Thursday, May 31, 2012

The secret to transitioning to outsourced medical transcription services seamlessly

Healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals have always had to manage varied demands on their limited time and resources to provide quality services while still maintaining a healthy bottom line. The current deadline for adopting EMR/ EHR has added a new dimension to the pressures experienced by the healthcare sector.  However the medical transcription sector is one resource that healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities can draw on for support in this transition to EMR/ EHR.

Medical transcription services have always anticipated and served the healthcare documentation needs of the healthcare sector and can continue to play a vital role in this transition to EMR/ EHR. However as professional medical transcription services require expert inputs in terms of the right blend of people, processes and technology, outsourcing medical transcription is a prudent option. However transitioning to outsourced medical transcription services can mean an arduous process of selecting and an initial difficult transition period.

However the process of transitioning to outsourced medical transcription services can be made seamless by following the steps given below:

Analysis: The first step for transitioning to outsourced medical transcription services is a thorough analysis of where the healthcare facility stands right now and the future goals. A simple analysis could involve the following:

  • No of healthcare professionals in the healthcare facility
  • Specialties of the healthcare professionals
  • Current transcription mode
  • Dictation modes used currently
  • Plans for adopting EMR/ EHR
  • Interactions with other healthcare professionals for referrals etc
  • Use of speech recognition software
  • Volume of transcription required
  • Special transcription needs
  • Volume of transcription on weekends and holidays
  • Current cost of transcription.
A thorough analysis of the current situation would really throw light on the status quo and enable proper planning for future needs.

Listing expected outcomes: This stage of the process is vital in formalizing the expectations of the healthcare facility/ healthcare professionals from the move to outsourced services. This step is vital to ensure proper selection and evaluation of the right medical transcription company as an outsourced partner.

The list of expected outcomes could include:

  • Turnaround time options
  • Choice of dictation modes
  • Acceptable accuracy levels
  • Report formats/ templates
  • HIPAA and HITECH compliance
  • Document delivery modes
  • Reasonable pricing
  • Editing and proofreading services for speech recognition software transcripts
  • Options that enable adoption of EMR/ EHR like structured dictation, structured transcription, discrete reportable transcription etc
  • HL7 interface
  • 24/7 support.
Selection: The process for selecting a medical transcription company that provides the best fit for needs of the healthcare facility/ healthcare professionals include the following:

  • Evaluating the training process: This is an indication of the caliber of the medical transcriptionists, who will be undertaking the actual transcription process. Rigorously trained medical transcriptionists would ensure quality transcription.
  • Process for quality: The process adopted by the medical transcription company for ensuring accuracy of the transcripts needs to evaluated to ensure that the medical transcription company has the capacity to delver accurate transcription as promised.
  • Technology: Evaluation of the technology used by the medical transcription company needs to be in terms of the benefits provided, the ease of use and the ability to ensure HIPAA & HITECH compliance. Technology support also needs to be evaluated in terms of ability to support adoption of EMR/ EHR.
  • Pricing: The price quoted by the medical transcription company needs to be evaluated to ensure that the billing method is verifiable, measurable, definable, consistent fair and honest to ensure savings on cost. Care needs to be taken to ensure that there are no hidden costs.
Trial: Apart from a careful evaluation of the capabilities of the medical transcription company it is important to test the ability of the medical transcription company to deliver services as promised by availing a free trial.

Contract and outsourcing: Once the process of evaluation, selection and free trial is over it is important to evaluate the contract and start the actual process of outsourcing to ensure smooth and seamless transition.

It can be concluded that the secret to ensure smooth transition to outsourced services is to take on a systematic approach that enables proper selection of the right medical transcription company.

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.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Six reasons why medical transcription is here to stay

The healthcare documentation scenario is rapidly changing with the fast approaching deadline for adoption of EMR/ EHR and fulfilling the meaningful use criteria. Given this situation, healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals are frantically looking for means to document the patient encounter in a manner that not only helps achieve meaningful use but also takes care of factors such as minimizing loss of healthcare professional productivity, smoother patient interactions, retaining the narrative portion of the patient medical record among various other factors.

Due to the need to adopt EMR/ EHR and the introduction of numerous options for this process there have been some doubts regarding the necessity of medical transcription services; in spite of the fact that the vast experience and the diverse expertise of medical transcription companies cannot be ignored. However the practicalities of adopting EMR/ EHR using other methods has served to emphasize the importance of medical transcriptionists and medical transcription companies in this process.

Given below are the main reasons why medical transcription services are here to stay:

Expertise: One of the main reasons that medical transcription services are here to stay is their expertise in knowing exactly what is needed to make healthcare documentation useable and relevant. Using a combination of skilled personnel and the best processes, medical transcription companies strive to ensure that the healthcare documentation process takes place in an accurate and timely manner with minimum disruption to the healthcare professionals’ workflow.

Experience: The sheer experience of medical transcription companies in having met the diverse documentation needs of the healthcare sector puts them in a position to expertly guide healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities through the process of adopting EMR/ EHR using the right processes and the right technology without compromising on different aspects like security, accuracy and complete information
 .
Correct data: It is a known fact that healthcare professionals are busy professionals and lead a hectic work life. The data entered by them directly on to the EMR/ EHR using various options life point & click templates or front-end speech recognition software may not have the benefit of being checked for accuracy. Moreover this approach to documenting the care process ignores narrative data, which is very important. Transcription services provided by medical transcription companies ensure that not only is the data accurate but also ensure that the narrative portion of the patient encounter is also preserved.

Convenient:  As dictation has remained the preferred choice of healthcare professionals for documenting the care process and medical transcription services cater to this option, it becomes a very convenient option for healthcare professionals. Medical transcription companies not only allow healthcare professionals to retain the mode of dictation preferred by them they also provide editing and proofreading services when healthcare professionals use speech recognition software to document the care process.

Cost effective: Medical transcription services are very cost effective especially when outsourced to a professional medical transcription company as compared to in-house transcription. Outsourcing medical transcription has also proven to be cost effective as compared to the other methods of documenting the care process as they help save on the time of healthcare professionals thus enhancing their productivity.

Flexible: Over and above all these advantages, medical transcription companies also aid in the adoption for EMR/ EHR by providing numerous options that include:

  • Editing and proofreading services for speech recognition software
  • HL7 interface
  • Structured dictation
  • Structured transcription
  • Discrete reportable transcription.
It can be concluded that the experience and expertise of medical transcription companies are useful resources for current and future healthcare documentation needs, in spite of the changing healthcare documentation horizon.

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.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

How to improve quality of transcription and quicken reimbursements

The healthcare documentation scenario is changing rapidly towards more accountability and better connectivity; putting more and more pressure on healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals to improve the quality of documentation. Quality of documentation plays a vital role not only in terms of better accountability and connectivity it is vital for communication, better care, meeting statutory obligation and for the purpose of reimbursements.

Medical transcription is one such service that aids healthcare professionals in documenting the entire patient encounter in a manner that is not only easy but also helps meet all the quality standards of speed, accuracy, safety of information etc. Meeting these criteria ensures purposes like easy sharing of information, providing continued care, meeting statutory obligations and quickening reimbursements are fulfilled. However as quality transcription has its own requirements in terms of inputs like the right team, the right technology, the right infrastructure and the right process; the right solution for healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals to ensure quality transcription is to outsource the entire process to a professional medical transcription company.

How does outsourcing medical transcription help improve the quality of transcription and quicken reimbursements?

Skilled medical transcriptionists: One of the main advantages of outsourcing medical transcription in terms of improving quality of transcription is the ready availability of well-trained and skilled medical transcriptionists. Skilled medical transcriptionists are aware of the transcription requirements; well versed in the specialty they are transcribing for and educated on the latest developments in the field of medicine. This ensure the maximum accuracy possible which in turn not only ensures better care but also better coding and billing leading to quicker reimbursements

Refined processes: Medical transcription companies are aware of the requirements of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities in terms of quality of transcription. Keeping this in mind they have refined their processes to ensure that transcription is not only accurate but also meets the specific needs of each and every healthcare professional.  This also enables them to provide seamless services for holidays and weekends.

Quicker turnaround time:  Apart from meeting the accuracy standards and the specific requirements expected by healthcare professionals, medical transcription companies also ensure quicker turnaround time. As the patient medical record forms the basis for coding and billing, quicker transcription leads to quicker reimbursements.

Conduit for adoption of EMR/ EHR: With the deadline for adoption of EMR/ EHR fast approaching healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals are scrambling for ways to meet these deadlines. Using their vast experience and their agility in providing technological solutions for medical transcription needs, medical transcription companies have acted as conduit for adopting EMR/ EHR. They provide options like structured dictation, structured transcription., discrete reportable transcription, HL7 interface and editing & proofreading services for speech recognition software to bridge this gap.

Security and confidentiality: Another important aspect that medical transcription companies aid in is ensuring HIPAA and HITECH compliance throughout the transcription process by securing all aspects

Lowering costs: Apart from all the above mentioned advantages one of the most significant benefits of outsourcing medical transcription is savings on cost of medical transcription to the extent of as much as 40% on the current costs.

It can be concluded that medical transcription companies provide complete for transcription needs that not only meet the changing needs of the current scenario but also help healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities save on cost.

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.

Monday, May 28, 2012

How to outsource medical transcription and ensure HIPAA compliance during the process

HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, applies to medical transcription for protection of confidential personal health information of patients during the process of medical transcription. This data is especially vulnerable during the process of transmission. Now the HITECH act has improved and expanded on the concerns and issues raised by HIPAA.

HITECH has improved and expanded on the concerns and issues addressed by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). HITECH has added new requirements concerning privacy and security for health information that materially and directly affects many entities, businesses, and individuals in ways more diverse than HIPAA.

How do HIPAA and HITECH regulations affect medical transcription service providers?

HITECH has added as ‘Business Associates’, organizations that transmit protected Health Information and require access on a regular basis to such information.

Medical transcription is the process of converting audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. The process of medical transcription is made efficient and cost effective when outsourced to a professional medical transcription service provider. Medical transcription service providers come under the purview of HITECH as business associates, as they have access to patient health information and are involved in the process of transmitting this data back and forth during the process of transcription.

What are the factors that need to be checked on to ensure that a medical transcription company is HIPAA and HITECH compliant during the process of outsourcing?

The process for evaluating HIPAA and HITECH compliance of the medical transcription company being outsourced to needs to cover the following points:

  • Whether the medical transcription company has identified the compliance requirements specific to their organization.
  • Has the medical transcription company carried out a risk analysis that includes the total flow of Patient Health Information (PHI) during the process of transcription? This needs to include the beginning of the process, all the steps in between up to the conclusion of the process, namely:
  1. Collection of dictation
  2. Transmission of audio files
  3. Distribution of audio files for transcription
  4. Shared access for quality checks
  5. Transmission of transcripts back to the healthcare professionals
  6. Archiving.
·                 One needs to evaluate whether the service provider has identified the high-risk areas and looked at the current risk containment measures. The measures need to be revised to ensure that they are in tandem with current requirements and latest technology, making sure there are no loopholes to allow for breaches
·                 It is important to ensure that the employees of the medical transcription company and any third parties having access to PHI are fully trained on the privacy and security requirements. Make them aware of their role in protecting PHI
·                 Does the medical transcription company review existing relationships between covered entities and develop a continuing compliance strategy?
·                 Has the medical transcription company developed a strategy to minimize breaches, an early detection plan for identifying breaches and an action plan for quick responses to contain breaches, if any?

Checking on all the above factors during the process of outsourcing medical transcription ensures that healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals are ensured of HIPAA and HITECH compliance throughout the process.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has always understood the importance of securing and protecting confidential patient health information during the process of medical transcription. Measures have been taken to ensure that PHI is protected at all levels. The measures taken by TransDyne to be HITECH complaint include:

Securing people and processes:  People and processes are secured by implementing the following:

  • No sub-contractors: Work outsourced to TransDyne is executed in-house and no subcontractors are used.
  • Educating the team: The transcription team, i.e. medical transcriptionists, proof readers, language editors and the quality assurance team have been educated on the importance of protecting and securing PHI
  • Inbuilt security routines: All applications and processes have inbuilt security measures like password changes, access audits and related exercises.
  • Joint access: Most confidential databases can only be accessed by a combination of passwords of a minimum of two individuals.
  • Restricted Internet and Email access: Unlimited access to Internet can lead to security breaches. Access is limited to a few limited sites.
  • Legal Declarations: Declarations are signed by employees undertaking to maintain the security of data.
  • Security audits: Frequent audits are carried out to ensure that all procedures are followed and are effective
  • Disabling ports for removable media: Ports for using removable media have been disabled to eliminate misuse of PHI.
Securing Infrastructure:  Infrastructure is secured by the following means:

  • Company owned and managed facilities
  • Manned security
  • Video surveillance.
Securing Technology: Technology has been secured by use of security features like

  • All medical transcription related software applications are built in-house. 
  • Database based systems.
  • 128-bit data encryption
  • Multi-tiered application architecture
  • Design level security safeguards
  • Firewall protected networks
  • Sterilized e-mail servers
  • Denial of access procedures and
  • Multi-modal alerts.
TransDyne 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.

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.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Medical transcription outsourcing: Selection process for choosing the right service provider

The recent reforms proposed for healthcare are aimed towards the creation of an US-based health information network with the expectation that adoption of EMR/ EHR and investment in newer technology will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy and save lives. As the healthcare sector is preparing to move towards the attainment of this goal one of the key factors for the success of this that emerges, is the need for clear and secure information sharing among all the stakeholders involved in the healthcare process.

As medical transcription has always played a key role in the healthcare documentation process and is a method of documenting the care process most suited to the healthcare professionals’ workflow; it becomes important to capitalize on the skilled personnel, vast experience, expertise and the technology offered by the transcription sector in making the move towards adoption of EMR/ EHR.

However as the role of medical transcription is transitioning from that of being a mere documentation support to a being an agent for easy and economic adoption of EMR/ EHR without disrupting the vital patient–healthcare professional interaction, the selection process for choosing the right medical transcription company also needs to change.

Apart from the usual criteria of accuracy, speed, security and lower costs medical transcription companies need to be evaluated on a whole new host of criteria, which include:

Structured dictation: This method of dictation necessitates healthcare professionals to follow a structure pattern of dictation. It is important to evaluate the capability of the medical transcription company to support structured dictation modes This allows the medical transcription companies to create reports with all the relevant data in a certain format while still retaining the entire patient story.

Structured transcription: This method focuses on standardizing the report format based on various aspects of the specialty and other factors. Medical transcription companies need to be able to provide structured transcription by training their medical transcriptionists in one or two specialties making them domain experts. Structured transcription also enables easier adoption of EMR/ EHR using HL7 interface while retaining the option to retain dictation as a mode of data collection.

Discrete reportable transcription: Discrete reportable transcription can be defined as a unique approach to adoption of EMR/ EHR, which continues to use the traditional method of transcription to create transcripts while instantly populating the EMR/ EHR with discrete data elements. Under this method once the healthcare professional has finished dictating his/her notes, transcripts are created through the usual transcription process using expert medical transcriptionists who ensure accuracy and speed.  After transcription, the transcription software automatically tags the discrete data within the document, such as lab values and medications into the appropriate fields in the EMR/ EHR, using XML coding.

Back end speech recognition software: Outsourced medical transcription service providers can aid in the process of speech recognition software transcription by providing editing and proof reading services for the transcripts produced by speech recognition software to bring the accuracy levels to acceptable and usable levels. The capability of the medical transcription company needs to be evaluated in this regard. This enables the healthcare professionals to concentrate on their core activity of providing care.

It can be concluded that medical transcription companies provide structured support for transcription needs that not only meet the changing needs of the current scenario but also help healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities save on cost.

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.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Medical transcription outsourcing: The role played in revenue management

The healthcare community is under constant pressure to meet the increasing demands for quality services while still maintaining a healthy bottom line, meeting statutory obligations between numerous other obligations.  Healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals are aided by many support services in their goal to meet all these contradictory demands placed on them. One such service that aid healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals is medical transcription. Medical transcription is the process of creating patient medical records from the dictation of healthcare professionals regarding the patient encounter.

Though this is essentially the main service provided by medical transcription companies, medical transcription also has a large to play in revenue management.

What is the role of medical transcription in efficient revenue management?

Documenting the care process in detail: It is a known fact the complete documentation of the patient encounter has a vital role to play in the reimbursement process. Medical transcription companies aid in this process by ensuring proper and complete documentation of the care process using skilled medical transcriptionists and rigorous processes to create legible and accurate patient medical records. This forms the base for coding and billing leading to reimbursement.

Documenting the care process on time: Another factor that medical transcription companies help in the reimbursement cycle is by expediting the process. Medical transcription companies ensure that transcription takes place as quickly as possible using a combination of skilled medical transcriptionists and the right process and transmitted back to the healthcare facility in a speedy and secure manner using the right technology.

Minimizing cost of transcription: Medical transcription companies not only actively aid in accelerating the reimbursement process but they also help reduce cost of transcription by limiting it to the actual usage and thereby contribute to indirectly to increasing revenues.

Reducing indirect costs incurred due to in-house transcription: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that all the indirect costs incurred due to in-house transcription like the cost of real estate, cost of utilities, cost of management resources etc used for transcription are eliminated and can be used for developing the core business of the healthcare facility.

Providing support for adoption of EMR/ EHR: Apart from providing support for accelerating reimbursements and savings on cost of transcription, medical transcription companies also aid in the adoption for EMR/ EHR contributing to better revenue management. Some of the support services provided by medical transcription companies towards this end are:

  • Editing and proofreading services for speech recognition software
  • HL7 interface
  • Structured dictation
  • Structured transcription
  • Discrete reportable transcription.
It can be concluded that medical transcription companies have a significant role to play in efficient revenue management by providing quality services.

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.