Medical transcription outsourcing: Physical therapy

Physical therapy is a healthcare profession that provides treatment to individual to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement and function throughout life. This includes providing treatment in circumstances where movement and function are threatened by aging, injury, disease or environmental factors. Physical therapy is concerned with identifying and maximizing quality of life and movement potential within the spheres of promotion, prevention, treatment/intervention, habilitation and rehabilitation. This encompasses physical, psychological, emotional, and social well-being. It involves the interaction between physical therapist (PT), patients/clients, other health professionals, families, caregivers, and communities in a process where movement potential is assessed and goals are agreed upon, using knowledge and skills unique to physical therapists

Physical therapists use an individual’s history and physical examination to arrive at a diagnosis and establish a management plan and when necessary incorporate the results of laboratory and imaging studies.

Physical therapy medical transcription involves the transcription of audio records dictated by physical therapists’ and other related healthcare professionals’ encounter with patients. To be able to provide medical transcription services of optimum accuracy and turnaround time, the medical transcriptionists working on the audio files need to be familiar with the procedures, terminology and drugs used in Physical therapy.

Acknowledging that medicine is a vast field having numerous specialties, and the transcription of each specialty requires a familiarity with the language associated with this specialty, TransDyne has decided to create specialty medical transcriptionists. This means that medical transcriptionists are trained in the transcription of one or two specialties enabling them to serve the transcription needs of the specialists better.

How does specialty training in Physical therapy medical transcription affect accuracy levels?

Specialty training in Physical therapy medical transcription helps the medical transcriptionists produce quality work from the very beginning.  The medical transcriptionists are familiar with the terminology, tests, procedures and drugs related to Physical therapy. Due to the specialty training in Physical therapy medical transcription the medical transcriptionists are able to achieve accuracy of above 99% maintaining the integrity of information captured.

How does specialty training in Physical therapy medical transcription affect turnaround time?

Specialty training in Physical therapy medical transcription enables the medical transcriptionists to produce high quality transcripts within the turnaround time guaranteed. Due to the familiarity with the language of Physical therapy, the medical transcriptionist need not spend much time researching difficult terms in the Internet. Due to the higher levels of accuracy the number of quality checks required are less thus reducing turnaround time.

How does specialty training in Physical therapy medical transcription affect pricing?

Specialty training in Physical therapy medical transcription increases the productivity of the medical transcriptionists and decreases the time required for frequent quality checks thus bringing down the cost per line of transcription. The healthcare facility benefits from the economies of scale.

Physical therapy medical transcription from TransDyne not only has the benefits of accuracy above 99%, turnaround time of 24 hours and reasonable prices, it has other benefits like:

• Security: One of the main concerns that healthcare facilities have is regarding the security of data. During the medical transcription process, data is transmitted back & forth; the protection of data during this process is vital. TransDyne ensures security of data by taking on a three pronged approach, which involves security measures with regard to technology, people and processes. This ensures the confidentiality of data is protected at all stages.

• Flexible modes of dictation: Realizing that time is a precious commodity for healthcare professionals, TransDyne has made it possible for them to retain familiar modes of dictation enabling to manage their time for maximum productivity. 

• Benefits of advanced technology: TransDyne offers healthcare facilities the benefit of advanced technological features like automatic uploads of dictation; automatic downloads of finished transcripts, remote printing & faxing, power archiving facilities and HL7 integration etc at no extra costs.

To avail superb Physical therapy medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Outsourced medical transcription services and patient care

The primary goal of every healthcare facility is to maximize profits while providing quality healthcare. Achieving this goal would require a three-pronged approach:

• Increase focus on quality healthcare
• Decrease expenses towards activities that are not part of the core process
• Accelerate cash flow

Outsourced medical transcription has a role to play in all the three steps involved in achieving the goal of the healthcare facility.

What role does medical transcription play in increasing focus on quality healthcare?

Apart from the qualification and expertise of the healthcare professional, one of the main inputs for quality healthcare is accurate information. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the medical records are created accurately and on time by expert medical transcriptionists who are well versed in the language related to the specialty of the healthcare professional. This ensures that all the details of the patient-healthcare professional encounter are captured completely and accurately.

The information captured in patient records aids the healthcare professional by providing information on the following:

• A brief about the patient history and physical examination
• Existing health conditions if any
• Information on the current medication used and allergies if any
• Past symptoms and diagnosis
• Drugs/procedures/tests/therapies prescribed
• Results of tests
• Progress made by the patient

What role does medical transcription play in decreasing expenses towards non-core activities?

One of the main benefits of outsourcing medical transcription is that it not only reduces the cost per line of medical transcription, it also allows the healthcare facility to maximize focus towards providing quality healthcare. Resources like cost of direct employees, management staff, real estate, capital expenses for transcription equipment, cost of utilities for in-house transcription, Information technology (IT) for in-house transcription, and working capital requirements for transcription in-house can be redirected for other uses.

What role does medical transcription play in accelerating cash flow?

Medical transcription is the first step in the receivables cycle. By outsourcing medical transcription, patient records are created accurately and on time. Speedy creation of records ensures that the process of reimbursement is quickened, leading to shortening of the receivables cycle. This helps accelerate the cash flow.

It can be concluded that outsourcing medical transcription helps the healthcare facility focus on providing quality healthcare; helps reduce expenses and speeds up the reimbursement process. To reap maximum benefits of outsourcing medical transcription, a healthcare facility needs to evaluate the medical transcription service provider based on the following criteria:

• Accuracy: This means the percentage of accuracy of the completed transcripts vis-à-vis what was dictated. A minimum of 99% and above would be acceptable.

• Turnaround time: Turnaround time refers to the time taken to revert the transcribed report to the healthcare facility. A turnaround time of not more than 24 hours for normal reports and 4-12 hours for STAT reports would be considered ideal.

• Data security: The service provider being outsourced to should be HIPAA and HITECH compliant. The medical transcription service provider has to have adequate security measures to ensure that the confidential data transmitted back and forth is safe and secure.

• Pricing: This is one of the main benefits that a healthcare facility hopes to have, from the outsourcing option. Pricing should be fair and reasonable for the services rendered. Pricing method should also be transparent and simple so that both parties can verify the same at any stage of the process

• Technology: The technology used by the medical transcription company should not only secure but should also be easy to use, without having to require extensive training.

TransDyne is a leading medical transcription company, providing medical transcription services that helps a healthcare facility focus on providing quality healthcare, helps them save on costs of medical transcription and helps accelerate the receivables cycle. 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.

Quality Medical transcription: Foundation for revenue cycle and first line of risk management

Medical transcription plays an important part in the healthcare process, creating records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter by converting audio files of the healthcare professional into a text format. Though this is the main service provided by medical transcription, there are a large number of benefits to be derived from quality medical transcription.

By creating accurate, timely and secure records, medical transcription additionally helps healthcare facilities in two main areas:

• Speeding up the revenue cycle: The revenue cycle of a healthcare facility typically follows the following stages:

• Patient visit/Emergency visit
• Collection of patient demographic data.
• Treatment /test/procedures/referrals.
• Dictation of the patient visit by the healthcare professional.
• Medical transcription.
• Coding and billing.
• Claims processing.
• Reimbursement of claimable amount.

It is evident that timely and accurate medical transcription can help speed up the revenue cycle, as it form the base of information about the patient’s visit and all other relevant details. This information is then used to start the process of reimbursement.

• Risk management:. Risk management is the process of assuring that covered persons receive all of the health care services they need, to which they are entitled under the contract, no more and no less at the most cost effective level possible by reducing or eliminating untoward incidents that might lead to injury or illness of patients.

In an increasingly litigious environment it is important that healthcare facilities are adequately covered against risk of litigation by keeping accurate records of the whole treatment procedure covering all the details. Medical transcription aids in the process of risk management by capturing every nuance of the treatment process as narrated by the healthcare professional, in an accurate and timely manner.

Another potential litigation risk that healthcare facilities face is due to the leakage of confidential patient information, namely a HIPAA violation, during the process of medical transcription. The data becomes vulnerable to exposure during the process of medical transcription by being transmitted back and forth. A service provider providing quality medical transcription would ensure adequate measures are taken to protect the data, pertaining to technology, processes, people and infrastructure.

As medical transcription plays such an important role in different aspects of the healthcare process, it is important to stringently evaluate the medical transcription service provider on various aspects.

What are the criteria for evaluating a medical transcription company?

 

   Quality/accuracy: As the information captured in the medical record plays such an important role in various aspects of the healthcare facility operations, it is important to evaluate the medical transcription service provider on the basis of the accuracy levels guaranteed. Apart from the accuracy level guaranteed by the service provider, it is important to evaluate the service provider’s ability to meet quality standards. This can be ascertained by evaluating:

a)    The number of quality checks used to achieve accuracy

b)    The training methods used

c)     The quality guidelines adopted by the service provider

d)    Ascertaining whether the service provider executes all the transcription work in-house or by using subcontractors.

 

    Turnaround time: Timely delivery of finished reports is an important aspect of ensuring that the reimbursement process takes place on time. It is important to evaluate whether a service provider will be able to meet turnaround time guarantees. This can be ascertained by evaluating:

a)    Availability of skilled medical transcriptionists

b)    Skill level of the medical transcriptionists

c)     The technology used for transcription

    HIPAA compliance: As maintaining the security of confidential patient data is of absolute importance, it is important to evaluate the service provider on the basis of HIPAA compliance. The service provider needs to be evaluated on the following:

a)    Steps taken to protect technology

b)    Steps taken to protect processes and people

c)     Steps taken to secure Infrastructure

    Cost of transcription: The reduced cost of transcription is perhaps one of the most important benefits of outsourcing medical transcription. It is important that the price quoted by the medical transcription service provider be evaluated to ascertain that it is fair and reasonable to the services rendered. This can be evaluated based on the billing methodology used by the service provider.

 

   Track record: Ascertaining the track record of the service provider in providing similar services is an important aspect of evaluating the capability of the medical transcription service provider.  This can be evaluated by verifying the testimonials of satisfied customers.

   Technology: Technology used by the medical transcription service provider plays an important part in three vital areas, namely:

a)    Turnaround time

b)    HIPAA compliance

c)     Ease of use

Evaluating a medical transcription service provider based on all these aspects would ensure efficient, effective, secure and economical medical transcription services.

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: Understanding healthcare objectives

Medical transcription is the process of converting the audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format, while maintaining accuracy, turnaround time, and security and providing the service at low costs. To this end medical transcription is a vital function for effective healthcare, taking care of both the need for information and starting the receivables cycle.

For such a vital function to be effective it is important that the medical transcription service provider understand the aims of healthcare. The aim of healthcare is as follows:

1. Safe: This means much more than the ancient maxim, “Do no harm”, which makes it the individual’s responsibility to be extra careful. It means safety should be a property of healthcare, and nobody should ever be harmed by healthcare again.

2. Effective: It should match healthcare to science; avoid overuse of ineffective care and under use of effective care.

3. Patient centered: Healthcare should be patient oriented and the individual patient’s culture and social context specific needs, deserve respect. The patient should play an important role in his/her own care.

4. Timely: Reduce waiting time for both patients and those providing care. This benefits both the patient and the caregiver.
   
   
5. Efficient: The health care system should be efficient, constantly seeking to reduce the waste and hence the cost of supplies, equipment, space, capital, ideas, time, and opportunities.

6. Equitable: Race, gender, ethnicity or income should not affect the quality of healthcare provided. All healthcare services should be equitable. 

Understanding the aims of the healthcare facility and understanding the constraints under which the healthcare facility has to work to achieve these aims, helps the medical transcription company come up with better solutions.

How does a professional medical transcription service provider help a healthcare facility achieve its’ goals?

By maintaining high levels of accuracy: This means that the integrity of the information about the patient’s health and treatment is captured accurately during the transcription process. This enables both the safety of treatment and efficiency of the treatment plan.

By maintaining speedy turnaround time:  The process of healthcare is largely dependent on timely information. Outsourced medical transcription ensures that the turnaround time is maintained and this in turn ensures that information is available on a timely basis.

By maintaining low costs: Outsourcing medical transcription helps the healthcare facility reduce cost of transcription thus ensuring that wastage is curbed.

 

By making the information secure: By making sure that medical transcription is executed through secure channels, the patients’ right to confidentiality is maintained.

 

By using technology that is advanced but easy to use: Using the right technology enables medical transcription that is timely, frees up the time of the healthcare professionals, decreases wastage of resources, keeps information safe. All these benefits help the healthcare facility in the achievement of their aims.

Outsourcing to a professionally managed medical transcription service provider like TransDyne can help a healthcare facility achieve all the aims of healthcare. TransDyne offers quality medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time and 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