Medical transcription outsourcing: Helping provide quality healthcare

Healthcare services are considered part of the basic necessities of life like air, water, food, clothing and shelter. In fact in certain situations healthcare takes precedence over other necessities as it can involve life and death situations. Providing quality healthcare is a process, which requires a lot of inputs; one of which is prompt and accurate information regarding the patient’s medical history. The patient record contains the narrative of the patient’s visit/s, the treatment/s, procedure/s, medication/s he/she has been provided. This helps the healthcare professional in decision making and formulating plans for further care.

Medical transcription plays a vital role in the healthcare process by creating patient records from the audio files of the patient-healthcare professional encounter. Outsourcing medical transcription is one easy fix to make medical transcription process efficient and cost-effective.

Outsourcing medical transcription helps the healthcare facility in the following areas:

Provision of quality care: Medical transcription helps the healthcare professional in the provision of quality care by capturing the narrative of the doctor in a form that is easily accessible and legible. This becomes very important when the patient is going through a lengthy course of treatment, and there are shift changes in the healthcare facility staff

Providing proper documentation: Patient records play an important proof by documenting the course of treatment and level of progress made by the patient. This documentation process is valuable in case of any doubts in the efficacy of treatment leading to litigation. Medical transcription provides a valuable service by capturing all the details in a speedy and accurate manner

Storage and retrieval of patient records: The process of treatment could involve a single visit or several visits over the course of time. The medical transcription service provider could aid the process of storage and retrieval of patient records by creating powerful archival systems

Helps decrease errors: Medical transcription creates records that are neatly typed with all the details of the treatment and progress made by the patient. This drastically reduces the chance of errors by healthcare professionals due to illegible handwritten notes or any guesswork on the part of the healthcare professional or the healthcare facility staff

Helps curb costs: One of the major advantages of outsourcing medical transcription is enormous reduction in cost of transcription, both direct and indirect. The healthcare facility benefits from the expertise, increased focus and the economies of scale achieved by the service provider

Quickens the reimbursement process: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the patient records are created o time. This is an important step in the reimbursement process as medical transcription is the first step in the accounts receivables cycle. The information in the patient records is used for coding and billing

Medical transcription plays an important role in the healthcare process; it is important to evaluate the medical transcription service provider on the following criteria:

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 cost of transcription 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

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

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 the advantages of outsourcing to a professional medical transcription service provider like TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Avail professional services

Medical transcription plays an important role in the healthcare process by creating accurate, secure, timely and cost-effective records. Outsourcing medical transcription is one of the most effective ways to ensure that the healthcare facility gets maximum advantages with minimum cost. But outsourcing an essential service like medical transcription requires the healthcare facility to undertake a detailed analysis, assessment and selection process.

While outsourcing it is important to assess whether the medical transcription service provider has professional standards of medical transcription.

What is meant by professional medical transcription?

To define the standards of professional medical transcription, it is important to define the word “ professional” and see how the standards of professionalism apply to medical transcription services.

The word “professional” can be defined as:

Member of a vocation having specialized vocational training: In case of a medical transcription service provider this can be attributed to:

1. Software and tools developed by the service provider to ease the process of transcription
2. Developing training programs to sharpen skills of the medical transcriptionists team
3. Ability to create tailor made solutions to aid the needs of the healthcare facilities

Person/organization having competence in a particular activity: In case of medical transcription this can be attributed to the competence of medical transcriptionists in being trained to be domain experts in one or two specialties

Qualified: This refers to the experience of the medical transcription service provider in serving the needs of their customers successfully by providing tailor-made solutions, in a cost-effective manner. This means providing medical transcription services while maintaining standards of accuracy, turnaround time, security and low costs

Having expert and specialized knowledge: This refers to the technological capability of the medical transcription service provider in applying technology to optimize the time of the healthcare professionals, while making technology easy to use

Ability to produce quality work: This refers to the standards and procedures established by the medical transcription service provider to provide accurate transcription

Having high professional ethics: In the context of a medical transcription service provider this refers to maintaining security of confidential patient information

Having reasonable work moral and motivation: This refers to the commitment of the medical transcription service provider to meet turnaround time guarantees

To assess the professional capabilities of the medical transcription service provider, the service provider needs to be evaluated on the following criteria:

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: 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

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

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 the advantages of outsourcing to a professional medical transcription service provider like TransDyne, click here.

The main goals of a healthcare facility can be defined as providing quality care, education, innovation, research and customer service. The underlying objective is to attain these goals profitably. Many inputs are required by the healthcare facility to achieve their goals, like the qualification, skill level and experience of the healthcare professionals, the right equipments, adequate support staff and accurate & timely information. To provide quality care the healthcare facility has to strive to improve the efficiency of the healthcare professionals and support staff and reduce expenses on non-healthcare related activities.

Outsourcing medical transcription is an easy fix to improve the efficiency of the healthcare facility’s operations in the following ways:

Providing information to the healthcare professionals by creating patient records: Medical transcription is the process of creating records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter by converting audio records to text format. Outsourced medical transcription improves the efficiency of patient record creation in the following ways:

1. Accuracy: A professional medical transcription service provider would ensure that information of the patient-healthcare professional encounter would be captured accurately by using skillful medical transcriptionists, multi level quality checks and a stringent quality policy. The information in the patient records helps the healthcare professionals make informed decisions on patient care, rather than rely on memory, hand written notes or inputs from the patient
2. Timely: A professional medical transcription service provider would ensure that patient records are created in a timely manner. This improves quality of care as well as quickens the reimbursement process
3. Secure: A professional medical transcription service provider would ensure that the confidentiality of the patient records is maintained throughout the process of transcription including the transmission, thus removing any concerns for HIPAA/HITECH violation during the transcription process
4. Flexible modes of dictation: By allowing the healthcare professionals to retain familiar modes of dictation, a professional medical transcription service provider would ensure that the healthcare professionals are able to make optimum use of their limited time

Restrict the cost of medical transcription to the cost per line of transcription: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the cost of transcription is restricted to price quoted by the service provider. Additional charges like overheads and cost of coordination can be avoided

Improve the productivity of support staff by streamlining transcription flow: A professional medical transcription service provider would ensure that the process of transcription starting with the upload of dictation files, transmission to the service provider and download of finished transcripts would take place in a systematic manner. This lessens the burden of the support staff. Additional features like powerful archival system would also ensure that locating files and tracking work-in-progress would be easy

Better utilization of resources: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that resources like real estate, Information technology staff, working capital, management staff etc. would be utilized efficiently instead of concentrating on medical transcription

It can be concluded that outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider can improve the efficiency of the healthcare facility enormously. Care has to be taken to source the right service provider and evaluate them on the basis of the various factors like accuracy, guaranteed turnaround time, security measures, cost per line of transcription and the technology used by the medical transcription service provider. These factors can be evaluated based on training methods used, quality policy, billing methods and the software & tools used by the medical transcription service provider.

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 the advantages of outsourcing to a professional medical transcription service provider like TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription: Outsourcing helps increase efficiency and improve services

Medical transcription has played an important role in the process of healthcare by helping document the patient-healthcare professional encounter. Medical transcription is also the first step in the process of reimbursement as it provides the basis for coding and billing.

In a time where healthcare facilities are struggling with shrinking incomes and galloping expenses, outsourcing medical transcription is an easy fix to curb costs of transcription. Apart from curbing costs outsourcing medical transcription can help the healthcare facility increase efficiency and improve services.

How does outsourcing medical transcription help increase efficiency?

Outsourcing medical transcription helps increase efficiency of the healthcare facilities in the following areas:

Improving report accessibility: Outsourcing medical transcription reduces the burden of the healthcare facility support staff, by creating an orderly system for collection of audio files, uploading dictation, distribution of finished transcripts and providing additional features like electronic signature, remote printing & faxing etc. Outsourcing medical transcription also helps in tracing files through an efficient system, enabling the support staff to track the status of work in progress, at any given time. Access to patient records is also improved by use of an efficient archiving systems

Saving on resources: Outsourcing medical transcription frees up valuable resources of the healthcare facility like real estate, capital expenditure on transcription equipment, office space, information technology staff, management resources and working capital. These resources can then be utilized towards the core business of the healthcare facility, thus improving efficiency

One stop solution for medical transcription needs: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the service provider is a one stop for all the problems associated with medical transcription. This would include variation in transcription volumes, holiday & weekend transcription, addition of new specialties, inclusion of new report formats/templates, integration with EMR/EHR, and HIPAA & HITECH concerns for security of information during the medical transcription process

Accelerating funds flow: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that medical records are created on time. This ensures that the first step in the receivables cycle takes place on time. This in turn helps accelerate the reimbursement process. Quickening the receivables cycle helps the funds flow and enables the healthcare facility to perform efficiently

How does outsourcing medical transcription help improve services?

Improved quality of reports: Outsourcing medical transcription has added benefits like medical transcriptionists trained in specialties, multiple quality checks and the past experience & proficiency of the service provider in serving diverse healthcare facilities helps improve the quality of reports. The improved quality of the information in the patient records helps the healthcare facility improve quality of services by helping healthcare professionals make informed decisions

Improved turnaround time: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that medical records are created on time. Having the right information on hand in a timely basis helps healthcare professionals improve quality of services to patients

It can be concluded that outsourcing medical transcription provides a variety of advantages to the healthcare facility. To benefit from the advantages of outsource medical transcription, it is important to analyze the specific needs of the healthcare facility and source a medical transcription service provider who can provide services accordingly.

The capabilities of the medical transcription service provider needs to be evaluated on the following criteria:

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

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 the advantages of outsourced medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription: Outsourcing helps increase efficiency and improve services

Medical transcription has played an important role in the process of healthcare by helping document the patient-healthcare professional encounter. Medical transcription is also the first step in the process of reimbursement as it provides the basis for coding and billing.

In a time where healthcare facilities are struggling with shrinking incomes and galloping expenses, outsourcing medical transcription is an easy fix to curb costs of transcription. Apart from curbing costs outsourcing medical transcription can help the healthcare facility increase efficiency and improve services.

How does outsourcing medical transcription help increase efficiency?

Outsourcing medical transcription helps increase efficiency of the healthcare facilities in the following areas:

Improving report accessibility: Outsourcing medical transcription reduces the burden of the healthcare facility support staff, by creating an orderly system for collection of audio files, uploading dictation, distribution of finished transcripts and providing additional features like electronic signature, remote printing & faxing etc. Outsourcing medical transcription also helps in tracing files through an efficient system, enabling the support staff to track the status of work in progress, at any given time. Access to patient records is also improved by use of an efficient archiving systems

Saving on resources: Outsourcing medical transcription frees up valuable resources of the healthcare facility like real estate, capital expenditure on transcription equipment, office space, information technology staff, management resources and working capital. These resources can then be utilized towards the core business of the healthcare facility, thus improving efficiency

One stop solution for medical transcription needs: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the service provider is a one stop for all the problems associated with medical transcription. This would include variation in transcription volumes, holiday & weekend transcription, addition of new specialties, inclusion of new report formats/templates, integration with EMR/EHR, and HIPAA & HITECH concerns for security of information during the medical transcription process

Accelerating funds flow: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that medical records are created on time. This ensures that the first step in the receivables cycle takes place on time. This in turn helps accelerate the reimbursement process. Quickening the receivables cycle helps the funds flow and enables the healthcare facility to perform efficiently

How does outsourcing medical transcription help improve services?

Improved quality of reports: Outsourcing medical transcription has added benefits like medical transcriptionists trained in specialties, multiple quality checks and the past experience & proficiency of the service provider in serving diverse healthcare facilities helps improve the quality of reports. The improved quality of the information in the patient records helps the healthcare facility improve quality of services by helping healthcare professionals make informed decisions

Improved turnaround time: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that medical records are created on time. Having the right information on hand in a timely basis helps healthcare professionals improve quality of services to patients

It can be concluded that outsourcing medical transcription provides a variety of advantages to the healthcare facility. To benefit from the advantages of outsource medical transcription, it is important to analyze the specific needs of the healthcare facility and source a medical transcription service provider who can provide services accordingly.

The capabilities of the medical transcription service provider needs to be evaluated on the following criteria:

• 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 cost of transcription 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
• 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.

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 the advantages of outsourced medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Going the HITECH way!

Health Information Technology for Economy and Clinical Health (HITECH) act providing for privacy and security of patient health information was enacted on 17th February 2009, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (ARRA). The HITECH act has become effective on 17th February 2010.

HITECH has improved and expanded on the concerns and issues addressed by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). HITECH has added new requirements concerning privacy and security for health information that materially and directly affects many entities, businesses, and individuals in ways more diverse than HIPAA

How does HITECH affect medical transcription service providers?

HITECH has added as ‘Business Associates’, organizations that transmit protected Health Information and require access on a regular basis to such information.

Medical transcription is the process of converting audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. The process of medical transcription is made efficient and cost effective when outsourced to a professional medical transcription service provider. Medical transcription service providers come under the purview of HITECH as business associates, as they have access to patient health information and are involved in the process of transmitting this data back and forth during the process of transcription.

What are the steps to be taken by a medical transcription service provider to ensure compliancy with the HITECH act?

To be compliant with the HITECH act, the medical transcription service provider needs to implement the following:

Identify the compliance requirements specific to their organization

Carry out a risk analysis that includes the total flow of Patient Health Information (PHI) during the process of transcription. This needs to include the beginning of the process, all the steps in between up to the conclusion of the process, namely:

• Collection of dictation
• Transmission of audio files
• Distribution of audio files for transcription
• Shared access for quality checks
• Transmission of transcripts back to the healthcare professionals
• Archiving

Identify the high-risk areas and look at the current risk containment measures. Revise the measures to ensure that they are in tandem with current requirements and latest technology, making sure there are no loopholes to allow for breaches

Ensure that employees and any third parties having access to PHI are fully trained on the privacy and security requirements. Make them aware of their role in protecting PHI

Review existing relationships between covered entities and develop a continuing compliance strategy

Develop a strategy to minimize breaches, an early detection plan for identifying breaches and an action plan for quick responses to contain breaches, if any

While outsourcing medical transcription, it has become important for healthcare facilities to ensure that the service provider is fully aware of the requirement to protect the PHI under the HITECH act and have measures in place to ensure compliance.

TransDyne a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has always understood the importance of securing and protecting confidential patient health information during the process of medical transcription. Measures have been taken to ensure that PHI is protected at all levels. The measures taken by TransDyne to be HITECH complaint include:

Securing people and processes: People and processes are secured by implementing the following:

1. No sub-contractors: Work outsourced to TransDyne is executed in-house and no subcontractors are used.
2. Educating the team: The transcription team, i.e. medical transcriptionists, proof readers, language editors and the quality assurance team have been educated on the importance of protecting and securing PHI
3. Inbuilt security routines: All applications and processes have inbuilt security measures like password changes, access audits and related exercises.
4. Joint access: Most confidential databases can only be accessed by a combination of passwords of a minimum of two individuals.
5. Restricted Internet and Email access: Unlimited access to Internet can lead to security breaches. Access is limited to a few limited sites.
6. Legal Declarations: Declarations are signed by employees undertaking to maintain the security of data.
7. Security audits: Frequent audits are carried out to ensure that all procedures are followed and are effective
8. Disabling ports for removable media: Ports for using removable media have been disabled to eliminate misuse of PHI

Securing Infrastructure: Infrastructure is secured by the following means:

1. Company owned and managed facilities
2. Manned security
3. Video surveillance

Securing Technology: Technology has been secured by use of security features like

1. All medical transcription related software applications are built in-house.
2. Database based systems.
3. 128-bit data encryption
4. Multi-tiered application architecture
5. Design level security safeguards
6. Firewall protected networks
7. Sterilized e-mail servers
8. Denial of access procedures and
9. Multi-modal alerts

To know more about secure medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Simple solutions

Running a healthcare facility, whether it is a single doctor clinic, or a huge hospital with multiple specialties is not easy. It is always a constant struggle to get the most, from limited resources. The main goal of a healthcare facility is to provide quality care, profitably. There could be many other goals like building a reputation for quality care, research and expansion plans.

It is therefore important for the management of the healthcare facility to concentrate all its resources towards their main goal. To achieve their core objective of providing quality care profitably, numerous inputs are required like skillful healthcare professionals, the right equipment, adequate infrastructure and accurate & timely information.

Medical transcription plays an important role in creating patient records by converting audio records of the patient –healthcare professional encounter into text format, thus providing healthcare professionals with accurate and timely information. Having accurate and timely information improves the quality of care. But having medical records created in-house can burden the healthcare facility with both direct and indirect costs.

Outsourcing medical transcription provides a simple solution to the documentation needs of the healthcare facility. Outsourcing medical transcription has advantages like:

• Limits cost of medical transcription to the cost per line of transcription: Outsourcing medical transcription helps the healthcare facility contain transcription costs. Direct costs like salary of medical transcriptionists, taxes and insurance are eliminated. Indirect costs like cost of capital equipment, cost of information technology, real estate and management resources are also eliminated. This helps the healthcare facility utilize its’ limited resources in an optimum manner
• Quickens the receivables cycle: Medical transcription is the first stage of the receivables cycle. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that patient records are created on time. This ensures that the process of reimbursement can take place speedily
• Helps the healthcare facility focus on its’ core business: By outsourcing medical transcription, the healthcare facility gains from the experience of the service provider and the technology used by the medical transcription service provider. This eases the burden of the healthcare facility staff towards medical transcription related activities like collecting dictation, uploading audio files, downloading of finished transcripts, HIPAA/HITECH compliance and archiving etc. This helps them increase focus on the core business of the healthcare facility.

It can be concluded that outsourcing medical transcription provides the healthcare facility with a simple solution for their documentation needs. However while outsourcing medical transcription, the healthcare facility needs to ensure that the medical transcription service provider can meet their needs in the desired manner. To ensure a long-term partnership the medical transcription service provider needs to be evaluated on the following criteria:

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

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 simple solutions by TransDyne for medical transcription needs, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Increases productivity

When it comes to provision of quality healthcare there are many associated activities that contribute to the process. Medical transcription is one such activity that plays an important part in ensuring provision of quality care and strengthening the bottom-line of the healthcare facility. It is important for the healthcare facility to ensure that the medical transcription process is efficient and cost effective, without diluting focus on the core business. Outsourcing medical transcription is an easy fix to make it efficient and cost effective.

Outsourcing medical transcription can help the healthcare facility increasing productivity. Productivity has simply been defined as the positive outcome of quality output plus quantity output divided by quality input plus quantity input.

How does outsourcing medical transcription help healthcare facilities increase productivity?

Increasing productivity of healthcare professionals: Outsourcing medical transcription helps enhance the productivity of healthcare professionals in the following areas:

1. Allowing them optimum use of their time by retaining familiar and flexible modes of dictation
2. Helping with the decision making process about patients’ treatment plans, by providing them with accurate and timely patient records

Increasing productivity of support staff: Outsourcing medical transcription helps enhance the productivity of support staff like nurses and technicians by providing them with a system to keep track of work in progress, powerful archives for tracing old records and facilities like remote printing & faxing

Increasing productivity of administrative staff: Outsourcing medical transcription reduces the burden of the administrative staff by allowing them to focus all resources like space, utilities and other resources on the core business of the healthcare facility instead of on associated activities like medical transcription

Increasing productivity of Information technology (IT) staff: Outsourcing medical transcription can help reduce the burden on the IT staff, by providing software and tools to facilitate upload of dictation, download of files and distribution of patient records to the relevant healthcare professionals

Increasing productivity of management staff: The burden of the management staff towards activities like recruitment, training and coordination of medical transcriptionists are eased when medical transcription is outsourced.

In conclusion it is obvious that outsourcing medical transcription increases the quality and quantity of output, i.e. increased productivity resulting in provision of quality care, decreasing direct & indirect costs of medical transcription and quickening the receivables process. To get the desired increase in productivity by outsourcing medical transcription, care has to be taken to evaluate the medical transcription service provider on the following criteria:

• Accuracy: Needs to be above 99%
• Turnaround time: Needs to be within 24 hours
• Price: Needs to be reasonable and fair
• Security: Has to cover all aspects, i.e. technology, infrastructure, people and processes.
• Technology: Needs to be easy to use and provide maximum benefits.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry offers customized solutions that help healthcare facilities enhance their productivity. TransDyne offers 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 know more about medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here

Outsourcing medical transcription: Complete solutions

Medical transcription is the process of converting audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. Medical transcription plays an important role in the healthcare process in both the operational and commercial aspects, by creating permanent patient records and accelerating the process of reimbursement respectively.

Outsourcing medical transcription is probably one of the most efficient and economical fix for healthcare facilities looking for solutions for their documentation needs. The process of outsourcing, involves evaluating the service provider on the basis of criteria like accuracy, turnaround time, security and the price. Another important criterion for evaluating the service provider is to ascertain whether the service provider can provide complete solutions for the medical transcription needs of the healthcare facility.

What entails complete solution for medical transcription?

Medical transcription for all specialties with maximum accuracy: While outsourcing medical transcription, it is important for healthcare facilities to consider not only current needs but also future needs that may arise from future expansion. It is also important that the service provider has medical transcriptionists who are trained to be domain experts in different specialties. This ensures that whenever the healthcare facility adds on a new specialty, the service provider has medical transcriptionists trained in that specialty and is able to meet the required accuracy and turnaround time levels

Flexible turnaround times: The turnaround time requirements for different types of reports and different specialties may vary vastly. It is important that the service provider has the requisite personnel and technology to be able to meet the turnaround time required

No investments required: The main of objective of outsourcing medical transcription is to save on costs and reduce investments in non-health related areas. While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to source a service provider who can offer the requisite information technology support and work with the existing systems rather than requiring further investments.

Weekend and holiday medical transcription: One vital point to be considered while outsourcing medical transcription is whether the service provider can provide transcription services on weekends and Holidays. It is also important the medical transcription service provider should be in a position to cope with varying influx of patients, as this is one factor that cannot be predicted

Additional benefits like archiving, remote printing & faxing, HL7 interface: While outsourcing medical transcription, another factor that forms part of complete solutions, is the technological capabilities of the service provider to provide for additional features like archiving, remote printing & faxing, integration with the EMR/EHR systems etc., if required

Security of confidential patient information: Outsourcing medical transcription requires that the service provider should be HIPAA compliant. It is important for the service provider to protect confidential patient information at every level, by having adequate measures for technology, processes, people and infrastructure

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry offers complete solutions to suit varying need of different of different kinds of healthcare facilities. TransDyne has teams of medical transcriptionists who are trained in different specialties, making them domain experts. This ensures that TransDyne can cope with medical transcription for any specialty with an accuracy level of above 99%. TransDyne offers a turnaround time of 24 hours with an option of a turnaround time of 4-12 hours for STAT files.

TransDyne has the technical capabilities to integrate with the existing systems of healthcare facilities, requiring no additional investments. TransDyne offers medical transcription for weekends and holidays, and has people and systems in place to cope up with varying volumes of transcription. TransDyne has software and tools that offer additional features like archiving, remote printing & faxing among other benefits. TransDyne ensures security of confidential patient information, by securing people processes, infrastructure and technology

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

Medical transcription outsourcing: Customized solutions

Medical transcription has always played an important role in the healthcare process, creating records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter. The criteria for evaluating medical transcription services are accuracy, turnaround time, security, and cost per line of transcription. It is also important to consider the indirect benefits of outsourcing medical transcription like savings on payroll, information technology, real estate, management staff and utilities.

Once these have been evaluated it is important to consider the fit of the medical transcription services provided, to that of the healthcare facility requirements. With the advent of the Internet it is very easy for a healthcare facility to source medical transcription service providers, but it is also important to consider whether the service provider is willing to customize its services to the needs of the healthcare facility.

The medical transcription requirements of varied healthcare facilities could vary based on the following factors:

Number of doctors practicing in the healthcare facility: Healthcare facilities could vary from a one-healthcare professional practice to a hospital with a large number of specialties. The service offered by the medical transcription service provider needs to be customized to suit the specific requirements of the healthcare facility

Specialties: Medicine is a vast field with varied specialties. The language of each specialty is complex involving specific procedures, test, drugs and terminology. The medical transcription service provider needs to have personnel well versed in the language of each specialty

Number of branches: Many healthcare facilities may have branches in different locations, the technological capabilities of the service provider need to be evaluated to ensure provision of seamless services

Type of reports/formats/templates: Different reports/ formats/ templates are required depending on the specialty; the ability of the medical transcription service provider in customizing reports/formats/templates need to be evaluated based on their experience in having provided similar services

Turnaround time: The turnaround time requirements can vary according to the type of report and the specialty. The capability of the service provider to meet turnaround time requirement, needs to be evaluated based on the skill set of the medical transcriptionists and the technology used by the service provider

Option for integrating with EMR/EHR: For adoption of EMR/EHR, the capability of the service provider needs to be evaluated for HL7 integration

Dictation modes: The option to retain familiar modes of dictation, is an important factor to be evaluated during the outsourcing process

Features like remote printing and faxing: The ability of the medical transcription service provider to provided additional features like remote printing and faxing need to be evaluated while sourcing the right service provider

Expansion plans of the healthcare facility: The medical transcription service provider needs to be in position to service the healthcare facility for current needs as well as have the capacity to provide services based on the expansion plans of the healthcare facility

TransDyne is a leading provider of outsourced medical transcription services, having served healthcare facilities of all types. TransDyne understands the needs of the healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals and has customized their services accordingly.

TransDyne offers 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.

Outsourcing medical transcription to TransDyne offers additional advantages like:

• Volume flexibility
• Medical transcriptionists trained in specialties
• Customized reports/formats/templates
• Facility to integrate with EMR/EHR
• Option to retain flexible modes of dictation
• Remote printing and faxing options

To know more about customized medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here

Medical transcription: Outsourcing advantages

Medical transcription is an important contributor to the smooth running of a healthcare facility by creating patient records efficiently. However many healthcare facilities tend to overlook the role that medical transcription can play in smoothing out the operations of the healthcare facility. Often times it has been noticed that healthcare facilities avail medical transcription from a mix of in-house employees, Independent contractors and medical transcription service providers.

As the need for medical transcription grows it has been found that availing medical transcription services from different sources can result in the following deficiencies:

Missing files: Entire files of dictation by healthcare professionals could be misplaced due to the lack of a single source service provider It also becomes very difficult to trace the status of the finished transcripts. The same healthcare professional’s files could be transcribed by various sources causing confusion about factors like formats, turnaround time etc

Duplicating efforts: When medical transcription work is executed through disparate sources, the process of allocating audio files, follow-up of work-in-progress and archiving of transcribed files could be duplicated

Improperly assigned work: Work allocation to the various sources of transcription could be confusing, resulting in work assignments getting mixed up. People not well versed with the templates/formatting requirements of the healthcare professional could produce work of less than desirable standards

Constant strain on resources: Getting medical transcription work executed through varied sources would place a constant strain on the resources of the healthcare facility, like the administrative, managerial and Information Technology staff

Other factors: Factors like poor connectivity, lack of proper systems/infrastructure, lack of skills in the particular specialty could result in substandard quality of work

Difficulty in computing costs: When varied sources are used for executing medical transcription work it is very difficult to ascertain the actual cost per line of transcription. A lot of time would be wasted on reconciling the costs

Outsourcing the medical transcription needs to a professional medical transcription service provider can help the healthcare facility have a fix on not only the cost of medical transcription but also all other factors.

Some of the advantages of outsourcing medical transcription are as follows:

Increased efficiency: Outsourcing to a single source, increases the efficiency of the healthcare facility staff. The specific needs of the healthcare professionals are taken into consideration by the medical transcription service provider while customizing solutions. This ensures that the process of transcription is more efficient. Moreover the billing method is standard, ensuring that the cost per line of transcription is clearly defined, this ensures that every one is on the same page with regard to cost

Reduced errors: Factors like standard formats/templates, medical transcriptionists trained in different specialties, use of advanced technology, multiple level quality checks, quality guidelines ensure that the error rates are dramatically reduced. The integrity of the information is preserved

Consistent process: The system for uploading dictations, and downloading finished transcripts is configured to ensure that no time is wasted on searching for files. The staff can also keep tabs on the files at every stage of the work-in-progress. Features like archiving also make the process of tracing and retrieving old files very easy

Robust reporting capability: Outsourcing to a professional medical transcription service provider ensures that the reports are of optimum quality, available within the promised turnaround time and features like remote printing and faxing also add to the quality of reports

Reduced strain on internal resources: By outsourcing medical transcription, the strain on internal resources is dramatically reduced, in terms of both people as well as resources like real estate, utilities and working capital

TransDyne is a leading medical transcription service provider, offers medical transcription services that helps a healthcare facility focus on providing quality healthcare, helps them save on costs of medical transcription and helps accelerate the receivables cycle. TransDyne offers 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 know more outsourced medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here

Medical transcription outsourcing: Reliable services

The role of medical transcription in the healthcare process cannot be overlooked. Medical transcription plays an important role in the creation of medical records of patients by converting audio files of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into a text format. Combining expertise of the service provider and appropriate technology, creation of medical records is done with maximum accuracy & security, minimum turnaround time and at reasonable prices.

Creation of medical records plays an important role in the following areas of the healthcare facility:

• Patient care
• Referrals/ tests/procedures/ therapies
• Risk management by providing record of allergies, interaction of drugs
• Statutory requirements
• Evidence in case of litigation
• Coding and billing for reimbursement purposes
• Research
• Providing preventive care

An easy and cost-effective of ensuring the creation of accurate and timely medical records is to outsource medical transcription. However while outsourcing medical transcription it is important to ensure that the medical transcription service provider is reliable.

What is meant by reliable medical transcription services?

The word “reliable” has been defined as an entity that can be relied upon for being consistent, dependable and trustworthy. A reliable medical transcription service provider would have to meet the same criteria of being consistent, dependable and trustworthy.

What is meant by consistent medical transcription services?

Accuracy: Accuracy of the information captured in the patient records is very important for both the operational as well as the commercial aspects of the healthcare facility. Accuracy needs to be consistently maintained at very high levels, using skilled specialist medical transcriptionists and multiple level quality checks to ensure consistent quality

Billing methods: The billing methods used by the medical transcription service provider influences the pricing of services. It is important for the service provider to define the components of pricing and consistently use the same methodology, ensuring everyone is on the same page

What is meant by dependable medical transcription services?

Turnaround time: To be considered dependable, medical transcription services need to meet the turnaround time commitments given by them. Along with accuracy of the data, turnaround time plays a very important role in providing quality healthcare and speeding up the receivables cycle

Technology: Technology is an important component of dependable medical transcription. Technology is important both for maintaining turnaround time commitments as well as securing confidential patient data during the medical transcription process

What is meant by trustworthy medical transcription services?

HIPAA and HITECH compliance: While outsourcing medical transcription it is important for the healthcare facility to determine the capability of the medical transcription service provider in maintaining HIPAA and HITECH compliance. To determine whether a medical transcription service provider is trustworthy, the service provider needs to be evaluated on the measures taken to ensure HIPAA and HITECH compliance with regard to technology, processes, infrastructure and people

While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to take the time to assess the reliability of the medical transcription service provider.

TransDyne is a reliable medical transcription service provider that meets all the criteria of being consistent, dependable and trustworthy. TransDyne offers:

• Accuracy of above 99%
• Low costs by using the “character method” of billing
• Turnaround time of 24 hours, with an option of 4-12 hours for STAT files
• Advanced technology that is easy to use
• Secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant medical transcription by securing technology, processes, infrastructure and people

To know more about reliable medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here

Outsourced medical transcription services and patient care

The primary goal of every healthcare facility is to maximize profits while providing quality healthcare. Achieving this goal would require a three-pronged approach:

• Increase focus on quality healthcare
• Decrease expenses towards activities that are not part of the core process
• Accelerate cash flow

Outsourced medical transcription has a role to play in all the three steps involved in achieving the goal of the healthcare facility.

What role does medical transcription play in increasing focus on quality healthcare?

Apart from the qualification and expertise of the healthcare professional, one of the main inputs for quality healthcare is accurate information. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the medical records are created accurately and on time by expert medical transcriptionists who are well versed in the language related to the specialty of the healthcare professional. This ensures that all the details of the patient-healthcare professional encounter are captured completely and accurately.

The information captured in patient records aids the healthcare professional by providing information on the following:

• A brief about the patient history and physical examination
• Existing health conditions if any
• Information on the current medication used and allergies if any
• Past symptoms and diagnosis
• Drugs/procedures/tests/therapies prescribed
• Results of tests
• Progress made by the patient

What role does medical transcription play in decreasing expenses towards non-core activities?

One of the main benefits of outsourcing medical transcription is that it not only reduces the cost per line of medical transcription, it also allows the healthcare facility to maximize focus towards providing quality healthcare. Resources like cost of direct employees, management staff, real estate, capital expenses for transcription equipment, cost of utilities for in-house transcription, Information technology (IT) for in-house transcription, and working capital requirements for transcription in-house can be redirected for other uses.

What role does medical transcription play in accelerating cash flow?

Medical transcription is the first step in the receivables cycle. By outsourcing medical transcription, patient records are created accurately and on time. Speedy creation of records ensures that the process of reimbursement is speeded up, leading to shortening of the receivables cycle. This helps accelerate the cash flow.

It can be concluded that outsourcing medical transcription helps the healthcare facility focus on providing quality healthcare; helps reduce expenses and speeds up the reimbursement process. To reap maximum benefits of outsourcing medical transcription, a healthcare facility needs to evaluate the medical transcription service provider based on the following criteria:

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: 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

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

TransDyne is a leading medical transcription service provider, providing medical transcription services that helps a healthcare facility focus on providing quality healthcare, helps them save on costs of medical transcription and helps accelerate the receivables cycle. TransDyne offers 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 by TransDyne, click here

Medical transcription services

Medical transcription is a service that supports the healthcare profession, creating records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter by transcribing audio files into text format. When it comes to outsourcing medical transcription it is important to partner with the right service provider who can provide the right service. Because medical transcription is a service rather than a tangible product it is important to understand what comprises great service.

What comprises great service?

Great service would comprise of the following features:

• Service should be timely
• Service should be continuous
• Service should be flexible to meet varying demands
• Service should be of good quality consistently
• Service should be reasonably priced
• Service should maintain confidentiality
• Service should be easy to avail
• Service should lessen the burden of the user/s significantly

All the above criteria apply to outsourced medical transcription services. It is important to understand the significance of each criterion while evaluating medical transcription services.

Timely service: Medical transcription is an important component of both the operational and commercial aspects of healthcare, by creating records and by accelerating the receivable cycle. Therefore it is important that the medical transcription service provider have a timeline for delivery of services. Turnaround time of finished transcripts committed by the service provider plays a significant role in evaluating the service provider.

Continuous service: Medical transcription services need to be a continuous process, as the influx of patients is not a one-time occurrence but a continuous process and records need to be created on a continuous basis.

Flexible service: Though the influx of patients availing healthcare services is continuous, it is not consistent. The influx could vary based on many factors that cannot be predicted or planned for. Therefore medical transcription services need to be flexible to meet the varying needs of healthcare facilities based on the influx.

Quality services: Patient records are part of the healthcare process, having varied uses like the basis of further treatment/referrals etc., evidence for litigation, part of permanent record, forming the basis for coding and billing. It is important that these records contain information that is accurate. Therefore while outsourcing medical transcription, evaluating the quality of services is one of the most important factors.

Reasonably priced services: One of the main benefits of outsourcing medical transcription is to avail the cost saving benefits. It is important to examine the quote offered by the service provider, in detail while outsourcing medical transcription, taking into consideration the billing method used by the provider.

Secure services: While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to evaluate the service provider on the basis of the measures taken by the medical transcription service provider to secure confidential patient information. It is important to evaluate the measures taken to secure technology, infrastructure, processes and the people used for transcription.

Easy to use services: Medical transcription services are used by the healthcare professionals for whom time is a precious commodity. It is important to choose a medical transcription service provider who uses the right technology to provide multiple benefits and easy usage.

Investment free services: Healthcare facilities are constantly trying to juggle limited resources to meet multiple demands. In such a scenario it is important that outsourcing medical transcription services should ease the burden of healthcare facilities by eliminating expenses like Information technology, real estate, utilities, equipments etc., related to medical transcription.

TransDyne is a leading medical transcription service provider, providing medical transcription services that meet all the above criteria. TransDyne offers medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert mdical tanscriptionists 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 know more medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here

Medical transcription outsourcing: Dos and Don’ts

Medical transcription plays a vital part in the healthcare process, by documenting the patient-healthcare professional encounter. The medical records play an important role in the following areas:

1. Patient treatment
2. Permanent Patient records
3. Referrals to other doctors
4. Evidence in case of malpractice suits
5. Coding, billing and insurance claims
6. Satisfaction of regulatory norms

As medical transcription is not part of the core activities of the healthcare facility, an easy and cost effective fix is to outsource the medical transcription requirements to a professional medical transcription service provider. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the patient records are created in an easy, accurate, timely, secure and cost effective manner.

However while outsourcing medical transcription, care needs to be taken to ensure that the right service provider is chosen so as to reap long-term benefits.

What are the guidelines for outsourcing medical transcription?

The Dos:

Check for experience of the service provider: While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to check the credentials of the service provider. To ensure that the service provider is capable of providing services as promised the following questions need to be asked:

• How long has the service provider been in the business providing outsourced medical transcription services?
• Who are their customers?
• What is the range of medical transcription services?
• Can they provide testimonials?
• Do they offer a free trial of their services?

Check for quality measures: It is important to ascertain that the medical transcription service provider has measures in place to provide accurate medical transcription as promised. To ascertain that the service provider can deliver quality/accuracy as promised the following questions need to be asked:

• What are the quality check levels? Does more than one person listen to the audio before transmitting the transcript back to the healthcare professional?
• What is the training method used by the service provider?
• Does the service provider use subcontractors to execute the work?

Check the billing methodology: Pricing in medical transcription is a complex issue with numerous variables. Comparing quotes can be very difficult as the components of what consists cost may vary vastly. This also leaves a huge scope for manipulation in the billing. To ensure that the price quoted is reasonable, one needs to check the billing methodology used by the medical transcription service provider. The billing method needs to be verifiable, definable, measurable, consistent, fair and honest

Check the transcription flow: Checking the flow from the dictation stage to when the final transcript is made available to the healthcare professional ensures the use of the right technology. The right technology in turn ensures that turnaround time commitments will be met with, and the time of the support staff and healthcare professionals is not wasted tracking dictation files and finished transcripts through a complex system.

Check for HIPAA and HITECH compliance measures: While outsourcing medical transcription one of the main concerns is that of maintaining the security of confidential patient information. To evaluate whether a service provider has adequate measures in place to be HIPAA complaint, one needs to check for adequate measures for:

• Technology: To ensure security during transmission
• Processes: To ensure security during transcription
• People and infrastructure: To ensure security during every stage

Check for customer service channels: It is important that the healthcare facility have channels of open communication at their disposal for contacting the service provider. This ensures that any issues are sorted out at the earliest to ensure smooth transition

Check the website: Website of the service provider can be a valuable source of information. It is important to go through the website of the service provider to get maximum information

The Don’ts

Look at price only: Though reduced cost is one of the foremost benefits of outsourcing medical transcription, it is important to analyze the cost components thoroughly and to look at the capabilities of the service provider before making finalizing the service provider

Ignore the contract: Though the service provider meets all the criteria for successful outsourcing it is important to look at the contract agreement in depth before signing on for the services

Opt for complicated technology: It is very easy to be taken in by the “bells and whistles” in the technology used by the service provider, without actually considering the utility. As time is a limited commodity for healthcare professionals it is important that the technology used by the service provider serves all the needs and at the same time is easy

TransDyne offers 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 know more medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here