Monday, September 19, 2011

Medical transcription services: Helping improve the healthcare facility workflow

Like any other vital service, healthcare services need to have a structured workflow and are aided by quality inputs to produce desired results. In case of healthcare the desired results being providing quality care profitably while still meeting the regulatory norms that apply to the healthcare sector. There are many inputs that contribute to the healthcare process, one of the vital ones being information from patient medical records.

Patient medical records are a longitudinal record of the patient's medical history including all pertinent details regarding demographics, symptoms, diagnoses, tests/procedures, treatments and the progress made by the patient. A patient medical record is a valuable tool to make thorough diagnoses and act as the main source of information in case of emergency. Not only does the information in patient medical records provide valuable inputs for the process of care they also provide valuable support as evidence in case of litigation and the provide the base for coding and billing, which leads to reimbursement.

Medical transcription is the process of creating patient medical records of the patient- healthcare professional encounter from the audio narration of the healthcare professional. As the process of medical transcription requires specialized inputs in the form of the right team, the right process and the right technology, outsourcing the entire medical transcription process has been found to be an effective solution.  Apart from producing patient medical records that meet the quality criteria of accuracy, speed, security and being cost effective, outsourced medical transcription services also provide valuable support by helping improve the workflow of the healthcare facility.

How do outsourced medical transcription services help improve the workflow of healthcare facilities?
Medical transcription service providers have an intuitive understanding of the working of healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals. This understanding combined with their experience in serving the needs of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities and their expertise in meeting the changing demands of the healthcare documentation sector, puts medical transcription service providers in a unique position to help improve the workflow of healthcare facilities.

Outsourced medical transcription services help improve the workflow of healthcare facilities by providing services that aid in the following:

  • Helping retain familiar working styles: In spite of many advances in technology leading to newer methods of documenting the patient encounter, healthcare professionals prefer the traditional method of dictation- transcription. Outsourced medical transcription service providers have facilitated the essence of this method documentation, while still enabling adoption of EMR/EHR. This method is not only cost effective it essentially enhances the productivity of healthcare professionals by allowing them to concentrate on the most important participant in the healthcare process – the patient!
  • Coping with varying volumes without compromising quality: It is impossible to predict the inflow of patients at any given time, therefore the medical transcription needs are also impossible to predict. Allotting extra resources for excess medical transcription needs and planning for productive usage of these resources during slack times can affect the regular workflow adversely. Moreover issues like slow turnaround time, poor quality documentation can lead to further complications. Outsourcing medical transcription provides a solution to all these issues by providing a one-stop solution for these issues while still maintaining accuracy and turnaround time.
  • Delivering transcripts through preferred modes: Outsourced medical transcription service providers specialize in customizing document delivery modes as per the preference and requirements of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities, including HL7 interface to facilitate adoption of EMR/EHR
  • Meeting turnaround time: Apart from the accuracy of the information in the patient medical record one of the critical factor that affects both the process of care as well the reimbursement process is the turnaround time. Medical transcription service providers provide flexible turnaround time options, which aid in improving the workflow of healthcare facilities
  • Providing easy access to older transcripts: As the process of healthcare is a continuous one, it is important for outsourced medical transcription service providers to provide access of older transcripts to healthcare professionals and other support staff. This need is addressed by medical transcription service providers by providing archive facilities that are customized as per the needs of the healthcare professional for easy retrieval.
TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has used their extensive background in information technology to come up with medical transcription services that provide easy to use solutions for the needs of healthcare professionals and other staff of the healthcare facilities. 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.

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