Thursday, June 30, 2011

Medical transcription outsourcing: Creating documentation that follows a logical sequence

Much has been said about the need for documenting the healthcare process in a manner that is legible, complete, clear, consistent, precise, reliable and timely. The purpose of this document is primarily to throw light on the process of care, including the demographics, the findings of the physical examination, the diagnoses, treatments, tests (if any), procedures (if any), and the drugs/therapy prescribed etc.  The other equally important purposes of the patient medical record include coding & billing and providing evidential support in case of litigation. Therefore it becomes very important to evaluate the method of documentation based on these criteria. 

With the nationwide move towards an electronic healthcare system, there increasingly have been a lot of changes in the approach to healthcare documentation.  Options like point and click entry by the healthcare professional at the point of care, using front-end speech recognition software etc have been touted as options for creating patient medical records. Not only do they have disadvantages like inability to capture the narrative portion of the patient medical record, having an adverse effect on the productivity of healthcare professionals, failing to create individualistic patient medical records, curbing the diagnostic process, not meeting acceptable accuracy levels (in case of speech recognition software) but these methods also do not meet the purpose of documentation.

Medical transcription, the process of converting the dictation of the patient- healthcare professional encounter into text format, not only produces accurate, timely, secure and cost-effective patient medical records but also creates documentation that follows logical sequence, helping fulfill the purpose of healthcare documentation. As medical transcription is a process that requires intense focus in terms of the right team, the right process and the right technology, outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service provider has been found to be an effective, efficient and economical solution.

Some of the salient features of services provided by outsourced medical transcription services are:

Enhancing workflow of healthcare professionals and support staff: Outsourced medical transcription service providers have an innate understanding of the functioning of healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals. This enables them to provide services that enhance the workflow of healthcare professionals and other staff. Options like providing dictation as an option to capture the details of the patient encounter, option to retain familiar modes of dictation, automatic upload of dictation for transcription, document delivery customized to suit the healthcare professionals’ needs help in enhancing the workflow of healthcare professionals and other support staff.

Improve productivity: Outsourced medical transcription services help improve productivity of healthcare professionals by essentially allowing them to focus on the patients rather than on the process of creating patient medical records. Outsourced medical transcription services also help improve productivity of healthcare professionals by providing editing and proofreading services of speech recognition software created transcripts.

Savings on resources: Outsourcing medical transcription helps healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities save on costs and resources substantially. Not only does outsourcing medical transcription save on the actual cost of transcription, but also helps in saving various resources.

It can be concluded that teaming with a technologically savvy and professional medical transcription service provider not only ensures creating documentation with a logical sequence but can also help in adopting EMR/ EHR using HL7 interface.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has used their extensive background in information technology and their experience in serving the needs of the healthcare sector to provide affordable and integrated medical transcription solutions.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, executed by experienced and qualified medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!              

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

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing services with numerous advantages

Medical transcription has been a part of healthcare, helping in the creation of patient medical records from the dictation of the healthcare professional regarding the patient encounter. Medical transcription services have evolved with the advances in technology and the advent of the Internet. This has in effect eliminated the need for the physical presence of the medical transcriptionist in the healthcare facility, giving rise to specialized, outsourced medical transcription services. Outsourcing medical transcription has numerous advantages, some of which are given below:

Value addition: By outsourcing medical transcription, healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities gain in terms of an unlimited access to trained and skilled medical transcriptionists. This adds value to the healthcare process by ensuring quality documentation. Proper documentation results in better clinical decision making, receivables management and risk management.

Be an integral part of the organizational process: Outsourced medical transcription services though essentially removed from the physical premises of the healthcare facility have become an integral part of the organization process by easing the process of collection of audio files, creation of transcripts and the delivery of transcripts

Be part of decision-making: The process of clinical decision-making is incomplete without proper information regarding the patient encounter. Outsourced medical transcription services ensure that accurate information is available in a timely manner.

Explicitly address uncertainty: Medical transcriptionists address any uncertainty in the dictation by the healthcare professional explicitly. Efforts are made to transcribe the dictation as completely as possible, doubts are clarified by conducting extensive research, putting each transcript through a stringent quality assurance process and leaving the space blank if the information is unidentifiable through any of these methods, for the healthcare professional to fill in

Systematic and structured: Not only do outsourced medical transcription service providers have a systematic and structured process for providing quality medical transcription services, but they also provide a systematic structure for medical transcription to healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities. Factors like uploading dictation, keeping track of work in progress and document delivery are all provided for by the software and tools used by the medical transcription service provider

Tailored: Instead of offering generic services, outsourced medical transcription service providers strive to provide services that are customized to meet the specific needs of the healthcare facility and healthcare professionals. Factors like turnaround time options, modes of dictation, document delivery modes, templates/ formats etc are tailored to meet the specific needs of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities

Take into account human factors: Outsourced medical transcription service providers provide services that take into consideration human factors, that is why they provide options like outsourcing the overflow work, transcription for unpredictable volumes, holiday and weekend transcription etc.

Transparent and inclusive: Outsourced medical transcription service providers strive to have a transparent system to fulfill both quality and HIPAA/ HITECH requirements.

Dynamic and responsive to change: Outsourced medical transcription service providers are constantly striving to improve their services to be in tune with the changing healthcare documentation needs. That is why medical transcription service providers have included editing and proofreading services for speech recognition software and adoption of EMR/EHR using HL7 interface as part of their services.

Partnering with the right medical transcription service provider not only ensures accurate, timely, secure and cost-effective creation of patient medical records but also provides the right technology support, which results in overall improvement of services.

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 and reliable medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Medical transcription outsourcing: Increasing profitability by enhancing productivity

Healthcare services have become a part of the basic necessities of life. Though the demand for healthcare services have been on rise there has been increasing pressure on healthcare services to provide quality services at lower costs. Keeping this in mind healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals are looking for ways to maintain high levels of quality, increase productivity and curb expenses.  Outsourcing medical transcription can help in all these areas.


How do outsourced medical transcription services help maintain and improve quality of services?

Though the quality of healthcare services is the culmination of numerous factors including the education, qualification, experience and skill of healthcare professionals, quality of drugs, quality equipment and numerous other factors, the common thread that binds all these together is information in patient medical records. Outsourced medical transcription has a vital role to play in this regard by helping document the care process and ensuring creation of patient medical records that are:
  • Detailed
  • Accurate
  • Legible
  • Timely
  • Easily accessible
  • Clear
  • Consistent
  • Complete
How do outsourced medical transcription services help increase the productivity of healthcare professionals and other staff?

 
Outsourcing medical transcription provides support to healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals in various aspects. Outsourced medical transcription service providers use technology that provides maximum benefits while still remaining easy to use. Some of the benefits of technology used by medical transcription service providers are:
  • Retaining dictation as an option for information collection
  • Offering flexible modes of dictation
  • Automatic upload of dictation at frequent intervals facilitating timely transcription
  • Document delivery modes customized to the specific requirements of healthcare professionals
  • Easy to access archives to retrieve older transcripts
  • A system for keeping track of transcription status
  • Editing and proof reading services for speech recognition software transcription
  • HL7 interface for adoption of EMR/EHR
  • Facility for electronic signature
How do outsourced medical transcription services help curb expenses?
 
Outsourcing medical transcription not only allows healthcare professionals and other support staff to focus their total attention on the care process, but also has the additional advantage of enabling the healthcare facility to save on costs. Outsourcing medical transcription helps cut costs by enabling the following:
  • Converting fixed cost of medical transcription to variable costs
  • Reducing cost of transcription by more than 40%
  • Saving on other expenses for medical transcription like overheads, cost of real estate, utilities etc
  • By providing for weekend and holiday medical transcription needs, the service provider helps curb on costs like the cost of extra staff / extra shifts etc.
  • Another indirect way that outsourced medical transcription services help in improving the cash flow is by accelerating the receivables cycle.
Choosing the right medical transcription service provider can help healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals enhance the efficiency and productivity of the healthcare facility, resulting in increased profitability.
 
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 and reliable medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.