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!
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