Medical transcription outsourcing: Helps in managing total quality

The concept of quality in healthcare services can be easily defined for each stakeholder who is involved in the healthcare business. Considering the number of stakeholders in the healthcare process the definition of quality for each segment would vary according to their role in the healthcare process.  One common indisputable thread that binds all the stakeholders in the healthcare process is that of documentation of the care process.  Quality documentation of the care process is essential to fulfill all the diverse and often contradictory demands of all stakeholders.

Medical transcription is the process of documenting the care process by converting the dictation of the patient- healthcare professional encounter into text format. As the medical transcription process requires focused resources in the form of the right team, the right process and the right technology, outsourcing medical transcription would be considered the right solution. Outsourcing medical transcription not only ensures accurate, timely, secure and cost-effective creation of patient medical records but also helps meet the quality inputs required by all the stakeholders in the care process.

Who are the stakeholders in the care process and how do outsourced medical transcription services help in managing the total quality inputs required by the various stakeholders?

The main stakeholders in the care process can be defined as:

• Patients: The expectations of the patient from the care process can be summed up as:

1.     Quality care

2.     Low costs

3.     Confidentiality

Outsourced medical transcription services aid in all these aspects by creating accurate and timely patient medical records that reflect the entire patient story. This helps healthcare professionals in clinical decision-making. Outsourced medical transcription also brings down the cost of transcription thus helping reduce costs and protects PHI throughout the entire process of medical transcription by securing technology, infrastructure, people and processes.

• Healthcare professionals and support staff: The expectations of the healthcare professional can be summed up as:

1.     Option to preserve the narrative portion of the patient encounter

2.     Option to retain familiar modes of dictation

3.     Customized turnaround time options

4.     Reports in preferred formats/ templates

5.     Delivery of transcripts through the specified modes

6.     Adoption of EMR/ EHR without major changes in working style

Outsourced medical transcription services provide support using technology that provides all these benefits while still being easy to use. This helps healthcare professionals and support staff avail all the benefits of technology while still maximizing their focus and productivity. Features like archives, web based delivery, HL7 interface etc help in fulfilling the expectations of healthcare professionals

• The management of the healthcare facility: The expectations of the healthcare facility management can be summed up as:

1.     Reducing costs

2.     Protection against litigation

3.     Reduce the cost of overheads

4.     Quickening reimbursements

Outsourced medical transcription services provide services that help healthcare facilities convert the fixed cost of medical transcription to variable costs thus helping them save on overheads. The detailed patient medical records created by the outsourced medical transcription service provider helps in risk management and receivables management.

The other stakeholders in the healthcare process like regulatory authorities, insurance companies and the pharmaceutical sector also benefit from the detailed, accurate, timely, secure and cost effective creation of patient medical records.

It can be seen that a professional and technologically savvy medical transcription service provider can help in managing quality at all levels.

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.

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.