Friday, December 30, 2011

Medical transcription outsourcing: The path to improving workflow

The changing healthcare documentation scenario is changing the dynamics of how the care process is documented. Healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals are looking for ways and means of adopting EMR/ EHR and achieving meaningful use criteria with minimum disruption to patient interaction and their daily operations.

Outsourced medical transcription services – the process of creating patient medical records from the dictation of healthcare professionals regarding the patient encounter using the services of a specialized medical transcription company is one service that can help healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities improve their workflow. This is because medical transcription companies, due to their long-term association with the healthcare sector have developed the expertise to provide services that are efficient, cost- effective, secure and cause minimum disruption to their workflow.

Given below are some of the areas that medical transcription companies help in improving the workflow of healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals:

Data collection and transmission: Some of the methods for adoption of EMR/ EHR require the healthcare professional to focus on information collection rather than the patient, hindering the care process and disrupting the workflow, However medical transcription ensures that healthcare professionals can use dictation as the mode for recording the care encounter leaving them free to attend to patients and maximize their productivity. Not only do medical transcription companies allow healthcare professionals to use dictation devices of their choice, the transcription platform used by the transcription company also ensures that the audio files are transmitted for transcription at the earliest. This step of easy collection and transmission of data for the transcription process helps improve the workflow of the healthcare facility dramatically

Processing the data: The process of transcription can be time consuming both in terms of acquiring the right talent, training them and also in terms of ensuring quality transcription by establishing the right processes to meet quality and turnaround time requirements. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the healthcare facility and healthcare professionals are free of this time consuming and specialized process. Timely and accurate transcription not only plays an essential role in the care process but also supports risk management and receivables management; outsourcing transcription helps improve the workflow in all these aspects

Delivery choices: Once the process of transcription is over it is important for the patient medical records to be transmitted back to healthcare professionals through HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels without delay. This aspect of the workflow is also improved by outsourcing medical transcription as medical transcription companies provide numerous, safe and convenient options for document delivery.

Technology support: The process of transcription is inextricably linked with technology in several aspects. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals are provided with technology support that not only meets all their needs but is also easy to use.

Acting as a bridge to EMR/ EHR adoption: Medical transcription companies are experts at adapting services, processes and technology to meet the changing needs of the healthcare sector. This expertise enables them to aid in the process of adopting EMR/ EHR with services like structured dictation, structured transcription, discrete reportable transcription and HL7 interface. Using medical transcription services for EMR/ EHR adoption has the further advantage of allowing healthcare professionals to retain the narrative portion as part of the patient medical record and maximizing productivity of healthcare professionals by allowing them to focus on patients rather than on the documentation process.

Cost control: Saving on cost of transcription is perhaps the most significant outcome of the outsourcing decision. The cost savings can be as high as 40% - 50% owing to the expertise of the medical transcription company. Outsourcing medical transcription also enables cost restructuring with regards to transcription costs. Instead of having fixed medical transcription costs, the cost of medical transcription would become variable, as the healthcare facility would be charged only on a standard rate per line instead of fixed monthly charges as would be incurred when medical transcription is executed in-house.

It can be concluded that outsourcing medical transcription to a professional and technological savvy medical transcription company can significantly help in workflow improvement.

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.

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