Medical transcription outsourcing: Maximizing the value of patient records

The role of healthcare in modern times is undeniable given factors like the aging population, the increasingly sedentary and stressed lifestyle among many other factors. This has made the healthcare sector an important vehicle for managing the health of the people. Taking this into consideration, ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) or Economic Stimulus bill was introduced in February 2009, aimed at spurring economic growth across multiple industries through Government spending along with $ 19 billion aimed at the healthcare Industry by way of incentives for meaningful adoption and implementation of EHR (Electronic Health Record) also known as EMR (Electronic Medical Record).

Taking into consideration the deadline for meeting EMR/ EHR adoption and the penalties for not doing so there has been the introduction of many new methods of documenting the care process; some of which, requires the healthcare professional to simultaneously document the care process during the patient encounter. This has resulted in some deficiencies in the documentation, which include:

• Lack of narrative information
• Dilution of healthcare professionals’ focus on the patient during the care process
• Lack of quality checks in the patient medical record leading to errors
• Repetitive and similar sounding documents due to lack of choices in the drop down menus
• Adverse effect on the productivity of healthcare professionals
• Incomplete information due to the lack of time.

The process of healthcare documentation needs to be balanced to provide patient medical records with maximum value without compromising on the costs.

Medical transcription is one such option for documenting the care process that helps maximize the value of patient medical records. Outsourcing medical transcription not only enables the creation of patient medical records using the services of expert medical transcriptionists who meet all the parameters of accuracy, turnaround time and HIPAA compliance but also enables healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals to save on costs substantially.

Given below are some of the ways that outsourcing medical transcription helps maximize the value of patient medical records:

Enabling dictation and preserving narration: One of the main advantages of outsourcing medical transcription is that it encourages healthcare professionals to use dictation as a mode of collecting information. This not only encourages healthcare professionals to optimize their time but also allows them to include the narrative portion of the patient story as part of the patient medical record. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the time of healthcare professionals is used in the best possible way – concentrating on providing care to patients rather than documentation.

Minimizing errors: The use of medical transcription companies to document the care process ensures that the accuracy in transcripts is the highest possible, even when the healthcare professional uses speech recognition software to create the transcripts. Medical transcription companies have not only established a stringent quality policy for normal transcripts they also provide editing and proofreading services for speech recognition software transcripts.

Timely availability of information: Using the services of professional and expert medical transcription companies also ensure that there is minimum lag in creation of patient medical records. A combination of trained medical transcriptionists, expert processes and latest technology ensures desired turnaround time.

Technology to support all needs: The role of technology in medical transcription is very significant. Technology is used in medical transcription not only for convenience, speed and HIPAA compliance it also encompasses numerous other factors, including:

1. Dictation modes
2. Document delivery modes
3. Transcription interface for tracking and management
4. HIPAA and HITECH compliance
5. Structured dictation
6. Structured transcription
7. Discrete reportable transcription
8. HL 7 interface.

Cost reduction: Another important contribution of medical transcription in maximizing the value of patient medical records is that of reducing the cost of transcription. This not only helps the healthcare facility save on costs but also allows them to focus their key resources on the process of care.

It can be seen that outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription company can maximize the value of patient medical records.

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 affordable and integrated medical transcription solutions.

Among the software and tools offered by TransDyne for transcription, the smart delivery system has a large role to play in easing the path to EMR/EHR adoption The Smart Delivery system, which has features like User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems is the suggested mode of document delivery where pre-defined file saving would help import documents to EMR systems.  Apart from this TransDyne also offers discounted rates for those healthcare facilities that provide demographic data entered in the EMR rather than through other modes.

Along with medical transcription services involving multiple level quality checks to ensure accuracy, the use of the right technology for ease of use, turnaround time and security, at reasonable rates, TransDyne also provides discrete reportable transcription for adoption of EMR/ EHR.

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