Patient records are an essential part of the smooth running of a healthcare facility. They contribute to the actual process of healthcare as well as aid in the reimbursement process. Medical transcription is the process of creating medical records, by converting the audio records as dictated by the healthcare professional into text format. Medical transcription is a specialized service that requires the right team, the right process and the right technology.
Outsourcing medical transcription aids the healthcare facilities to concentrate on providing quality healthcare, by creating medical records in an accurate, speedy, secure and cost effective manner. Not only this outsourcing medical transcription also helps healthcare facilities to curb indirect expenses that they may incur by medical transcription in-house.
What are patient medical records and why are they important?
Patient medical records are the systematic documentation of patient’s individual medical history and care. Patient records consist of the following details:
- Name, date of birth, address, emergency contact numbers, sex, blood type etc.
- Date of last physical exam
- Dates and results of tests and screening
- Major illnesses & surgeries with dates
- List of medication, dosages and duration of prescription
- Allergies
- Chronic diseases
- History of illness in the family
Patient medical records provide medical history. It is a longitudinal record chronicling disease, major & minor illnesses as well as growth landmarks. It gives the healthcare professionals a feel for what happened in the past to the patient. It also provides clues about current illness. Medical records can prove to be invaluable as an aid in arriving at the right diagnosis.
The information in medical records aid in the following:
- Continuity of care
- Basis for planning present and future care
- Assist in protecting legal interests
- Are the base for billing and coding
- For education and research purposes
- Fulfilling statutory obligations
It can be concluded that patient medical records are invaluable in the process of healthcare. And as medical transcription is the process of creating patient records, it is vital that healthcare facilities should evaluate the service provider carefully before outsourcing medical transcription.
The criteria for evaluating a medical transcription service provider are as follows:
- 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 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 service provider should not only be secure but should also be easy to use, without having to require extensive training.
Outsourcing medical transcription to the right medical transcription company can help the healthcare facility not only in terms of efficient, effective and economical creation of patient records; it also has other benefits like:
1. Retaining familiar modes of dictation
2. Integration with EMR/HER
3. Specialty transcription
4. Automated upload of dictation and download of transcripts
5. Archiving facility
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment