Medical transcription outsourcing: What are the criteria to look for?

The current scenario in today’s healthcare documentation sector calls for healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities to move towards an electronic healthcare system. The key to making this happen is to ensure that healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities have an adequate support system in terms of technology and the right personnel to ensure smooth transition with minimum disruption to normal work flows.

Medical transcription has been supporting healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities in documenting the patient encounter in a manner that is conducive to the operations of healthcare facility and with minimum disruptions to the workflow of healthcare professionals. Medical transcription supports dictation as a means of data collection; this means that the healthcare professionals can dictate using their choice of dictation equipment and have the benefit of patient medical records that include the narrative portion. However with the changing needs of the current scenario it is important to partner with a medical transcription company that only supports current needs but also has the ability to support future requirements.

To ensure a long-term partnership with the medical transcription company it is important to evaluate the medical transcription company on the following criteria:

Price: The requirement for creation of patient medical records is a continuous one. Hence it is important to ensure that the pricing of the services provided helps save on current cost of transcription and does not affect the bottom line adversely. It is important to choose a medical transcription company that can provide quality services at reasonable rates. It is also important to ensure that there are no hidden charges in the pricing method used.

Functionality: There are numerous purposes for creating patient medical records like providing quality care, risk management support, coding & billing for reimbursement etc. It is important to evaluate the ability of the medical transcription company to provide transcription services that meet all these criteria by ensuring the functionality of the services. In this instance functionality of medical transcription services can be defined by accuracy and turnaround time.

Usability of services: Apart from pricing, accuracy and turnaround time one of the factors that have the most impact is the usability of these services. Considering the hectic life of healthcare professionals it is important that the technology used by the medical transcription company should be easy to use while still providing maximum benefits. Apart from features like offering options for modes of dictation and document delivery, the medical transcription company should also facilitate adoption of EMR/ EHR with options like discrete reportable transcription, structured dictation, structured transcription and HL7 interface.

Continuous support: While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to ascertain that the medical transcription company is in a position to provide continuous support not only in terms of volume of transcription, weekend & holiday transcription, but also round the clock customer support, editing services for speech recognition software etc.

Training required for transition: While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to ascertain that the use of these services does not require lengthy training and orientation, considering the hectic life of healthcare professionals and the criticality of services provided by them.

It can be concluded that evaluating the medical transcription company on stringent criteria ensures that both current and future needs of the healthcare facility with regard to transcription are taken care of.

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.

Among the software and tools offered by TransDyne for transcription, the smart delivery system has a large role to play in easing the path to EMR/EHR adoption The Smart Delivery system, which has features like User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems is the suggested mode of document delivery where pre-defined file saving would help import documents to EMR systems.  Apart from this TransDyne also offers discounted rates for those healthcare facilities that provide demographic data entered in the EMR rather than through other modes.

Along with medical transcription services involving multiple level quality checks to ensure accuracy, the use of the right technology for ease of use, turnaround time and security, at reasonable rates, TransDyne also provides discrete reportable transcription for adoption of EMR/ EHR 

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

Medical transcription outsourcing: Using discrete reportable transcription

With the rapidly approaching deadlines for the adoption of EMR/ EHR, healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities are constantly looking for ways and means of complying with the mandate with minimum disruption to their work flow. Healthcare professionals intuitively show an inclination towards the dictation- transcription method of documenting the care process as it is convenient and helps retain the narrative portion of the patient encounter.

However the reports created by the medical transcription process though detailed and clear do not comply completely with the meaningful use criteria. Discrete reportable transcription has been introduced as a means to bridge this gap.  Discrete reportable transcription converts transcription into discrete data elements and these are parsed into the relevant areas in the EMR/ EHR using XML.

Discrete reportable transcription has emerged as a solution for the needs of healthcare professionals who can benefit from the experience and expertise of the medical transcription company while achieving the meaningful use criteria. Given below are some of the requirements of meaningful use criteria that can be met with using discrete reportable transcription:

• Quality measures
• Decision support
• Clinical summaries
• Medication lists
• Allergy lists
• Problem lists
• Vital signs tracking
• Demographics
• Smoking status
• Patients list by conditions
• Medication reconciliation
• Patient summary
• Electronic syndromic surveillance data

It can be concluded that the use of discrete reportable transcription brings healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities closer to the achievement of meaningful use and adoption of EMR/ EHR.

Apart from this Discrete reportable transcription offers all the advantages of conventional medical transcription, which include:

The benefit of accurate transcription: As compared to other methods of documenting the care process, outsourced medical transcription services offer higher accuracy using skilled medical transcriptionists and intense quality processes. This ensures that the data parsed into the EMR/ EHR is accurate.

Transcription within strict timelines: Medical transcription companies ensure that the turnaround time specified by the healthcare professional are adhered to ensuring timely services.

Security throughout the transcription process: HIPAA and HITECH compliance are one of the main concerns of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities. Medical transcription companies ensure security of data throughout the transcription process by securing technology, processes, people and infrastructure.

Technology support: Medical transcription requires the support of robust technology to be convenient and easy to use. Medical transcription companies ensure this by using software and tools that provide maximum benefits while still remaining easy to use.

Reduction in cost: Using the services of a reliable and professional medical transcription company ensures that the healthcare facility can save substantially on costs.

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.

Among the software and tools offered by TransDyne for transcription, the smart delivery system has a large role to play in easing the path to EMR/EHR adoption The Smart Delivery system, which has features like User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems is the suggested mode of document delivery where pre-defined file saving would help import documents to EMR systems.  Apart from this TransDyne also offers discounted rates for those healthcare facilities that provide demographic data entered in the EMR rather than through other modes.

Along with medical transcription services involving multiple level quality checks to ensure accuracy, the use of the right technology for ease of use, turnaround time and security, at reasonable rates, TransDyne also provides discrete reportable transcription for adoption of EMR/ EHR 

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

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing services that aid all participants

Healthcare is a service that cannot function in isolation. Though each patient encounter has essentially two main participants; the healthcare professional and the patient, there are numerous other participants who play varying roles. While documenting the care process it is important to consider the needs and contribution of all these participants to the commercial, operational and care aspects of the healthcare process to ensure that their specific needs are met with.

Medical transcription is one of the methods of documenting the care process that meets the needs of all the participants.

Who are the participants in the healthcare process and how do medical transcription services meet their needs?

The main participants in the care process are:

Healthcare professionals: Medical transcription companies meet the needs of healthcare professionals from the documenting process by providing services that include:

• Using technology for transcription that provides all benefits while still being easy to use
• Various modes of dictation
• Option to retain the narrative portion of the encounter
• Editing services for speech recognition software
• Options like discrete reportable transcription, structured transcription and structured dictation to enable adoption of EMR/ EHR
• Choices for document delivery

Support staff at the healthcare facility: The support staff at the healthcare facility accesses patient medical records for various purposes like providing care support to healthcare professionals and administering various medicines, injections etc. Moreover the support staff also needs access to the information in patient medical records for commercial aspects like billing the patients for co-pay, providing post treatment care etc. Medical transcription companies aid the support staff by providing services that include:

• An interface that enables easy tracking of transcription at every stage
• Easy access to archives for referring to older patient medical records
• Providing services that are billed at reasonable cost to ensures enormous savings on cost of transcription

Coders and billing staff: The process of coding and billing starts once the transcription process is over. Medical transcription companies ensure timely transcription of clear and precise medical transcription that helps in proper coding and billing

Insurance payers: Insurance payers need proper documentation that details the care process to be able to process payments. Medical transcription companies provide detailed documents that detail the diagnostic and care process

Pharmaceutical researchers: The introduction of new drugs/ formulations requires careful tracking to evaluate the efficacy and side effects if any. Medical transcription companies ensure that the patient medical records reflect complete information, which enables the extraction of the required data for this purpose.

Public health officials: Detailed patient medical records are useful for keeping track of epidemics and other public health related issues. Medical transcription companies ensure that this data is easily available by creating and archiving records, which are easily searchable using various criteria.

Risk managers: Risk managers require detailed information regarding the patient encounter, diagnostic and treatment process as a defense against malpractice litigation. Medical transcription companies aid in this by creating accurate and timely patient medical records that includes the narrative.

Health information managers: Medical transcription companies aid health information managers by providing software and tools for medical transcription that not only meet and exceed HIPAA and HITECH regulations and other operational aspects but also in adoption of EMR/ EHR using HL7 interface

Patients and their family: As the most important participant in the healthcare process, patients need access to their personal health records in a form that is easily understandable by them. Medical transcription companies ensure this by creating accurate reports that include the narrative.

It can be concluded that medical transcription services have a large role to play in the healthcare documentation scenario meeting the needs of all the participants.

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.

Among the software and tools offered by TransDyne for transcription, the smart delivery system has a large role to play in easing the path to EMR/EHR adoption The Smart Delivery system, which has features like User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems is the suggested mode of document delivery where pre-defined file saving would help import documents to EMR systems.  Apart from this TransDyne also offers discounted rates for those healthcare facilities that provide demographic data entered in the EMR rather than through other modes.

Along with medical transcription services involving multiple level quality checks to ensure accuracy, the use of the right technology for ease of use, turnaround time and security, at reasonable rates, TransDyne also provides discrete reportable transcription and editing & proofreading services for adoption of EMR/ EHR 

To avail complete medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here

Medical transcription outsourcing: Meaningful and practical services

Effective communication and sharing of meaningful healthcare information is the key to achieving meaningful use objectives. Medical transcription the process of creating patient medical records from the dictation of healthcare professionals regarding the patient encounter offers meaningful and practical services that help healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities move towards achieving these objectives.

Meaningful and practical medical transcription services:

Creation of patient medical records with narrative: One of the major advantages of medical transcription services apart from the quality of transcription is that of creation of patient medical records that include the narrative portion. Narrative portion of the patient medical record plays a valuable part in providing meaningful context to the diagnostic process. Over time when patient medical records are accessed for various purposes like continued care, audits, coding & billing and for risk management purposes having the narrative part of the record helps in healthcare professionals and support staff understand the content and context of the treatment process.

Providing options for structured data to be captured: Not only do medical transcription services create patient medical records with the narrative portion intact, but keeping in mind the need to adopt EMR/ EHR they also provide options for capturing structured data elements and parsing them on to the EMR/ EHR. They provide options like discrete reportable transcription, structured transcription, structured dictation and parse the relevant data to the EMR/ EHR using HL7 interface

Practical to the needs of healthcare professionals: The adoption of meaningful use has lead to the availability of numerous options for creation of patient medical records. However on the downside many of these options require healthcare professionals to capture the data themselves, which dilutes their focus on patients and curbs their productivity. Medical transcription offers solutions for creation of patient medical records that are practically suited to the work life of healthcare professionals. Moreover medical transcription companies offer practical options for modes of dictation, delivery modes, editing & proofreading services for speech recognition software among numerous other options

Commercially practical: Apart from being operationally practical, medical transcription services are also commercially viable. Medical transcription companies offer solutions that help healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities curb direct and indirect costs. Quick and timely transcription also encourages timely coding billing leading to quicker reimbursements.

Technology support: Another area that medical transcription companies provide meaningful and practical solutions is that of providing technology support.  The process of documenting the care process starting from the collection of information to the secure delivery of finished transcripts needs technology to ensure convenience, speed and security. Outsourcing medical transcription to a reliable, professional and technologically savvy medical transcription service provider helps in all these aspects.

In conclusion we can say that outsourcing medical transcription provides practical and meaningful solutions.

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.

Among the software and tools offered by TransDyne for transcription, the smart delivery system has a large role to play in easing the path to EMR/EHR adoption The Smart Delivery system, which has features like User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems is the suggested mode of document delivery where pre-defined file saving would help import documents to EMR systems.  Apart from this TransDyne also offers discounted rates for those healthcare facilities that provide demographic data entered in the EMR rather than through other modes.

Along with medical transcription services involving multiple level quality checks to ensure accuracy, the use of the right technology for ease of use, turnaround time and security, at reasonable rates, TransDyne also provides discrete reportable transcription and editing & proofreading services for adoption of EMR/ EHR 

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

Medical transcription: Using dictation as the basis for better services

Documenting the care process has become an essential part of the healthcare facility’s operations as it supports various areas of their operations, primarily in terms of quality of care, reimbursements and risk management among other factors. With the proposed move to a nationwide electronic healthcare system there has been increased emphasis on achieving the meaningful use objectives. With the increased focus on the process of healthcare documentation and with the introduction of numerous methods of documenting the healthcare process, dictation supported by expert transcription services has increasingly emerged as a preferred method of documenting the care process.

Why is dictation-to-transcription one of the preferred methods of documenting the care process?

Convenience: One of the main advantages of dictation as a means of capturing the details of the care process is the sheer convenience of this method. Healthcare professionals intuitively gravitate towards this option as they can use dictation devices of their choice – hand held recorders, phone in systems etc. This method of dictation to transcription even supports the use of speech recognition software. When healthcare professionals use backend speech recognition software to create transcripts, medical transcription companies provide editing and proofreading services for these transcripts to bring the accuracy to acceptable levels.

Flexible: The option of dictation-to-transcription is not only convenient but is also flexible. It is not only flexible in terms of the devices used for dictation but also in terms of the healthcare professionals’ schedule. Healthcare professionals have the option to dictate as per the availability of time instead of during the actual care process as required by other options for documenting the care process.

Focus: Using dictation as a means of documenting the care process has the additional advantage of allowing healthcare professionals to focus entirely on the patient instead of on the documentation process. This results in better productivity and improved patient satisfaction

Meaningful use: Using dictation and transcription services can effectively lead to meeting the meaningful use criteria by effectively using the vast human and technological resources at the medical transcription company’s disposal to achieve many of these objectives. Medical transcription companies offer many options like structured dictation, structured transcription, discrete reportable transcription and HL7 interface which enables this.

Understandable information: One of the most important advantages of dictation to transcription for all stakeholders in the care process is the creation of understandable information. With the number of people accessing the patient medical record for various purposes like providing continued care, coding, billing, risk management, epidemic & disease control, research purposes, communication to patients etc it is important for the information in patient medical records to be easily understandable.

Scalability: Documenting the care process using the dictation-to-transcription method provides scalable solutions. Passing the burden of documenting the care process to healthcare professionals given their time constraints and burgeoning volumes could result in poor quality and limited documentation.

Above all documenting the care process requires a special set of skills that includes:

• Recruiting and training the right team
• Mobilizing and customizing the right technology
• Establishing and implementing the right process for quality and turnaround time

From the above it can be concluded that not only is dictation-to-transcription one of the most preferred and convenient methods of documenting the care process but outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription company can add to this by reducing the cost of transcription enormously.

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.

Among the software and tools offered by TransDyne for transcription, the smart delivery system has a large role to play in easing the path to EMR/EHR adoption The Smart Delivery system, which has features like User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems is the suggested mode of document delivery where pre-defined file saving would help import documents to EMR systems.  Apart from this TransDyne also offers discounted rates for those healthcare facilities that provide demographic data entered in the EMR rather than through other modes.

Along with medical transcription services involving multiple level quality checks to ensure accuracy, the use of the right technology for ease of use, turnaround time and security, at reasonable rates, TransDyne also provides discrete reportable transcription and editing & proofreading services for adoption of EMR/ EHR 

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

Medical transcription outsourcing: Serving the opposing needs of the healthcare sector

The healthcare sector is poised on the verge of a major change in the way the healthcare process is documented and shared. Medical transcription - the process of creating textual patient medical records from the dictation of the healthcare professionals detailing the patient encounter, has been the subject of many discussions in this context. Introduction of newer options and newer technologies has resulted in the role of medical transcription being questioned.

However dealing with the practicalities of the implementation of these newer methods has proven that medical transcription is and will remain an integral part of the healthcare documentation scenario as it meets the needs of all the participants in the healthcare process. Moreover outsourcing medical transcription increases the efficiency and cost effectiveness of these services.

Medical transcription services provide documentation support that serves the following needs:

Fast and easy way to capture information: Medical transcription is one method of documenting the healthcare process that requires minimum adjustment in the way healthcare professionals work. Medical transcription companies encourage dictation as the means of collecting data as opposed to self-entry by healthcare professionals. This offers convenience to healthcare professionals in terms of using dictation devices of their choice; dictating as per their time constraints and helping them focus entirely on the patient. Medical transcription companies also offer editing and proofreading services for transcripts created by backend speech recognition software saving healthcare professionals’ time spent on editing the transcripts themselves to bring it to acceptable levels.

Easy convertibility to structured and encoded data: Medical transcription services are not only the most preferred methods of documenting the care process, but they also offer options to convert this information to structured data that can be parsed into the EMR/ EHR. Medical transcription companies offer options like structured transcription, structured dictation, discrete reportable transcription and HL7 interface to enable this. This meets the needs for administrators, coders and billing professionals etc.

Providing content and context: Healthcare professionals have found that using point and click templates often leave them with data that does not tell them the complete story. Documenting the patient encounter using medical transcription services helps provide both rich content along with the context leading to the final diagnosis. This is essential not only for healthcare professionals and support staff but also plays a vital role in risk management.

Easy interpretation for communication: The patient medical records are not only used and accessed by the primary healthcare professional but could also be used for referrals to specialists etc. Patient medical records created using medical transcription services enable easy interpretation that facilitates communication. This is useful for managing care at all levels

Collaboration with all the participants: Creating legible, comprehensive, clear and complete patient medical records ensure that all the participants in the healthcare process are on the same page including the patient. Medical transcription services ensure that the quality of information in patient medical records meet all these criteria

Outsourcing medical transcription not only meets essential criteria like accuracy, turnaround time, security and pricing but also fulfills the often opposing needs of all the participants in healthcare process including healthcare professionals, support staff, administrators, risk managers, payers, researchers, public health officials and the patient by creating quality documentation on time.

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.

Among the software and tools offered by TransDyne for transcription, the smart delivery system has a large role to play in easing the path to EMR/EHR adoption The Smart Delivery system, which has features like User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems is the suggested mode of document delivery where pre-defined file saving would help import documents to EMR systems.  Apart from this TransDyne also offers discounted rates for those healthcare facilities that provide demographic data entered in the EMR rather than through other modes.

Along with medical transcription services involving multiple level quality checks to ensure accuracy, the use of the right technology for ease of use, turnaround time and security, at reasonable rates, TransDyne also provides discrete reportable transcription and editing & proofreading services for adoption of EMR/ EHR 

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

Medical transcription outsourcing: Ensuring specificity of information

The importance of proper documentation of the healthcare process has become even more obvious considering the current and proposed changes in the healthcare documentation scenario. Healthcare professionals and other related participants of the entire healthcare process have always needed specific information to be able to deliver quality care and deal with other aspects of running a healthcare facility.

With more and more options being available for documenting the care process - each claiming to meet the needs of the healthcare sector, it has become imperative for healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals to evaluate these methods to ensure that the method chosen for documenting the care process ensures specificity of information. Specificity has been defined as explicit, particular, definite, or the quality of being distinctive. In case of healthcare documentation this is important as the information in patient medical records is used for many vital purposes like the care process, coding & billing, research, defense in case of litigation etc.

Of all the methods of documenting the care process, medical transcription especially when outsourced to a professional and technologically savvy medical transcription company meets the criterion of meeting specificity of information.

Medical transcription services ensure specificity of information by addressing every step of the process:

Capturing information: The input for patient medical records is generated from the healthcare professionals at the point of care. Medical transcription companies ensure specificity of information at this stage by:

• Encouraging use of good dictation equipment and some medical transcription companies even offer dictation equipment as part of their promotional offers. Medical transcription companies also offer options like structured dictation, where the healthcare professional can dictate in a accepted pattern

• Educating healthcare professionals about good dictation practices. This ensures that the medical transcription companies have quality audio to process, resulting in quality transcription. Healthcare professionals are given regular feedback regarding the quality of dictation to encourage better dictation, which in turn leads to specific information being captured in patient medical records.

The transcription process: The actual transcription process is a vital area that needs to be focused on, to ensure specificity. Medical transcription companies ensure quality by establishing quality procedures for every aspect, this includes:

• People: One of the major components to ensure the specificity of information in patient medical records is the team involved in the process of transcription. Medical transcription companies recruit and train their team to ensure that they have both the aptitude for accurate transcription and the attitude of striving for perfection. This ensures the specificity of information in patient medical records

• Processes: Transcription needs a stringent quality process to ensure that specific and correct information is captured. Medical transcription companies ensure specificity by putting each transcript through stringent quality processes. Further more medical transcriptionists, editors and proofreaders involved in transcription are equipped with the latest reference and research materials to ensure specificity

Document delivery: Apart from ensuring transcription that captures specific information it is also important to ensure that these documents are delivered to the specific healthcare professionals and healthcare professionals through HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels within the turnaround time specified. Medical transcription companies ensure this by using convenient software and tools.

Adopting new technology: With the increasing pressure on the healthcare sector to adopt EMR/ EHR, medical transcription companies have stepped in to ensure proper adoption without disrupting the working life of healthcare professionals by adopting different techniques and technology, which ensure specific information is captured with minimum disruption:

• Speech recognition software: Providing editing and proofreading services for back end speech recognition software to ensure acceptable accuracy levels
• Discrete reportable transcription: Using discrete reportable transcription, medical transcription companies are ensuring specific data is parsed into the EMR/ EHR
• HL7 interface
• Structured dictation and transcription

It can be concluded that medical transcription companies ensure specificity of information while still ensuring enormous savings on cost.

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.

Among the software and tools offered by TransDyne for transcription, the smart delivery system has a large role to play in easing the path to EMR/EHR adoption The Smart Delivery system, which has features like User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems is the suggested mode of document delivery where pre-defined file saving would help import documents to EMR systems.  Apart from this TransDyne also offers discounted rates for those healthcare facilities that provide demographic data entered in the EMR rather than through other modes.

Along with medical transcription services involving multiple level quality checks to ensure accuracy, the use of the right technology for ease of use, turnaround time and security, at reasonable rates, TransDyne also provides discrete reportable transcription and editing & proofreading services for adoption of EMR/ EHR 

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

Medical transcription outsourcing: Creating valuable documentation

Almost all activities that are part of the healthcare process need to be documented to ensure proper reimbursement, record keeping and information sharing. Documenting the healthcare process is not only essential in terms of the actual healthcare process and operations of the healthcare facility it is also mandated by law. With the recent mandate towards a connected healthcare system; documenting the healthcare process in a manner that saves costs, improves sharing & access, improves safety and curbs cost has become the need of the hour.

With this mandate in mind healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities are in the process of adopting EMR/ EHR using various methods. As a result of this the healthcare documentation sector has come into focus. Medical transcription services and medical transcription service providers have been a part of the healthcare documentation scenario providing vital support by helping create valuable documentation while still enabling adoption of EMR/ EHR for a long time.

Valuable documentation can be described as documentation that includes:

Contains all the vital information for taking the right decisions regarding the provision of care: Medical transcription meets these criteria by ensuring that complete information regarding the patient encounter is reflected in the patient medical record, including the narrative portion. Medical transcription companies ensure that not only is the information complete but also as accurate as possible using qualified and experienced medical transcriptionists who put each transcript through multiple quality checks.

Easy to use and access: Medical transcription services are very easy to use due to the technology used by the medical transcription companies. Medical transcription companies ensure that the technology used, while providing all the required benefits still remains easy to use. Access to patient medical records created is also made easy by providing multiple options for document delivery and also providing access to older records by archiving them and enabling searches using various criteria.

Flexible to the needs of healthcare professionals: Medical transcription services have a deep understanding of the needs of healthcare professionals and have therefore customized their services accordingly.  Medical transcription companies provide services that include discrete reportable transcription, structured transcription, editing & proofreading services for speech recognition software and HL7 interface which offers healthcare professionals a multitude of choices. Medical transcription companies even offer multiple options for dictation modes, formats/ templates, document delivery modes etc to healthcare professionals as per their preference

Facilitates proper coding and billing for reimbursement: Proper and complete documentation is the basis for coding and billing. Medical transcription services enable this by ensuring that the audio data provided by healthcare professionals is converted into textual information that meets all the criteria like being legible, complete, precise, accurate, reliable, clear and created on time.

HIPAA and HITECH compliant: Maintaining the security of confidential patient information is one of the main concerns of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities, especially during the transcription process when the data is transmitted back and forth. Medical transcription companies mitigate this concern by securing people, processes, technology and infrastructure

Curbs cost: Outsourcing medical transcription is perhaps one of the most cost effective methods of creating quality patient medical records. Though other methods like point and click entry by the healthcare professional or front end speech recognition software may seem like cheaper options, these methods tend to curb the productivity of healthcare professionals, thereby increasing costs. The process of medical transcription when outsourced, reduces current cost of transcription by over 40% and also ensures that the productivity of healthcare professionals is not hindered

Falls in line with the operations and work life of healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals: Medical transcription services when outsourced to the right service provider, can be one of the most effective and unobtrusive methods of documenting the care process as medical transcription service providers possess a deep understanding of the needs of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities and provide services accordingly

Considering the value addition that medical transcription companies bring to the healthcare documentation process one can definitely conclude that medical transcription services are indispensable for complete and convenient healthcare documentation

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.

Among the software and tools offered by TransDyne for transcription, the smart delivery system has a large role to play in easing the path to EMR/EHR adoption The Smart Delivery system, which has features like User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems is the suggested mode of document delivery where pre-defined file saving would help import documents to EMR systems.  Apart from this TransDyne also offers discounted rates for those healthcare facilities that provide demographic data entered in the EMR rather than through other modes.

Along with medical transcription services involving multiple level quality checks to ensure accuracy, the use of the right technology for ease of use, turnaround time and security, at reasonable rates, TransDyne also provides discrete reportable transcription and editing & proofreading services for adoption of EMR/ EHR 

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

Medical transcription services: An in-depth analysis

Medical transcription services have been a part of the healthcare documentation scenario, having documented the patient encounter in its entirety. This information plays a major role in various areas of operation of the healthcare facility. With the advent of technology and the Internet, medical transcription services have evolved into sophisticated services that aid healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities in performing better.

However in the recent times the role of medical transcription in the healthcare documentation has been questioned as the healthcare sector is preparing to move to adoption of EMR/ EHR system. However in spite of so many advancements in the healthcare documentation scenario like speech recognition software, point & click templates etc, the role of medical transcription and medical transcription companies continues to be very vital in the process of documenting the care process and even the move towards adopting EMR/ EHR.

At this juncture it becomes important to carry out an in-depth analysis of medical transcription services detailing the strength, weaknesses of the medical transcription industry along with the opportunities and threats faced by the industry.

Strengths of medical transcription

Experience and knowledge: The medical transcription industry has amassed an amazing amount of knowledge regarding the healthcare industry. They have an in-depth knowledge of medical terminology, drugs & formulations, procedures etc associated with healthcare. Medical transcription companies and medical transcriptionists also possess knowledge about the work life of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities and their specific requirements, which help them in customizing the services and technology used for medical transcription services accordingly

Education: Medical transcription companies educate and train their medical transcriptionists and other personnel intensively regarding the needs of the healthcare industry. This helps them rise to the challenges faced by them and provide services without compromising on the accuracy or turnaround time. 

Weaknesses of medical transcription: One of the main weaknesses of medical transcription services that is generally perceived is that the patient medical records created by the process of medical transcription cannot be used directly to populate the EMR/ EHR.

Opportunities available to medical transcription: Due to the changes in the way the healthcare process needs to be documented and with the technological advances, the medical transcription industry has many opportunities available to them for using their knowledge, education and experience.

These include:

• Discrete reportable transcription to populate EMR/ EHR
• Editing and proofreading services for backend speech recognition software
• Structured transcription to enable entry of discrete data elements into the EMR/ EHR
• Adoption of EMR/ EHR using HL7 interface

Threats faced by medical transcription: The advent of the deadline for adoption of EMR/ EHR has resulted in some healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities trying to eliminate medical transcription from their healthcare documentation process.

However after facing the practicalities of actually adopting EMR/ EHR and how it affects the productivity of healthcare professionals and patient satisfaction adversely, has made the healthcare sector become aware of the importance and continued role of medical transcription services in the healthcare documentation scenario.

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.

Among the software and tools offered by TransDyne for transcription, the smart delivery system has a large role to play in easing the path to EMR/EHR adoption The Smart Delivery system, which has features like User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems is the suggested mode of document delivery where pre-defined file saving would help import documents to EMR systems.  Apart from this TransDyne also offers discounted rates for those healthcare facilities that provide demographic data entered in the EMR rather than through other modes.

Along with medical transcription services involving multiple level quality checks to ensure accuracy, the use of the right technology for ease of use, turnaround time and security, at reasonable rates, TransDyne also provides discrete reportable transcription and editing & proofreading services for adoption of EMR/ EHR 

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