Friday, January 13, 2012

Medical transcription outsourcing: Creates quality documentation

The advent of technology and the introduction of reforms in the way healthcare documentation is created has led to many changes. One of the main drivers of these changes is the looming deadline for adoption of EMR/ EHR. Healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities are looking for ways to adopt EMR/ EHR, without adversely affecting workflow or revenues. There are numerous options available for adoption of EMR/ EHR including front-end speech recognition software, point and click template etc at the point of care. 

The introduction of newer technologies has been touted as a substitute for the dictation-to-transcription method of documenting the care process. However outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription company has many advantages like multiple quality checks by skilled medical transcriptionists, quick turnaround time, savings on cost, optimizing the productivity of healthcare professionals etc.

The traditional and time-tested method of healthcare documentation involving dictation-to-transcription has also come up with a lot of provisions for adoption of EMR/ EHR like structured dictation & transcription, discrete reportable transcription, editing & proofreading services for backend speech recognition software and HL7 interface. These methods of documenting the care process have the provision for adopting EMR/ EHR with very little change in the ways healthcare professionals currently document the care process and have the additional advantage of having expert medical transcriptionists validate the accuracy of the information in the patient medical record.

To choose the right method for documenting the care process, healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities have to ask themselves the following questions:

Does it help improve the quality of care delivered to patients?
The traditional method of documenting the care process using the services of a professional medical transcription company helps in improving quality of care by providing services that include:

  • Total focus on patients: The dictation-to-transcription method supports dictation, leaving healthcare professionals free to focus on patients rather than the documentation process.
  • Capturing the narrative: Under the dictation-to-transcription method of documenting the care process the narrative portion of the encounter is part of the patient medical record. This enables provision of better care due to availability of complete information
  • Improved access: Medical transcription companies also ensure that healthcare professionals have quick and easy access to patient medical records by archiving them and enabling easy searches using various criteria.
  • Accuracy: Under the dictation-to-transcription method a high level of accuracy in the transcript is ensured as each transcript is put through a stringent quality process
Does it help curb costs?
Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities save substantially on costs – both direct and indirect. The cost saving benefits is not just restricted to medical transcription related costs but also to other overhead costs.

Does it help maximize revenues?
Outsourcing medical transcription helps in maximizing revenues in two major ways:

  • Quick turnaround time: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures timely transcription and as the information in the patient medical record forms the basis of coding & billing timely transcription ensures quicker reimbursements
  • Increased productivity: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the healthcare professionals are free to concentrate on the care process and the patient rather than on healthcare documentation. This helps maximize the revenues by improving the productivity of healthcare professionals
Does it manage risks better?
Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the entire process of care is recorded in detail; this provides important support in case of malpractice litigation. Moreover medical transcription companies ensure HIPAA and HITECH compliance during the medical transcription process curbing the risk of privacy violations.

It can be seen that outsourcing medical transcription has many advantages that ensure cost savings, provision of quality care and managing risks while still enabling EMR/ EHR adoption.

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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