Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Medical transcription: The continued role in healthcare

The role played by healthcare in improving the quality of life is undeniable. Healthcare has always strived to provide quality healthcare to meet the changing needs of patients while striving to maintain a healthy bottom line. The healthcare sector draws inputs from various sources to be able to meet the constant demands made on it, by patients, by insurance providers and also fulfilling the demands of statutory norms.  One input that constantly supports healthcare is information from patient records.

Complete and comprehensive documentation of the patient- healthcare professional encounter helps healthcare facilities in all aspects. Information from patient records is essential for providing quality healthcare to patients. Patient records also provide information for coding and billing which than can be used to claim payments from Insurance companies. Maintaining patient records also fulfills statutory requirement of having to keep patient information for a certain period of time.

Medical transcription is the process of creating records of the patient- healthcare professional encounter. In recent times due to the advent of technology like speech recognition and point  & click entry in EMR system by the healthcare professional at the point of care, the need for medical transcription services have been challenged.  To judge whether medical transcription services would continue to be a part of the emerging scenario it is important to consider the factors given below:

  • Volume: One of the factors that make medical transcription an essential part of the healthcare process is the sheer volume of patient records that need to be created. Dealing with such huge volume of work requires the expertise of a medical transcription service provider who can deal with these volumes while still maintaining accuracy and turnaround time standards

  • Preferred method: Dictation to transcription remains the preferred method of healthcare professionals for patient record creation as most medical transcription service providers allow healthcare professionals to dictate using their preferred modes of dictation. This enables them to optimize the limited time available to them, instead of having to use point & click method of data entry, which could distract them from patient interaction, or speech recognition, which requires them to train the software and make major changes in the style of dictation.

  • Comprehensive: The process of narration of the patient encounter, which is then transcribed by the medical transcription service provider, allows the healthcare professional to capture comprehensive information. Comprehensive information regarding the patient can help improve the diagnostic process.

  • Helps enhance healthcare professional productivity: The process of dictation to transcription enables the healthcare professional to maximize his/her productivity, as opposed to other methods.

  • Specialist services: Creating patient records through the process of converting audio to text by the process of transcription is efficient and cost effective because medical transcriptionists are specialists in this skill. They have the requisite language, medical knowledge, keyboarding and research skills to produce quality transcripts that meet accuracy, turnaround time and security standards.

  • Risk management: Recording all the nuances of the patient encounter and detailing the treatment/ diagnostic process provides support in case of litigation.

  • Creating error free records: The process of creating patient records through the medical transcription process minimizes errors as the transcripts are put through a rigorous quality check process involving experienced proof readers, editors and quality control teams who minimize errors.

  • Editing/ proof reading for speech recognition: Medical transcription services have also adapted themselves to provide proof reading and editing services for transcripts created by speech recognition software.

  • Integrate with EHR/EMR: Outsourced medical transcription service providers also have the capacity to input data into the EMR using HL7 interface. 
It can be seen that medical transcription services are an integral part of the healthcare process, having adapted themselves to changes in technology and statutory requirements. As medical transcription is a specialized skill requiring the right blend of technology, process and a qualified team, outsourcing medical transcription is the best option to ensure accurate, speedy, secure and cost effective services.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has utilized their extensive background in information technology and their experience in providing medical transcription services to come up with medical transcription solutions that help healthcare facilities save on time, money and effort. 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.

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