Medical transcription outsourcing: Offering intrinsic support to healthcare

The healthcare sector is always under constant pressure to deliver quality results. This becomes an arduous task given the constraints faced by the healthcare sector due to steady rise in costs and increasingly restrictive statutory norms. In this situation it becomes essential for healthcare facilities to concentrate on tighter expense management and improving process efficiencies. One of the effective methods of achieving this is outsourcing all activities that are not part of the core competencies of the healthcare facility. Medical transcription is one such process. Though medical transcription provides valuable support in various aspects of successfully running a healthcare facility, it is not part of the core business.

Outsourcing medical transcription has proven to be beneficial to healthcare facilities in several aspects. This is because outsourced medical transcription service providers provide services that have an understanding of the working of healthcare facilities. Outsourced medical transcription service providers provide services that offer intrinsic support to healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals at several levels.

How do outsourced medical transcription service providers provide intrinsic support to healthcare professionals/ healthcare facilities?

Medical transcription is a service that has been associated with the healthcare sector over a long period of time. Medical transcription as a service has evolved with the changing needs of the healthcare sector, by refining its processes and using the right technology. This has helped medical transcription services to become an intrinsic element of providing quality healthcare profitably.

Medical transcription services not only have an inherent understanding of the working life of healthcare professionals, but also are also aware of the impact of quality patient medical records on the revenue cycle management and the risk management aspects. Some of the key areas that are the focus of healthcare facilities in which outsourced medical transcription services play a role are:

• Greater productivity: Due to the extensive experience working with and constant exposure to the healthcare sector, outsourced medical transcription service providers are aware of the needs of the healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities. This has enabled them to provide services that help increase productivity. These include:

1.      Allowing healthcare professionals to use familiar method of documenting the patient encounter – dictation to transcription

2.      Allowing healthcare professionals to use familiar modes of dictation

3.      Providing turnaround time options based on the needs of healthcare professionals

4.      Using software and tools to ensure an efficient medical transcription system, starting from collection of audio to preferred document delivery modes saving time and enhancing productivity of healthcare professionals and other support staff.

• Less waste: Outsourcing medical transcription essentially ensures that the key resources of the healthcare facility including resources like real estate, overheads, time & expertise of healthcare facility staff are focused on the core activity of providing quality care rather than medical transcription. Moreover outsourcing medical transcription has the additional benefit of savings on cost and accelerating the reimbursement process.

• Improved quality: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the quality of transcription is maintained along with factors like turnaround time, cost and security. This in turn has a positive impact on the quality of services provided by the healthcare facility, therefore on the reputation and profitability.

Apart from the above benefits outsourced medical transcription service providers provide services that take into consideration the changing requirements of the healthcare documentation scenario. Outsourced medical transcription service providers provide editing and proof reading services for speech recognition software transcription and also enable HL7 interface. Both these services help in the process of adopting EMR/ EHR as mandated by the law.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has been providing medical transcription services for over a decade. TransDyne has used their extensive background in information technology to create systems that provide maximum benefits and save on efforts.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert 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 outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Helps with all around improvement of healthcare operations

Medical transcription services have had a long-term association with the healthcare sector by helping document the patient- healthcare professional encounter in a way that helps healthcare facilities in various ways. As information from patient medical records is essential for various activities of the healthcare facility it is essential to streamline the documentation process so that it meets the criteria of being accurate, timely, secure and cost effective. Outsourcing medical transcription has been found to be one of the most effective and economical methods of doing this.

Moreover medical transcription is a specialized skill requiring the right combination of people, processes and technology to be able to deliver quality services consistently. To this end, choosing a medical transcription service provider has to be done with utmost care. It is important to evaluate the capabilities of the medical transcription service provider against the outcomes desired from the outsourcing decision.

What are the expected outcomes of outsourcing medical transcription?

The expected outcome of outsourcing medical transcription can broadly be categorized as:

• Medical transcription workflow integrated with the healthcare professionals' workflow: Given the busy work life of healthcare professionals and the criticality of healthcare services it is important that any service associated with healthcare does not hinder the workflow of healthcare professionals. Medical transcription services naturally integrate into the workflow of healthcare professionals. Some of the main benefits of outsourced medical transcription services that aid in this aspect are:

1.      The option to use dictation as means of data capture. This is the most preferred method and helps capture the narrative portion of the patient encounter in an efficient manner

2.      The productivity of healthcare professionals is further enhanced by allowing them to use familiar modes of dictation

3.      Healthcare professionals and support staff at the healthcare facility are further aided by features that enable automatic transmission of audio files at frequent intervals for transcription.

4.      Editing and proofreading services are provided for transcripts created by using speech recognition software

• Quick access and easy exchange of information: The technology used by the medical transcription service provider enables features that ensure that once the patient medical records are transcribed, they are made available to the healthcare professionals through the modes specified by them. These options include delivery to particular folders, delivery to more than one healthcare professional, options for remote printing & faxing etc. Medical transcription service providers even enable adoption of EMR/ EHR using HL7 interface. Outsourced medical transcription service providers also make accessing older records easier by archiving older transcripts, which can be searched using various criteria.

• Reduced costs and improved cash flow: One of the main advantages of outsourcing medical transcription is the substantial savings on cost, both direct and indirect. Not only that efficient medical transcription services also help accelerate the reimbursement process as the information from the patient medical record forms the basis of the coding and billing leading to reimbursements.

• Overall improvement in efficiency: Outsourcing medical transcription helps the healthcare facility improve on efficiency by allowing them to focus all their resources on their core business. Outsourcing medical transcription essentially ensures that activities like recruitment, training and work allocation to medical transcriptionists are eliminated or minimized. Overheads like real estate, equipment for transcription and others allocated to in-house medical transcription can be directed towards the core business of the healthcare facility.

It can be seen that outsourced medical transcription services help in the overall improvement of the healthcare facility operations.

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 total medical transcription solutions with an inherent understanding of the working life of healthcare professionals and the operations of healthcare facilities. The medical transcription solutions provided by TransDyne help in improving the operations of 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.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing services that cover all stakeholders

The process of healthcare is complex and requires inputs from several sources. Medical transcription is one of the sources that provide inputs that aid the healthcare process. Medical transcription is the process of creating patient medical records from the audio of the patient- healthcare professional encounter. Medical transcription is one of most preferred method of documenting the healthcare process as it meets all the quality criteria of being accurate, timely, secure and cost effective, besides being flexible. As medical transcription requires specialized inputs in the form of the right team, the right technology and the right process to be able to meet all these quality criteria, outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service provider has been found to be an ideal solution.

As the process of healthcare have several stakeholders with often contrary expectations it is important to assess whether outsourced medical transcription services meet the needs of all stakeholders in the healthcare process.

Stakeholders have been defined as any party that can affect or be affected by the actions of the business as a whole.

Who are the stakeholders in the healthcare process?

The stakeholders in the healthcare process can be categorized as:

• Healthcare professionals/ healthcare facilities
• Payers
• Employers
• Patients

How do outsourced medical transcription services meet the expectations of the stakeholders of the healthcare process?

Outsourced medical transcription service providers provide services that help fulfill the expectations of the stakeholders in the healthcare process, by providing services that include the following:

• Accurate records: Outsourced medical transcription service providers create accurate records of the patient encounter including the narrative. This aids in various aspects including

1.     Clinical decision making

2.     Avoiding waste of resources by avoiding unnecessary or repetitive tests

3.     Risk management

4.     Giving patients a clear picture of their health and the care that is being given

• Timely creation of records: Outsourced medical transcription service providers provide services that are prompt and meet the turnaround time requirements of healthcare professionals. This aids in various aspects including:

1.      Timely diagnoses

2.      Quicker reimbursement

3.      Quicker treatment

• Secure services: Outsourced medical transcription service providers ensure that the process of medical transcription is secure and the confidentiality of patient information is protected. HIPAA and HITECH compliance is an important expectation of all the stakeholders in the healthcare process.

• Cost effective services: Outsourced medical transcription service providers ensure that the cost of medical transcription is limited to just the cost per line. They also ensure substantial reduction in the cost per line resulting in savings over a period of time. This helps in lowering the cost of healthcare, which again is the expectation of all stakeholders.

• Technology: The technology used by the medical transcription service provider has an impact on several aspects including easier access, varied modes of document delivery, convenient modes of dictation, adoption of EMR/EHR through HL7 interface etc. The technology used by the medical transcription service provider has an impact on various aspects including flexibility, convenience, security etc.

It can be seen that choosing the right medical transcription service provider can help meet expectations of all the stakeholders in the healthcare process.

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 total medical transcription solutions.

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.

Medical transcription: Checklist for outsourcing

Medical transcription services have aided the healthcare process by creating accurate, timely and secure patient medical records of the patient– healthcare professional encounter. The information from patient medical records provides valuable support in various aspects of the healthcare facility operations including clinical decision making, risk management and managing the receivables cycle. As medical transcription requires concentrated inputs in the form of the right teams, the right technology and a stringent process to produce optimum results, outsourcing the entire medical transcription process has been found to be an effective solution.

Outsourcing medical transcription has the additional advantage of bringing down the cost of transcription substantially and the healthcare facilities & healthcare professionals benefit from the software and tools used by the medical transcription service provider. However considering that medical transcription services are not a one-time occurrence but are required on a continuous basis, the process for outsourcing medical transcription needs to be approached with concern.

The first step of outsourcing medical transcription would be to source medical transcription service providers and assess them on basic criteria like

• Experience
• References
• HIPAA compliance
• Use of subcontractors

The next step would be to assess the medical transcription service provider on the basis of their capacity to meet the following criteria:

• Accuracy
• Turnaround time
• Easy to use technology
• Pricing

Once the medical transcription service provider has been evaluated on these criteria, the next step would be to avail a free trial of services and make a checklist elaborating the scope of services, this should include:

• Modes of dictation
• Provision for upload of audio files
• Steps involved in transcription including quality processes
• The formats/ templates used
• Guidelines specifying transcription style
• Policy for blanks
• System for monitoring work in progress
• Modes of document delivery
• Provision for delivery to specified folder
• Provision for delivery of reports to more than one healthcare professional
• Provision for electronic signature
• HL7 interface

Making a checklist of the expectations from the outsourcing process can help the make the transition to using outsourced medical transcription services seamless. Actually having the expectations listed out makes the actual services easier to assess.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has been providing medical transcription services to some of the leaders in the healthcare sector for over a decade. TransDyne:

• Can provide the references of their customers
• Has provisions in place that ensure that confidential patient information is protected throughout the entire transcription process
• Believes in executing all medical transcription work in-house
• Offers services with an accuracy of above 99% using specialty trained medical transcriptionists and a rigorous quality assurance process.
• Offers a turnaround time of 24 hours, along with other flexible turnaround time options for STAT files
• Has technology that provides maximum benefits while still being easy to use
• Offers reasonable price using a verifiable, measurable, definable, consistent, fair and honest billing method
• The software and tools used by TransDyne offer numerous benefits that ease the working life of healthcare professionals and other support staff at the healthcare facility.

To avail complete medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here

Medical transcription outsourcing: Fulfilling valuable documentation needs

Information in every form is the demand of the hour and healthcare is no different. Healthcare facilities require information at every level to be able to run their operations successfully including clinical decision making, operational and commercial. There are many options available to healthcare facilities for documenting the healthcare process like having an in-house medical transcription department, using independent contractors, point and click entry by healthcare professionals at the point of care, speech recognition software and availing specialized medical transcription services from a professional medical transcription service provider.

Each method of documentation has its own pros and cons, however outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service provider has been found to be one of the most efficient and economical methods of documenting the patient encounter. Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service provider essentially allows the healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals to focus on the process of providing quality healthcare by providing valuable documentation that helps them in several aspects.

How does outsourcing medical transcription help fulfill valuable documentation needs?

It is a well-known fact that the substance in the patient medical records is essentially generated at the point of care by the healthcare professional.  However this data needs to be transformed into a usable form to be able to fulfill all purposes - clinical, operational and commercial. And medical transcription is a process that ensures that this data is transformed into patient medical records that are accurate, legible, consistent, secure, easily accessible, detailed and available on time.  Medical transcription services also have the advantage of being cost effective and flexible.

Accurate information: Outsourced medical transcription service providers ensure that patient medical records are created with maximum accuracy from the dictation of the healthcare professionals using skilled & well-trained medical transcriptionists and quality assurance process involving multiple level checks.

Legible information: Instead of audio recordings or hand written notes, the process of medical transcription ensures that patient medical records are created in the prescribed format/ template in a neat typed format, which makes it legible. 

Consistent Information: The information in patient medical records needs to be consistent to prevent confusion during the process of care. Outsourced medical transcription service providers ensure that the information is consistent by using the right team and the right process.

Secure Information: Outsourced medical transcription service providers understand the importance of maintaining the confidentiality and security during the process of medical transcription. To ensure this they use HIPAA and HITECH compliant systems and processes.

Easily accessible information: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures easy accessibility of information by providing multiple options for document delivery that ensure that the healthcare professional/s involved in the process of care have access to the right information. Older records are made easily accessible from archives using various search criteria.

Detailed information: One of the major advantages of documenting the care process using medical transcription services is that of being able to preserve the narrative of the patient story, which is an important part of the clinical decision making process and provides valuable support for risk management.

Timely information: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the information in patient medical records is made available to the healthcare professionals by offering flexible turnaround time options.

Apart from the above advantages, outsourced medical transcription services also provide:

• Cost effective services: Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service provider ensures substantial cost saving in both direct and indirect cost of transcription

• Flexible services: Another major advantage of outsourcing medical transcription is that of flexibility of services, including:

           

1.      Volume of transcription

2.      Weekend and holiday transcription

3.      Turnaround time options

4.      Formats/ templates

5.      Modes of dictation

6.      Modes of document delivery

7.      Editing and proof reading services for speech recognition software transcription

8.      HL7 interface for EMR/EHR adoption

It can be seen that outsourcing to the right medical transcription service provider can help fulfill valuable documentation requirements of the healthcare facility.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has been providing medical transcription services for over a decade. TransDyne has used their extensive background in information technology to create systems that provide maximum benefits and save on efforts.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert 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 outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Empowering healthcare facilities

Medical transcription has had a long-term association with the healthcare sector; creating patient medical records that aid in various aspects of running a healthcare facility. As medical transcription is a service that requires inputs like the right team, the right technology and the right processes to meet the changing needs of the healthcare documentation scenario, outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service provider has been found to be an efficient and economical fix.

Outsourcing medical transcription has several advantages like accurate, timely, secure and cost effective creation of patient medical records. These in turn help the healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities in various aspects like clinical, operational and commercial areas. Outsourcing medical transcription also has the advantage of empowering healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals to perform even better.

How do outsourced medical transcription services empower healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals to perform better?

Outsourced medical transcription services empower healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals by providing service that include the following benefits:

• Providing services on a turnkey basis: Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional medical transcription service provider ensures that the entire process of transcription beginning from the resource mobilization to delivery of transcripts is the responsibility of the medical transcription service provider.  The medical transcription process would essentially involve the following:

1.      Planning for manpower required

2.      Recruitment and training of medical transcriptionists

3.      Allocation of resources like real estate, IT etc. for medical transcription

4.      Customizing services as per the specification of healthcare professionals

5.      Orienting healthcare professionals about the dictation platform etc

6.      Collecting dictation files

7.      Allocate transcription work

8.      Supervise quality

9.      Report distribution

10. Collecting feedback and using it as a learning tool

            One simple step of outsourcing medical transcription to a professional service provider             would ensure that the healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals could avail             services on a turnkey basis without having to go through the entire process.

• Providing a well-trained team of expert medical transcriptionists: One of the main components to ensure quality medical transcription is the quality of medical transcriptionists working on it. By outsourcing medical transcription the healthcare facility can essential pass on the drawn out process of sourcing- recruiting- training medical transcriptionists to the service provider. This ensures that the varying medical transcription requirements of the healthcare facility are supported by an expert team ensuring that accuracy and turnaround time standards are met with.

• Providing services using the right technology: Another important component of prompt, convenient and secure medical transcription services is the technology used in the process. By sourcing the right service provider and outsourcing medical transcription, the healthcare facility and the healthcare professionals can benefit from the technology used by the medical transcription service provider. Benefits like using preferred mode of dictation, automatic upload of dictation, preferred modes of document delivery, remote printing & faxing, archives, keeping tabs on the work in progress and HL7 interface can be availed.

• Upgrading their services to meet changing needs: There have been many changes in the healthcare documentation scenario. Norms for documentation are changing, technology for documentation is also changing. Outsourced medical transcription service providers upgrade their services according to the changing scenario. Services like editing and proof reading for speech recognition software transcription and HL7 interface for adoption of EMR/EHR are automatically added to the range of services provided.

It can be concluded that the outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider empowers the healthcare facility to concentrate on the process of providing care.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has utilized their extensive background in information technology and their experience in providing medical transcription services to come up with medical transcription solutions that help healthcare facilities save on time, money and effort. TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert 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 outsourced medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here

Medical transcription outsourcing: Finding the right service provider is the key to long-term success

The process of healthcare has always been supported by quality documentation to be able to function effectively. Healthcare depends on information in patient medical records to function effectively in several areas including, clinical, operational, research, epidemic management, risk management and commercial purposes.  There are many ways of documenting the patient- healthcare professional encounter; medical transcription, the process of converting the dictation of the healthcare professionals to text is one of the most preferred methods given the advantages of this method.

The process of medical transcription ensures that patient medical records are created with maximum accuracy and legibility, within specified turnaround time, in a cost effective manner and transmitted through HIPAA compliant channels. To meet all these performance standards, medical transcription requires an optimum combination of the right team, the right process and use of the right technology.

Though medical transcription plays a vital role in the efficient running of healthcare facilities, it is not part of the core business. The easy fix for healthcare facilities to ensure quality documentation is to outsource the entire process to a professional medical transcription service provider. However the process of outsourcing medical transcription needs to be approached with caution to ensure that the medical transcription service provider meets all the medical transcription needs of the healthcare facility on a long-term basis.

To ensure that the right service provider is chosen it is important to elaborate on the role of medical transcription and assess the medical transcription service provider against these criteria.  Medical transcription service providers need to assessed on their ability to meet the following criteria:

• Quality of patient care: The quality of patient care depends on many factors, one of the vital factors being the information in patient medical records. Patient medical records reflect the history of the patients, symptoms, treatments availed, allergy information, reports on tests & procedures availed, inputs from specialists if any and also the demographics. This information forms a foundation for the healthcare professional to plan the patient's treatment plan. Outsourced medical transcription service providers ensure that all this data is captured accurately from the dictation of the healthcare professionals' dictation using skilled medical transcriptionists and a stringent quality assurance process.

• Healthcare professionals satisfaction: To ensure that outsourced medical transcription services satisfy the needs of the healthcare professionals, it is important to source a medical transcription service provider who can customize their services on the basis of the specific requirements of the healthcare professionals including:

1.      Mode of dictation

2.      Mode of document delivery

3.      Turnaround time

4.      Formats/ templates required

• Reimbursements: Documenting the patient encounter is essential to ensure proper reimbursements.  Medical transcription services need to keep this factor in mind during the process of transcription to ensure quality documentation.

• Finances and resource allocation: One of the major advantages of outsourcing medical transcription is the substantial savings on cost. Not only does outsourcing medical transcription ensure cost savings it also ensures that the healthcare facility can allocate other vital resources like IT, real estate, utilities etc on their core business instead of on medical transcription.

• Adaptability to changes in technology: Taking into consideration the changing documentation scenario it is important to source a technologically savvy medical transcriptions service provider and assess them on their capabilities to change with the changing requirements in terms of technology.

It can be concluded that outsourcing to the right medical transcription service provider can provide major benefits to the healthcare facility, which permeate various levels of the healthcare facility.

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 total medical transcription solutions.

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.