Medical transcription outsourcing: Bridging the gap to meaningful use

Medical transcription has been a part of the healthcare scenario providing invaluable services by helping document the patient- healthcare professional encounter in a format that is accurate, timely and easily accessible. Patient medical records help healthcare professionals in the process of providing quality healthcare and healthcare facilities in accelerating reimbursements and meeting statutory requirements.  Moreover documenting the patient- healthcare professional encounter is also an important part of risk management and preventive disease management.

With the introduction of the recent stimulus plan encouraging the adoption of nationwide electronic health records, the role of medical transcription has become unclear. But with more and more healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities moving towards adoption of electronic health records, the role of medical transcription services in the process of adoption has emerged clearly. 

What is the role of medical transcription in the current scenario?

Medical transcription is a specialized skill requiring the right inputs to ensure quality documentation. Over the years outsourced medical transcription service providers have developed the right resources to enable services that meet all the parameters; quality, speed, and security. These resources namely, trained and skilled medical transcriptionists and the right processes and technology can play an invaluable in the process of transitioning to EMR/EHR systems.

There are many options available to healthcare professionals to enter information into electronic health records systems:

• Use of front-end speech recognition software: Experts are of the opinion that speech recognition software is here to stay and will play a major role in the healthcare documentation scenario. However this software has some inherent shortcomings. In spite of extensive training of the software, the accuracy of the transcripts produced by this software require extensive proofreading and editing to meet acceptable standards. Though using front end speech recognition software helps the healthcare professional document the patient encounter instantaneously, it hinders the productivity of the healthcare professional and quality of the transcript

• Entry into the system by the healthcare professional using point and click templates at the point of care: Under this method the healthcare professional could document the encounter at the point of care using point and click templates with drop down menu options. However using this method has some shortcomings like:

1.     Taking the focus of the healthcare professional away from the patient

2.     Lack of narrative

3.     Curbs the productivity of the healthcare professional

4.     Can lead to mistakes in documentation due to the pressure on the healthcare professionals to be limited to the options provided in the menu

5.     Limits the diagnostic process

Given below are options for documenting the patient- healthcare professional encounter that use the expert services of medical transcriptionists and medical transcription service providers:

• Back end speech recognition software: This software works the same way as front end speech recognition software, except that the first draft of the transcript produced by this software is sent to the medical transcription service provider for expert editing and proofreading by skilled medical transcriptionists. This ensures that the productivity of the healthcare professional is not curbed and the quality standards are maintained.

• Dictation transcribed to patient medical records transmitted to EHR using HL7 interface: This method is probably the method most preferred by healthcare professionals. Under this method the healthcare professional can dictate notes of the patient encounter using his/ her preferred mode of dictation, the dictation is then transferred to the medical transcription service provider for transcription by expert medical transcriptionists. The transcripts are made available to the healthcare professionals through their preferred delivery mode/s. Technologically savvy medical transcription service providers enable transmission to the EMR/ EHR using HL7 interface.

It can be seen that medical transcription services act as a bridge to the process of achieving the meaningful use criteria by using the right team, the right processes and the right technology. Considering the rich source of knowledge, skills and understanding of the working of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities accumulated by the medical transcription industry it is important to include the medical transcription sector in the transition to electronic health systems.

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 versatile and technologically savvy medical transcription solutions.  TransDyne provides valuable support to the healthcare sector by providing support for speech recognition transcription by including editing and proofreading services. TransDyne has a smart delivery system, which has features like User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems. The Smart Delivery system is the suggested mode of document delivery where pre-defined file saving would help import documents to EMR systems.

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 versatile and technologically savvy medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.