Medical transcription outsourcing: Evaluating quality services

Medical transcription is the process of creating patient medical records from the audio of the patient- healthcare professional encounter. Patient medical records are an important component of the healthcare process as the information from these records aid the healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities in several aspects including:

◦   Patient treatment

◦   Permanent Patient records

◦   Referrals to other doctors

◦   Evidence in case of malpractice suits

◦   Coding, billing and insurance claims

◦   Satisfaction of regulatory norms.

Considering the value of information from patient records to both the operational and commercial aspects of healthcare it is important to ensure that these records are created on a timely basis and reflect accurate information.

The process of medical transcription requires a combination of the right team, the right technology and the right process to ensure quality. As medical transcription is not part of the core business of the healthcare facility and requires considerable resources to produce quality transcripts, the easy fix to ensure quality services is to outsource the entire medical transcription process to a professional service provider. Outsourcing medical transcription not only ensures accurate, secure and timely creation of transcripts it also provides the healthcare facility with the additional benefit of reduced cost and a robust technological infrastructure for medical transcription.

However while outsourcing one of the main concerns is to evaluate the medical transcription service provider's ability to deliver on quality as promised. The healthcare facility/ healthcare professional needs to assess the medical transcription service provider thoroughly to ensure that the service provider can deliver quality services as promised.

What are the criteria for evaluating quality medical transcription services?

Quality in medical transcription can be evaluated by focusing on the following aspects:

• Training methods: The quality of medical transcription work is dependent to a large extent on the skill level of the medical transcriptionists. To ensure that the medical transcription service provider has skilled people working on the transcription it is important to evaluate the training methods used by the service provider. A medical transcription service provider that believes in recruiting the best talent and further trains them to become domain experts in one or two specialties would be in a position to deliver accurate and timely services. The training provided by the service provider will also have an impact on the HIPAA and HITECH compliance; as well educated medical transcriptionists would understand the importance of maintaining confidentiality and maintain compliance.

• No subcontractors: While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to ascertain that the medical transcription service provider executes the transcription work in-house rather than further outsourcing the work to subcontractors. This ensures that the transcription quality is not diluted, turnaround time commitments are met with and the security risks are minimized. The medical transcription service provider will be in a position to provide customized solutions as per the preference of the healthcare professionals.

• Number of quality checks: While outsourcing medical transcription work it is important to understand the method used by the service provider to ensure accuracy.  It is important to assess whether the dictation and transcription are subjected to more than one set of “eyes and ears”. This will ensure that errors and gaps in transcription are minimized. There also needs to be a methodology that ensures that repetitive mistakes are caught and the causes are identified so as to ensure that these errors do not recur.

• Technology: While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to assess the technology used by the medical transcription service provider. Technology has a significant role to play in easing the working life of healthcare professionals and support staff, ensuring turnaround time and security by providing software and tools for transcription which are easy to use while enabling features like flexible modes of dictation, automatic upload of dictation for transcription, customized modes of document delivery, HL7 interface, archiving etc. 

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has utilized their extensive background in information technology and their experience in providing medical transcription services to come up with medical transcription solutions that help healthcare facilities save on time, money and effort. 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 outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Getting started on the right note!

It has been proven that outsourcing medical transcription has numerous benefits that aid the healthcare facility in reducing costs and increasing focus on the core business of providing quality healthcare. As medical transcription services are a continuous requirement, it is important to source a medical transcription service provider who can consistently provide quality services. While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to consider a medical transcription service provider who can be more of a partner than a vendor.

Once the medical transcription service provider has been sourced and evaluated it is important to formalize the expected service levels in writing. This will clearly establish the expected levels of quality, enabling the medical transcription service provider to gear their resources to deliver quality services consistently. As the needs of each healthcare facility are different it is important to define the parameters of service expected. The expected parameters can be categorized into:

• Quality: The parameters for quality medical transcription services would include: 

1.     Accuracy: Accuracy is perhaps the most important quality criteria as the information in the patient record is used by healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities for several purposes like imparting healthcare, as evidence in case of litigation, coding and billing etc. It is important to communicate the minimum expected levels of accuracy and also the guidelines for quality.

2.     Turnaround time: As information in the transcripts is vital for the both the operational and commercial aspects of healthcare it is important that patient records be made available on time. The turnaround time requirements may differ according to various factors like the criticality of the situation, emergency, specialty etc. These need to be defined.

3.     Format/ template: Formats/ templates of reports could vary based on the type of report, the specialty or even the based on the preference of the healthcare professional, these need to be clearly specified.

• Administrative: These would include: 

1.     Options to retain familiar modes of dictation: The medical transcription service provider should be in a position to allow healthcare professionals to retain their familiar modes of dictation allowing them to maximize the time available to them. And the dictation system needs to be configured to accept audio from varied sources.

2.     Upload of audio files: The medical transcription service provider has to configure a utility, which enables automatic transfer of audio to the medical transcription service provider, by checking at frequent pre-defined intervals.

3.     Modes of document delivery: Once the transcripts are ready it is vital for the medical transcription service provider to have modes of document delivery that enables the healthcare professionals to have access of transcripts through their preferred mode. There could be variations like delivery of transcripts to specific folders, delivery to multiple users, remote printing and faxing options etc

4.     Archives: It is important that the medical transcription service provider provides an archiving system which enables the healthcare professionals and support staff to retrieve old records using various search criteria

5.     Job summary: It is important for the support staff at the healthcare facility to keep track of number of dictations uploaded, work in progress and transcripts delivered. To enable this the medical transcription service provider needs to provide a comprehensive job summary with all these details.

6.     Billing method: Reduced cost is perhaps one of the main benefit one hopes to gain from the outsourcing process. To ensure actual cost savings, it is important that the medical transcription service provider clearly defines the billing method used along with all the parameters used for calculating cost.

• Technological: This would include: 

1.     Getting started with outsourced medical transcription services: Getting started on outsourced medical transcription services could include configuring healthcare facility system with the service provider's system, building VPN tunnels, installing software, ADT feeds etc.

2.     HIPAA / HITECH compliance: Protection of patient data during the medical transcription process can be ensured by use of security features like 128-bit data encryption, multi-tiered application architecture, design level security safeguards, firewall protected networks, sterilized e-mail servers etc.

3.     HL7 interface: To configure the interfaces and deliver reports to EMR/EHR as HL7 messages at no additional costs.

4.     Upgrading software: Software to be upgraded automatically. 

• Customer service channels: This step of the outsourcing process is simply establishing that the medical transcription service provider has channels of communication so that any issues that may arise during transition can be solved at once. Having open channels of communication with the service provider ensures that the healthcare professional/ healthcare facility is in a position to seek instant relief for any doubts/ problems that is faced by them during the course of transition to outsourced medical transcription services or during any subsequent stage  

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has been providing medical transcription services for over a decade. TransDyne provides outsourced medical transcription services that include all the service parameters described above.  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 trustworthy outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Enhancing healthcare using the right technology

Medical transcription is the process of creating patient records by converting the audio narration of the patient- healthcare professional encounter into text format. Though this is an accurate definition of medical transcription this definition does not cover the full scope of services provided by medical transcription. Though medical transcription plays an important role in the smooth running of healthcare facilities it is not part of the core business of the healthcare facility.

Moreover medical transcription requires a combination of the right ream, the right process and the right technology to be efficient and economical, which would require substantial investment, time and efforts. The easy fix to ensure that patient medical records are created with accuracy, within turnaround time, securely and in a cost effective manner is to outsource to a professional medical transcription service provider.

Medical transcription has evolved from being just a service of  creating accurate, timely, cost effective and secure patient medical records to a service  that aids healthcare using software and tools to ease the working life of healthcare professional and healthcare facilities administrators.

Outsourced medical transcription service providers have used technology to provide services that:

• Helps improve quality of care: Software and technology used in medical transcription have improved the working life of healthcare professionals by helping them conserve on their limited time resources and allowing them to concentrate a major portion of their time towards providing quality healthcare, by providing the following benefits: 

1.     Allowing them to retain familiar modes of dictation

2.     Creating a system for automating medical transcription

3.     Enabling different modes of document delivery as per the preference of the healthcare professional.

4.     Allowing healthcare professionals to retain the familiar mode of dictation- transcription for patient record creation, still enabling information to be interfaced with EMR through HL7 interface.

• Curb wastage of resources: The technology used by outsourced medical transcription service provider helps curb wastage of time, money and resources towards managing medical transcription process

• Better coordination of healthcare service: Technology used by the outsourced medical transcription service provider provides an organized system for medical transcription, which helps keep track of dictation, work in progress and transcripts.

• Helps with healthcare decision-making: Outsourced medical transcription services create timely and accurate patient medical records which aid in decision making during the healthcare process.

• Provide information for research and preventive medicine: Creation of detailed, accurate and timely patient transcripts lead to accumulation of data, which helps in devising preventive health programs, and also aids in research.

• Curb costs and accelerate reimbursements: outsourcing medical transcription ensures that direct and indirect costs towards transcription are curbed and the reimbursement process is quickened. This helps improve the cash flow of the healthcare facility. 

Outsourcing medical transcription to a medical transcription service provider using the right blend of software & tools and personnel can help healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals perform more efficiently.

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 total medical transcription solutions.

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

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

Medical transcription outsourcing: Leads to flexibility

In today’s situation healthcare facilities have to maintain a delicate balance between providing quality healthcare and still maintaining profits. The demands made on the limited resources available to a healthcare facility are numerous. In such a situation it is important for healthcare facilities to have maximum flexibility so that they can adapt themselves quickly to the changing demands placed on them.  Outsourcing medical transcription can help healthcare facilities remain flexible!

How does outsourcing medical transcription help the healthcare facilities remain flexible?

Though medical transcription is an important contributor to the healthcare process it is not part of the core competencies of the healthcare facilities. The key to maintaining flexibility is to concentrate on the core competencies and outsource all the other activities.

Outsourcing medical transcription helps the healthcare facility remain flexible by the following means:

• By offering a price structure based on fee for services rendered: Outsourced medical transcription service providers normally quote prices that are based on the services used by the healthcare facilities, that is based on variables like number of lines, number of reports, number of pages etc., instead of a flat rate. This ensures that healthcare facilities incur expenses limited to the usage of services.

• By helping transform fixed costs to variable costs: By outsourcing medical transcription the healthcare facility can convert the fixed cost incurred for in-house transcription to variable costs. Fixed costs like real estate, salaries etc can be avoided.

• Enabling increased flexibility in resource management: Outsourcing medical transcription frees up several valuable resources. The healthcare facility is then in a position to utilize these resources for other purposes.

• Helping reduce response time to outside changes: In a changing atmosphere it is important for healthcare facilities to be able to respond to changes in a speedy manner. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that valuable resources are free for the healthcare facilities to use while responding to outside changes.

• Increase focus on core activities: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the healthcare facilities can focus on their core activity of providing quality care rather than on other associated activities like medical transcription.

• Freeing up key employees: Outsourcing medical transcription not only benefits the healthcare professionals but also key employees of the healthcare facility like the support staff, the management staff and the information technology staff to focus on the core business of the healthcare facility. 

• Increasing speed: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the patient medical records are available to the healthcare professionals and support staff on time. This ensures that the speed of service is also more efficient.

• By helping avoid bottlenecks to quicker reimbursements: Outsourcing medical transcription not only reduces direct and indirect costs but also removes bottlenecks that hinder the cash flow. Medical transcription is the first step in the receivables cycle; timely medical transcription ensures that the process of reimbursement can start on time. 

However the process of outsourcing medical transcription needs to be approached with caution. Apart from evaluating the medical transcription service provider on the basis of criteria like accuracy, turnaround time and technology used, healthcare facilities need to evaluate the medical transcription service provider on the following additional points:

1. Billing methodology
2. Ability to deliver quality by checking on training methods and levels of quality checks used.
3. HIPAA/HITECH compliance
4. Experience of the medical transcription service provider by checking on references
5. Actual capability of the medical transcription service provider by availing a free trial
6. Availability of open channels of communication. 

Once the medical transcription service provider has been evaluated on all these criteria the healthcare facility can enjoy immaculate services, which lets them enjoy the benefit of being flexible in an ever-changing competitive environment.

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

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

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing 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: Increases efficiency and reduces costs

The role of accurate and timely information in the process of healthcare is undeniable. Medical transcription is the process that assists in creation of patient records ensuring that healthcare professionals have the requisite information by converting audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. However to make the process of medical transcription cost effective and efficient one needs to choose the right option. There are many options available to the healthcare facility for availing medical transcription, like having a team of medical transcriptionists in-house, Independent contractors or by outsourcing to a professional medical transcription service provider.

Though other options for availing medical transcription have some benefits, outsourcing medical transcription has been found to be best way for the healthcare facility to contain costs and increase efficiency.

How does outsourcing medical transcription contain costs?

Reduces cost per line of transcription: Outsourcing medical transcription has the benefit of limiting the cost of medical transcription to just the cost per line of transcription. There are no hidden charges or indirect costs. This makes the cost per line of transcription economical

Eliminates the need for capital investment for medical transcription: The process of medical transcription requires a certain amount of capital expenditure by way of computers, servers, furniture, headsets etc. Outsourcing medical transcription eliminates the need for investment in capital equipment

Reduces the cost of utilities: The cost of utilities like electricity, stationery etc towards the transcription process would be eliminated by outsourcing medical transcription

Eliminates cost of IT towards medical transcription: Executing medical transcription in-house would mean a substantial outlay towards information technology expenses. Outsourcing medical transcription minimizes this investment

Reduces cost of weekend and holiday medical transcription needs: Medical transcription needs of a healthcare facility are not predictable, outsourcing ensures that the varying medical transcription needs of the healthcare facility are provided for without incurring any extra expenses

How does outsourcing medical transcription increase efficiency?

Streamlining turnaround time: By outsourcing medical transcription the healthcare professionals would be ensured of a guaranteed turnaround time. This would ensure that the information needed by the healthcare professional would be readily available for reference as required. This would help increase the efficiency of the healthcare professionals and the support staff

Increased accuracy: Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional service provider would ensure that patient records are created with maximum accuracy. This would ensure that integrity of the information would be preserved thus increasing the efficiency of the healthcare professionals

Advanced technological features providing added benefits: The technology used by the medical transcription service provider, affords healthcare professionals and the support staff with innumerable benefits like automatic uploads and downloads, archiving, remote printing and faxing etc adding up to efficient work flow

Enabling better use of healthcare professional and support staff time: Medical transcription services that are accurate, timely, secure and technologically advance help the healthcare professionals and support focus more on providing quality healthcare rather than other tasks

Accelerating the receivables cycle: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that patient records are created on time. This in turn ensures that the process of reimbursement takes place on time, thus improving cash flow and the efficient working of the healthcare facility

Outsourcing medical transcription to the right medical transcription company can reduce costs and improve efficiency. TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry offers customized solutions to help healthcare facilities reduce costs and improve efficiency.

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!         

For more details about the advantages of outsourced medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription: Outsourcing helps increase efficiency and improve services

Medical transcription has played an important role in the process of healthcare by helping document the patient-healthcare professional encounter. Medical transcription is also the first step in the process of reimbursement as it provides the basis for coding and billing.

In a time where healthcare facilities are struggling with shrinking incomes and galloping expenses, outsourcing medical transcription is an easy fix to curb costs of transcription.  Apart from curbing costs outsourcing medical transcription can help the healthcare facility increase efficiency and improve services.

How does outsourcing medical transcription help increase efficiency?

Outsourcing medical transcription helps increase efficiency of the healthcare facilities in the following areas:

·       Improving report accessibility: Outsourcing medical transcription reduces the burden of the healthcare facility support staff, by creating an orderly system for collection of audio files, uploading dictation, distribution of finished transcripts and providing additional features like electronic signature, remote printing & faxing etc. Outsourcing medical transcription also helps in tracing files through an efficient system, enabling the support staff to track the status of work in progress, at any given time. Access to patient records is also improved by use of an efficient archiving systems

·       Saving on resources:  Outsourcing medical transcription frees up valuable resources of the healthcare facility like real estate, capital expenditure on transcription equipment, office space, information technology staff, management resources and working capital.  These resources can then be utilized towards the core business of the healthcare facility, thus improving efficiency

·       One stop solution for medical transcription needs: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the service provider is a one stop for all the problems associated with medical transcription. This would include variation in transcription volumes, holiday & weekend transcription, addition of new specialties, inclusion of new report formats/templates, integration with EMR/EHR, and HIPAA & HITECH concerns for security of information during the medical transcription process

·       Accelerating funds flow:  Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that medical records are created on time. This ensures that the first step in the receivables cycle takes place on time. This in turn helps accelerate the reimbursement process. Quickening the receivables cycle helps the funds flow and enables the healthcare facility to perform efficiently

How does outsourcing medical transcription help improve services?

·       Improved quality of reports: Outsourcing medical transcription has added benefits like medical transcriptionists trained in specialties, multiple quality checks and the past experience & proficiency of the service provider in serving diverse healthcare facilities helps improve the quality of reports. The improved quality of the information in the patient records helps the healthcare facility improve quality of services by helping healthcare professionals make informed decisions

·       Improved turnaround time: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that medical records are created on time. Having the right information on hand in a timely basis helps healthcare professionals improve quality of services to patients

It can be concluded that outsourcing medical transcription provides a variety of advantages to the healthcare facility. To benefit from the advantages of outsource medical transcription, it is important to analyze the specific needs of the healthcare facility and source a medical transcription company who can provide services accordingly.

The capabilities of the medical transcription service provider needs to be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Accuracy: This means the percentage of accuracy of the completed transcripts vis-à-vis what was dictated. A minimum of 99% and above would be acceptable.

• Turnaround time: Turnaround time refers to the time taken to revert the transcribed report to the healthcare facility. A Turnaround time of not more than 24 hours for normal reports and 4-12 hours for STAT reports would be considered ideal.

• Data security: The service provider being outsourced to should be HIPAA and HITECH compliant. The medical transcription service provider has to have adequate security measures to ensure that the confidential data transmitted back and forth is safe and secure.

• Pricing: Reduced costs are one of the main benefits that a healthcare facility hopes to have, from the outsourcing option. Pricing should be fair and reasonable for the services rendered. Pricing method should also be transparent and simple so that both parties can verify the same at any stage of the process

• Technology: The technology used by the medical transcription company should not only be secure but should also be easy to use, without having to require extensive training.

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.