Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Medical transcription services: Urology

Medical transcription is the process by which audio records of a patient-healthcare professional encounter are converted into text format.  Medical transcription is a service closely associated with medicine. And medicine is a vast field having numerous branches and specialties. The needs of each specialty are entirely different. It is required that the medical transcriptionists providing this service are oriented with the terminology associated with the branch of medicine they are working on.

TransDyne understands that the needs of each specialty of medicine are unique. Therefore the medical transcription requirements of each specialty are different. Knowing this and the importance of creating accurate and timely records, TransDyne has created a unique training program for its medical transcriptionists. Under this program medical transcriptionists are trained to become expert transcriptionists in one or two specialties of medicine.

This means that they are taught the terminologies, drugs and procedures associated with the specialty. The specialty medical transcriptionist teams are also kept constantly updated on the latest developments in the field, as medicine is a dynamic field with new developments and discoveries.  Work is allotted to medical transcriptionists based on the specialty on which they are trained.

Urology is a surgical specialty that focuses on the urinary tracts of males and females and on the reproductive system of males. Medical professionals specializing in the field of urology are called urologists and are trained to treat and mange patients with urological disorders. Urology is closely related to and in some cases overlaps with the medical fields of oncology, nephrology, gynecology, andrology, pediatric surgery, gastroenterology and endocrinology.  

TransDyne has a team of specialist medical transcriptionists who are well trained for providing professional medical transcription services for healthcare professionals practicing urology.

How does specialist training in urology transcription affect accuracy levels?
Medical transcriptionists, proofreaders and editors are familiar with all the requisite terminology, procedures and the drugs used in urology due to the training program aimed at familiarizing the medical transcriptionists with this specialty. This ensures that the error rates in transcripts are drastically reduced and the accuracy levels are high. The team is able to produce high quality reports from the very beginning.

How does specialist training in urology transcription affect turnaround time?
Due to the training methods used the medical transcriptionists are very familiar with the specific terminology used and are able to produce transcripts with requisite accuracy in optimum time.

How does specialist training in urology transcription affect cost per line of transcription?
Due to the reduced error rate and reduced turnaround time the need for multi level quality checks is reduced and the productivity of the medical transcriptionist is enhanced this helps keep the cost of production under control and the benefits of this are passed on the healthcare facility.

TransDyne provides Urology medical transcription that is cost efficient, speedy and accurate. Moreover urologists can benefit from the other features of medical transcription services by TransDyne like:

Data Security: TransDyne ensures data security of medical transcription by incorporating security measures like 128-bit data encryption, multi-tiered application architecture, design level security, safeguards, firewall protected networks, sterilized e-mail servers, denial of access procedure and multi modal alerts. TransDyne also ensures data security by ensuring that the data doesn’t leave their premises physically. To ensure secure medical transcription all the transcription is done in the company’s own premises and the premises are secured through appropriate security measures. TransDyne meets and exceeds all HIPAA/HITECH regulations that apply to electronic exchange of information.

Technology: Considering that time is one of the most precious commodities for healthcare professionals, TransDyne believes in using technology that provides multiple features with ease of use. Some of the features of the software and tools used by TransDyne are as follows:

  • Smart upload: TransDyne offers doctors the choice of using modes of dictation they are already comfortable with. Then these files can be uploaded to the servers to be made available for transcription. Smart upload enables transfer of dictation files from the healthcare facility’s server to TransDyne’s server by checking for new dictations at pre-fixed intervals.

  • Web Delivery: TransDyne’s web delivery system tackles all issues related with tracking dictations, receiving documents and finding old files form the archives.

  • Smart Delivery: Smart delivery is an automated program that addresses the automatic downloads, saving files and printing needs of a healthcare facility.

  • HL7 integration: TransDyne can configure and send healthcare information as HL7 messages to the client’s EMR with no additional costs. 
To avail urology medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing focused services

The process of providing quality healthcare is aided by many inputs, including the experience, education, skill sets of healthcare professional & support staff, various diagnostic equipments, tests/procedures, drugs/formulations and information from patient records.  Medical transcription is the process of creating patient records from the dictation of healthcare professionals’ encounter with patients.

Medical transcription is essentially the scribe that records all the nuances of the process of patient care, including all details like patient demographics, the symptoms, the diagnosis, treatment prescribed and the progress made by the patient. However medical transcription is not part of the core activities of the healthcare facility, hence it is more effective and economical for the healthcare facility to outsource medical transcription.

Outsourcing medical transcription enables the healthcare facility to focus on its core activity of providing quality healthcare.  Outsourcing medical transcription also helps the healthcare facility obtain services that are tailored to their specific needs without having to allocate internal resources to this process.

Outsourcing medical transcription is not only prudent but also necessary. Medical transcription is a process, which requires the right inputs in the form of the right process, right team and the right technology. As medical transcription is the core business of the service provider, the service provider is likely to have the right resources in place to provide medical transcription with the optimum accuracy, within a reasonable turnaround time, through secure channels, using the right technology and at reasonable prices.

By outsourcing medical transcription the healthcare facility is essentially outsourcing all the steps required to create quality patient records.

What are the steps required to create quality, timely, secure and cost-effective patient records?

·       The right team: One of the major components of quality medical transcription is the skill of the medical transcriptionists. Creating a team of skilled medical transcriptionists is a long drawn process involving recruitment of and training the right talent and honing their skills to make them domain experts. By outsourcing medical transcription, this responsibility is essentially passed on to the service provider

·       The right infrastructure: The transcription process requires the right infrastructural support like the computers, headphones, servers, and foot pedals, real estate that is secure and software for the transcription process. By outsourcing medical transcription the healthcare facility is essentially eliminating a major portion of the infrastructure needed for in-house medical transcription

·       The right process: To meet the quality requirements of being timely secure and accurate, medical transcription needs to follow a certain process of having quality guidelines, quality check methods, security measures to ensure HIPAA/HITECH compliance and having medical transcriptionists available around the clock to take care of medical transcription needs. Outsourcing medical transcription essentially frees up the healthcare facility’s management from this responsibility

·       The right technology: The transcription process requires the right technology to make it speedy and secure. Moreover having the right technology enables the healthcare professionals and the support staff to save on time and efforts by providing additional benefits like flexible modes of dictations, automatic downloads & uploads, remote faxing & printing etc.

Outsourcing medical transcription to the right medical transcription service provider has benefits beyond just cost saving on medical transcription costs. Therefore it becomes essential to source the right service provider so that healthcare facilities can benefit from the outsourcing process.

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 quality medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing secure solutions

The relationship between the patient and the healthcare professional is considered sacrosanct; this is essential because availing healthcare requires the patient to reveal personal details to the healthcare professional to obtain the correct treatment to his/her ailments, assuming that this information would be kept confidential. Therefore one of the concerns for healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities is to maintain the confidentiality of patient information. This is not only necessary but also mandatory under the law.

HIPAA (Health Information Portability and accessibility Act) has provisions for protection of confidential patient information. There have been additional safeguards added to HIPAA with the provisions under the HITECH Act. The HITECH act empowers HIPAA making it more stringent, helping protect confidential patient information.

However the process of healthcare is the culmination of inputs from various sources to be effective. It becomes important to protect patient information at every level in the healthcare process. One such contributor to the process of healthcare is medical transcription, by creating patient records. And outsourcing medical transcription has proven to be one of the most efficient, effective and economic ways to create patient records.

However while outsourcing medical transcription one of the main concerns is protection of confidential patient information. The process of medical transcription involves several steps and confidential data needs to be protected at each stage by the medical transcription service provider during this process.

What are the steps involved in the medical transcription process?

  • Collection of dictation from healthcare professionals
  • Transmission of audio files to the medical transcription service provider
  • Distribution of audio files for transcription
  • The actual transcription process
  • Transmission of finished transcripts to the healthcare facility to be distributed to the relevant healthcare professionals 
At each step of the process the data is vulnerable to misuse. While outsourcing medical transcription it is important that the security measures taken by the medical transcription service provider at every level should be assessed to ensure that the data is protected. The security measures taken by the medical transcription service provider should not only extend to the technology but also cover the people involved in the transcription process and the process and premises used for medical transcription.

TransDyne a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry is aware of the importance of providing medical transcription services with total security. The steps taken by TransDyne include:

1st stage: Collection of dictation

  • Firewall protected server that stores all dictation files
  • Communication between the healthcare facility server and TransDyne server is encrypted
  • Virus protection is also provided
  • The access to this data requires password authentication 
2nd stage: Transmission of audio files to TransDyne

  • 128 bit encryption
  • Secure socket layer connections 
3rd stage: Distribution of audio files for transcription

  • All medical transcription related software is designed and created in house
  • Limited access, access is limited to only one dictation at a time
  • Multi tiered application architecture ensuring that even if there is unauthorized access to network, access to databases is only possible after authentication at several levels
  • Denial of access and multi modal alerts, this ensures that any unauthorized access triggers of a warning immediately
  • Limited Email access ensuring that there is no misuse of patient data 
4th stage: The actual transcription process: At this stage of medical transcription, TransDyne has provided for the safety of patient data, by securing people, processes and infrastructure along with protecting technology

  • No subcontractors are used, all work outsourced to TransDyne is executed in-house
  • Medical transcription in company owned premises
  • Manned security and surveillance
  • No removable media
  • Educating medical transcriptionists on the importance of HIPAA/HITECH compliance
  • Background checking for employees
  • Security routines
  • Joint access
  • Regular security audits 
5th stage: Transmission of finished transcripts to the healthcare facility. This stage involves the same procedure and technology as the 1st   and 2nd stage.

Not only does TransDyne provide secure 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 secure outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing quality services

The primary goal of a healthcare facility, no matter how big or small is to deliver quality healthcare, profitably. To provide quality healthcare, healthcare facilities depend on a lot inputs like the right manpower- qualified, experienced, skilled healthcare professionals and support staff, the right equipment – laboratories, scanners, surgical equipments etc and information. Information in case of the healthcare process is available in the form of patient records. To be profitable, a healthcare facility needs to concentrate on reducing cost and quickening the cash flow, by accelerating the reimbursement process.

Medical transcription is the process by which patient records are created by transcribing the audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. However medical transcription requires inputs like capital investment in transcription equipment, training, allocation of real estate, use of information technology resources and other valuable resources.

Outsourcing medical transcription is an effective, efficient and economic fix for creation of patient records, thus helping in providing quality healthcare. Not only this medical transcription also helps in achieving the other goals of the healthcare facility by reducing costs and accelerating the receivables cycle.   

How does outsourcing medical transcription help healthcare facilities achieve their goals of providing healthcare profitably?

Providing quality healthcare: Outsourcing medical transcription contributes to the achievement of this goal through the following means:

1.     Maintaining accuracy: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that expertly trained medical transcriptionists create the patient records, thus capturing complete and accurate information that can aid the healthcare professional in the treatment process. Accuracy is maintained by medical transcriptionists who are not only well trained to be familiar with the language of the specialty they are transcribing, but are also updated constantly with the latest developments in the specialty.  Moreover the finished transcripts are transmitted to the healthcare professionals only after undergoing a stringent quality check to ensure errors are minimized.

2.     Maintaining turnaround time: For healthcare professionals to take the right decisions regarding the treatment plan for the patient it is important that not only should the information be captured accurately, but also be available on time. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that tight turnaround times are maintained using the right people, the right processes and the right technology.


3.     Using technology: Outsourcing medical transcription can make tracing patient records easier to retrieve when required through powerful archiving facilities. This can be invaluable to healthcare professionals during the treatment process.

Profitability: Outsourcing medical transcription contributes to the achievement of this goal through the following means:

1.     Reducing costs: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that healthcare facilities benefit by way of enormous cost savings in transcription costs. Outsourcing medical transcription helps reduce cost by the service provider using a verifiable, measurable, definable, consistent, fair and honest billing method. Healthcare facilities also benefit from the economies of scale that come about due to the experience of the medical transcription service provider and the best practices established by the service provider.

2.     Restricting cost: Outsourcing medical transcription not only ensures substantial reduction in the cost of medical transcription, it also restricts the cost of transcription to the cost per line, eliminating all indirect costs and overheads.

3.     Quickening the receivables cycle: Medical transcription is the first step in the receivables cycle providing the basis for coding and billing leading to claims and reimbursement. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that patient records are created on time, thus laying the foundation for a quicker receivables cycle. 

Outsourcing medical transcription to the right medical transcription company can not only help in creation of quality patient records, but also help healthcare facilities achieve their goals.

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 quality medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing and healthcare

Healthcare is an essential service that has to be patient-centric to be effective. To be patient centric healthcare services need to be

  • Transparent
  • Individualized
  • Respectful
  • Preserving the dignity of the individual
  • Offering choices to matters related to the treatment of one’s person, within reason
  • Confidential 
Healthcare facilities draw inputs from various sources to achieve this end. There are many contributors to making the healthcare process successful and profitable. One of the elements that contribute to the success of the healthcare process is information. Information that is in the form of patient records including:

  • Demographics
  • Pre-existing health conditions
  • Current medication
  • Medical allergies
  • Family health history
  • Habits that affect health
  • Details of previous encounters
  • Progress
  • Test/x-ray/scan results
  • Physical symptoms 
The above information helps healthcare professionals in making informed decisions regarding the patient’s health and in formulating treatment plans. Medical transcription aids in the process of creating patient records by transcribing the audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter as narrated by the healthcare professionals into text format.

However medical transcription is a specialized skill requiring a lot of resources, focus and competence. Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service provider is one of the most effective, efficient and economical methods of creating patient records.

Outsourcing of medical transcription services should be done after a process involving the careful selection of a medical transcription service provider who can tailor their services to the specific needs of the healthcare facility. Once the right service provider has been chosen, there are numerous advantages of outsourcing medical transcription including:

  • Accuracy: It is very important to document the patient-healthcare professional encounter as accurately as possible. Outsourcing medical transcription maintains the accuracy level of the patient records due to the following factors: 
a)    Multi level quality checks: A professional medical transcription would try and maintain the accuracy of the transcripts by having stringent quality checks to ensure minimum error rate

b)    Trained medical transcriptionists: A professional medical transcription service provider would have a continuous process of recruiting and training medical transcriptionists. Moreover specialized training techniques like training in one or two specialties helps enhance the accuracy level in the transcripts

  • Speed: Information in the patient records not only needs to be accurate, but also needs to be available on a timely basis. Outsourcing ensures that patient records are transcribed within an optimum turnaround time. The service provider can maintain turnaround time due to the following factors:
a)    Enormous pool of medical transcriptionists: A professional medical transcription service provider would have a large pool of well-trained medical transcriptionists available on a regular basis. Due to this the turnaround time of transcripts would be unaffected by factors like absenteeism, shift changes etc.
b)    Technology: Use of the right technology by the service provider can speed up the process of transcription by having features like flexible modes of dictation, automatic upload and download etc. speeding up the process of transcription
c)     Total focus: Medical transcription is the core activity of the service provider, this means that all the resources of the medical transcription service provider are focused on providing timely and accurate medical transcription services

  • Savings on cost: One of the main benefits of outsourcing medical transcription is that of huge savings on cost of transcription to the healthcare facility. The cost of transcription is reduced by at least 40% and is limited to the cost per line of transcription. This is possible due to the following factors: 
a)    Economies of scale: The medical transcription service provider deals with huge quantities of medical transcription work, thus is able to optimize the production process reducing costs. The benefits of this are passed on to the healthcare facility
b)    Billing methodology: The billing method used by the medical transcription service provider can make a lot of difference to the cost of transcription. The billing method used should be measurable, verifiable, definable consistent, fair and honest
c)     Savings on idle capacity/overtime: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the healthcare facility pays only the price per line. Factors like extra expenses on overtime for weekend and holiday transcription, and wastage due to idle capacity are eliminated 

  • Technology: Technology plays a huge part in the process of medical transcription by providing the following benefits:
a)    Multiple utility: Technology adds to the medical transcription service by having many time saving utilities that ease the life of healthcare professionals and support staff
b)    Easy to use: The use of the right technology ensures that not only do healthcare professionals get multiple benefits but also ease of use
c)     Security: Technology has a large role in securing confidential patient information during the medical transcription process

  • Security: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that confidential patient information is secure during the process by securing the following:
a)    People
b)    Processes
c)     Technology

TransDyne a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry offers outsourced medical transcription services that support the healthcare process. 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.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Medical transcription outsourcing: Value added services

The process of healthcare depends on several inputs to be effective and economical. One of the ingredients that add to the successful delivery of healthcare is accurate and timely information in the form of patient records. Patient records are a culmination of patient details including the health and treatment history of the patient, test results, X-rays, medication prescribed, allergies, pre-existing health conditions, progress on treatment availed among other details.

It is important for healthcare professionals to have this information to draw on, for formulating an effective treatment plan. Medical transcription is the process of creating patient records converting audio files of the patient- healthcare professional encounter as narrated by the healthcare professional into text format.

Outsourcing medical transcription has not only proven to be effective, efficient and economical, but also provides value added services.

What is the value addition to be gained by outsourcing medical transcription services?

  • Specialty medical transcription: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the needs of different specialties are recognized and taken care of. Each specialty of medicine has its’ own specific language, terminology, drugs, procedures, therapies, formats and templates. Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional service provider ensures that the needs of specialists are taken care of by medical transcriptionists who are domain experts in that specialty, delivering transcripts with optimum accuracy and within the turnaround time required

  • Technology: Technology has become an important part of the transcription process both for the healthcare professionals and the service provider. One of the added benefits of outsourcing medical transcription is the benefit gained by the use of technology used by the service provider. The value added to the medical transcription process by technology include: 
a)    Flexible modes of dictation
b)    Automatic upload of dictation
c)     Safe transmission of audio files to the service provider
d)    Automatic delivery of transcripts through speedy and secure means
e)    Added benefits like remote printing and faxing
f)      Powerful archiving features enabling easy tracking of dictation and transcripts
g)    Integration with EMR systems through HL7 interface

  • HIPAA/HITECH compliance:  Securing confidential patient information is one of the main concerns of healthcare facilities. This information is especially vulnerable during the process of medical transcription. Outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider ensures that this data is protected at every stage of transcription by taking adequate measures securing technology, people, processes and infrastructure.

  • Medical transcription requirements for holiday and weekend requirements at no extra costs:  Outsourcing medical transcription has the added benefit of taking care of all the transcription needs of the healthcare facility including holiday and weekend requirements. The healthcare facility benefits from the outsourcing arrangement in terms of no wastage on idle capacity and savings on extra costs for holiday and weekend transcription

  • Quickening the receivables cycle:  Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the process of reimbursement takes place on time. Medical transcription is the first step in the reimbursement process. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that patient records are created on time, thus laying the foundation for coding and billing leading to claims processing and reimbursement. 
It can be said that outsourcing medical transcription to the service provider is a value added service.

TransDyne a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry offers value added outsourced medical transcription services. 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 value added medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing economical solutions

Quality healthcare is based on the foundation of the qualification, skills, experience of healthcare professionals, appropriate equipment, the right drugs and information regarding the patient’s health condition. Medical transcription plays an important role in the process of healthcare by creating patient records converting the audio files of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format.

Patient records act as reference points in the following areas:

  • Providing demographic details of the patient
  • Past and present symptoms exhibited by the patient
  • Details of past examinations/tests/ procedures
  • Past diagnosis/ treatments
  • Drugs prescribed
  • Allergy information
  • Pre-existing conditions 
It is vital that patient records be created on a timely basis, capturing maximum information accurately. Medical transcription is the process of patient record creation. Though playing such a vital role in the healthcare process, medical transcription adds to the costs. Considering this, it is important for healthcare facilities to contain the costs of medical transcription to the maximum extent possible without compromising quality, security or turnaround time.

How can medical transcription be made economical?

Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional service provider can not only help the healthcare facility reduce cost per line of transcription, but also reduce overheads that would be incurred by having medical transcription in-house.

How is outsourcing medical transcription economical?

To find out whether outsourcing medical transcription is really economical it is important to understand the meaning of the word economical. The word economical has been defined as using the minimum of time or resources necessary for effectiveness.

Outsourcing medical transcription is an economical solution for the documentation needs of a healthcare facility. Outsourcing medical transcription helps the healthcare facility economize in the following areas:

  1. Helps reduce cost per line of transcription: Outsourcing medical transcription helps reduce the cost per line of transcription by as much as 40%-60%. Apart from that outsourcing medical transcription also helps the healthcare facility contain costs to the extent the service is used. Extra expenses like overtime payment for high volumes or wastage due to idle capacity are avoided.

  1. Helps reduce indirect cost of in-house medical transcription: Medical transcription requires deployment of resources like medical transcriptionist recruitment & training expenses, real estate costs, cost of transcription equipment, cost of utilities, cost of working capital, cost of IT and management resources etc. By outsourcing medical transcription all these expenses can be avoided.

  1. Saves the time of healthcare professionals: Outsourcing medical transcription helps save time of healthcare professionals in the following ways: 
    • Allowing them to use flexible modes of dictation
    • Reducing time spent editing and correcting records by maintaining accuracy
    • Improving efficiency by having features like remote printing and faxing 
  1. Saves the time of other support staff: Outsourcing medical transcription helps save the time of support staff by providing the following benefits: 
    • Powerful archiving facilities
    • Having HIPAA/HITECH compliant measures in place to ensure security of data
    • By allowing automatic uploads of dictation and automatic downloads of transcripts by using efficient technology
    • Having options for integration with EMR/EHR
    • Having a transparent and well defined billing methodology, making it easier to reconcile accounts.
It can be concluded that outsourcing medical transcription is an economical solution to the documentation needs of a healthcare facility.

TransDyne is leading provider of outsourced medical transcription services that are economical, efficient and effective. 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 economical medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here