Medical transcription outsourcing: Helps overall improvement

With the nationwide drive towards adopting electronic health systems, healthcare facilities are frantically undergoing the process of sourcing the right product for them based on their specific requirements. The role of medical transcription in this move towards nationwide digitization of patient medical records is vital. Medical transcription as a service has been a part of healthcare for almost as long as healthcare services themselves. Though over the years medical transcription has evolved from its earlier simple role of listening & typing to that of a sophisticated and specialized service using the right skills and the right technology to provide services that aid healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals in many ways.

Possessed with an inherent understanding of the operations of healthcare facilities and the needs of healthcare professionals and combining this knowledge with their arsenal of technology and processes has enabled outsourced medical transcription service providers to provide services that help in the overall improvement of healthcare facility operations.  Outsourcing medical transcription helps healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals in three of the main aspects that contribute to smooth operations:

• Quality: Apart from the skills and qualifications of the healthcare professional and the facilities provided by the healthcare facility there are other aspects that contribute to quality care, that outsourced medical transcription service providers help improve: 

1.     Focus on the patient: Using medical transcription services to document the patient encounter helps healthcare professionals concentrate on the patient rather than the monitor, this helps in improving the quality of care

2.     Preserving the narrative: Using the services of a professional medical transcription service provider enables the narrative to be a part of the patient medical record which helps the healthcare professional recall important details that help in the care process

3.     Accuracy: Documenting the patient encounter using a medical transcription service provider ensures that patient medical records are created with maximum accuracy possible using skilled medical transcriptionists and a rigorous quality assurance process

• Efficiency: Documenting the patient encounter using the services of an outsourced medical transcription service provider has been found to help improve the efficiency of healthcare professionals and healthcare professionals by providing services that include: 

1.     Allowing usage of flexible modes of dictation

2.     Providing software and tools for transcription that not only provide numerous benefits but are also easy to use

3.     Providing customized document delivery options

4.     Providing easy access to archives to help retrieve older transcripts

5.     Providing a system that enables easy tracking of dictations, work-in-progress and transcripts

6.     Providing editing and proofreading services for transcripts created by speech recognition software

7.     Adoption of EMR/ EHR using HL7 interface. 

• Safety: One of the concerns of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities during the entire care process is providing for the security of confidential patient information. This information is especially vulnerable during transmission to and from the outsourced medical transcription service provider. Outsourced medical transcription service providers have realized the importance of HIPAA and HITECH compliance during the transcription process and provided for this by securing people, processes, technology and infrastructure used for medical transcription. 

It can be seen that medical transcription service providers help enhance quality of services, improve efficiency and mitigate safety concerns.

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.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing insightful support

It is a well-known fact that healthcare services do not function in isolation; they provide services to a wide variety of the population, have interactions with various regulatory authorities and draw support & inputs from various sources. As healthcare services are an essential service, they are under a lot of pressure to meet certain statutory requirements and maintain careful records of patient interactions. Moreover the healthcare sector also depends on insurance providers for reimbursements. Therefore documenting the healthcare process is essential to serve various purposes including clinical decision making, research, receivables management and managing risks.

Healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals have various options available to them for documenting the patient encounter; however outsourced medical transcription services have been found to be one of the most convenient, cost effective and comprehensive methods of documentation. Outsourced medical transcription service providers have the additional advantage of having an in-depth insight into the work life of healthcare professionals and operations of healthcare facilities. Their understanding of the healthcare sector enables medical transcription service providers to provide insightful solutions to the medical transcription needs of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities.

Some of the salient points of insightful services provided by outsourced medical transcription service providers are:

For healthcare professionals and support staff:

• Convenient dictation and upload options: It is a known fact that healthcare professionals show a marked preference for dictation as means of capturing information regarding the patient encounter. Outsourced medical transcription service providers have enabled healthcare professionals to use dictation devices of their choice and have configured transcription systems to automatically upload these files for transcription regularly at predetermined intervals

• Accuracy: The information in the patient medical records is a valuable input for various aspects of the healthcare cycle; clinical, commercial and operational. It is important for this data to be accurate. Outsourced medical transcription service providers ensure accuracy by using skilled medical transcriptionists for transcription and then put the transcripts through a rigorous quality assurance process to ensure accuracy.

• Turnaround time: Apart from the accuracy of the information captured in the patient medical record, the turnaround time plays an equally important role in all the above-mentioned aspects. Outsourced medical transcription service providers have used a combination of skilled medical transcriptionists and technology to provide customized turnaround time options to healthcare professionals

• Easy tracking of work in progress: Due to the large volume of transcription requirements of a healthcare facility it becomes difficult for support staff to keep track of the dictation files, the work in progress and the transcribed files. Outsourced medical transcription service providers have provided easy to track systems to ease this problem.

• Convenient options for document delivery: Knowing the diverse requirements of healthcare professionals, outsourced medical transcription service providers offer them numerous options for document delivery according to their preference.

• Archives: Older transcripts are made easy to track by archiving them regularly and enabling easy search options using various criteria. 

For healthcare facilities

• Cost savings: Outsourcing medical transcription helps the healthcare facility save on costs- both direct and indirect substantially. Moreover timely medical transcription helps accelerate the reimbursement process.

• Adoption of EMR/EHR: Outsourced medical transcription service providers enable adoption of EMR/ EHR using HL7 interface.

• HIPAA and HITECH compliance: Acknowledging the importance of maintaining security during the transcription process, outsourced medical transcription service providers have ensured HIPAA and HITECH compliance throughout the transcription process by securing people, processes, infrastructure and technology. 

It can be seen that outsourced medical transcription service providers provide insightful services that help improve the functioning and profitability of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities.

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 insightful medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing cognitive support

Like any other business sector, healthcare has benefited from the technological advances that have taken place. As a service that is vital in today's world, healthcare draws support from various sources to provide services that help save lives and improve the quality of life. Considering the criticality of healthcare services it becomes important that all the sources that provide support to this sector have an understanding of the needs of this sector and provide services accordingly.

Medical transcription has been providing valuable support to the healthcare sector for a long time. Medical transcription is the process of creating patient medical records converting the dictation of the patient – healthcare professional encounter into text format. Medical transcription requires the right combination of skilled medical transcriptionists, stringent processes and advanced technology to meet the quality standards of being accurate, timely, secure and cost- effective. In a scenario where there are numerous and often contradictory demands on the limited resources available to healthcare facilities, outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service providers is an efficient, effective and economic solution.

Not only do outsourced medical transcription services meet all the quality criteria and help in curbing costs, they also provide cognitive support. Outsourced medical transcription service providers understand the healthcare process, recognize the needs of healthcare professionals & healthcare facilities and use their vast experience and expertise to provide services that help them function better.

Some of the services provided by outsourced medical transcription service providers that provide cognitive support are:

• Facilitating retention of dictation as a means of patient medical record creation: Documenting the care process using dictation provides healthcare professionals with numerous benefits like allowing them to save on time, being flexible, allowing them to capture the narrative portion of the record and allowing them to reflect & ruminate on the details collected during the care process etc. Outsourced medical transcription service providers have recognized these advantages and allowed healthcare professionals to use the familiar dictation- transcription method of creating patient medical records while still enabling EMR/ EHR adoption using HL7 interface.

• Reducing error in patient medical records using skilled medical transcriptionists: The accuracy of the information collected in patient medical records is essential for various purposes. To ensure maximum accuracy, outsourced medical transcription service providers put each patient medical record through a rigorous quality assurance process to ensure that errors and inconsistencies are minimized.

• Providing flexible options for the following:

         

1.     Modes of dictation

2.     Turnaround time

3.     Document delivery modes

4.     Report formats/ templates

• Easy access to older records: Providing healthcare can be as simple as a one-time visit or a treatment involving several visits over an extended period of time or sporadic need based visits. It is important for healthcare professionals and other staff at healthcare facilities to have easy access to all patient medical records, even older records. Outsourced medical transcription service providers have the practice of retaining the transcripts for a certain period of time and then archiving these records, which then can be accessed using, varied search criteria.

• Editing and proof reading services for speech recognition software transcription: Many healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities have started using speech recognition software to create transcripts. However the accuracy of these transcripts are below acceptable levels. Outsourced medical transcription service providers provide editing and proofreading services to help bring the accuracy levels of these transcripts to acceptable levels. 

It can be seen that medical transcription service providers understand the subtleties of the healthcare process, recognize the needs of healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals and use this knowledge to provide medical transcription services that aid in all 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 economical medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Helping create cohesive patient medical records

It is a known fact that the healthcare process is information intensive and information dependent.  The healthcare process depends on information to be able to deliver quality services, meet statutory norms, maintain profitability and to manage risks. The source of the information used for all these purposes originates primarily from the patient- healthcare professional encounter. This information is collected before, during and after the care process in the form of demographic data, complaints, symptoms, existing conditions, current medication, test results, lab results, procedures, insurance information etc.

To be used for various purposes it is important for this information to be available in the form of a cohesive record. Medical transcription, the process of converting the dictation of the patient- healthcare professional encounter helps create cohesive patient medical records. As medical transcription is a specialized process requiring intense focus, capital and various inputs to be effective, outsourcing medical transcription has been found to an effective solution. Outsourced medical transcription service providers help in the creation of cohesive patient medical records while still meeting the quality criteria of accuracy, turnaround time, security and lower prices.

How do medical transcription services help create cohesive patient medical records?

Cohesive patient medical records can be defined as records that are a culmination of all the relevant information regarding the patient record containing details like:

• Patient History and physical examination report: This contains a brief about the patient name, age, gender, occupation, family health history, habits like smoking etc. and the details of the physical examination.

• Consultation report: This contains the details of the findings by the consultant to whom the patient has been referred to for further treatment or diagnosis depending on the symptoms

• Operative report: This contains the details of the operation/surgery that a patient has undergone including details of the procedure, duration, the anesthesia given etc. This may also contains some postoperative details.

• Radiology report: This contains details of the radiologists’ findings on the X-rays, MRI scan, Ct scan, nuclear medicine, fluoroscopic studies etc along with the reports.

• Pathology report: This contains the findings of a pathologist of the tissue sample.

• Laboratory report: This contains the laboratory findings on body fluids

• Emergency report: This is a summary of the patient’s visit to the emergency room for emergency care.

• SOAP note report: This contains  

1. Subjective: This section contains patient’s current condition like age, gender, and pertinent symptoms etc.
2. Objective: This section contains vital signs, findings from physical exams. Lab test results, co morbidity etc.
3. Assessment: This contains quick summary of symptoms and diagnosis etc.
4. Plan: This contains treatment plans, document goals for the patient with reasonable time lines etc.  

• Progress note report: This contains progress of the patient after treatment/ operation/ procedure etc.
• Therapy report: This contains details of the therapy given to the patient
• Discharge summary: This contains all the details, which are generated when the patient is discharged including the treatment given, the progress of the patient, any reports and findings etc. 

Outsourced medical transcription service providers help in creating a cohesive patient medical record by using a combination of skilled & specialty trained medical transcriptionists to ensure accuracy and turnaround time and use the right technology to ensure easy access and security.  As medical transcription is the core business of the medical transcription service provider it results in economies of scale. Combining this with the experience and expertise of the medical transcription service provider results in substantial cost savings for the healthcare facilities.

Apart from the price, security and quality advantage, outsourced medical transcription service providers also provide the additional benefit of being able to adopt EMR/ EHRs using HL7 interface, while still retaining the familiar dictation-to- transcription method of documenting the care process.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time and 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 expert medical transcription services from TransDyne’s click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Provides a glide path for better operations

The healthcare process basically consists of the patient- healthcare encounter, but does not necessarily start and end with this simple interaction. The healthcare process needs a lot of support in the form of information that is collected before, during and after the encounter. As healthcare is a critical service often involving life and death situations it is essential for all the information collected regarding the patient to be made available in a form that enables easy usage.

The information in patient medical records is used not only for clinical decision-making but is also used for commercial, risk management and operational purposes. Proper documentation provides a glide path for better operations in all aspects.

There are various methods available to document the patient- healthcare professional encounter like hand written notes, point and click entry by the healthcare professional at the point of care, using speech recognition software, having an in-house medical transcription team or outsourcing the medical transcription process to a professional medical transcription service provider.

Considering the importance of patient medical records in providing a glide path for better operations, outsourcing medical transcription has been found to be the most effective solution.

How do outsourced medical transcription services provide a glide path for better operations?

Optimum operations of a healthcare facility can be defined as providing quality care, improving reimbursements, reducing costs, risk management and meeting statutory requirements. Outsourced medical transcription services help in all these aspects by providing services with the following advantages:

• Preserving the narrative: Medical transcription is one method of documenting that encourages the healthcare professionals to record the entire patient story. This helps in giving each patient an unique identity that helps in the diagnostic and treatment process

• Increasing focus on the core business: Outsourcing medical transcription reduces the administrative burden of the healthcare facility staff helping them focus their time and resources on the core business of providing quality healthcare.

• Reducing costs: Outsourcing medical transcription helps substantially reduce both direct and indirect costs thus helping improve operations and profitability

• Laying the foundation for receivables management: Timely medical transcription can help accelerate the reimbursement process. Quicker reimbursements leads to improved cash flow leading to improved operations

• Helping in risk management: In an increasingly litigious environment, detailed patient medical records provide an important support for risk management. Outsourced medical transcription service providers aid in this aspect by creating accurate and timely patient medical records.

• Improving the efficiency of healthcare professionals and support staff: By providing numerous benefits like flexible modes of dictation, archives, varied document delivery modes, editing & proofreading support for speech recognition software, outsourced medical transcription service providers help improve the efficiency of healthcare professionals and support staff.

• Helping meet statutory requirements: Outsourced medical transcription service providers also help meet statutory requirements like maintaining patient medical records and adoption of EMR/ EHR by using HL7 interface. 

It can be concluded that having the right medical transcription service provider as a partner for the transcription needs of the healthcare facility can provide a glide path for better operations.

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.

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.