Medical transcription outsourcing: Frequently asked questions

Outsourcing medical transcription is an important decision and needs careful consideration of the healthcare facility’s specific needs and the right “fit” from the medical transcription service provider. Medical transcription is a vital link in the chain leading to the delivery of quality healthcare. Medical transcription is the process by which patient records are created, and these records are used by healthcare professionals as well as other support staff.

While outsourcing medical transcription it is natural for healthcare professionals and the support staff to have some doubts regarding the outsourcing decision. Some frequently expressed questions/concerns are answered below:

Do I need to change my mode/style of dictation?

This is a genuine concern among healthcare professionals who are qualified professionals for whom time is a scarce commodity. It is important for the medical transcription service provider to accommodate flexible and familiar modes of dictation to enable healthcare professionals to make optimum use of their time.

Do I need to get involved in the actual upload of dictation?

Healthcare professionals are qualified in the field of medicine and may not necessarily want to get involved in the technicalities of uploading audio files for transcription. It is important for the medical transcription service provider to have a system in place that enables automatic upload of audio files at frequent intervals.

Do I need to get involved in the actual download of transcripts?

Once the dictation of the patient-healthcare professional encounter is done the healthcare professional would like that the patient record be made available to him/her automatically. The outsourced medical transcription service provider needs to have a system to enable delivery of transcripts.

Is there a provision of faxing/printing the transcripts from the medical transcription service provider’s office?

In certain cases it would be necessary for the transcript to be made available to the healthcare professional by fax/printed form. The outsourced medical transcription service provider should have provisions in their system to enable this.

What is the turnaround time? What is the turnaround time for STAT files?

The information in the patient medical records is vital for the continuity of care. It is important that the patient records are made available on time. In some cases the turnaround time would have to be very quick. The medical transcription service provider should have the team and technology in place to enable this.

What is the level of accuracy?

Patient records are not only important for continued patient care they also form the basis for coding and billing leading to reimbursements. Patient records also provide evidence in case of litigation. It is important for the data to be captured accurately. The outsourced medical transcription service provider needs to have the right team in place with the requisite training to enable this.

Does outsourcing medical transcription mean that I have to get tech-savvy?

Healthcare professionals are starved for time; they may not want to use very complicated technology requiring a lengthy learning process. The medical transcription service provider needs to use technology that not only provides all functions, but also easy to use.

What is the cost per line of transcription?

One of the main benefits expected from the outsourcing is reduced cost of transcription. It is important for the medical transcription service provider to define costs clearly using a billing method that is definable, verifiable, measurable, consistent, fair and honest.

Is the cost per line of transcription less than our existing costs?

It is important to determine whether there are any hidden costs while outsourcing medical transcription.

How about integration with EMR?

The EMR system requires a substantial amount of investment. It is important to determine whether the medical transcription service provider will be able to integrate with existing EMR via HL7 interface protecting existing investments.

What is the system for tracing dictation, transcribed files etc?

Most healthcare facilities would have a huge number of files in every stage of transcription. It is important for the medical transcription service provider to have an archival system to enable tracing of files at every stage of transcription.

What if I have any doubts regarding the medical transcription process?

The medical transcription service provider needs to have open channels of communication to enable the healthcare facility personnel to clarify any doubts regarding the medical transcription process.

What about HIPAA/HITECH concerns?

The protection of confidential patient information is one of the concerns of healthcare professionals and other staff. It is important for the service provider to be HIPAA/HITECH compliant at every level.

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

This can be ascertained by checking on the references provided by the medical transcription service provider for their existing clients.

TransDyne, a leader in the medical transcription industry provides customized solutions to suit the needs of healthcare facilities. TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert 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 medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Creation of patient records

Patient records are an essential part of the smooth running of a healthcare facility. They contribute to the actual process of healthcare as well as aid in the reimbursement process. Medical transcription is the process of creating medical records, by converting the audio records as dictated by the healthcare professional into text format. Medical transcription is a specialized service that requires the right team, the right process and the right technology.

Outsourcing medical transcription aids the healthcare facilities to concentrate on providing quality healthcare, by creating medical records in an accurate, speedy, secure and cost effective manner. Not only this outsourcing medical transcription also helps healthcare facilities to curb indirect expenses that they may incur by medical transcription in-house.

What are patient medical records and why are they important?

Patient medical records are the systematic documentation of patient’s individual medical history and care. Patient records consist of the following details:

• Name, date of birth, address, emergency contact numbers, sex, blood type etc.
• Date of last physical exam
• Dates and results of tests and screening
• Major illnesses & surgeries with dates
• List of medication, dosages and duration of prescription
• Allergies
• Chronic diseases
• History of illness in the family

Patient medical records provide medical history. It is a longitudinal record chronicling disease, major & minor illnesses as well as growth landmarks. It gives the healthcare professionals a feel for what happened in the past to the patient. It also provides clues about current illness. Medical records can prove to be invaluable as an aid in arriving at the right diagnosis.

The information in medical records aid in the following:

• Continuity of care
• Basis for planning present and future care
• Assist in protecting legal interests
• Are the base for billing and coding
• For education and research purposes
• Fulfilling statutory obligations

It can be concluded that patient medical records are invaluable in the process of healthcare. And as medical transcription is the process of creating patient records, it is vital that healthcare facilities should evaluate the service provider carefully before outsourcing medical transcription.

The criteria for evaluating a medical transcription service provider are as follows:

Accuracy: This means the percentage of accuracy of the completed transcripts vis-à-vis what was dictated. A minimum of 99% and above would be acceptable.

Turnaround time: Turnaround time refers to the time taken to revert the transcribed report to the healthcare facility. A turnaround time of not more than 24 hours for normal reports and 4-12 hours for STAT reports would be considered ideal.

Data security: The service provider being outsourced to should be HIPAA and HITECH compliant. The medical transcription service provider has to have adequate security measures to ensure that the confidential data transmitted back and forth is safe and secure.

Pricing: Reduced costs are one of the main benefits that a healthcare facility hopes to have, from the outsourcing option. Pricing should be fair and reasonable for the services rendered. Pricing method should also be transparent and simple so that both parties can verify the same at any stage of the process

Technology: The technology used by the medical transcription service provider should not only be secure but should also be easy to use, without having to require extensive training.

Outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider can help the healthcare facility not only in terms of efficient, effective and economical creation of patient records; it also has other benefits like:

1. Retaining familiar modes of dictation
2. Integration with EMR/EHR
3. Specialty transcription
4. Automated upload of dictation and download of transcripts
5. Archiving facility

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert 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 medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing and health information management

Modern day healthcare depends on the input from various sources to be effective and profitable. One such aspect that plays a vital role in healthcare is health information management. Health information management is the practice of maintenance and care of health records. Health information professional have been described to play a critical role in the delivery of healthcare. They focus on collection, maintenance and the use of quality healthcare data to support the information intensive and information reliant healthcare system.

One important aspect of health information management is medical transcription. Medical transcription is the process of documenting the patient-healthcare professional encounter. Medical transcription is a specialized process requiring the optimum combination of people skills, processes and technology Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that patient records are created in a professional manner making the process efficient, effective and economical. Patient records need to fit a certain criteria to be useful in the healthcare process.

The medical transcription service provider needs to be evaluated based on the criteria used to evaluate data characteristics:

Accuracy: Medical records of patients are vital to the process of healthcare. They provide continuity, basis for planning future care, assist in case of litigation and can be used for education and research. Therefore the accuracy of the data captured during the process of medical transcription should be as close to 100% as possible

Accessibility: To provide quality healthcare it is important that information is easily accessible. It not only helps healthcare professionals and support staff provide quality care but also organize their time better. Outsourcing medical transcription can help in this aspect by providing archiving facilities, which make it easier to trace files

Comprehensive: Patient records need to encompass all the details of the patient’s medical history. This aids healthcare professionals in making the right treatment plan. The medical transcription service provider needs to ensure that all the details are comprehensively captured during the transcription process

Consistency: Healthcare is a complex field and it is important that the value of the data should be reliable and standard across various applications. This is the responsibility of the medical transcriptionists who actually transcribe the records. It is important that their training program encompasses all the details of the specialty they are transcribing for

Currency: The patient records should reflect current data. Creating timely records is an important duty of the medical transcription service provider

Definition: This means that the data should be clearly defined with no room for misunderstanding. This requires the medical transcription service provider team to have in-depth knowledge of medical terms and definitions

Granularity: This means the attributes and value of data should be defined at the correct level of detail

Precision: The details in the medical record, documenting the essentials so that no details are missed but unnecessary data is not included

Relevancy: The data captured in the medical records should be relevant.

Timeliness: The medical records need to be created with all the above given attributes within a reasonable time frame. The optimum turnaround time would aid both quality healthcare and quicker reimbursements.

Outsourcing to a professional medical transcription service provider like TransDyne ensures that medical records are created with all the attributes. TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert 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 medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing expert services

The focus of healthcare facilities is to provide quality healthcare while still maintaining profitability. Healthcare is a process, which requires many expert inputs whether it is the contribution of skilled healthcare professionals, technicians, nursing staff, support staff, laboratory services or information from patient records. It becomes imperative for healthcare facilities to focus on their core competence and outsource the other activities to expert service providers.

The process of medical transcription, which aids in creating patient records, is one such activity. The best solution to ensure accurate, timely, secure and cost effective creation of patient records is to outsource to an expert medical transcription service provider.

Expert Medical transcription services

What is meant by expert medical transcription services?

The word "expert" has been defined as having, involving or demonstrating great skill, dexterity or knowledge as the result of training and experience.

By this definition outsourced medical transcription services can be described as expert services. Medical transcription is the culmination of right team, the right process and the right technology.

The right team: The accuracy and the turnaround time required for expert medical transcription is the result of the right team. To meet the quality standards required in medical transcription, the medical transcriptionists need knowledge of medical terminology, good English, typing skills, good listening skills, Internet savvy and multi tasking abilities. This requires an extensive training program to make the medical transcriptionists experts. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that expert medical transcriptionists undertake creation of patient records, no matter what the specialty or the volume of transcription.

The right process: Medical transcription is not a one-time service; it is a continuous process. The process of medical transcription continues as long as there are patients requiring healthcare. Medical transcription needs to follow the right process to ensure that the patient records are created within the acceptable time without compromising the quality or security. To cope with the varying demands medical transcription service providers have a process in place that ensures that patient records are created not only on time, but all the details of the patient-healthcare professional encounter are captured accurately.

The right technology: Technology has a significant role to play in the process of medical transcription. It not only ensure speed and security but also adds value to the process by making it easy of healthcare professionals and other support to use, but also by providing benefits like archives, familiar modes of dictation, remote printing & faxing, adoption of EMR etc.

By using the right combination of people, processes and technology outsourced medical transcription services definitely qualifies as an expert service. Speedy, secure, low-cost, accurate and technologically savvy medical transcription is the result of skill, training and experience.

TransDyne offers expert medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert 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 expert outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here

Medical transcription outsourcing: How to get the most out of it?

Outsourcing medical transcription is a crucial business decision for healthcare facilities, one that would have required considerable thought and analysis. Having gone through the process of identifying the deliverables expected from the outsourcing process it is important to get the maximum benefits from the outsourcing medical transcription decision.

How can healthcare facilities maximize benefits of the outsourcing medical transcription decision?

Choosing the right medical transcription service provider: Sourcing the right service provider has become much easier because information about medical transcription service providers are easily available on the Internet. But on the flip side availability of huge amount of information can be very confusing. To choose the right service provider, healthcare facilities need to concentrate on certain points, which can help narrow down the search for the right service provider. Healthcare facilities need to ask the following questions:

• What are the credentials of the service provider? How long have they been in business?
• Who are their clients? Can they provide references?
• Does the service provider use sub-contractors?
• Does the service provider offer a free trial?
• Does the service provider have open channels of communication?

Getting the right price: Savings on cost of medical transcription is probably one of the main objectives of outsourcing. However pricing in medical transcription is a very complicated matter. It is important for healthcare facilities not to be guided by price alone. Unrealistically low prices could mean that either quality of work could be compromised or the method of billing used could leave room for manipulation. The method of billing used by the medical transcription service provider should be measurable, verifiable, definable, consistent and fair & honest. Care should be taken to understand the components of cost and the method of billing to ensure that the price quoted really benefits the healthcare facility

Setting standards of quality: Patient records are vital for the running of healthcare facilities, therefore it is important to thoroughly study the medical transcription service provider to assess their ability to meet accuracy levels and turnaround time guarantees. The training methods used, the quality check methodology used and the technology used by the service provider are indicators of the medical transcription service provider's ability to meet quality standards of maximum accuracy and speedy turnaround times

Ensuring HIPAA/HITECH compliance: HIPAA/HITECH compliance is very important when it comes to medical transcription. The ability of the medical transcription service provider to meet HIPAA/HITECH standards can be assessed by the measures used by the service provider to secure people, processes, infrastructure and technology

Leveraging on the software and tools used by the service provider: Technology plays a significant role in the medical transcription process. The outsourcing process can become very advantageous by leveraging on the technology used by the medical transcription service provider. It can provide value added benefits like flexible modes of dictation; automatic uploads & downloads, archives, remote printing & faxing, and integration with EMR. This eases the life of healthcare professionals and support staff enabling them to concentrate on providing quality healthcare

Outsourcing to the right medical transcription service provider could help healthcare facilities concentrate on their core business, save on costs, accelerate reimbursements and benefit from the technology used by the medical transcription service provider.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry:

• Has been providing outsourced medical transcription services to some of leaders in the healthcare industry for over a decade
• Has testimonials of their satisfied customers
• TransDyne believes it is their privilege to serve their customers themselves rather than dilute the focus by using subcontractors
• TransDyne offers a free trial of their services for a limited time period
• TransDyne believes in being available to their customers 24/7

Apart  from the above mentioned benefits, TransDyne also offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert 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  outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here

Medical transcription outsourcing: Affordable services

Medical transcription is the process of converting audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. By creating patient records, medical transcription is an integral part of the healthcare process both in the operational and commercial aspects. Though medical transcription is vital for the smooth running of the healthcare facility, it is not part of the core business of the healthcare facility.

Creation of patient records in-house would mean that the healthcare facility would have to allot valuable resources for in-house medical transcription, diluting the focus on the core business. Moreover executing medical transcription in-house would result in increasing the cost per line of transcription. Outsourcing medical transcription would ensure that the focus of the healthcare facility is not diluted and could help curtail the cost per line of transcription.

How does outsourcing medical transcription make it affordable?

Medical transcription is a specialized skill requiring total focus of the service provider, the right training methods, the right process for transcription and technology geared to make the process affordable, speedy, easy and secure.

Specialized skills: Medical transcription requires the medical transcriptionists working on the transcription process to have specialized skills like an ear for language/accents, knowledge of medical terminology, good keyboarding skills and research capabilities to fill in elusive words/drugs/procedures to ensure quality. Outsourcing medical transcription would ensure that the medical transcription service provider sources and recruits the right candidates and develops the skills of the medical transcriptionists to ensure that they can serve the needs of the healthcare professionals by creating patient records with maximum accuracy and within the turnaround time required.

Total focus of the service provider: Apart from the skill set of the medical transcriptionists, the process of medical transcription requires the total focus of resources like real estate, equipments, working capital and technology, to make it efficient and affordable. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the service provider focuses all its resources on the medical transcription process making it efficient and affordable.

Process for transcription: To ensure that the transcripts produced are of requisite quality, it important to have a process in place that ensures that more than one person hears the audio files. This ensures that the blanks in the transcript are minimized. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the transcripts are put through a stringent quality check process before transmitting back to the concerned healthcare professional

Right technology: Medical transcription has evolved over the ages into the virtual world. The process of medical transcription requires technology at every stage to make the process easy, speedy and secure. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the service provider has the right technology that only makes the process easy, speedy and secure but also provides additional benefits like archiving, HL7 integration and report distribution.

It can be concluded that outsourcing medical transcription not only makes it efficient and affordable but also has additional benefits in the form of increased accuracy and speed, technological benefits like archiving and HL7 integration.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert 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!

For more details about affordable solutions by TransDyne for medical transcription needs, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Helps Reduce payroll cost

Outsourcing could bring down the direct labor costs. When outsourcing medical transcription the healthcare facility is essentially adding to the workforce of their facility without actually having the people on their rolls.

The healthcare facility not only saves on time, money and effort towards recruitment, training, office space, utilities, salary and other benefits. But also get all the benefits of drawing from a large pool of medical transcriptionists, who have been recruited, trained and made readily available to them any time they want them.

By outsourcing the healthcare facility can also rest easy about work scheduling, allocation, supervision and follow-up. There will neither be loss of productivity due to lower patient inflow nor backlogs due to higher patient inflow. Their weekend and holiday transcription needs will also be taken care of.

While these are the benefits that are gained from outsourcing, it is important that time is taken to source the right company to be their partner for transcription needs. The medical transcription service provider needs to be assessed to ensure that the following benefits are availed of:

Right workforce: The quality of medical transcription entirely depends on the quality of people doing the work. Assess the outsourcing company to see if they have the right kind of people working for them. This can be assessed by evaluating their training techniques. Choose a company that believes in executing the work through in-house transcriptionists and training them to be domain experts in specialties of medicine.

Right technology: Uploading dictation, accessing finished transcripts, archival of records, checking on the status of the files uploaded etc., requires that the technology base of the medical transcription service provider chosen, is advanced, flexible and easy to use.

Accuracy/ Quality of work: Accuracy of finished transcripts is of utmost importance while choosing the medical transcription service provider. A company that offers assurance of at least 99% accuracy should be acceptable.

Right turnaround time: The turnaround time of finished transcripts are of utmost importance for providing quality care, billing and other purposes Ensuring a commitment on the turnaround time for transcripts and flexibility for stat reports should be ascertained before finalizing.

Security of data: Maintaining confidentiality of patient data is crucial while transmitting records back and forth through electronic media. While outsourcing the medical transcription needs of a healthcare facility it is vital to make sure that the medical transcription service provider is HIPAA and HITECH compliant.

Optimum pricing: The major benefit of outsourcing is that of improving the bottom line of the healthcare facility. Ensuring that the medical transcription service provider offers a fair price and uses a billing method that is definable, verifiable, measurable, consistent, fair and honest will ensure a long-term relationship.

Once the medical transcription service provider has been evaluated on all these factors, cost benefits that come from having quality medical transcription and from having reduced direct labor costs can be enjoyed long term

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert 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 superior outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.