Medical transcription services have been a part of the healthcare documentation scenario, having documented the patient encounter in its entirety. This information plays a major role in various areas of operation of the healthcare facility. With the advent of technology and the Internet, medical transcription services have evolved into sophisticated services that aid healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities in performing better.
However in the recent times the role of medical transcription in the healthcare documentation has been questioned as the healthcare sector is preparing to move to adoption of EMR/ EHR system. However in spite of so many advancements in the healthcare documentation scenario like speech recognition software, point & click templates etc, the role of medical transcription and medical transcription companies continues to be very vital in the process of documenting the care process and even the move towards adopting EMR/ EHR.
At this juncture it becomes important to carry out an in-depth analysis of medical transcription services detailing the strength, weaknesses of the medical transcription industry along with the opportunities and threats faced by the industry.
Strengths of medical transcription
Experience and knowledge: The medical transcription industry has amassed an amazing amount of knowledge regarding the healthcare industry. They have an in-depth knowledge of medical terminology, drugs & formulations, procedures etc associated with healthcare. Medical transcription companies and medical transcriptionists also possess knowledge about the work life of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities and their specific requirements, which help them in customizing the services and technology used for medical transcription services accordingly
Education: Medical transcription companies educate and train their medical transcriptionists and other personnel intensively regarding the needs of the healthcare industry. This helps them rise to the challenges faced by them and provide services without compromising on the accuracy or turnaround time.
Weaknesses of medical transcription: One of the main weaknesses of medical transcription services that is generally perceived is that the patient medical records created by the process of medical transcription cannot be used directly to populate the EMR/ EHR.
Opportunities available to medical transcription: Due to the changes in the way the healthcare process needs to be documented and with the technological advances, the medical transcription industry has many opportunities available to them for using their knowledge, education and experience.
These include:
- Discrete reportable transcription to populate EMR/ EHR
- Editing and proofreading services for backend speech recognition software
- Structured transcription to enable entry of discrete data elements into the EMR/ EHR
- Adoption of EMR/ EHR using HL7 interface
Threats faced by medical transcription: The advent of the deadline for adoption of EMR/ EHR has resulted in some healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities trying to eliminate medical transcription from their healthcare documentation process.
However after facing the practicalities of actually adopting EMR/ EHR and how it affects the productivity of healthcare professionals and patient satisfaction adversely, has made the healthcare sector become aware of the importance and continued role of medical transcription services in the healthcare documentation scenario.
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.
Among the software and tools offered by TransDyne for transcription, the smart delivery system has a large role to play in easing the path to EMR/EHR adoption The Smart Delivery system, which has features like User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems is the suggested mode of document delivery where pre-defined file saving would help import documents to EMR systems. Apart from this TransDyne also offers discounted rates for those healthcare facilities that provide demographic data entered in the EMR rather than through other modes.
Along with medical transcription services involving multiple level quality checks to ensure accuracy, the use of the right technology for ease of use, turnaround time and security, at reasonable rates, TransDyne also provides discrete reportable transcription and editing & proofreading services for adoption of EMR/ EHR
In today's business world, the demand for medical transcription services are increasing at a rapid rate. It is basically the process of transcribing the dictated medical recording made by physicians and other healthcare professionals into soft copy format. Today there are a wide range of medical transcription services that encompass almost most of the different specialities in medicine.
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