Transcription outsourcing: Providing a simple resolution to numerous problems

Managing a health facility, whether it is a single healthcare professional clinic, or a huge healthcare facility with numerous specialties is not simple. It is always a constant tussle to get the most, from limited assets. The main aim of a health facility is to provide superb care, profitably. There could be many other aims like building a standing for quality care, research and expansion plans.

It is therefore crucial for the management of the health facility to focus all its overheads towards their key goal. To attain their main objective of providing excellent care cost-effectively, numerous inputs are needed like skillful health professionals, the optimum equipment, and enough infrastructure and quality & prompt information.

Voice transcription performs a crucial role in forming patient records by changing audio records of the patient – physician encounter into text format, thus providing health professionals with quality and timely information. Having correct and prompt details refines the competence of care. But having medical records created in-house can drain the health facility with both direct and indirect expenses.

Contracting out medical transcription provides a simple answer to the report creation needs of the health facility. Outsourcing voice transcription has advantages like:

Confines expenditure of medical transcription to the expenses per line of transcription: Outsourcing voice transcription helps the health facility contain medical transcription expenditure. Direct costs like remuneration of medical transcriptionists, taxes and insurance are gotten rid of. Indirect costs like costs of capital equipment, expenses of information technology, space and administration overheads are also eliminated. This empowers the healthcare facility utilize its restricted overheads in an right manner.

Quickens the coding and billing cycle: Voice transcription is the first stage of the receivables management cycle. Contracting out medical transcription makes certain that patient records are created on time. This makes sure that the process of reimbursement can take place quickly.

Helps the health facility focus on its most important business: By contracting out medical transcription, the healthcare facility gains from the experience of the service provider and the software and tools used by the transcription service provider. This eases the drain of the health facility staff towards transcription related activities like collecting audio records, uploading audio records, downloading of completed transcripts, confidentiality and archiving etc. This enables them increase focus on the main business of the healthcare facility.

It can be established that contracting out transcription provides the healthcare facility with an easy answer for their report creation requirements. However while outsourcing transcription, the healthcare practice is obligated to make sure that the transcription service provider can meet their needs in the desired manner. To make sure a long-term partnership the medical transcription vendor needs to be assessed on the following parameters:

Accuracy: This means the percentage of correctness of the completed reports vis-à-vis what was dictated. A minimum of 99% and above would be suitable.

Delivery time: Turnaround time refers to the time taken to revert the completed report to the health facility. A turnaround time of not more than 24 hours for normal reports and 4-12 hours for STAT records would be considered suitable.

Data security: The medical transcription company being outsourced to should be HIPAA compliant. The transcription vendor has to have adequate security measures to make certain that the confidential data transmitted to and fro is safe and confidential.

Costing: This is one of the key benefits that a healthcare facility hopes to have, from the contracting out option. Costing should be equitable and economical for the services rendered. Costing method should also be transparent and effortless so that both parties can check the same at any stage of the process.

Software and tools: The information technology employed by the voice transcription company should not only be secure but should also be easy to employ, without having to require extensive training.

TransDyne provides superb transcription at cost-effective rates, performed by experienced and qualified medical transcriptionists with a very quick delivery time performed through confidential HIPAA and HITECH compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to employ!                 

To benefit from effortless medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Choose a service provider with the right attitude

Doesn’t everybody really hate those nitpicky, fussy and perfectionist kind of people? They are the people who have to try their hardest to pick at the smallest mistakes and keep on trying till they get it right. Those are the kinds who are never satisfied till the highest level of perfection is achieved.

They have to go through every process more than once and explain everything in minute detail till everything is clear. They are the kind that likes to be called upon to test the skills that they have painstakingly developed.

One may not like their spouse, friends, family members or associates to have this kind of personality. But these are the qualities that a healthcare facility should look for in their medical transcription company. A healthcare facility needs them to be fussy and have an attitude of constantly striving for perfection, as medical transcription has a deep impact on the operations of the healthcare facility.

Quality:  A medical transcription service provider needs to take quality/ accuracy level of transcripts to heart and have measures in place to correct them and guidelines in place to make sure that the same mistakes are not repeated. A medical transcription company, with a perfectionist attitude will also make sure that their training process takes care of these needs by slanting their training needs to developing expert medical transcriptionists. Such a medical transcription company would also take great pride in having all the work in-house through their well-trained and committed employees rather than diluting the quality and violating security by sub-contracting the work.

Service on time: The medical transcription service provider would also take pride in making sure that the turnaround time committed by them is always met using a combination of expert teams, the right processes and the right technology to ensure that turnaround time is met with, without affecting accuracy.

Pricing: A medical transcription company with a perfectionist attitude would also ensure that the pricing is transparent and that there are no ambiguities in the billing method used. This would ensure that the components of cost are clear to both the parties involved to ensure smooth operations.

HIPAA and HITECH compliance: A medical transcription company with a perfectionist attitude would take security of confidential patient information very seriously. This would mean security at all levels like the technology used, securing the premises and educating the teams on the importance of HIPAA compliance.

Technology: As technology has a large role to play in the medical transcription process the medical transcription company needs to understand the role of technology and use technology that provides maximum benefits and still remain easy to use.  This would encompass every step of the transcription process starting with dictation to the delivery of transcripts to healthcare professionals.

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 has always strived to create perfect transcription solutions as per the changing needs of healthcare professionals and 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.

What are the qualities of a good medical transcriptionist?

When making the decision to outsource medical transcription needs, obviously recruitment and training requirements (with regard to medical transcriptionists) are also being outsourced to the medical transcription company

The quality of the transcripts depends entirely on the quality of transcriptionists. And this will be determined by the selection process and the training provided by the Medical Transcription Company that the healthcare facility chooses. 

What are the qualities that a good medical transcriptionist should have?

• Ability to multitask: Transcription is a skill that requires that a person be able to listen and type at the same time. They also have to be able to use the start/pause/stop function of the audio device. Being able to multitask is an important skill for a medical transcriptionist.

• Comfortable with the Internet: Audio files of the healthcare professional’s encounter with the patient are uploaded into server, these need to be downloaded by the medical transcriptionist and then the finished records need to uploaded to be transmitted to the healthcare facilities. The medical transcriptionist needs to search for difficult terms, words etc in the Internet.  All these activities entail that the medical transcriptionist should be Internet savvy.

• Research abilities: A medical transcriptionist needs to be adept at research whether it is on the Internet or in research books. This is important to ensure that gaps in the report are minimized.

• Speedy typing skills: Not only does a medical transcriptionist have to be accurate, he also has to have the ability to type reasonably fast to ensure that turnaround time guaranteed is met with.

• Good computer skills: Nowadays all medical transcription reports are created on the computer. Different formats are required to be used and headers & footers are required to be added for certain type of reports. Good computer skills are essential for a medical transcriptionist.

• Knowledge of medical terminology: Medical terminology is complex and not generally known to the layman. A good grasp of medical terminology is one of the main qualifications for a medical transcriptionist.

• Above average knowledge of English Grammar, punctuation and usage:  A medical transcriptionist needs to have good language skills along with all the other skills to be able to produce quality transcripts. Wrong usage of words, punctuation errors or any other grammatical errors could totally change the meaning of the report.

• Ability to concentrate filtering outside disturbances etc.:  A medical transcriptionist needs to be able to concentrate on the audio recording and filter out any extra noises in the tape, as well as external noises, in order to be able to produce accurate documents.

• Commitment to confidentiality:  A medical transcriptionist needs to understand that the work entrusted to him needs to be kept confidential as it pertains to private and important data. A serious commitment to maintaining confidentiality is an essential quality for a medical transcriptionist.

• Disciplined: It takes discipline and commitment on the part of the medical transcriptionist to produce accurate records in a timely manner, while maintaining confidentiality.

• An eye for details: To capture all the information and to make sure that it is done accurately, a medical transcriptionist needs to have an eye for details.

• Perfectionist attitude: An attitude of following through on all the difficult words/ terms and making sure that the accuracy of the finished transcript is as close to 100% requires that a medical transcriptionist needs to have a perfectionist attitude.

• Working well under constraints: A medical transcriptionist has to understand the importance of producing quality transcripts in a timely manner while tuning out external disturbances. An ability to work well under constraints is an important quality for a medical transcriptionist.

• Having a sense of Responsibility, Work Ethics, Integrity and Professional Attitude.

TransDyne believes in recruiting people with the right attitude towards perfection, commitment, and attention to detail, responsibility, commitment to confidentiality etc and developing their inherent aptitude to produce medical transcriptionists of immaculate quality who can provide accurate and timely transcription.

TransDyne believes in developing their aptitude even further by training them in one or two areas of medicine making them domain experts. This helps serve clients even better.

For more details about how to use TransDyne’s superior outsourced medical transcription service, click here.

Reduce management expenses by outsourcing medical transcription

Does a healthcare facility realize that management expenses form a major cost component of in-house transcription?

When the cost of in-house transcription is computed one of the cost components that is often overlooked is the cost of managing the in-house transcription needs. Managing medical transcription in-house would typically involve the following management activities:

Sourcing the right people: This would involve advertising for people and assessing the quality of people before recruiting them as transcriptionists.

Sourcing equipment: This would involve assessing the equipment requirements (including computers, listening devices, foot pedals, printers, stationery etc.) And then acquiring them for the right price

Sourcing technology: The technology required for starting up medical transcription like software for routing, firewalls, encryptions, uploading, downloading and archival features etc need to be assessed and acquired.

Space allocation: There would be certain space needs for carrying out transcription work in-house this needs to be assessed and allocated.

Training the people: People need to be trained on the work requirements and procedures to be followed etc.

Once the resources are in place then the next step is execution of the work which involves the following steps:

Collection of dictation: Dictation of records by doctors needs to be collected in a centralized place for further processing.

Allocation of dictation: Dictated audio files need to be allocated to medical transcriptionists so that they commence with their work.

Supervising the medical transcription work: Work once collected and allocated needs to be supervised to make sure that it is being executed according to the required standards.

Assessing quality: Accuracy/quality of transcribed documents needs to be assessed to minimize errors.

Assessing turnaround time: Turnaround time of reports is very important for the treatment of patients, record keeping and managing receivables etc. hence turnaround time schedules have to be maintained.

Ensuring security: Transcription would entail transmission of confidential files of patients back and forth, care has to be taken to make sure that all the channels of transmission are secure and HIPAA compliant.

Collecting all the transcribed files: All the finished files need to be compiled at one central server for transmission back to the concerned doctors for their records and further use.

Obtaining feedback: Feedback on the quality of reports along with any special formats required needs to be collected from the doctors and communicated to the transcriptionists for implementation.

Updating/training medical transcriptionists on latest developments: Medical field has new developments on a daily basis in terms of drugs, treatments etc, medical transcriptionists need to be constantly updated about these developments.

Making arrangements for holiday/emergency medical transcription requirements: Due to unpredictability of patient inflow and staff fluctuations during holidays etc arrangements have to be made so that transcription needs are taken care of during these times.

Maintaining archives: Archiving of medical reports for easy access in case of future reference for various purposes.

Arranging Repairs and maintenance for all equipments to prevent breakdowns: Repairs and maintenance of transcription equipments is a constant process required for the smooth execution of transcription work. 

The vast array of management activities required to execute transcription in-house will add to the cost per line of transcription.  When the transcription needs are outsourced, effectively all the management costs and activities associated with in-house transcription will be outsourced. Assessing the medical transcription service provider on the basis of quality/accuracy, pricing, turnaround time and data security is important before making the outsourcing decision.

TransDyne is a professionally managed medical transcription service provider that 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!

For more details about how to use TransDyne’s superior outsourced medical transcription service, click here.

MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION: HIPAA compliance

What is HIPAA and how important is it in medical transcription?

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was established to safeguard the privacy of health information along with various other factors related to Health Insurance. Medical transcription service providers come under the purview of HIPAA with regard to safety and security of electronic transmission of patient health data.

Medical transcription is a process where confidential patient data is transmitted back and forth. Therefore it becomes important to ensure that the data is transmitted through safe channels.

HIPAA compliant standards need to be applied at every level of a medical transcription company’s operation. It should include:

• Technology
• Facilities and infrastructure
• People and resources.

The benefits of being HIPAA compliant are as follows:

1. Avoidance of fines and penalties
2. Gaining confidence of the industry and customers
3. Increase in efficiency
4. Workflow process is smoother
5. Public exposure risk is dramatically reduced.
6. Data efficiency is enhanced.

While outsourcing the medical transcription needs of a healthcare facility it is vital to check whether the medical transcription service provider is HIPAA compliant. One needs to ensure that all the resources of the company are completely secure to reduce the risks of violating the confidentiality of patient data.

TransDyne is one such medical transcription service provider that believes in being HIPAA compliant at all levels be it technology, infrastructure or their people.

Given below are some of the steps taken by TransDyne to make their medical transcription service HIPAA compliant:

Secure Technology: Technology has been secured by use of security features like 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. These are updated constantly to prevent security breaches.

Secure facilities and infrastructure: TransDyne has ensured security of their infrastructure by not exposing their transcription work to any third party. All the work is executed by their own centers. Further security is ensured by manned security at entry and exit points, surveillance cameras, disallowance of any removable storage devices and limited access of systems and information on a need to know basis.

Secure People and resources: Further the employees of TransDyne are trained on the importance of maintaining security of data. Care is taken that the medical transcription work is done in own premises. Email access is restricted. Legal Undertakings are taken from employees. Periodic audits are conducted to ensure that all HIPAA standards are met with.

TransDyne offers quality Medical Transcription with an accuracy level of above 99% Accuracy levels are achieved by training medical transcriptionist in specific areas of medicine making them domain experts and having a four level quality check to eliminate errors.

TransDyne offers medical transcription at reasonable prices by using a fair and reasonable method, achieving and passing on the benefits of economies of scale, and executing all medical transcription work in-house.

TransDyne offers quick turnaround time for medical transcription work by use of the right technology and well-trained medical transcriptionists.

To know more about TransDyne’s superior medical transcription services please click here.

Medical transcription: What are the methods of quality assessment?

Quality is an important criterion in any decision making process. Assessing quality becomes even more important when it comes to availing service as critical as medical transcription. Medical transcription is the process of converting audio records of a patient- healthcare professional encounter into a text format.

This accuracy/quality of medical transcription critical as this forms the basis of:

• Permanent patient history
• Present and future treatment plan and basis for monitoring progress of the patient
• Referrals/tests/procedure
• Statutory requirements
• Evidence in case of disputes/litigation
• Accounts receivable processing.

It is important that records that play such an essential role be of the highest accuracy/quality possible. While making the decision to outsource medical transcription needs it is vital to ensure that the medical transcription service provider has HPI guidelines in place for assessment of quality.

What are HPI guidelines?

The concept of Quality Assessment (QA) began in 1990 when a format was developed by Judy Hinickle to assess quality of transcription. This was followed by presentations made to thousands of transcription supervisors and educators around the country by Health Professional Institute (HPI), American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT), American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), and Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA).

Health Professions Institute then adapted and promoted this for its standard-setting SUM program for medical transcription. This QA method is the basis of most programs and is of most thorough and effective nature, embracing true Continuous Quality Improvement concepts.

TransDyne executes medical transcription using quality guidelines by HPI

What do HPI guidelines consist of?

HPI guidelines consist of quality check parameters and computing system for quality satisfaction and highest accuracy levels. HPI guidelines are categorized as follows:

Error 1. Medical Word misuse-Point 1.00

This is considered one of the most serious errors as it can affect every aspect of treatment administered to the patient. Even billing information is affected by this error. Guesswork or making up of words when dictation is not understood is also included in this error category.

Error 2. Omission- Point 1.00

This is also considered an equally serious type of error as it reflects on the ability and professionalism of the medical transcriptionist.

Error 3. Medical word misspelling- Point 0.75

This is the incorrect spelling of medical terminology.

Error 4. English word misspelling or Misuse -Point 0.75

This includes misspelling of English words nouns, verbs, qualifying adverbs etc, which could have a serious consequence.

Error 5. Inappropriate blanks- Point 0.75

These refer to blanks that are left unfilled, and those, which could be filled up by extensive research by the medical transcriptionist.

Error 6. Grammar errors- Point 0.5

Grammar errors include incorrect use of medical abbreviations, misuse of words, misuse of parts of speech, misuse of subject-verb, singular/plural misuse, etc.

Error 7. Punctuation errors- Point 0.5

Include errors with regard to punctuation like coma, colon, semi colon etc that change the meaning of the sentence if misused.

Error 8. Typographical errors- Point 0.25

Minor grammar, punctuation or capitalization errors.

Error 9. Formatting errors- Point 0.25

This error refers to the prevailing departmental/physician guidelines for placement of certain information within the document. E.g. Headers, Footers, templates as defined by the client.

Having these quality guidelines in place ensures that everybody in the TransDyne team is guided by the same principles. TransDyne offers quality medical transcription with accuracy of 99% or above. TransDyne ensures quality by adopting a four level quality check of medical transcriptionist, language proofreader, unit in charge and finally by the quality assurance team which tries to minimize errors before returning the finished reports.

To know more about superior medical transcription services by TransDyne click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: Leading to smoother operations

When a healthcare facility out sources their medical transcription needs to a professional and technologically savvy medical transcription company like TransDyne, most of the hassles faced by them due to outsourcing are eliminated. Given below are some of the problems that TransDyne helps overcome with regard to documenting the care process:

·       Delayed turnaround time: When transcription needs are outsourced to TransDyne a healthcare facility can forget about monitoring the turnaround time of finished transcripts. TransDyne guarantees a turnaround time of 24 hours from the time of uploading the audio files. TransDyne meets the guaranteed turnaround time by:

Ø  Executing all medical transcription work in-house.

Ø  Use of technology for smart uploads and downloads

Ø  Using expertly trained medical transcriptionists.

·       Medical transcription staffing problems:  Outsourcing medical transcription needs to TransDyne, would mean that the healthcare facility can forget about finding the right staff to carry out medical transcription work. TransDyne provides a one-stop-shop for all medical transcription needs.

·       Additional investment in transcription equipment: Outsourcing medical transcription needs gives a healthcare facility the advantage of not having to make any additional investments on equipment or real estate as far as medical transcription is concerned.

·       Lost/misplaced/untraceable records: Tracing missing audio files or finished transcripts would be a thing of the past when medical transcription needs are outsourced to TransDyne. TransDyne provides a system that takes care of all such needs with the right technology like:

Ø  Web delivery: This helps in tracking dictations, receiving old documents, and accessing old records from the archives.

Ø  Smart delivery: This has features like automated downloads saving and printing.

Ø  Smart Upload: Facilitates the transfer of files from the healthcare facility ‘s system to TransDyne for transcription. This is done at preset intervals.

This helps both the healthcare facility and TransDyne to keep track of dictations and finished files.

·       Litigation issues due to security breaches: TransDyne understands the need to maintain the confidentiality of patient records. TransDyne ensures total security of patient records during medical transcription process by using a three pronged strategy of:

Ø  Secure people and processes

Ø  Secure technology

Ø  Secure infrastructure and facilities.

This minimizes any instances of litigation due to breach of security.

·       Poor quality medical reports: TransDyne offers medical transcription with an accuracy level of above 99%. TransDyne ensures quality by adopting a four level quality check of Medical Transcriptionist, language proofreader, unit in charge and finally by our Quality Assurance (QA) team which tries to minimize errors before returning the finished reports.

·       Extra expenses for arranging holiday/weekend transcription: TransDyne has a large team of well-qualified and trained medical transcriptionists that will be able to take care of any holiday/ weekend transcription requirements at no extra costs.

·       Lengthy training program to understand how the process works: TransDyne believes in using technology that is advance but easy to use. Minimal training would be required to use their systems.

·       Complicated billing system for transcription services requiring verification: TransDyne has a fair billing system, which is transparent and easy to understand. TransDyne uses a 65-character line billing method. This method is based on the MTIA billing principles.

·       Having to deal with generic transcription solutions: TransDyne believes that each and every client has unique needs. Transcription solutions are tailored to the unique requirements of each client after detailed discussions.

·       No response to queries: TransDyne believes in being available to their customers 24/7 so that all queries are attended to as soon as possible.

Outsourcing medical transcription needs to TransDyne offers a comprehensive and easy solution for the medical transcription needs of a healthcare facility.

TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert Medical Transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!

To avail complete and reliable medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here