Medical transcription outsourcing: Leading to efficient and balanced operations

Healthcare has always had to strive for a balancing act between the need to provide immaculate care while still remaining profitable. Moreover as healthcare is a vital service there are additional responsibilities placed on this sector in terms of meeting statutory regulations etc Keeping in mind all the demands placed on and the expectations from this sector it becomes imperative for healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities to ensure efficient and balanced operations. One of the vital aspects that have an effect on balanced and efficient operations of healthcare facilities is the creation of patient medical records.Medical transcription – the process of converting the dictation of the healthcare professional – patient encounter into text format has proven to be one of the most efficient and economical methods for creating patient medical records.

Patient medical records form the basis for the care process, the reimbursement process and protection in case of litigation. However medical transcription requires concentrated inputs in terms of trained and skilled personnel, specialized equipment, expert processes and numerous other overheads. Moreover as medical transcription is not part of the core activities of the healthcare facility, outsourcing medical transcription is an option that ensures efficient and balanced operations.

Some of the salient features of efficient and balanced services provided by medical transcription services are:

Balancing quality with quantity: One of the factors that make operations of healthcare facilities difficult to plan is the managing the varying volumes of patient inflow, which in turn affects the medical transcription needs of the facility. Outsourcing medical transcription provides an instant solution for this problem by providing quality services in spite of varying volumes. This helps in all aspects of healthcare facility operations.

Balancing efficiency with costs: As medical transcription is considered one of the expense heads it becomes imperative to curb the cost of transcription without compromising on the flow of information required for efficient operations. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that transcripts are delivered on time ensuring efficient operations while still keeping costs under control.

Enhancing convenience with security: As the resources available to healthcare facilities are limited outsourcing medical transcription is an option that enables convenient operations by ensuring that all the resources like space, utilities etc are used for the core activity of providing care. Moreover outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription company also curbs concerns for security by ensuring HIPAA and HITECH compliance throughout the entire transcription process

Balancing technology to meet usability standards: Technology has a huge role to play in the process of medical transcription, however technology can also add the burden of the healthcare professionals and support staff by requiring them to educate themselves on the usage. However outsourcing to a technologically savvy medical transcription service provider would ensure that technology would not only deliver maximum features but also remain easy to use. This would include all stages of transcription starting from dictation, delivery of transcripts, to retrieving older transcripts from archives and integration with EMR

It is easy to draw the conclusion that partnering with the right medical transcription company can result in efficient and balanced operations.

Given the increasing demand for quality healthcare services, there has been increase in the demand for all the components of quality healthcare. As the volume of people seeking healthcare services increase the need for quality documentation also increases, as it is a vital component that helps deliver quality healthcare consistently. Clinical documentation is the process of recording and communicating a written record of the patient- healthcare professional encounter consisting of assessment, inputs from other experts if needed, the diagnosis, the treatment plan, treatment provided, the progress of the patient’s response to treatment, discharge and discharge instructions. The criteria for high quality clinical documentation are legibility, completeness, clarity, consistency, precision, reliability and timeliness.

To meet all these criteria and to be efficient, clinical documentation depends on narrative dictation, which then can be transcribed to be a part of the patient medical record. The process of converting the audio of the healthcare professionals’ narration into text format is known as medical transcription.

In the recent past the Medical Transcription Industry Association has changed their name to Clinical documentation Industry Association. The reason behind this is to redefine the role of medical transcription in the changing healthcare documentation scenario by providing innovative solutions for EHR adoption and helping the timely and accurate capture of health information.

Considering the redefinition of medical transcription services and medical transcriptionists as clinical documentation specialists rather than mere typing services it is important to look at the changing role of medical transcription in the current scenario.

What is the changing role of medical transcription services in the current scenario?

Helping retain the narrative as part of patient medical record:

·                                 Helping retain the familiar dictation- transcription: Medical transcription can help healthcare professionals in the process of adopting EHR systems while still retaining the familiar method of dictation to medical transcription. This helps the narrative become part of the patient medical record providing a valuable diagnostic tool that aids in clinical decision making

·                                 Transitioning from transcribing to editing: In those instances where healthcare professionals are using speech recognition software to produce patient medical records, medical transcription services have evolved into editing and proofreading services that help in improving the quality of documentation

Helping retain the integrity of information: Though other methods of documentation like point and click entry or speech recognition software can help improve the turnaround time, the integrity of the information captured may be compromised. Medical transcription services help in this aspect by checking the integrity of the data and improving the accuracy tremendously.

Helping improve the productivity of healthcare professionals’ time: Documenting the patient- healthcare professional encounter using the dictation to medical transcription method helps increase the productivity of the healthcare professional and helps increase focus on the process of providing quality healthcare.

Medical Transcription Companies – Transforming Functioning of Healthcare Organizations

Medical transcription is a booming industry, which is highly prestigious and in great demand. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, "Employment of medical transcriptionists is projected to grow faster compared to all other occupations. Therefore demand of medical transcription companies will be spurred due to growing and aging population." Medical transcription companies hire some competent and experienced transcriptionists, who after listening the physicians and other healthcare professional dictated recordings transcribe them into documents like autopsy, operating room notes, discharge summaries that later on become a part of patient's medical record.

Medical transcription companies need to have great knowledge and expertise of different medical terminology like physiology, anatomy, diagnostic procedures and treatment in order to accurately transcribe the information. Today documentation of patient's record has become mandatory for healthcare institutions and hospitals across the several countries thereby generating immense demand of medical transcription companies who does this job in the very effective and accurate manner. Due to the great demand of this job, this industry has become one of the largest and fastest growing industries of the service domain. This profession has been in great demand in several countries like U.S, UK, Australia and India.

With great business transformation taking place in India, medical transcription services are definitely going to be the face of Indian health care. Presently also there has been several medical transcription companies operating in India to transcribe the medical records dictated by doctors and healthcare professionals into several text reports. The medical reports that are usually transcribed into text reports include:

* Patient's history and physical reports
* Discharge summaries
* Clinic notes
* Psychiatric evaluations
* Laboratory and Operative reports
* Consultation notes

Medical transcriptionists are truly medical language specialist who must be aware of standards and requirements applicable to the health records and legal significance of the medical transcripts. To transcribe several forms of medical reports into text documents the medical transcription service providers need to be well versed in the language of medicine.

Choosing the right medical transcription companies is of great significance in order to attain accurate, safe and timely processed medical documentation. A medical transcription company with sufficient experience and proven track records would ensure best and the most comprehensive solutions, which are exactly as per the requirements of the healthcare professionals. These companies make a significant difference to the functioning and productivity of the healthcare facility. Thus, it is extremely important to select a medical transcription company in India after doing careful research and evaluation about the company so that one can take informed decision.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing multi-dimensional services

It has been acknowledged that outsourcing medical transcription helps healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals in several aspects, becoming an invaluable part of healthcare operations. However outsourcing medical transcription needs to be approached with caution as it essentially means taking on a strategic partner who can help ease the burden of healthcare facility administrators, healthcare professionals and the information technology staff of the healthcare facility, if done the right way.

It becomes important to source a medical transcription service provider who has both the depth and breadth of experience.

What is meant by depth and breadth of experience?

Depth of experience in the medical transcription context can be defined by the following:

Years of existence: As medical transcription has a vital role to play in the healthcare process aiding various aspects, it is important to source an experienced medical transcription service provider. This ensures reliability of service and longevity of the business association.

Relevant experience: Another factor that defines the depth of experience of the medical transcription service provider is whether the service provider has the relevant experience. This ensures seamless services from the very beginning. It ensures that productivity or quality is not sacrificed owing to the learning curve that usually occurs if the service provider lacks the relevant experience.

Technology: Technology has become a large part of the present and future of medical transcription services. It is important to pick a medical transcription service provider who has a depth of experience in providing technology solutions aimed at easing the work life of healthcare professionals and other staff at the healthcare facility.

Breadth of experience in the medical transcription context can be defined by the following:

Diversity of work experience: With the ever-changing dynamic healthcare documentation scenario it is important to source a medical transcription service provider who has an experience of meeting diverse needs satisfactorily. This enables the service provider to meet diverse needs seamlessly.

Flexibility: Another factor that defines the breadth of experience is the flexibility of services provided by the medical transcription service provider. Healthcare is a constantly changing field and services associated with healthcare need to be flexible. More importantly medical transcription needs to be flexible to ensure maximum productivity with the lowest possible experience.

Adaptability of services: With the changing documentation scenario, the role of medical transcription is evolving into sophisticated services that ease the documentation process to provide for the changing needs. Factors like editing and proofreading services for speech recognition software, adoption of EMR/ EHR using HL7 interface need to be added to the repertoire of services provided by medical transcription service providers.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing unique solutions

Medical transcription is an important link in the chain delivering quality healthcare Medical transcription adds value to the healthcare process by creating patient records from the audio of the patient-healthcare professional encounter. However medical transcription requires skills, commitment and investment from the healthcare facility to be accurate and timely.  Investing valuable resources may dilute the focus of the healthcare facilities from their core objective of providing quality healthcare.

One easy fix to ensure that creation of patient records takes place in a timely, accurate, secure and cost effective manner is to outsource medical transcription to a qualified and professional medical transcription service provider. This not only ensures timely, accurate, secure and cost effective creation of patient records, but also enables the healthcare facility to avail unique solutions to their specific transcription needs.

What are unique solutions for medical transcription needs?

It is commonly understood that the healthcare facilities differ not only in terms of the number of healthcare professionals, the size of the facility, the services offered but also in other variables like: 

o                              Specialties: Medicine is a vast field having various specialties. Healthcare facilities could offer one or a combination of more than one specialty. Each specialty has its own language. A medical transcription service provider offering unique medical transcription solutions would take this into consideration while designing solutions for the healthcare facilities. Factors like turnaround time; templates/formats etc could be affected by the specialty transcribed for.

o                              Expansion plans: While outsourcing medical transcription, healthcare facilities need to seek out service providers who can not only service current needs but also have the capacity to service future needs. The medical transcription service provider should have the manpower and technical backup to be able to cope with expanding needs for transcription

o                              Technical support level required: The technical support required from the medical transcription service provider could vary according to the needs and aptitude of the healthcare professionals. To provide unique solutions medical transcription service provider should have technology to support the varying needs of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities

o                              Formats/templates of reports: The requirement of different healthcare professionals for report formats/ templates and even fonts could vary. The medical transcription service provider needs to have the capacity to serve the unique needs of healthcare professionals/healthcare facilities

o                              Adoption of EMR: EMR requires a substantial investment from the healthcare facilities. The medical transcription service provider needs to be able to support EMR adoption by having the capacity to interface through HL7 integration

o                              Speech recognition transcription: Some healthcare professionals/healthcare facilities would even require the medical transcription service providers to provide editing services for speech recognition transcription. The medical transcription service provider needs to support this facility

o                              Turnaround time required: The turnaround time requirements of different healthcare professionals under different circumstances could vary. The medical transcription service provider needs to accommodate the turnaround time requirements of different healthcare professionals

o                              Archiving facilities: Healthcare facilities with a large number of healthcare professionals would require a system to trace dictations, work-in-progress and transcripts

o                              Dictation modes: The medical transcription service provider needs to accommodate the unique modes of dictation used by healthcare professionals to enable them to make optimum use of their limited time

o                              Support levels required: Transition to outsourced medical transcription could be made easier by having the right kind of support to answer/solve any queries/issues as they arise

o                              Document delivery modes: The medical transcription service provider needs to have the technology to accommodate the unique document delivery modes required by healthcare professionals

o                              Multi user access: Certain transcripts may require multiple users access; the medical transcription services provider needs to enable this in the transcription system.

It is important that the service provider should create unique solutions that are specifically formulated taking into consideration the requirements of the healthcare professionals/healthcare facilities.

Outsourcing Medical Transcription Services

Medical Transcription is the process of converting voice transcription into a permanent written record utilizing word processing equipment and software. Medical transcription is necessary process in medical industry as all medical institutions require computerization of medical notes for clean and compact record-keeping, insurance claims processing, quick reference, conferencing and various other reasons.

Today medical transcription service has almost become a popular term among the health professionals and services are available for all medical specialties. A medical transcriptionist's job primarily involves converting significant and confidential data into written text. This text is printed and included in the patients' records, archived and retained as an electronic medical record.

Before some time staff of skilled medical transcriptionists was working in the medical records department of the hospital has accomplished the work of transcribing medical records. But now a days for any hospital; it is very difficult to afford staff of medical transcriptionists so for that outsourcing is the best option available to save their valuable amount of time and money. By outsourcing their medical transcription related requirements to outsourcing firm they can reduce their burden.

While you are choosing your offshore partner to outsource your needs, you have to be very careful as it requires an attention to detail and an ability to recognize and understand technical terminology.

Medical transcription: Importance of multiple reviews for assuring quality

Medical transcription is the process of creating patient medical records, converting the audio of the patient- healthcare professional encounter into text format. Quality or accuracy of the information in the patient transcript is one of the most important factors, as the information in patient medical records is vital for providing quality care, to start the process of reimbursement and as a component of risk management. To this end while outsourcing medical transcription it is important to assess whether the medical transcription service provider has methods for quality assessment.

As medical transcription has an important supporting role to play in the process of healthcare, a best practices guide titled “Healthcare Documentation Quality Assessment and Management Best Practices” has been jointly created by AHDI, MTIA and AHIMA. One of the highlights of this manual is alignment with the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.

Each stage of the process is vital to ensure that the process of healthcare is documented keeping in mind that maintaining the highest standards of quality is a continuous process. The goal of this quality assessment program is to ensure that healthcare documentation is clear, consistent, accurate, complete and timely.

Do: Assessment policies and procedure

This part is very important as it shows that there is a formal policy, which lays out the procedure for quality assessment. Assessment and improvement procedures should be throughout the documentation process, instead of an exercise used for filling blanks, flagging errors or tabulating error rates.

The purpose of this exercise should be to help provide feedback, play a significant role in ensuring patient safety and maintain integrity of the document.

The assessment policy should include:

Concurrent review: This means that the transcripts that have gone through the first stage of transcription by the medical transcriptionists, are subject to complete and comprehensive review. This is absolutely essential when the expertise of the medical transcriptionist has not been established or when the medical transcriptionist transcribes for a new specialty or when transcribing for a new healthcare professional.

Retrospective review: Though concurrent reviews are ideal for the quality process, it may not be possible to review 100% given the tight turnaround time requirements. However reviews are an essential learning tool especially for medical transcriptionists, it is important to have retrospective reviews

Review of flagged documents: This type of review occurs when the initial or first stage of medical transcription has flagged blanks/ error etc. It is important to review these transcripts and resolve the flagged errors before transmitting for final authentication to the healthcare professional/ healthcare facility.

Using the findings from these reviews as feedback: The purpose of these reviews is to help improve the quality and reduce errors. Therefore the findings from these reviews are used as a learning tool to improve the work of medical transcriptionists. Another important aspect of these findings is also to provide feedback to healthcare professionals. The findings can be used to educate healthcare professionals in best practices for dictation.

The purpose of reviews is to improve quality, provide feedback, enabling medical transcriptionists to improve quality medical transcription.