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.

Read More

Medical transcription services: Helping improve the healthcare facility workflow

Like any other vital service, healthcare services need to have a structured workflow and are aided by quality inputs to produce desired results. In case of healthcare the desired results being providing quality care profitably while still meeting the regulatory norms that apply to the healthcare sector. There are many inputs that contribute to the healthcare process, one of the vital ones being information from patient medical records.

Patient medical records are a longitudinal record of the patient's medical history including all pertinent details regarding demographics, symptoms, diagnoses, tests/procedures, treatments and the progress made by the patient. A patient medical record is a valuable tool to make thorough diagnoses and act as the main source of information in case of emergency. Not only does the information in patient medical records provide valuable inputs for the process of care they also provide valuable support as evidence in case of litigation and the provide the base for coding and billing, which leads to reimbursement.

Medical transcription is the process of creating patient medical records of the patient- healthcare professional encounter from the audio narration of the healthcare professional. As the process of medical transcription requires specialized inputs in the form of the right team, the right process and the right technology, outsourcing the entire medical transcription process has been found to be an effective solution.  Apart from producing patient medical records that meet the quality criteria of accuracy, speed, security and being cost effective, outsourced medical transcription services also provide valuable support by helping improve the workflow of the healthcare facility.

How do outsourced medical transcription services help improve the workflow of healthcare facilities?

Medical transcription service providers have an intuitive understanding of the working of healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals. This understanding combined with their experience in serving the needs of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities and their expertise in meeting the changing demands of the healthcare documentation sector, puts medical transcription service providers in a unique position to help improve the workflow of healthcare facilities.

Outsourced medical transcription services help improve the workflow of healthcare facilities by providing services that aid in the following:

• Helping retain familiar working styles: In spite of many advances in technology leading to newer methods of documenting the patient encounter, healthcare professionals prefer the traditional method of dictation- transcription. Outsourced medical transcription service providers have facilitated the essence of this method documentation, while still enabling adoption of EMR/EHR. This method is not only cost effective it essentially enhances the productivity of healthcare professionals by allowing them to concentrate on the most important participant in the healthcare process – the patient!
• Coping with varying volumes without compromising quality: It is impossible to predict the inflow of patients at any given time, therefore the medical transcription needs are also impossible to predict. Allotting extra resources for excess medical transcription needs and planning for productive usage of these resources during slack times can affect the regular workflow adversely. Moreover issues like slow turnaround time, poor quality documentation can lead to further complications. Outsourcing medical transcription provides a solution to all these issues by providing a one-stop solution for these issues while still maintaining accuracy and turnaround time.
• Delivering transcripts through preferred modes: Outsourced medical transcription service providers specialize in customizing document delivery modes as per the preference and requirements of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities, including HL7 interface to facilitate adoption of EMR/EHR
• Meeting turnaround time: Apart from the accuracy of the information in the patient medical record one of the critical factor that affects both the process of care as well the reimbursement process is the turnaround time. Medical transcription service providers provide flexible turnaround time options, which aid in improving the workflow of healthcare facilities
• Providing easy access to older transcripts: As the process of healthcare is a continuous one, it is important for outsourced medical transcription service providers to provide access of older transcripts to healthcare professionals and other support staff. This need is addressed by medical transcription service providers by providing archive facilities that are customized as per the needs of the healthcare professional for easy retrieval.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has used their extensive background in information technology to come up with medical transcription services that provide easy to use solutions for the needs of healthcare professionals and other staff of the healthcare facilities. 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.

Read More

Medical transcription outsourcing: Integrating naturally into the workflow of healthcare facilities

Medical transcription services have aided the process of providing healthcare by documenting the patient- healthcare professional encounter, converting audio to text in an accurate, timely, secure and cost effective manner. As medical transcription services require the right team, the right process and the right technology to be able to meet all these criteria, the prudent and practical solution for healthcare facilities to maintain focus on their core business is to outsource the entire process to a professional medical transcription service provider.

While transcribing audio to text is the essence of the services provided by medical transcription service providers, medical transcription has risen above being just a typing service by seamlessly integrating into the workflow of healthcare facilities. To examine how medical transcription has blended seamlessly into the working of healthcare facilities it is essential to take a look at the changing face of clinical documentation.

With the introduction of ARRA and the announcement of incentives for the meaningful use of certified EHR/EMR systems, the entire healthcare documentation scenario is going through major changes. However as adoption of this new technology involves time- starved healthcare professionals there have been a few barriers to adopting this technology, namely:

• Lack of time: One of the barrier to adopting new technology is the lack of time; healthcare professionals lack the time to acquaint themselves with the technology and moreover using this new technology can adversely affect their productivity
• Need for new infrastructure: Using point and click templates to feed information into the EHR at the point of care needs new infrastructure which could affect the dynamics of the process of healthcare
• Extensive training: Use of technology to be used by the healthcare professional at the point of care could require extensive training to produce the required results
• Requiring major changes in the workflow: The introduction of new technology would require in the workflow of the healthcare professional and the healthcare facility

  Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that healthcare professionals can retain their tried and trusted method of capturing information and still enable adoption of EMR/EHR by using HL7 interface.

  
  

  Some of the advantages of outsourcing medical transcription to a technologically savvy and professional medical transcription service provider are:

  • Familiar method of documenting the patient- healthcare professional encounter: Outsourcing medical transcription enables healthcare professionals to retain not only their familiar method of documenting the patient encounter, but also allows them to use dictation devices of their choice. This enables healthcare professionals to optimize their limited time in the best way possible.
  • Quality creation of patient medical records: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the quality of patient medical records is maintained due to the following:

  1. Medical transcriptionists trained in the specialty they are transcribing in, ensure that errors are minimized
  2. Quality processes involving checks at several levels ensure that quality levels are high
  3. Turnaround time is ensured due to availability of skilled medical transcriptionists and the right technology

  • Flexible services: Outsourced medical transcription services afford healthcare facilities flexibility with regard to all aspects of transcription including specialty, volume, turnaround time, formats/templates and even editing/proofreading services for speech recognition software transcription.

  TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has used their extensive background in information technology to come up with medical transcription services that provide easy to use solutions for the needs of healthcare professionals and other staff of the healthcare facilities. 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 outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

  
  

Read More

Medical transcription outsourcing : Helping improve quality of care

Healthcare and information technology are inextricably linked together, in the sense that information technology helps the process of healthcare become more efficient, safer and cost effective. It is important to acknowledge the role of information in the process of healthcare and the role information technology plays to make this information more user friendly. As healthcare professionals are essentially time starved it is important that the process for creating patient records should be integrated seamlessly into their working lives.

After each patient – healthcare professional encounter it is important to document the encounter in detail. This provides healthcare professionals a valuable source of information facilitating the following:

• Patient medical history
• Findings from the physical examination
• Demographics regarding the patient which can provide valuable clues for diagnosis
• Information regarding allergies, drug interactions etc.

Moreover information from patient records are an essential input for the coding and billing process and an important component of risk management. Medical transcription is the process of creating patient medical records converting the dictation of the patient- healthcare professional encounter into text format. Healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals have various options available to them for the creation of patient medical records.

However while considering the various options available to healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities for medical transcription it is important to consider an option that will seamlessly integrate into the current working style of healthcare professionals. Healthcare professionals have shown a preference for the traditional method of dictation to transcription as this helps them in the process of providing healthcare.

How does the traditional method of dictation to transcription aid in the process of providing quality healthcare?

The process of providing quality healthcare depends on:

• Accurate diagnosis, which depends on:

1. Collecting detailed information regarding the patient's history
2. Findings from the physical examination

• Succinct documenting leading

1. Crafting thoughtful diagnosis
2. Make a note of questions that have not been adequately answered

• Continuously refining and updating information regarding the patient and the progress made
• Managing problems and conflicting medicatio
• Ordering tests and tracking results

Medical transcription is the process by which healthcare professionals can conveniently capture all these details, while allowing for healthcare professionals to use the preferred method of dictating the details on the patient- healthcare professional encounter using the mode of dictation preferred by them. As medical transcription is a specialized service requiring inputs in the form of the right team, the right process and the right technology, outsourcing medical transcription has been found to be an efficient and effective method of creating patient records.

Moreover outsourcing medical transcription provides the healthcare facilities with the following benefits:

• Options for using familiar modes of dictation
• An efficient system for medical transcription enabling upload of audio files and delivery of transcripts through preferred modes or delivery
• A system for tracking dictation, work in progress and older transcripts
• Specialty medical transcription service based on the specialty of the healthcare professional
• Substantial savings on costs
• Customized turnaround time
• Adoption of EMR/ EHR using HL7 interface
• Editing and proof reading services for speech recognition software transcription
• Transmission of data through HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has used their extensive background in information technology to provide medical transcription solutions that provide healthcare facilities with maximum benefits while saving on time, money and efforts. 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 outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Read More

Medical transcription outsourcing: Maintaining standards of quality

Documenting the healthcare process is an important aspect of healthcare services; as this aids in several areas including meeting statutory requirements, providing continuing care, preparing for coding & billing and as evidence in case of malpractice litigation. Though healthcare facilities have several options available to them for creation of medical records like point and click entry into an EMR/EHR, speech recognition, using the services of an in-house transcription team etc, one of the most preferred and cost effective method is to outsource the entire process to a professional medical transcription service provider.

Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service provider provides support to the healthcare facility and healthcare professionals in several aspects. Not only do outsourced medical transcription service providers provide accurate, timely, secure and cost effective services they also provide numerous benefits by virtue of the software and tools used by them for medical transcription.

Outsourced medical transcription service providers create patient medical records adhering to a strict code of ethics. The standards for the services provided include:

• Healthcare documentation that meet quality standards: Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service provider ensures that patient medical records are created with maximum accuracy. The medical transcription service provider uses specialty trained medical transcriptionists and a multiple level quality check method to ensure that the quality and integrity of the data is maintained.
• Securing data: Protecting the confidentiality of patient data is not only a legal obligation under HIPAA it is also a moral obligation. Outsourced medical transcription service providers understand the need for this and have measures in place to ensure HIPAA and HITECH compliance by securing people, processes, infrastructure and technology.
• Meeting turnaround time commitment: The provision of quality healthcare and to ensure quicker receivables cycle requires the patient medical records to not only be created with maximum accuracy but also on time. Outsourced medical transcription service providers ensure tight turnaround time by using a combination of well trained teams of medical transcriptionists, diligent processes and the right technology.
• Billing methods: Reducing the cost of transcription is one of the prime reasons for outsourcing medical transcription. Outsourced medical transcription service providers ensure that the pricing methods used by them are verifiable, measurable, definable, consistent, fair and honest. This ensures that the healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals understand the components of cost and are comfortable with the method of billing used by the medical transcription service provider.

While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to source a medical transcription service provider who can provide medical transcription services while adhering to the above given standards

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has been providing medical transcription services for over a decade. TransDyne has used their extensive background in information technology to create systems that provide maximum benefits and save on efforts.

 

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 outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Read More

Medical transcription outsourcing : Helping the requirements of healthcare documentation

Medical transcription has provided valuable support to healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals by helping in the healthcare documentation process. Medical transcription is the process of converting the audio records of the patient- healthcare professional encounter into text format. As medical transcription is a specialized process requiring the right blend of people skills, the right technology and an efficient process to meet the quality standards of being accurate, timely, secure and cost effective, the easy solution for healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities is to outsource the entire medical transcription requirements to a professional medical transcription service provider

Moreover this method of dictation being transcribed into text format to form a part of the permanent patient record has been the method preferred by most healthcare professionals, as this method provides many advantages, some of which are given below:

• Usability: The convenience of using outsourced medical transcription services to create patient medical records is undeniable. Outsourced medical transcription not only benefit healthcare professionals but they also provide numerous benefits to other members of the healthcare facility by providing a system for medical transcription which uses technology to provide maximum benefits while still being easy to use.
• Healthcare professional acceptance: The expectation of healthcare professionals from medical transcription services apart from accurate, timely, secure and cost effective record creation is that of allowing them to maximize their limited time resources. Outsourced medical transcription services aid in this by allowing them to retain the familiar method of dictation and make it even more convenient to capture the narration of the patient- healthcare professional encounter by allowing them to retain familiar modes of dictation. Outsourced medical transcription services also provide convenient modes of document delivery as per the preference of healthcare professionals and healthcare facility.
• Meeting expectations: Outsourced medical transcription services meet the expectation of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities from these services. They do so by providing the following benefits:

1. Specialty trained medical transcriptionists
2. Seamless transcription services including holiday and weekend requirements
3. Transmitting information into EMR/EHR using HL7 interface
4. Securing information by having HIPAA/ HITECH compliant measures in place

• Interoperability: The process of medical transcription creates patient records which are legible and easily readable. This makes this information accessible and comprehensible to healthcare professionals and other support staff at every level. HL7 interface enables easy exchange of data with other systems without changing the essential meaning of the information.
• Data integrity: Outsourced medical transcription services help preserve the integrity of the data by ensuring that the audio files of the patient- healthcare professional encounter is captured in totality, in an accurate, complete, clear, consistent, precise and reliable.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has utilized their extensive background in information technology and their experience in providing medical transcription services to come up with medical transcription solutions that help healthcare facilities save on time, money and effort. 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 complete medical transcription solutions from TransDyne, click here.

Read More

Medical transcription: The continued role in documenting the patient- healthcare professional encounter

With the release of the meaningful use criteria , there have been many doubts as to the role of medical transcription services in documenting the patient- healthcare professional encounter. Medical transcription has been an integral part of the healthcare process by diligently creating patient medical records maintaining quality standards of being accurate, timely, secure and cost effective. Medical transcription has also evolved from merely being a typing service to that of being a service that has effectively used technology to provide services that ease the working life of healthcare professionals.

To fully comprehend the continued role of medical transcription it is important to study the efficacy of alternate methods of capturing information.

Method 1: Capturing data at the point of care using a point and click template. Under this method the healthcare professional would have to capture data using customized templates during his/her interaction with the patient. Though this method promises instant report creation and cutting down of transcription costs, this method has some inherent shortcomings:

• Substantial investment in EMR: The healthcare facilities would have to make a substantial initial investment in the EMR System and spend a lot of time, money and efforts to customize the system to the specific requirements of the healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals.
• Loss of information that comes from the free form narration: It has been seen that healthcare professionals are comfortable with the free form narration allowed under the traditional dictation- transcription method of document creation. Point and click method would restrain the way healthcare professionals collect information from the patients and this would result in inadequate collection of information.
• Poor quality of documentation: The point and click templates would not reflect all the nuances and minute details of a patient- healthcare professional encounter and would not tell the whole “story” which is such an integral part of the diagnostic process.
• Cost of lost productivity: Though this method of data capture eliminates the cost of medical transcription it would result in significant loss of the productive time of the healthcare professionals, eroding the bottom line to a substantial extent.
• Taking the focus away from providing quality care to the patient: Having to capture information in a structured manner would dilute the focus of the healthcare professional on the process of providing care to the patient hindering the process and resulting in patient dissatisfaction.
• Risk management issues: A detailed record of the process of care including the symptoms, the diagnosis, the treatment process, the progress made by the patient is invaluable as evidence in case of malpractice litigation. Point and click templates may not provide the required amount of details
• Inaccurate or inadequate coding leading to inadequate reimbursement: Medicine is a vast field having many variables a point and click template may not cover all the aspects and this could result in improper capture of information. This could further result in poor coding leading to inadequate reimbursements.

Method 2: Using front end speech recognition software. Under this method the dictation of the healthcare professional is automatically converted into text format. Though this method also promises real time report creation, this method of capturing information regarding the patient- healthcare professional encounter, it has some shortcomings:

• Cost of the software: Under this method though the costs associated with medical transcription are eliminated, a substantial investment in this software and subsequent customization to suit the needs of healthcare professionals could be required.
• Time spent training the software: Speech recognition or voice recognition software would require training from the healthcare professional with regards to the style, accent, the enunciation of the healthcare professional to be able to produce documents of even 60%- 80% accuracy.
• Change in style of dictation: Using this software requires the healthcare professional to change his/her style of dictation causing loss of time and productivity
• Loss of productivity because of need for editing by the healthcare professional: To be of reasonably acceptable quality the healthcare professional has to spend a substantial amount of time editing and proofreading the document produced by this software. This would constrain the healthcare professional's productivity
• Could result in poor documentation quality: Due to obvious constraints like lack of time, lack of expertise of the healthcare professional in creating patient medical records and the inherent shortcomings of speech recognition software the documentation quality could be below par.

It can be seen that the role of specialist medical transcription services in the process of documenting the patient – healthcare professional encounter continues to be significant, though the mode of providing these services could have changed.

Outsourced medical transcription service providers have adapted to the changing requirements by providing editing and proof reading services to back end speech recognition. This enables conserve on the productivity of healthcare professionals.

For adopting the EMR/EHR system, one needs to look for a medical transcription service provider that has the capabilities to import patient information to the EMR/EHR system while at the same time able to maintain accuracy, turnaround time and offer reasonable rates. This could help overcome issues like loss of productivity leading to erosion of bottom line, personal care for patients etc.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has used their extensive background in information technology and experience in serving the needs of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities for over a decade to come up with medical transcription systems that help save on money, time and efforts. TransDyne has a smart delivery system, which has features like User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR/EHR systems. The Smart Delivery system is the suggested mode of document delivery where pre-defined file saving would help import documents to EMR/EHR systems.

Not only that 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 outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Read More