Medical transcription is a service that is vital for the smooth running of healthcare facilities, having an effect on both the operational and commercial aspects by creating accurate, timely and secure patient records. Though medical transcription plays a vital role in the smooth running of healthcare facilities it is not part of the core competencies of the healthcare facility. The best solution to ensure efficient and economic creation of patient records is to outsource medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service provider.
Outsourcing medical transcription not only ensures accurate, timely and secure creation of patient transcripts it also ensures substantial cost savings to the healthcare facility in terms of direct as well as indirect costs. The process of outsourcing medical transcription would essentially involve the following steps:
- Defining the objectives of outsourcing medical transcription: The first step would involve clearly defining the desired outcome/s from the outsourcing decision. The objectives for outsourcing medical transcription could consist of factors like reducing cost of transcription, improving quality of services, shortening the turnaround time, reducing indirect expenses incurred for transcription or a combination of any of the above objectives.
- Sourcing medical transcription service providers: Once the objective of outsourcing medical transcription has been clearly defined the next step would involve sourcing service providers based on these criteria. This stage would essentially involve eliminating those service providers who do not meet the qualifying criteria defined by the healthcare facility.
- Obtaining proposals from the medical transcription service providers including:
1. Pricing and billing methodology
2. Assured levels of accuracy
3. Turnaround time options
4. Details of technology platform used for transcription
5. Security measures to ensure HIPAA and HITECH compliance
- Evaluating the medical transcription proposals: It is important to evaluate not only the parameters of services as provided by the medical transcription company but also their capability to deliver these services as defined.
1. Pricing in medical transcription needs to be carefully evaluated by studying the billing method used by the service provider
2. The capability of the service provider to deliver accurate medical transcription services can be assessed by evaluating their training methods and the quality control method.
3. The capability of the service provider to meet turnaround time commitment can be evaluated by evaluating the technology used by them along with their methods for achieving accuracy.
4. The criteria of evaluating the technology used by the service provider should be that the healthcare facility should not require further investments and the technology used for medical transcription should provide multiple benefits while still being easy to use.
5. HIPAA and HITECH compliance can be evaluated by checking the measures taken by the medical transcription service provider to secure technology, processes, infrastructure and people
- Checking for references: The experience and expertise of the medical transcription service provider can be evaluated by checking on the references of customers who have already availed outsourced medical transcription services from them
- Availing free trial: Availing a free trial would enable the healthcare facility to test the service capabilities of the service provider and compatibility first hand
- Signing the contract: This would involve formalizing and agreeing upon the specifics of the service required from the medical transcription service provider.
- Using the services: Integrating the transcription system and actually start utilizing the outsourced medical transcription services.
- Checking for customer service channels: Throughout the process of outsourcing from the stage of sourcing medical transcription service providers to the stage where the healthcare facility starts availing outsourced medical transcription services the channels available to the healthcare facility for communicating with the medical transcription service provider play a vital role. The role of having multiple channels of communication for customer service and feedback is even more vital once the actual outsourcing process begins.
It is important for healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals to evaluate the channels of communication and customer services available to ensure smooth transition to outsourced services. The advantages of having multiple channels for customer service support include:
· Instant solution to any technical problems
· Instant customization of services
· Instant feedback and improvement in quality
· Instant clarification regarding billing
· Two way communication for improvement of services
Evaluating the medical transcription service provider based on all criteria including availability of customer service channels can help smooth transition to outsourced medical transcription services.
TransDyne, leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry provides services with the following benefits:
Ø TransDyne offers a reasonable and fair price by charging 10 cents per line, which is calculated by using the character line pricing method.
Ø TransDyne maintains a large, well-trained team of medical transcriptionists, which enables them to cope with varying volumes
Ø TransDyne offers medical transcription services by using the latest technology that is advanced and easy to use.
Ø TransDyne uses the character line billing method that is verifiable, definable, measurable, consistent and fair & honest
Ø TransDyne has the testimonials of their success stories available for viewing on their website.
To know more details on how TransDyne can ease the medical transcription process please click here
No comments:
Post a Comment