Medical transcription: Easy access to archives

The field of medicine is constantly evolving at all levels. There have been advances in the methods of diagnosis, the techniques used for testing as well as the drugs and treatment prescribed. One thing that has not changed over time is the need for accurate and timely information by healthcare professionals to provide quality healthcare.

Along with the evolution of healthcare field medical transcription has also evolved a long way from hand written notes to creation of medical records in an electronic form that can be accessed at the click of a button.

Outsourcing medical transcription needs can go a long way in easing the burden of making accurate information available to a healthcare professional on a timely manner.

What role does technology play in medical transcription?

Technology plays an important role in the process of medical transcription. Technology helps speed up the process at every level.

Dictation: Technology plays a major role in providing healthcare professionals flexible options like digital recorders, mobile phones or any other method with which they are familiar with for recording their dictation, which allows them to make the best use of their time.

Upload of audio files: Upload of audio files, which have been stored in the system, can be done automatically by having a system, which uploads these files at pre-determined intervals automatically.

Transmission of data: Technology plays an important part in making sure that the data remains secure during transmission by use of encryption and firewalls.

Transcription: The actual transcription process also required technology like word documents, formats etc.

Downloading transcribed files at the healthcare facility: Once the files have been transcribed these need to downloaded at the healthcare facility end. These files are then distributed, saved and printed as per requirement.

Archives: Archiving of records and easy access to these records is probably one of the most important use of technology. This makes the process of following up dictated files, finished files and access to archived reports very easy and timely.

Before outsourcing the medical transcription needs the medical transcription service provider also needs to be assessed on various factors like:

 

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 Company being outsourced to should be HIPAA compliant. The Medical Transcription Company has to have adequate security measures to ensure that the confidential data transmitted back and forth is safe and secure.

 

Pricing: This is 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

 

TransDyne has a Web Delivery System that addresses all problems associated with tracking dictations, receiving documents, and accessing old records. Some of the features offered by this system are:

• User profile: Multiple users can access this system. Access can be limited according to requirements. A single user may have access to documents of multiple providers.
• Inbox: This shows the list of documents that have been newly delivered. User may save or print these documents. Once this has been done the documents are not longer displayed here.
• QC hold: This holds the documents where some blanks have been left due to various reasons. The concerned healthcare professional may view the documents here and make the necessary changes.
• Powerful archival and search options: Once logged into the Web Delivery System the user can search for documents based on different criteria like Date of service, Date of dictation, patient name or healthcare professional name ore a combination of any these criteria. This system makes it easy to access data, which are several months old within seconds.

To avail TransDyne superior medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here. 

Medical transcription and Voice Recognition

Is voice recognition the new solution for medical transcription needs? Voice recognition or speech recognition is one of the new developments in the medical transcription field. It has been touted as the solution for a health provider’s documentation needs.

How does it work? The doctor is offered a digital platform by the Voice recognition service provider where the doctor can dial in and dictate his patient notes at the end of the day. The software converts it to typed form, which is made available to the doctor to edit and correct as needed.

Seems simple enough. But is it as simple as that? Apparently not!  Voice recognition needs to be evaluated on all the criteria used while finalizing a healthcare facility’s medical transcription service provider.

Time saved: When medical transcription needs are outsourced one of the main benefits is the time saving factor. Time is a precious commodity for Doctors and they would like to utilize it for providing quality care to their patients. But when voice recognition software is used the doctor has to spend more time on it in the following areas:

Training time: Voice recognition software requires the doctor to personally ‘train’ the software on the speech pattern, accent, standard terms and various nuances of his/her speech pattern so that the software can ‘learn’ it and adapt accordingly. This could involve a huge time commitment from the doctor using it, which he may ill afford to make.

Time for dictation: Voice recognition software requires the doctor to change his style of dictation to include punctuations, grammar, spellings, detailed terminology, paragraph and report start and ending etc., as opposed to the free flow form of dictations that the doctors are used to.

Time for editing: Unlike the traditional method of medical transcription where the records are subject to rigorous proof reading and quality checks, here the doctor needs to spend considerable time editing and correcting before signing off on the reports

Accuracy: The accuracy levels of the finished reports is of utmost importance as it affects care of the patients at every level as well as forming the basis for all further documentation needs. The accuracy level from voice recognition software is found to be about 60%-65%. That means correcting and editing the documents have to make up for the remaining 35%-40% accuracy.

Cost: The cost factor for voice recognition software will vary according to the number of users and the size of the organization. It will also have to factor in additional costs required for editing the documents to an acceptable level. One may find that it is costing more per line than was quoted in the beginning.

Learning curve:  When healthcare facilities look for solutions for producing their patients’ medical records they would like to have solutions that are expert and accurate from the very beginning. In the case of voice recognition software there is a definite learning curve that affects the quality of finished reports till the software ‘learns’ to follow a particular doctor’s speech patterns and even then the accuracy levels are only 60%-65%.

Flexibility: When new doctors are added to the practice the voice recognition software has to be trained further to accept the speech nuances of the new joiners. There is no flexibility offered by voice recognition software for this.

In conclusion we can safely say that voice recognition software will never be able to completely replace manual medical transcription. The important point to be considered here is that medical records are created of human beings, dictated by human beings and therefore needs another human being to transcribe it.  Medical transcriptionists will have an important role to play at least as editors and proofreaders.

Medical transcription requires a certain amount of training, subjective judgment and understanding the context to be accurate and relevant, which will not be possible to achieve completely through software, no matter how expertly created.

For the transcription needs of a healthcare facility one should look for a company that offers commitment on accuracy, turnaround time, reasonable pricing and data security.

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: Acting as an agent for efficient operations

Healthcare has come a long way in the delivery of services due to the advent of a bigger & better knowledge base, with newer inventions and innovations making the entire profession more advanced. Healthcare has also started relying on other allied fields like information technology to improve operations. One of the aspects of this is the process of creating patient medical records. Patient medical records are useful in the healthcare process with regard to many aspects including the clinical decision-making process, risk management and receivables management.

There are various options available to healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities for documenting the care process; each method having their own pros and cons, however medical transcription – the process of creating patient medical records from the dictation of the healthcare professionals, has been found to be a very convenient method. Additionally medical transcription becomes even more efficient and cost effective when outsourced to a professional medical transcription company. In fact outsourced medical transcription services can act as an agent for efficient healthcare operations.

How do outsourced medical transcription services act as an agent for efficient healthcare facility operations?

Outsourcing medical transcription has numerous benefits that add to the efficiency of healthcare facility’s operations, some of which are given below:

Exclusive and specialized team: One of the main advantages of outsourcing medical transcription is that the healthcare facility has access to an exclusive well-trained and skilled team of medical transcriptionists who concentrate on producing the best quality transcription. This not only helps the healthcare professionals and support staff concentrate on the actual process of care but also helps them improve their productivity.

Specialized process: Outsourcing medical transcription also ensures that healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals have access to a specialized quality process developed by the medical transcription company to ensure quality without compromising turnaround time.

Convenient technology: The software and tools used by the medical transcription company are at the disposal of the healthcare facility ensuring easier, safer and quicker collection of dictation files and delivery of transcripts as per the preference of healthcare professionals. Moreover medical transcription service providers have a deep understanding of the operations of healthcare facilities and have added additional features like delivery of transcripts to specific folders, archive enabling easy search, electronic signature etc. for the convenience of healthcare professionals.

Benefit of best practices: Over time medical transcription service providers have developed best practices for every aspect of transcription including recruiting, developing and retaining the right talent for transcription, safer and better transcription practices, document delivery modes etc which are passed on to the healthcare facility.

Ability to deal with dynamic demands: With constantly changing healthcare documentation scenario and due to the constantly changing needs of healthcare facilities in this regard it becomes important for medical transcription companies to develop the ability to meet these demands. Factors like HL7 interface for EMR adoption or editing & proofreading for backend speech recognition software transcription are all met with by the medical transcription company

Streamlining operations and cutting costs:  Reducing cost of transcription is probably one of the biggest advantages of outsourcing medical transcription. Outsourced medical transcription ensures that the cost of transcription is reduced by almost 40% and also ensures that all indirect costs of transcription are eliminated.

The conclusion we can draw here is the outsourcing medical transcription does act as an agent for improving the efficiency of healthcare facilities in several areas.

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