFort I maxillary reconstruction