Medical transcription outsourcing: Helps in managing total quality

The concept of quality in healthcare services can be easily defined for each stakeholder who is involved in the healthcare business. Considering the number of stakeholders in the healthcare process the definition of quality for each segment would vary according to their role in the healthcare process.  One common indisputable thread that binds all the stakeholders in the healthcare process is that of documentation of the care process.  Quality documentation of the care process is essential to fulfill all the diverse and often contradictory demands of all stakeholders.

Medical transcription is the process of documenting the care process by converting the dictation of the patient- healthcare professional encounter into text format. As the medical transcription process requires focused resources in the form of the right team, the right process and the right technology, outsourcing medical transcription would be considered the right solution. Outsourcing medical transcription not only ensures accurate, timely, secure and cost-effective creation of patient medical records but also helps meet the quality inputs required by all the stakeholders in the care process.

Who are the stakeholders in the care process and how do outsourced medical transcription services help in managing the total quality inputs required by the various stakeholders?

The main stakeholders in the care process can be defined as:

Patients: The expectations of the patient from the care process can be summed up as:

1. Quality care
2. Low costs
3. Confidentiality

Outsourced medical transcription services aid in all these aspects by creating accurate and timely patient medical records that reflect the entire patient story. This helps healthcare professionals in clinical decision-making. Outsourced medical transcription also brings down the cost of transcription thus helping reduce costs and protects PHI throughout the entire process of medical transcription by securing technology, infrastructure, people and processes.

 

Healthcare professionals and support staff: The expectations of the healthcare professional can be summed up as:

1. Option to preserve the narrative portion of the patient encounter
2. Option to retain familiar modes of dictation
3. Customized turnaround time options
4. Reports in preferred formats/ templates
5. Delivery of transcripts through the specified modes
6. Adoption of EMR/ EHR without major changes in working style

Outsourced medical transcription services provide support using technology that provides all these benefits while still being easy to use. This helps healthcare professionals and support staff avail all the benefits of technology while still maximizing their focus and productivity. Features like archives, web based delivery, HL7 interface etc help in fulfilling the expectations of healthcare professionals

The management of the healthcare facility: The expectations of the healthcare facility management can be summed up as:

1. Reducing costs
2. Protection against litigation
3. Reduce the cost of overheads
4. Quickening reimbursements

Outsourced medical transcription services provide services that help healthcare facilities convert the fixed cost of medical transcription to variable costs thus helping them save on overheads. The detailed patient medical records created by the outsourced medical transcription service provider helps in risk management and receivables management.

 

The other stakeholders in the healthcare process like regulatory authorities, insurance companies and the pharmaceutical sector also benefit from the detailed, accurate, timely, secure and cost effective creation of patient medical records.

 

It can be seen that a professional and technologically savvy medical transcription service provider can help in managing quality at all levels.

 

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has used their extensive background in information technology and their experience in serving the needs of the healthcare sector to provide affordable and integrated medical transcription solutions.

 

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, executed by experienced and qualified 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 complete medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: An in-depth analysis

In today's world, most businesses are viewing outsourcing some part of their operations as an effective solution to decrease costs and increase focus on their core business. The healthcare sector is no different. The healthcare process is complex and depends on many quality inputs to deliver services that meet high standards. Many parts of the core healthcare process cannot be outsourced; however certain portions that provide support to the healthcare process like medical transcription can be outsourced.

Medical transcription has an important role to play in the healthcare process by chronicling the patient – healthcare professional encounter in a manner that reflects accurate information. Outsourcing medical transcription adds to the efficiency of operations by ensuring turnaround time as per the healthcare professionals' requirements, security as per HIPAA & HITECH and lowering costs substantially.  However outsourcing a vital service like medical transcription can lead to doubts and misgivings.

Given below is an analysis of outsourced medical transcription services, that helps healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities recognize the possible pitfalls of outsourcing and the means of overcoming them:

Quality: One of the main fears that healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities have regarding outsourcing medical transcription is that of substandard quality. Quality in medical transcription is the accuracy of the information captured in the patient medical record viz a viz the dictation. Substandard quality can have far reaching consequences that affect many areas of the healthcare facility operations including patient care and risk management. It becomes important for healthcare facilities to source a medical transcription service provider who can provide services consistently without compromising on quality. The training methods and the quality assurance process used by the medical transcription service provider process needs to be assessed to determine the capability of the service provider to deliver quality services as promised.

Security: Breach of security during the medical transcription process can result in HIPAA and HITECH violation, which has far-reaching and adverse implications on the healthcare facility. To ensure that the medical transcription service provider is capable of ensuring HIPAA and HITECH compliance, the service provider needs to be assessed on the measures taken by the medical transcription service provider to secure technology, infrastructure, people and processes.

Turnaround time: Apart from the accuracy of the information the other most important aspect that affects the healthcare facility operations is the turnaround time. While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to source a service provider who can meet the varying turnaround time needs of healthcare professionals without adversely affecting accuracy. To assess the capability of the medical transcription service provider in meeting turnaround time committed it is important to assess them on the availability of skilled medical transcriptionists, the transcription process and the technology used by the service provider.

Technology redundancy: The process of medical transcription has become dependent on technology to provide the necessary support for factors like convenience, turnaround time, security, flexibility and meeting statutory requirements like adoption of EMR/EHR etc. It is important to source a medical transcription service provider who can provide the necessary technological support without requiring huge capital outlay from the healthcare facilities. To assess a medical transcription service provider in this regard it is important to source a medical transcription service provider that uses advanced technology with features that are easy to use.

Hidden costs: One of the main advantages of outsourcing medical transcription is that of enormous savings on costs. However the caution to be exercised in this regard is to ensure that there are no hidden costs. To assess a medical transcription service provider in this regard it is important to assess the billing methodology. The billing method used by the medical transcription service provider needs to be measurable, definable, verifiable, consistent, fair and honest.

It can be seen that though outsourcing medical transcription can lead to certain costs if done improperly, these impediments can be overcome by following a process of assessing the medical transcription service provider on each of these critical aspects.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has used their extensive background in information technology and their experience in serving the needs of the healthcare sector to provide affordable and integrated medical transcription solutions.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, executed by experienced and qualified 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 complete medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Helping create usable records

The healthcare process tends to be information intensive depending on the right data to arrive at the right course of treatment to be provided. Though this is the primary purpose for documenting the care process the information in patient medical records continues to play a role in numerous aspects of the smooth operations of the healthcare facility. Healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals have numerous options available to them for documenting the care process, however it is important to select a method of documentation that blends in well with the working life of healthcare professionals and helps create records that are usable for all purposes for which they are created.

The options available to healthcare professionals to document the care process range from the most primitive form to the most sophisticated means including:

• Handwritten notes
• In house medical transcription team
• Outsourced medical transcription services
• Point and click entry by the healthcare professional at the point of care
• Speech recognition software

 Availing outsourced medical transcription is the option best suited to the working style of healthcare professionals, the budgetary constraints of healthcare facilities, the varied documentation needs of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities etc as it is the method that meets all the usability criteria required of patient medical records.

 

What are the purposes of patient medical records and how do outsourced medical transcription services help meet these purposes?

 

Patient medical records are created as a means of recording the patient- healthcare professional encounter. The information from these patient medical records are used for various purposes including:

• Means of interaction: The patient medical records reflect the entire medical history of the patient and this helps in fruitful interaction with the patient and his/ her family. Medical transcription ensures that patient medical records are created with maximum detail in an accurate manner using a combination of skilled medical transcriptionists and a stringent process. Moreover outsourced medical transcription service providers encourage healthcare professionals to use dictation as a method of collecting the information. Healthcare professionals prefer dictation using familiar modes to record the patient encounter, as this helps them optimize their time and helps in recording the narrative portion of the patient record, which plays a vital role in the care process.
• Accountability: As healthcare is an important service requiring quality inputs from various healthcare professionals it is important that the patient medical record take note of this and reflect the origin of the care process as well as all the participants of the care process. Patient medical records created by the medical transcription process clearly reflect all the healthcare professionals that are part of the care process
• Legal requirements: A well-created patient medical record is not only mandatory for the care process but also fulfils statutory requirements and is a part of risk management. Medical transcription ensures that patient medical records are created by recording all the nuances of the narrative and details of the care process in a timely and accurate manner
• Quality and feedback: Patient medical records are also used as a means of assessing quality of care and providing feedback. Patient medical records created using outsourced medical transcription service providers reflect all the details required for this purpose
• Research: Often new drugs or procedures are used for which detailed records are to be maintained in an easily accessible manner. Outsourced medical transcription service providers ensure detailed medical records are created and are easily accessible by archiving records and enabling search using different criteria.
• Receivables management: Patient medical records not only aid in all above-mentioned area, but timely medical transcription can also help enhance the receivables management.

It can be concluded that outsourced medical transcription services help create patient medical records that meet usability criteria.

 

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has used their extensive background in information technology and their experience in serving the needs of the healthcare sector to provide affordable and integrated medical transcription solutions.

 

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, executed by experienced and qualified 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 complete and reliable medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.