Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Medical transcription: The decision making process for outsourcing

There are several reasons to outsource medical transcription; one of the main reasons is to reduce the burden of non-healthcare related work for everybody involved in the running of the healthcare facility.

The decision making process becomes comparatively difficult when the purchase decision involves availing services rather than a tangible physical product. But is the process of evaluation so different?

What are the usual criteria for evaluation for any major purchase and how does it apply while evaluating medical transcription?

  • Quality: Quality is perhaps the most important aspect that is evaluated during the purchase process. This becomes very critical while evaluating services as important as medical transcription.
  • Quantity: This criterion covers two aspects. The quantity that is required and whether the required quantity can be supplied. Again this aspect is vital to a healthcare facility, as in this case the required quantity cannot be predicted and the medical transcription service provider has to be able to cope with varying needs
  • Right price: Apart from quality and quantity, getting the right price is very important. In case of a healthcare facility looking to outsource medical transcription needs, cost is perhaps the main driver for the outsourcing decision
  • Reliability: In any purchase decision the product/service needs to be reliable. This could mean that the company providing the product/ service should be well established and have the right technology and the right processes in place to provide reliable services.
  • Safety: Safety features of the product need to be evaluated before making the final decision. In case of a healthcare facility maintaining safety or security of confidential patient information is mandatory.
  • Guarantee: Guarantee for the performance of the product again plays a very important role in the buying decision. In case of a service like medical transcription the guarantee could be both for turnaround time as well the accuracy levels.
  • Ease of use: Nobody likes to buy a product that is difficult to use. This applies very much to a healthcare facility looking to outsource medical transcription. Using this service should be made as easy as possible without affecting the security and performance features.
  • Robust technology: Technology plays a major role in most products/ services. Technology needs to be robust and consistent to ensure the continuity of services.
  • After sales service: This is an oft-ignored factor, which turns out to be a glitch after one has availed of products/services. Continued customer care is a vital factor for smooth transition to outsourced medical transcription.
  • Track record: A good track record/reputation of the company with customers who have purchased the products or availed of the services can provide an additional comfort level
  • Well-developed web site: A well developed website could pretty much cover all these factors. When a healthcare facility looks for options to outsource medical transcription, a well-developed web site can cover all these points and also provide additional information regarding the benefits of availing the services from the service provider.
It can be seen that any purchasing decision tends to follow the same procedure, in case of outsourcing services only the evaluation criteria differs. Medical transcription is a critical function for a healthcare facility and it affects both profitability and the core business of providing quality healthcare. Care should be taken to select a company, which fulfils all these criteria.

TransDyne is a leading provider of medical transcription, given below is the analysis that shows that TransDyne more than fulfils all the above criteria:
  • Quality: TransDyne offers transcription with an accuracy level of above 99%
  • Quantity: TransDyne has a large pool of qualified and well-trained medical transcriptionists, who can deal with varying volumes of transcription without compromising quality or turnaround time
  • Right price: TransDyne offers medical transcription at reasonable and fair prices using transparent billing method
  • Reliability: TransDyne medical transcription service is reliable and consistent. It covers even holiday and weekend requirements
  • Safety: Security of data is ensured at TransDyne by the use of right technology, right process and right infrastructure. TransDyne has educated its’ team on HIPAA regulations to ensure total confidentiality
  • Guarantee: TransDyne offers a guaranteed turnaround time of 24 hours, with an option of 4-12 hours turnaround time for STAT reports. Accuracy levels are guaranteed at 99%
  • Ease of use: TransDyne believes that technology should be advanced, but easy to use. That is why it offers flexible modes of dictation, easy upload and web delivery systems that require minimum or no training
  • Robust technology: TransDyne uses robust technology like 128-bit data encryption, multi-tiered application architecture, design level security safeguards, firewall protected networks etc
  • After sales service: TransDyne is available to its customers 24/7 to provide support.
  • Track record: TransDyne has an excellent track record of their performance with healthcare facilities of all types. The testimonials of some of these success stories are available at their web site
  • Well-developed web site: TransDyne has a web site, which offers comprehensive information about the company, services and methodology etc.
 To avail superior medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here

Monday, May 30, 2011

Medical transcription: Strategies for outsourcing

What is the strategy to be adopted for outsourcing medical transcription?

Identify healthcare process: This will show the healthcare facility the flow of work and identify processes that can be outsourced and those, which are to be retained in-house. The typical workflow for healthcare would be as follows:
  • Appointment by patient to visit doctor/emergency visit
  • Filling up of demo forms
  • Doctor visit
  • Dictation of notes
  • Medical coding
  • Medical billing
  • Insurance claims processing
  • Re-imbursement
  • Follow up of payment over and above insurance re-imbursement
This flow clearly shows that the first four tasks cannot be outsourced but other tasks like medical transcription can be outsourced.
 
Assess the feasibility of outsourcing medical transcription
 
Can medical transcription be executed outside the healthcare facility premises? With the advent of Internet, it is possible for medical transcription to be executed outside the physical premises of the healthcare facility
 
Are there any security implications to outsourcing medical transcription?  Security of confidential patient health information has to be ensured. Care has to be taken to make sure that the medical transcription service provider is HIPAA complaint and covered under a business associate agreement.
 
Can medical transcription be tailor made to match the requirements of the healthcare facility? The needs of different healthcare facilities is different, care has to be taken to source a medical transcription company who can cater to different volumes, formats and specialties and according to the turnaround time specified.
 
Can the medical transcription service provider’s performance be monitored? The performance of a medical transcription company can be monitored in terms of accuracy and turnaround time.
 
Sourcing medical transcription service provider
 
Cost: This is perhaps one of the most criteria for outsourcing, Care has to be taken that the cost per line of transcription parameters are understood completely before comparing quotes.
 
Turnaround time: Turnaround time is an important factor that affects both the healthcare and profitability aspect of the healthcare facility.
 
Availability of talent pool: To make sure that a service provider can provide continuous and consistent service it is important to evaluate the talent pool available to the service provider.
 
Risks: This refers both to the risk of poor quality as well as security of information. To mitigate this assurances of quality level and the security measures taken by the medical transcription company need to be evaluated
 
What is the value proposition of outsourcing medical transcription?
 
Speed: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures the speedy creation of medical records under all circumstances.
 
Profit increase: Outsourcing medical transcription brings down the cost per line of transcription and improves the bottom line. It also helps increase profits by shortening the receivables cycle.
 
Increased process efficiency: Outsourcing medical transcription increases the efficiency of the healthcare process by making information available to the healthcare professionals on time.
 
Improved Management focus: Outsourcing medical transcription improves the management focus by freeing up valuable resources like real estate, supervisory staff, capital investment etc.
 
TransDyne is a professionally managed medical transcription service provider that offers quality Medical Transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert Medical Transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!
 
For more details about how to use TransDyne’s superior outsourced medical transcription service, click here.