Medical transcription outsourcing: Increases efficiency and reduces costs

The role of accurate and timely information in the process of healthcare is undeniable. Medical transcription is the process that assists in creation of patient records ensuring that healthcare professionals have the requisite information by converting audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. However to make the process of medical transcription cost effective and efficient one needs to choose the right option. There are many options available to the healthcare facility for availing medical transcription, like having a team of medical transcriptionists in-house, Independent contractors or by outsourcing to a professional medical transcription service provider.

Though other options for availing medical transcription have some benefits, outsourcing medical transcription has been found to be best way for the healthcare facility to contain costs and increase efficiency.

How does outsourcing medical transcription contain costs?

Reduces cost per line of transcription: Outsourcing medical transcription has the benefit of limiting the cost of medical transcription to just the cost per line of transcription. There are no hidden charges or indirect costs. This makes the cost per line of transcription economical

Eliminates the need for capital investment for medical transcription: The process of medical transcription requires a certain amount of capital expenditure by way of computers, servers, furniture, headsets etc. Outsourcing medical transcription eliminates the need for investment in capital equipment

Reduces the cost of utilities: The cost of utilities like electricity, stationery etc towards the transcription process would be eliminated by outsourcing medical transcription

Eliminates cost of IT towards medical transcription: Executing medical transcription in-house would mean a substantial outlay towards information technology expenses. Outsourcing medical transcription minimizes this investment

Reduces cost of weekend and holiday medical transcription needs: Medical transcription needs of a healthcare facility are not predictable, outsourcing ensures that the varying medical transcription needs of the healthcare facility are provided for without incurring any extra expenses

How does outsourcing medical transcription increase efficiency?

Streamlining turnaround time: By outsourcing medical transcription the healthcare professionals would be ensured of a guaranteed turnaround time. This would ensure that the information needed by the healthcare professional would be readily available for reference as required. This would help increase the efficiency of the healthcare professionals and the support staff

Increased accuracy: Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional service provider would ensure that patient records are created with maximum accuracy. This would ensure that integrity of the information would be preserved thus increasing the efficiency of the healthcare professionals

Advanced technological features providing added benefits: The technology used by the medical transcription service provider, affords healthcare professionals and the support staff with innumerable benefits like automatic uploads and downloads, archiving, remote printing and faxing etc adding up to efficient work flow

Enabling better use of healthcare professional and support staff time: Medical transcription services that are accurate, timely, secure and technologically advance help the healthcare professionals and support focus more on providing quality healthcare rather than other tasks

Accelerating the receivables cycle: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that patient records are created on time. This in turn ensures that the process of reimbursement takes place on time, thus improving cash flow and the efficient working of the healthcare facility

Outsourcing medical transcription to the right medical transcription service provider can reduce costs and improve efficiency. TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry offers customized solutions to help healthcare facilities reduce costs and improve efficiency.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!

To avail the advantages of outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription: The role of technology

Healthcare is a dynamic process, with constant discoveries and inventions; thereby any service allied with healthcare has to be dynamic. Medical transcription is a service closely allied with healthcare. Medical transcription is the process of creating patient records by converting the audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. Along with the process of healthcare, the medical transcription process has also evolved, not only to cope up with the changing demands of the healthcare sector, but also with the technological innovations that have taken place.

Medical transcription has evolved from simply being the process of listening and typing, to a service, which offer various benefits making the life of healthcare professionals and the support staff at a healthcare facility easy. One just needs to look at the medical transcription process to realize the role of technology.

What is the role of technology in the medical transcription process?

The process of medical transcription essentially begins when the patient visits the healthcare facility for treatment. The role of technology starts from the very first step:

• Capturing the patient-healthcare professional encounter in the form of dictation
• Transmission to the medical transcription service provider for transcription
• The process of transcription
• Transmssion of finished transcripts to the healthcare facility
• Distribution to the right healthcare professional
• Remote printing and faxing
• Archiving
• Interface with EMR
• Security during the entire process of transcription

It is obvious that technology has an important role to play in the process of medical transcription both in terms of service and security. However technology for medical transcription entails substantial capital outlay. One easy fix to avail the right technical support for the process of medical transcription is to outsource the medical transcription needs to a medical transcription service provider who can provide medical transcription with not only the requisite benefits like accuracy, speed, low costs, security but also provides the right technical support.

What are benefits of outsourcing to a medical transcription service provider with the right technology?

Cost reduction: The right technology for medical transcription not only reduces turnaround time and protects the data during the transcription process but also helps reduce the costs. The cost per line of transcription can be reduced substantially with the use of the right technology by improving quality of audio files, speeding up the transmission process and reducing risk of data loss

Augmenting profitability: The use of technology can add to the profitability of the healthcare facility by quickening the medical transcription process thereby the accounts receivable process. Medical transcription is the first step in the reimbursement process, timely medical transcription ensures that the process of reimbursement can take place in a timely manner improving the cash flow of the healthcare facility

Better focus on core business: Having the technological needs of the medical transcription process taken care of by the medical transcription service provider, helps the healthcare facility focus all its resources on their core business of providing quality healthcare

Provision of quality services: The process of healthcare depends on many inputs, one of them being accurate and timely information. Technology used by the medical transcription service provider ensures that patient records are available on a timely manner to the healthcare professional to enable better decision making

Customer satisfaction: Usage of the right technology by the medical transcription service provider ensures quicker and better service, this leads to customer satisfaction

Reduction of malpractice litigation: The use of right technology ensures reduction in security breaches and capture of accurate and complete information in the patient record, both these factors help reduce risk of litigation

It can be seen that the right use of technology by the medical transcription service provider enables collection, management, sharing and protection of information. Another important benefit of the right use of technology is making it easy to use for healthcare professionals who are constantly challenged for time.

Considering that time is one of the most precious commodities for healthcare professionals, TransDyne believes in using technology that provides multiple features with ease of use. Some of the features of the software and tools used by TransDyne are as follows:

Smart upload: TransDyne offers doctors the choice of using modes of dictation they are already comfortable with. Then these files can be uploaded to the servers to be made available for transcription. Smart upload enables transfer of dictation files from the healthcare facility’s server to TransDyne’s server by checking for new dictations at pre-fixed intervals.

Web Delivery: TransDyne’s web delivery system tackles all issues related with tracking dictations, receiving documents and finding old files form the archives.

Smart Delivery: Smart delivery is an automated program that addresses the automatic downloads, saving files and printing needs of a healthcare facility.

HL7 integration: TransDyne can configure and send healthcare information as HL7 messages to the client’s EMR with no additional costs.

Data Security: TransDyne ensures data security of medical transcription by incorporating security measures like 128-bit data encryption, multi-tiered application architecture, design level security, safeguards, firewall protected networks, sterilized e-mail servers, denial of access procedure and multi modal alerts.

To avail the benefits of outsourced medical transcription from TransDyne, click here

Medical transcription services: Why is it needed?

The process of healthcare is the culmination of several inputs including the education, experience and expertise of healthcare professionals, the right equipments, the right drugs, the right procedures and therapies. The common thread that binds all these together to form the basis of successful patient care is information. Imagine a situation where the healthcare professional does not have access to the right information! That is why it is acknowledged that creation of patient records is important.

Medical transcription provides a important link to the healthcare process chain by documenting the patient-healthcare professional encounter. Medical transcription is the process of converting the audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. The process of medical transcription can be made more efficient and cost-effective by outsourcing the medical transcription process to a professional service provider.

Medical transcription plays an important role in the process of healthcare by creating patient records that serve the following purposes:

• Consistency in treatment: Patient records provide consistency in treatment by capturing all the details exhaustively
• Basis for subsequent visits: Patient records work as a point of reference for subsequent visits of the patient, and help curb duplication of efforts of the support staff
• Ensures patient safety: Patient records ensure patient safety by providing details on:

1. Allergies
2. Dosage
3. Test results

• Billing purposes: The information captured in the patient records form the basis for coding and billing
• Medico-legal purposes: the information captured in the patient record also serves as evidence in case of litigation

It can be seen that creation of patient records is very important to the process of healthcare. Outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider ensures that the creation of patient records takes place in a timely, accurate, secure and cost effective manner.

The capabilities of the medical transcription service provider needs to be evaluated on the following criteria:

Accuracy: This means the percentage of accuracy of the completed transcripts vis-à-vis what was dictated. A minimum of 99% and above would be acceptable. Care should be taken to pick a medical transcription service provider who has quality check methods in place to ensure accuracy

Turnaround time: Turnaround time refers to the time taken to revert the transcribed report to the healthcare facility. A turnaround time guarantee of not more than 24 hours for normal reports and 4-12 hours for STAT reports given by the medical transcription service provider would be considered ideal

Data security: The medical transcription service provider being outsourced to should be HIPAA and HITECH compliant. The medical transcription service provider has to have adequate security measures to ensure that the confidential data transmitted back and forth is safe and secure.

Pricing: Reduced cost of transcription is one of the main benefits that a healthcare facility hopes to have, from the outsourcing option. Pricing should be fair and reasonable for the services rendered. Pricing method used by the medical transcription service provider should also be transparent and simple so that both parties can verify the same at any stage of the process

Technology: The technology used by the medical transcription company should not only be secure but should also be easy to use, without having to require extensive training.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!

For more details about the advantages of outsourced medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing:Benefits of doing it the right way

Medical transcription has always played a vital role in the healthcare process, by creating patient records. Patient records play an important role in both the operational and commercial aspects of healthcare. Therefore it is important to ensure that creation of patient records takes place in an accurate, speedy, secure and economic fashion. Outsourcing medical transcription is an effective fix to ensure this.

What are the advantages of outsourcing medical transcription?

Speed: Outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider ensures that patient records are automatically created within the promised turnaround time. There is no delay in the process of medical transcription due to factors like employee absenteeism, holiday/weekends etc. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the flow of work is constant due to the availability of a large pool of medical transcriptionists who are familiar with the requirements of the healthcare professionals.

Accuracy: Outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider ensures that patient records are created with maximum accuracy possible. The onus of training the medical transcriptionists to achieve accuracy levels is on the service provider. Moreover accuracy is ensured by putting the transcripts through multiple quality checks, this ensures that any errors that have been overlooked are corrected, ensuring quality transcription.

Security: Outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider ensures that the medical transcription process is totally secure. The medical transcription service provider would ensure that adequate security measures are taken to secure people, processes, technology and infrastructure.

Accessibility: Outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider ensures that there is a systematic process in place to deliver the transcripts back to the relevant healthcare professional. This ensures that reports are easily accessible.

Affordability: Outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider can bring down the cost of transcription while still maintaining the quality of work. Outsourcing medical transcription also has the additional benefit of eliminating indirect cost that would have been incurred by executing medical transcription in-house.

Versatility: Outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider ensures versatility of services. Factors like different types of reports, new formats, varied templates and transcription needs for different specialties could be provided by the same medical transcription service provider. This ensures that the healthcare facility has a one stop shop for all transcription needs.

Efficiency: Outsourcing medical transcription increases the efficiency of the support staff by saving on both time and other resources like Information technology. The software and tools provided by the medical transcription service provider ensures that tracing dictation files or finished transcripts would be easy through powerful archiving facilities. Moreover additional features like remote printing and faxing makes the work environment more efficient.

Outsourcing medical transcription not only helps the healthcare facility reduce costs and speed up the receivables cycle, but also improves the efficiency of the healthcare facility’s operations. Therefore it is important for the healthcare facility to source the right medical transcription service provider for their medical transcription needs.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!

To benefit from the advantages of outsourced medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Quality services

Healthcare is the treatment and management of illness and the preservation of health through services offered by the medical, pharmaceuticals, clinical sciences, and nursing & allied health professionals. By the definition given here the process of healthcare depends on quality inputs from various sources. Quality information provided on a timely basis in a secure and cost-effective manner is one of the inputs

Medical transcription plays an important role in the healthcare process by creating patient records. Patient records form a reference base for healthcare professionals to draw from regarding the past and present medical history of the patient and also forms a basis for future treatment plans. Considering that medical transcription is such an important contributor to the healthcare process it is vital to ensure that medical transcription is accurate, speedy, secure and cost effective. Outsourcing medical transcription to the right medical transcription service provider can ensure that patient records are created within these parameters.

However while outsourcing a vital contributor to the healthcare process like medical transcription, it is important to evaluate the quality of services.

What are the criteria for evaluating quality medical transcription services?

A simple method to evaluate a medical transcription service provider is by asking the following questions:

Does the medical transcription service provider understand the base measures for quality?

As medical transcription is a profession closely allied with the healthcare sector, it is important for the service provider to understand that patient records need to be created with maximum accuracy, minimum turnaround time, maintaining confidentiality of patient information and in a cost effective manner.

What is the training method used by the medical transcription service provider to ensure that these base measures of quality are met?

Quality of medical transcription is totally dependent on the medical transcriptionists working on the transcripts. Therefore it is important that the medical transcription service provider give due importance to the training program designed for the medical transcriptionists. Proper training ensures not only accuracy, but also helps maintain turnaround time guaranteed and confidentiality. All these factors help in controlling costs.

Does the medical transcription service provider have a sustainable model for providing services?

Providing quality medical transcription services is a continuous process. It is important for the medical transcription service provider to be geared towards continuous services by having the right team, the right processes and the right technology.

Does the medical transcription service provider have training programs to continuously update its team?

Healthcare is constantly changing with discovery of new illnesses, drugs, procedures, surgery methods and therapies added everyday. It is important for the medical transcription service provider to constantly update the knowledge base of its team to enable them to provide flawless transcription services.

Does the medical transcription service provider have the practice of innovating products based on ever changing needs of the healthcare professionals/healthcare facilities?

Healthcare sector is not only affected by new development in the medical sector but also innovations in the Information Technology sector and due to statutory norms. It is important for the medical transcription service provider to gear its services to provide for these changes.

Does the medical transcription service provider accept feedback from healthcare professionals/healthcare facilities to improve their processes?

It is important for the medical transcription service provider to tailor their products to meet the specific demands and needs of the end user. To do this the medical transcription service provider has to have open channels of communication to constantly gather inputs from healthcare facilities innovate their services to fulfill the needs of their customers.

TransDyne, a leading provider of outsourced medical transcription services ensures quality services by:

• Understanding the base measures of quality transcription
• Having the right training program
• Having the right team, process and the right technology
• Continuously updating their team on the latest developments in the healthcare sector
• Innovative software and tools to ease the burden of healthcare professionals
• Accepting feedback from customers to provide better services

To know more about quality medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing more options

The profession of healthcare has always been challenging. Firstly healthcare is a service and as in every service industry the challenge is to provide good service every time. Secondly the healthcare sector is very dynamic and healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities have to constantly educate themselves and upgrade their infrastructure to provide services as per changing needs. Lastly healthcare is a critical service involving quality of life and life & death situations. Therefore it is important for healthcare facilities to focus all their resources on their core business and outsource all non-core activities.

In a situation where resources are limited and demands are vast, it is important to outsource activities like medical transcription. Medical transcription is the process of converting the audio records of the patient- healthcare professional encounter into text format. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that patient records are created in an accurate, timely, secure and cost-effective manner. Not only this, outsourcing medical transcription has other advantages. One of the main advantages of outsourcing medical transcription is that of providing more options to the healthcare facility.

The options available to the healthcare facility, by outsourcing medical transcription are as follows:

One stop solution for all specialties: Outsourcing medical transcription offers healthcare facilities the flexibility of expert and accurate medical transcription for all specialties. This option comes in very useful when the healthcare facility has expansion plans to add on new specialties. The document creation needs of the new specialties can be accommodated without any issues with regard to accuracy or turnaround time

Medical transcription in the formats/templates required: Different healthcare professionals require transcripts in different formats. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the format/template requirement of each healthcare professional is met with

Flexibility in volume: One of the challenges faced by healthcare facilities is the inability to predict the volume of patients. Having medical transcription in-house would inevitably lead to either idle capacity or delay in record creation. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the healthcare facility can expect seamless service through varying volumes including holidays and weekend transcription requirements

Retaining familiar modes of dictation: Outsourcing medical transcription to the right medical transcription service provider ensures that healthcare professionals can retain their familiar modes of dictation. This enables healthcare professionals to make optimum use of their limited time resources

Adoption of EMR/EHR: Outsourcing medical transcription to the right medical transcription service provider would not only ensure that all the nuances of the patient-healthcare professional encounter are captured, but also enable transmission of this information into the EMR/EHR through HL7 interface

Flexible options for turnaround time: Turnaround time of patient records needs to be customized as per the needs of healthcare professionals, the kind of report and status of the patient. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the turnaround time is maintained as per the specification of the healthcare professional. This not only ensures quality care but also quickens the receivables cycle

Multiple document delivery systems: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the healthcare professionals can receive the finished transcripts through various modes as specified by them. Additional benefits like remote printing/faxing adds to the convenience of the healthcare professional.

Outsourcing to the right medical transcription service provider can help the healthcare facility concentrate on their core business, by offering service with multiple options for all their requirements.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry offers multiple options to suit varying need of different of different kinds of healthcare facilities. TransDyne has teams of medical transcriptionists who are trained in different specialties, making them domain experts. This ensures that TransDyne can cope with medical transcription for any specialty with an accuracy level of above 99%. TransDyne offers a turnaround time of 24 hours with an option of a turnaround time of 4-12 hours for STAT files.

TransDyne has the technical capabilities to integrate with the existing systems of healthcare facilities, requiring no additional investments. TransDyne offers medical transcription for weekends and holidays, and has people and systems in place to cope up with varying volumes of transcription. TransDyne has software and tools that offer additional features like archiving, remote printing & faxing among other benefits. TransDyne ensures security of confidential patient information, by securing people processes, infrastructure and technology

To avail medical transcription services with multiple options from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing total solutions

The healthcare business today is faced with many challenges. Being in the service industry it is required that healthcare facilities keep themselves in top form by coping with varying demands of their customers. The healthcare sector is faced with the need to cope with increasing standards of services, new developments in the field of healthcare, the need to constantly update infrastructure while still dealing with the same level of reimbursements leading to shrinking budgets. The need of the moment for healthcare facilities is to prioritize the core tasks they need to focus on and outsource all the rest.

Medical transcription has always played a vital role in the process of healthcare by creating patient records. Creation of patient records helps the healthcare facility in many ways:

• Provides the basis of continued care
• Provides information on the progress of treatment
• Acts as evidence in case of litigation
• Forms the basis of coding and billing leading to reimbursement
• Basis for referrals to other healthcare professionals

Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that records of the patient- healthcare professional encounter are created in a timely, accurate, secure and cost effective manner. However while outsourcing medical transcription it is important to source a medical transcription service provider who can provide a total solution to the medical transcription needs of the healthcare facility.

What is meant by total solutions for medical transcription needs?

Total solutions for medical transcription needs would consist of the following:

• Medical transcription solutions for varying volumes: In the healthcare business it is impossible to predict the inflow of patients and thereby it is not possible to predict the volume of transcription requirements. While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to evaluate the service provider on the basis of their ability to cope with varying volumes of transcription. To provide total solutions, the medical transcription service provider needs to be able to meet the holiday and weekend transcription requirements

• Quality medical transcription: Along with the ability to cope with varying volumes the medical transcription service provider also needs to ensure that the quality of transcription is maintained to minimize errors. While looking for total solutions for medical transcription requirements it is important to evaluate the medical transcription service provider on the basis of methods used to ensure quality

• HIPAA and HITECH compliant: While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to ensure that the medical transcription service provider has adequate measures in place for protection of confidential patient information. Medical transcription service providers come under the purview of HIPAA and HITECH as business associates, as they have access to patient health information and are involved in the process of transmitting this data back and forth during the process of transcription

• Medical transcription for all specialties: While looking for total solutions for medical transcription it is important to evaluate the ability of the medical transcription service provider to cope with transcription needs of different specialties without compromising accuracy and turnaround time

• No additional investment required: While looking for total medical transcription solutions it is important to ensure that minimal or no investment is required to avail the services

• No overheads: One of the major advantages of outsourcing medical transcription is the cost factor. Outsourcing medical transcription not only ensures enormous cost savings to the healthcare facility, but also ensures that the healthcare facility incurs no indirect expenses like overheads. While looking for total solutions it is important to ascertain that cost is restricted to the cost per line of transcription

• Software and tools for medical transcription: Technology plays a vital role in medical transcription, both for ease of use and for security purposes. While sourcing total solutions for medical transcription services it is important to evaluate the technological capabilities of the medical transcription service provider

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry offers total solutions to suit varying need of different of different kinds of healthcare facilities. TransDyne has teams of medical transcriptionists who are trained in different specialties, making them domain experts. This ensures that TransDyne can cope with medical transcription for any specialty with an accuracy level of above 99%. TransDyne offers a turnaround time of 24 hours with an option of a turnaround time of 4-12 hours for STAT files.

TransDyne has the technical capabilities to integrate with the existing systems of healthcare facilities, requiring no additional investments. TransDyne offers medical transcription for weekends and holidays, and has people and systems in place to cope up with varying volumes of transcription. TransDyne has software and tools that offer additional features like archiving, remote printing & faxing among other benefits. TransDyne ensures security of confidential patient information, by securing people processes, infrastructure and technology

To avail total medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Helping provide quality healthcare

Healthcare services are considered part of the basic necessities of life like air, water, food, clothing and shelter. In fact in certain situations healthcare takes precedence over other necessities as it can involve life and death situations. Providing quality healthcare is a process, which requires a lot of inputs; one of which is prompt and accurate information regarding the patient’s medical history. The patient record contains the narrative of the patient’s visit/s, the treatment/s, procedure/s, medication/s he/she has been provided with. This helps the healthcare professional in decision making and formulating plans for further care.

Medical transcription plays a vital role in the healthcare process by creating patient records from the audio files of the patient-healthcare professional encounter. Outsourcing medical transcription is an easy fix to make the medical transcription process efficient and cost-effective.

Outsourcing medical transcription helps the healthcare facility in the following areas:

Provision of quality care: Medical transcription helps the healthcare professional in the provision of quality care by capturing the narrative of the doctor in a form that is easily accessible and legible. This becomes very important when the patient is going through a lengthy course of treatment, and there are shift changes in the healthcare facility staff

Providing proper documentation: Patient records play an important proof by documenting the course of treatment and level of progress made by the patient. This documentation process is valuable in case of any doubts in the efficacy of treatment leading to litigation. Medical transcription provides a valuable service by capturing all the details in a speedy and accurate manner

Storage and retrieval of patient records: The process of treatment could involve a single visit or several visits over the course of time. The medical transcription service provider could aid the process of storage and retrieval of patient records by creating powerful archival systems

Helps decrease errors: Medical transcription creates records that are neatly typed with all the details of the treatment and progress made by the patient. This drastically reduces the chance of errors by healthcare professionals due to illegible handwritten notes or any guesswork on the part of the healthcare professional or the healthcare facility staff

Helps curb costs: One of the major advantages of outsourcing medical transcription is enormous reduction in the cost of transcription, both direct and indirect. The healthcare facility benefits from the expertise, increased focus and the economies of scale achieved by the service provider

Quickens the reimbursement process: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the patient records are created on time. This is an important step in the reimbursement process as medical transcription is the first step in the accounts receivables cycle. The information in the patient records is used for coding and billing

Medical transcription plays an important role in the healthcare process; it is important to evaluate the medical transcription service provider on the following criteria:

• Accuracy: This means the percentage of accuracy of the completed transcripts vis-à-vis what was dictated. A minimum of 99% and above would be acceptable.
• Turnaround time: Turnaround time refers to the time taken to revert the transcribed report to the healthcare facility. A turnaround time of not more than 24 hours for normal reports and 4-12 hours for STAT reports would be considered ideal.
• Data security: The service provider being outsourced to should be HIPAA and HITECH compliant. The medical transcription service provider has to have adequate security measures to ensure that the confidential data transmitted back and forth is safe and secure.
• Pricing: Reduced cost of transcription  is one of the main benefits that a healthcare facility hopes to have, from the outsourcing option. Pricing should be fair and reasonable for the services rendered. Pricing method should also be transparent and simple so that both parties can verify the same at any stage of the process
• Technology: The technology used by the medical transcription company should not only be secure but should also be easy to use, without having to require extensive training.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!

For more details about the advantages of outsourcing to a professional medical transcription service provider like TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Makes the healthcare facility efficient

The main goals of a healthcare facility can be defined as providing quality care, education, innovation, research and customer service. The underlying objective is to attain these goals profitably. Many inputs are required by the healthcare facility to achieve their goals, like the qualification, skill level and experience of the healthcare professionals, the right equipments, adequate support staff and accurate & timely information. To provide quality care the healthcare facility has to strive to improve the efficiency of the healthcare professionals and support staff and reduce expenses on non-healthcare related activities.

Outsourcing medical transcription is an easy fix to improve the efficiency of the healthcare facility’s operations in the following ways:

Providing information to the healthcare professionals by creating patient records: Medical transcription is the process of creating records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter by converting audio records to text format.

Outsourced medical transcription improves the efficiency of patient record creation in the following ways:

a)Accuracy: A professional medical transcription service provider would ensure that information of the patient-healthcare professional encounter would be captured accurately by using skillful medical transcriptionists, multi level quality checks and a stringent quality policy. The information in the patient records helps the healthcare professionals make informed decisions on patient care, rather than rely on memory, hand written notes or inputs from the patients

b)Timely: A professional medical transcription service provider would ensure that patient records are created in a timely manner. This improves quality of care as well as quickens the reimbursement process

c)Secure: A professional medical transcription service provider would ensure that the confidentiality of the patient records is maintained throughout the process of transcription including the transmission, thus removing any concerns for HIPAA and HITECH violation during the transcription process

d)Flexible modes of dictation: By allowing the healthcare professionals to retain familiar modes of dictation, a professional medical transcription service provider would ensure that the healthcare professionals are able to make optimum use of their limited time

Restrict the cost of medical transcription to the cost per line of transcription: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the cost of transcription is restricted to price quoted by the service provider. Additional charges like overheads and cost of coordination can be avoided

Improve the productivity of support staff by streamlining transcription flow: A professional medical transcription service provider would ensure that the process of transcription starting with the upload of dictation files, transmission to the service provider and download of finished transcripts would take place in a systematic manner. This lessens the burden of the support staff. Additional features like powerful archival system would also ensure that locating files and tracking work-in-progress would be easy

Better utilization of resources: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that resources like real estate, Information technology staff, working capital, management staff etc. would be utilized efficiently instead of concentrating on medical transcription

It can be concluded that outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider can improve the efficiency of the healthcare facility enormously. Care has to be taken to source the right service provider and evaluate them on the basis of the various factors like accuracy, guaranteed turnaround time, security measures, cost per line of transcription and the technology used by the medical transcription service provider. These factors can be evaluated based on training methods used, quality policy, billing methods and the software & tools used by the medical transcription service provider.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!

For more details about the advantages of outsourcing to a professional medical transcription service provider like TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Avail professional services

Medical transcription plays an important role in the healthcare process by creating accurate, secure, timely and cost-effective records. Outsourcing medical transcription is one of the most effective ways to ensure that the healthcare facility gets maximum advantages with minimum cost. But outsourcing an essential service like medical transcription requires the healthcare facility to undertake a detailed analysis, assessment and selection process.

While outsourcing it is important to assess whether the medical transcription service provider has professional standards of medical transcription.

What is meant by professional medical transcription?

To define the standards of professional medical transcription, it is important to define the word “ professional” and see how the standards of professionalism apply to medical transcription services.

The word “professional” can be defined as:

Member of a vocation having specialized vocational training: In case of a medical transcription service provider this can be attributed to:

• Software and tools developed by the service provider to ease the process of transcription
• Developing training programs to sharpen skills of the medical transcriptionists team
• Ability to create tailor made solutions to aid the needs of the healthcare facilities

Person/organization having competence in a particular activity: In case of medical transcription this can be attributed to the competence of medical transcriptionists in being trained to be domain experts in one or two specialties

Qualified: This refers to the experience of the medical transcription service provider in serving the needs of their customers successfully by providing tailor-made solutions, in a cost-effective manner. This means providing medical transcription services while maintaining standards of accuracy, turnaround time, security and low costs

Having expert and specialized knowledge: This refers to the technological capability of the medical transcription service provider in applying technology to optimize the time of the healthcare professionals, while making technology easy to use

Ability to produce quality work: This refers to the standards and procedures established by the medical transcription service provider to provide accurate transcription

Having high professional ethics: In the context of a medical transcription service provider this refers to maintaining security of confidential patient information

Having reasonable work moral and motivation: This refers to the commitment of the medical transcription service provider to meet turnaround time guarantees

To assess the professional capabilities of the medical transcription service provider, the service provider needs to be evaluated on the following criteria:

Accuracy: This means the percentage of accuracy of the completed transcripts vis-à-vis what was dictated. A minimum of 99% and above would be acceptable.

Turnaround time: Turnaround time refers to the time taken to revert the transcribed report to the healthcare facility. A turnaround time of not more than 24 hours for normal reports and 4-12 hours for STAT reports would be considered ideal.

Data security: The company being outsourced to should be HIPAA and HITECH compliant. The medical transcription service provider has to have adequate security measures to ensure that the confidential data transmitted back and forth is safe and secure.

Pricing: Reduced cost of transcription is one of the main benefits that a healthcare facility hopes to have, from the outsourcing option. Pricing should be fair and reasonable for the services rendered. Pricing method should also be transparent and simple so that both parties can verify the same at any stage of the process

Technology: The technology used by the medical transcription company should not only be secure but should also be easy to use, without having to require extensive training.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!

For more details about the advantages of outsourcing to a professional medical transcription service provider like TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription: Outsourcing helps increase efficiency and improve services

Medical transcription has played an important role in the process of healthcare by helping document the patient-healthcare professional encounter. Medical transcription is also the first step in the process of reimbursement as it provides the basis for coding and billing.

In a time where healthcare facilities are struggling with shrinking incomes and galloping expenses, outsourcing medical transcription is an easy fix to curb costs of transcription. Apart from curbing costs, outsourcing medical transcription can help the healthcare facility increase efficiency and improve services.

How does outsourcing medical transcription help increase efficiency?

Outsourcing medical transcription helps increase efficiency of the healthcare facilities in the following areas:

Improving report accessibility: Outsourcing medical transcription reduces the burden of the healthcare facility support staff, by creating an orderly system for collection of audio files, uploading dictation, distribution of finished transcripts and providing additional features like electronic signature, remote printing & faxing etc. Outsourcing medical transcription also helps in tracing files through an efficient system, enabling the support staff to track the status of work in progress, at any given time. Access to patient records is also improved by use of an efficient archiving systems

Saving on resources: Outsourcing medical transcription frees up valuable resources of the healthcare facility like real estate, capital expenditure on transcription equipment, office space, information technology staff, management resources and working capital. These resources can then be utilized towards the core business of the healthcare facility, thus improving efficiency

One stop solution for medical transcription needs: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the service provider is a one stop for all the problems associated with medical transcription. This would include variation in transcription volumes, holiday & weekend transcription, addition of new specialties, inclusion of new report formats/templates, integration with EMR/EHR, and HIPAA & HITECH concerns for security of information during the medical transcription process

Accelerating funds flow: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that medical records are created on time. This ensures that the first step in the receivables cycle takes place on time. This in turn helps accelerate the reimbursement process. Quickening the receivables cycle helps the funds flow and enables the healthcare facility to perform efficiently

How does outsourcing medical transcription help improve services?

Improved quality of reports: Outsourcing medical transcription has added benefits like medical transcriptionists trained in specialties, multiple quality checks and the past experience & proficiency of the service provider in serving diverse healthcare facilities helps improve the quality of reports. The improved quality of the information in the patient records helps the healthcare facility improve quality of services by helping healthcare professionals make informed decisions

Improved turnaround time: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that medical records are created on time. Having the right information on hand in a timely basis helps healthcare professionals improve quality of services to patients

It can be concluded that outsourcing medical transcription provides a variety of advantages to the healthcare facility. To benefit from the advantages of outsource medical transcription, it is important to analyze the specific needs of the healthcare facility and source a medical transcription service provider who can provide services accordingly.

The capabilities of the medical transcription service provider needs to be evaluated on the following criteria:

Accuracy: This means the percentage of accuracy of the completed transcripts vis-à-vis what was dictated. A minimum of 99% and above would be acceptable.

Turnaround time: Turnaround time refers to the time taken to revert the transcribed report to the healthcare facility. A Turnaround time of not more than 24 hours for normal reports and 4-12 hours for STAT reports would be considered ideal.

Data security: The company being outsourced to should be HIPAA and HITECH compliant. The medical transcription service provider has to have adequate security measures to ensure that the confidential data transmitted back and forth is safe and secure.

Pricing: This is one of the main benefits that a healthcare facility hopes to have, from the outsourcing option. Pricing should be fair and reasonable for the services rendered. Pricing method should also be transparent and simple so that both parties can verify the same at any stage of the process

Technology: The technology used by the medical transcription company should not only be secure but should also be easy to use, without having to require extensive training.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!

For more details about the advantages of outsourced medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Going the HITECH way!

Health Information Technology for Economy and Clinical Health (HITECH) act providing for privacy and security of patient health information was enacted on 17th February 2009, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (ARRA). The HITECH act has become effective on 17th February 2010.

HITECH has improved and expanded on the concerns and issues addressed by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). HITECH has added new requirements concerning privacy and security for health information that materially and directly affects many entities, businesses, and individuals in ways more diverse than HIPAA

How does HITECH affect medical transcription service providers?

HITECH has added as ‘Business Associates’, organizations that transmit protected Health Information and require access on a regular basis to such information.

Medical transcription is the process of converting audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. The process of medical transcription is made efficient and cost effective when outsourced to a professional medical transcription service provider. Medical transcription service providers come under the purview of HITECH as business associates, as they have access to patient health information and are involved in the process of transmitting this data back and forth during the process of transcription.

What are the steps to be taken by a medical transcription service provider to ensure compliance with the HITECH act?

To be compliant with the HITECH act, the medical transcription service provider needs to implement the following:

• 
  
  Identify the compliance requirements specific to their organization
• 
  
  Carry out a risk analysis that includes the total flow of Patient Health Information (PHI) during the process of transcription. This needs to include the beginning of the process, all the steps in between up to the conclusion of the process, namely:

1. 
   
   Collection of dictation
2. 
   
   Transmission of audio files
3. 
   
   Distribution of audio files for transcription
4. 
   
   Shared access for quality checks
5. 
   
   Transmission of transcripts back to the healthcare professionals
6. 
   
   Archiving

• 
  
  Identify the high-risk areas and look at the current risk containment measures. Revise the measures to ensure that they are in tandem with current requirements and latest technology, making sure there are no loopholes to allow for breaches
• 
  
  Ensure that employees and any third parties having access to PHI are fully trained on the privacy and security requirements. Make them aware of their role in protecting PHI
• 
  
  Review existing relationships between covered entities and develop a continuing compliance strategy
• 
  
  Develop a strategy to minimize breaches, an early detection plan for identifying breaches and an action plan for quick responses to contain breaches, if any

While outsourcing medical transcription, it has become important for healthcare facilities to ensure that the service provider is fully aware of the requirement to protect the PHI under the HITECH act and have measures in place to ensure compliance.

TransDyne a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has always understood the importance of securing and protecting confidential patient health information during the process of medical transcription. Measures have been taken to ensure that PHI is protected at all levels. The measures taken by TransDyne to be HIPAA and HITECH complaint include:

• 
  
  Securing people and processes: People and processes are secured by implementing the following:

1. 
   
   No sub-contractors: Work outsourced to TransDyne is executed in-house and no subcontractors are used.
2. 
   
   Educating the team: The transcription team, i.e. medical transcriptionists, proof readers, language editors and the quality assurance team have been educated on the importance of protecting and securing PHI
3. 
   
   Inbuilt security routines: All applications and processes have inbuilt security measures like password changes, access audits and related exercises.
4. 
   
   Joint access: Most confidential databases can only be accessed by a combination of passwords of a minimum of two individuals.
5. 
   
   Restricted Internet and Email access: Unlimited access to Internet can lead to security breaches. Access is limited to a few limited sites.
6. 
   
   Legal Declarations: Declarations are signed by employees undertaking to maintain the security of data.
7. 
   
   Security audits: Frequent audits are carried out to ensure that all procedures are followed and are effective
8. 
   
   Disabling ports for removable media: Ports for using removable media have been disabled to eliminate misuse of PHI

• 
  
  Securing Infrastructure: Infrastructure is secured by the following means:

Company owned and managed facilities

1. 
   
   Manned security
2. 
   
   Video surveillance

• 
  
  Securing Technology: Technology has been secured by use of security features like

1. 
   
   All medical transcription related software applications are built in-house.
2. 
   
   Database based systems.
3. 
   
   128-bit data encryption
4. 
   
   Multi-tiered application architecture
5. 
   
   Design level security safeguards
6. 
   
   Firewall protected networks
7. 
   
   Sterilized e-mail servers
8. 
   
   Denial of access procedures and
9. 
   
   Multi-modal alerts

To know more about secure medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Simple solutions

Running a healthcare facility, whether it is a single doctor clinic, or a huge hospital with multiple specialties is not easy. It is always a constant struggle to get the most, from limited resources. The main goal of a healthcare facility is to provide quality care, profitably. There could be many other goals like building a reputation for quality care, research and expansion plans.

It is therefore important for the management of the healthcare facility to concentrate all its resources towards their main goal. To achieve their core objective of providing quality care profitably, numerous inputs are required like skillful healthcare professionals, the right equipment, adequate infrastructure and accurate & timely information.

Medical transcription plays an important role in creating patient records by converting audio records of the patient –healthcare professional encounter into text format, thus providing healthcare professionals with accurate and timely information. Having accurate and timely information improves the quality of care. But having medical records created in-house can burden the healthcare facility with both direct and indirect costs.

Outsourcing medical transcription provides a simple solution to the documentation needs of the healthcare facility. Outsourcing medical transcription has advantages like:

Limits cost of medical transcription to the cost per line of transcription: Outsourcing medical transcription helps the healthcare facility contain transcription costs. Direct costs like salary of medical transcriptionists, taxes and insurance are eliminated. Indirect costs like cost of capital equipment, cost of information technology, real estate and management resources are also eliminated. This helps the healthcare facility utilize its’ limited resources in an optimum manner

Quickens the receivables cycle: Medical transcription is the first stage of the receivables cycle. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that patient records are created on time. This ensures that the process of reimbursement can take place speedily

Helps the healthcare facility focus on its’ core business: By outsourcing medical transcription, the healthcare facility gains from the experience of the service provider and the technology used by the medical transcription service provider. This eases the burden of the healthcare facility staff towards medical transcription related activities like collecting dictation, uploading audio files, downloading of finished transcripts, HIPAA and HITECH compliance and archiving etc. This helps them increase focus on the core business of the healthcare facility.

It can be concluded that outsourcing medical transcription provides the healthcare facility with a simple solution for their documentation needs. However while outsourcing medical transcription, the healthcare facility needs to ensure that the medical transcription service provider can meet their needs in the desired manner. To ensure a long-term partnership the medical transcription service provider needs to be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Accuracy: This means the percentage of accuracy of the completed transcripts vis-à-vis what was dictated. A minimum of 99% and above would be acceptable.
• Turnaround time: Turnaround time refers to the time taken to revert the transcribed report to the healthcare facility. A Turnaround time of not more than 24 hours for normal reports and 4-12 hours for STAT reports would be considered ideal.
• Data security: The company being outsourced to should be HIPAA and HITECH compliant. The medical transcription service provider has to have adequate security measures to ensure that the confidential data transmitted back and forth is safe and secure.
• Pricing: Reduced costs towards transcription is one of the main benefits that a healthcare facility hopes to have, from the outsourcing option. Pricing should be fair and reasonable for the services rendered. Pricing method should also be transparent and simple so that both parties can verify the same at any stage of the process
• Technology: The technology used by the medical transcription company should not only be secure but should also be easy to use, without having to require extensive training.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!

To avail simple medical transcription solutions from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Cost-effective solutions

Medical transcription is the process of converting the audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. The information in the patient record is very pertinent for patient care, as evidence in case of litigation and as the basis for the receivables cycle.

Though medical transcription is an integral part of both the commercial and operational aspects of healthcare, it does not contribute directly to the bottom line of the healthcare facility. In fact, medical transcription is a part of the costs. To ensure the smooth running of the healthcare facility, as well as to curb costs it is important to keep the costs of medical transcription down, without affecting the quality adversely. Outsourcing medical transcription is a cost-effective solution for curbing costs without affecting quality.

The term “cost-effective” has been defined as producing good results for the amount of money spent.

What makes outsourcing medical transcription cost-effective?

Outsourcing medical transcription ensures the following, making it effective:

Right quality: Quality/ accuracy of the information captured in the patient record is very important as it affects both the quality of care as well as coding & billing for reimbursement purposes. To be effective, the accuracy levels promised by the medical transcription service provider needs to be as close to 100% as possible

Right quantity: When it comes to the quantity of medical transcription requirements, this is purely defined by the volume of patients. To be effective the medical transcription service provider needs to be able to cope with varying volumes of transcription needs, including holidays and weekend transcription requirements

Timely: Apart from capturing information accurately and coping with varying volumes, outsourced medical transcription needs to be timely to be effective. That is the turnaround time guarantees need to be met

Secure: To be effective outsourced medical transcription needs to be secured, so as to protect confidential patient information. Care needs to be taken to ensure that the medical transcription service provider takes HIPAA and HITECH compliant measures to secure technology, process, infrastructure and people

Easy to use: Technology that is easy to use is another factor that adds to the effectiveness of outsourced medical transcription services. This enables doctors to retain familiar modes of dictation, enable other support staff to avail features like easy upload of dictation and download of finished transcripts, which benefits them by helping them manage their time better

Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the service is of the right quality, right quantity, timely and secure, while making sure that the costs are restricted to the cost per line of transcription, without any extra or hidden costs.

It can be seen that outsourcing to the right service provider, ensures that the healthcare facility has a cost-effective solution for their medical transcription needs.

TransDyne provides cost effective solutions to the medical transcription needs of healthcare facilities. To make medical transcription solutions more effective, care is taken to study the needs of the healthcare facility in detail. Factors like the number of healthcare professionals practicing, their specialties, the formats/templates required by the healthcare professionals, the mode of dictation the healthcare professionals are comfortable with, the archiving needs of the healthcare facility, the need for added features like remote printing/faxing and integration with EMR are considered before offering effective solutions.

TransDyne is able to offer customized solutions at low costs by virtue of their expert medical transcriptionists, technology and their vast experience is providing outsource medical transcription solutions. The cost per line of transcription is clearly defined and care is taken to ensure that the healthcare facility is aware of the components of the cost to ensure that everybody is on the same page.

To avail cost-effective outsourced medical transcription solutions from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Increases productivity

When it comes to provision of quality healthcare there are many associated activities that contribute to the process. Medical transcription is one such activity that plays an important part in ensuring provision of quality care and strengthening the bottom-line of the healthcare facility. It is important for the healthcare facility to ensure that the medical transcription process is efficient and cost effective, without diluting focus on the core business. Outsourcing medical transcription is an easy fix to make it efficient and cost effective.

Outsourcing medical transcription can help the healthcare facility increasing productivity.

How does outsourcing medical transcription help healthcare facilities increase productivity?

Productivity has simply been defined as the positive outcome of quality output plus quantity output divided by quality input plus quantity input.

Outsourcing medical transcription helps enhance productivity in the following areas:

Increasing productivity of healthcare professionals: Outsourcing medical transcription helps enhance the productivity of healthcare professionals in the following areas:

1. Allowing them optimum use of their time by retaining familiar and flexible modes of dictation
2. Helping with the decision making process about patients’ treatment plans, by providing them with accurate and timely patient records

Increasing productivity of support staff: Outsourcing medical transcription helps enhance the productivity of support staff like nurses and technicians by providing them with a system to keep track of work in progress, powerful archives for tracing old records and facilities like remote printing & faxing

Increasing productivity of administrative staff: Outsourcing medical transcription reduces the burden of the administrative staff by allowing them to focus all resources like space, utilities and other resources on the core business of the healthcare facility instead of on associated activities like medical transcription

Increasing productivity of Information technology (IT) staff: Outsourcing medical transcription can help reduce the burden on the IT staff, by providing software and tools to facilitate upload of dictation, download of files and distribution of patient records to the relevant healthcare professionals

Increasing productivity of management staff: The burden of the management staff towards activities like recruitment, training and coordination of medical transcriptionists are eased when medical transcription is outsourced.

In conclusion it is obvious that outsourcing medical transcription increases the quality and quantity of output, i.e. increased productivity resulting in provision of quality care, decreasing direct & indirect costs of medical transcription and quickening the receivables process. To get the desired increase in productivity by outsourcing medical transcription, care has to be taken to evaluate the medical transcription service provider on the following criteria:

• Accuracy: Needs to be above 99%
• Turnaround time: Needs to be within 24 hours
• Price: Needs to be reasonable and fair
• Security: Has to cover all aspects, i.e. technology, infrastructure, people and processes.
• Technology: Needs to be easy to use and provide maximum benefits.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry offers customized solutions that help healthcare facilities enhance their productivity. TransDyne offers medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use.

To know more about medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here