Medical transcription: Questions to be asked before outsourcing

The healthcare process is a complex one, depending on many inputs, one of which is information from patient records. And medical transcription is the process of creating patient records from the audio inputs provided by healthcare professionals of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. Since medical transcription is not part of the core business of healthcare facilities and requires considerable expenses, expertise and investment, outsourcing has proven to be an economical, effective and efficient solution. However outsourcing something as vital as medical transcription needs to be done with caution.

The process of outsourcing medical transcription raises many doubts in the minds of healthcare professionals, healthcare facilities administrative staff and the healthcare facility support staff.

Some of the frequently asked questions, while outsourcing medical transcription are:

1. How does the medical transcription company ensure accuracy?

Accuracy of the transcripts is probably one of the main concerns while outsourcing medical transcription, as this affects quality of care given to patients and the billing procedures. 

2. How does the medical transcription company measure quality?

The standards set by the medical transcription service provider to measure quality ensure that everyone understands the components of quality ensuring consistent quality at all levels.

3. What is the turnaround time and how does the service provider meet turnaround time requirements?

Healthcare professionals need accurate and timely information from patient records to be able to provide quality healthcare. It is important to ensure that the medical transcription service provider can deliver quality transcripts on time. To do this the service provider has to have the right team, the right technology and the right processes.

4. What is the method of pricing and how are the bills reconciled?

One of the main objectives of outsourcing medical transcription is to enjoy the enormous cost saving benefits. However while outsourcing it is important to understand how the medical transcription service provider calculates cost and whether the service provider is willing to explain bills for services in detail.

5. What are security measures to protect confidential patient information?

The process of medical transcription involves working with and transmission of confidential patient information. It is important to find out whether the service provider understands the importance of protecting patient information and has measures in place to ensure this.

6. Do they have a medical transcription platform that supports easy usage?

Advances in technology have aided medical transcription, to the extent that it is no longer necessary for healthcare professionals and service providers to be in the same room to provide effective services. The medical transcription software platform used by the service provider not only provides benefits like speed and security but also adds value to the working life of healthcare professionals and support staff by having additional features like flexible modes of dictation, archives, remote faxing & printing among many other benefits.

7. What is the experience of the medical transcription service provider in providing similar services?

It is important to assess whether the medical transcription service provider has experience in providing complete medical transcription solutions to all sorts of healthcare facilities. This can be verified by referring to testimonials of satisfied customers.

8. What are the channels available for customer interaction?

Medical transcription is a service, which requires immediate resolution of queries/ doubts/clarifications as they arise. For this to happen the medical transcription service provider should have open channel of communication and should be available 24/7 to the healthcare facilities.

TransDyne a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry offers medical transcription services with the following benefits:

• Medical transcription with an accuracy of above 99% using a team of well trained specialty medical transcriptionists and having a stringent four-level quality check method
• Quality guidelines to ensure that everybody is on the same page as regards quality
• Meets turnaround time requirements of healthcare facilities using the right people, right processes and the right technology
• Uses the character line method of billing, which is explained to the customers in advance, so that all the components of cost are understood
• Has security measures to protect confidential information that not only meet HIPAA/HITECH standards, but exceed them
• Uses technology that is not only advanced but easy to use
• Has been providing outsourced medical transcription solutions for over a decade and has the testimonials of satisfied customers
• Has multiple channels of interaction for customer service to ensure quick resolution of any issues. 

To avail outsourced medical transcription service from TransDyne, click here