Medical transcription: Outsource the right way!

Medical transcription is an important contributor to the smooth running of a healthcare facility. It is important for medical transcription be accurate, timely, reasonably priced and transmitted through secure channels. Outsourcing medical transcription to the right service provider can make this possible.

However while outsourcing such a vital function as medical transcription, care needs to be taken to prepare the groundwork for outsourcing. Preparing the groundwork for outsourcing: Outsourcing a vital part of the healthcare process to a service provider is essentially like taking on a long-term business partner. Thereby it is important that the decision to outsource is based on inputs from every department affected by the decision.

What are the factors to be considered before outsourcing medical transcription?

Consulting staff: The services of the medical transcription service provider are going to be used by not only healthcare professionals, but also support staff, billing department and Information technology department. It is important to get inputs from all the people who are directly or indirectly affected by medical transcription so that the right service provider is selected.

Drawing up objective criteria for evaluation: It is important to have a clear objective for the outsourcing plan; this enables the healthcare facility to evaluate the medical transcription service provider thoroughly. The criteria for outsourcing could be varied, it could be cutting costs, streamlining transcription flow, reducing turnaround time or improving quality. Sometimes it could be a combination of one or more of the objectives.

Follow up references: instead of taking the promises/claims made by the service provider it is important to check the references provided by the medical transcription company to ensure that they can deliver the promises made by them.

Analyze quoted price thoroughly: The billing methods used in medical transcription are varied and are subject to manipulation. The price quoted by the medical transcription service provider cannot be taken at face value, it is important to know the components of cost to be able to compare the prices quoted by different providers in an equitable manner.

Focus on factors beyond price: Medical transcription plays a long-term role by documenting the patient data. This information could be called upon in the future for various purposes, including litigation. It is important to weigh factors like the capability of the medical transcription service provider in providing similar services, quality of reports, the skill set of medical transcriptionists, adoption to EMR and archiving capabilities in addition to the cost factor.

Consider future requirements: It is important to choose a service provider who has the capability to grow along with the future requirements of the healthcare facility. Factors like increasing volumes, adding on new specialties will affect the level of service required. The service provider needs to be evaluated on the basis of their ability to service future requirements

Consider technological compatibility: Technology has changed the way medical transcription works. Information Technology (IT) has made the process simpler, quicker and more secure. It is important to evaluate the medical transcription company on the basis of technological capabilities and whether further investment is required on the healthcare facility’s behalf before availing the services.

Avail free trial: It is important to test the services of the medical transcription service provider before actually signing the agreement. 

Contract evaluation: The contract is the document that specifies the service level expected. It is important to study the contract carefully for clauses that are binding and consider their impact before signing.  Points like use of subcontractors, provisions for HIPAA compliance need to be included in the contract document.

TransDyne is a leading provider of outsourced medical transcription services that has anticipated the needs of healthcare facilities and designed their services accordingly.

TransDyne offers 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 benefit from outsourced medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing: The benefits of doing it the right way!

Medical transcription is the process of converting the audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that patient records are available on time, the cost per line of medical transcription is reduced and the receivables cycle is speeded up.

Apart from the above-mentioned benefits, outsourcing medical transcription has far reaching benefits that permeate every level of a healthcare facility.

What are the benefits of outsourcing medical transcription to a professional service provider?

To understand the benefits of outsourcing medical transcription, it is important to see how medical transcription outsourcing benefits different departments.

Management team: By outsourcing medical transcription the management of a healthcare facility can benefit from the following:

• Savings on investment to be made for computers, furniture and other equipment for the medical transcription process
• Savings on investing and upgrading technology required for medical transcription
• Time saved on reconciling the billed amounts with the services rendered due to the transparent billing method used by the medical transcription service provider
• Reduced cost per line of transcription leading to savings.

Administrative team: Outsourcing medical transcription can benefit the administrative staff of a healthcare facility in the following:

• No hassle of recruiting, training and retaining medical transcriptionists
• No hassles of turnaround time or accuracy in the finished documents
• The onus of taking precautions for HIPAA during the process of transcription is passed on to the medical transcription service provider.

Healthcare professionals: The doctors or other healthcare professionals who are actually dictating the audio files benefit from outsourced medical transcription services in the following manner:

• Healthcare professionals are allowed to retain their familiar modes of dictation, which gives them the flexibility of managing their time in the best way possible
• Outsourced medical transcription provides additional support to healthcare professionals in the form of powerful archiving facilities, which makes it easier for healthcare professionals to trace files in an easy and hassle-free manner helping them make informed decisions.

Support staff team: Outsourced medical transcription provides additional benefits to the support staff like:

• Remote printing and faxing
• Facility to correct/edit reports online
• Searching and locating reports when required by the healthcare professionals.

Information technology team: Outsourced medical transcription services benefit the Information technology staff by freeing their time from medical transcription related information technology requirements by taking care of the following requirements:

• Interfacing with the EMR/EHR
• Redundancy and backup requirements
• By installing and upgrading software/hardware required for medical transcription.

Outsourcing medical transcription needs to a professional service provider like TransDyne offers healthcare facilities complete solutions for all their medical transcription needs.  TransDyne offers 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 benefit from outsourced medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here

Medical transcription: Excellence through proactive solutions

Medical transcription plays a vital role in the healthcare process both operationally as well as commercially. Medical transcription converts the audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into a text format, this ensures that the health information regarding a patient is available to the healthcare professional in a timely manner instead of having to rely on resources like hand written notes or memory.

Commercially, medical transcription is the first step in the accounts receivables cycle. Having the medical records transcribed in an accurate and timely manner helps speed up the receivables cycle.

Through the various stages of evolution of the process of creating records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter, medical transcription has played a vital role in anticipating the needs of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities, and created proactive solutions. Whether it is the limited time available to the healthcare professionals or the need of a healthcare facility to easily retrieve health records of a patient through a powerful archival system, medical transcription service providers have always anticipated the needs of healthcare facilities and come up with solutions to meet these needs.

How does outsourced medical transcription provide proactive solutions to the documentation needs of a healthcare facility?

By saving time: Outsourced medical transcription services save time of healthcare facilities at various levels.

1.     Saving time of healthcare professionals: Time is perhaps one of the scarcest commodities available to healthcare professionals. Outsourced medical transcription services help healthcare professionals to optimize their time by allowing them to use flexible modes of dictation. High accuracy of documents in the transcribed documents ensure that healthcare professionals do not have to spend time going through records and correcting them. Moreover by providing healthcare professionals with powerful archival systems less time is spent on tracing files of patients.

2.     Saving time of healthcare facilities administrative staff: The administration of a healthcare facility would have conflicting demands on their time.  By outsourcing medical transcription, a healthcare facility administration can save on time that would otherwise have been spent organizing medical transcription. Time spent on activities such as recruiting medical transcription staff, collecting dictation and distributing finished transcripts etc. would be saved.

By saving resources: Outsourced medical transcription brings about saving of resources like space, overheads, utilities, working capital, management resources, Information technology, transcription equipment etc.

By cutting costs: One of the most valuable contributions of outsourced medical transcription is the saving of costs. Not only does outsourcing medical transcription bring down the cost per line of transcription, but it also brings down associated costs like extra payment for weekend & holiday transcription, wastage due to idle transcription capacity during slack times etc.

While outsourcing the medical transcription needs of a healthcare facility care should be taken to evaluate the medical transcription service provider not only on the basis of criteria like accuracy, turnaround time, pricing, security and technology used, but also on the capacity of the medical transcription service provider to anticipate the needs of a healthcare facility and be proactive in finding solutions.

TransDyne is the new standard in medical transcription, providing solutions for the needs of healthcare facilities. TransDyne has the capacity to provide solutions for any type of healthcare facility, ranging from single doctor practices to huge hospitals with various specialties. TransDyne uses the right technology; the right processes and has the right team to cope up with the varied needs of healthcare facilities.

TransDyne offers 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 benefit from outsourced medical transcription services by 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

Medical transcription: HIPAA and HITECH compliance

HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, applies to medical transcription for protection of confidential personal health information of patients during the process of medical transcription. This data is especially vulnerable during the process of transmission. Now the HITECH act has improved and expanded on the concerns and issues raised by HIPAA

To ensure that confidential information is protected throughout the total medical transcription process the following measures need to be taken:

·       Assign responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of patient information to a person or group of persons

·       Assess security risks and identify the major threats to the security and privacy protection of health information.

·       A plan needs to be made to address physical security, personnel security, control of technical safety and security.

·       Confirming that the measures taken are adequate and effective

·       Developing strategies, procedures and guidelines for the use of personal computing devices like workstations and for ensuring mechanisms that allow limited access and locking the terminal when not in use for certain time.

·       Implement access controls like encryption, context based access, including role based or user based access.

·       Documenting all the measures taken to protect the confidentiality of patient information

To maintain confidentiality of patient information, measures need to be taken to address the issue at all levels:

·       People and processes

·       Infrastructure

·       Technology

While outsourcing the medical transcription needs of a healthcare facility one of the main concerns is whether the medical transcription service provider understands the significance of HIPAA and takes adequate measures to ensure HIPAA compliance during the process of medical transcription.

TransDyne is a leading provider of outsourced medical transcription services, understands the importance of maintaining the security of confidential patient information. TransDyne ensures HIPAA and HITECH compliance during medical transcription by implementing the following measures:

Securing people and processes:  People and processes are secured by implementing the following:

1.     No sub-contractors: Work outsourced to TransDyne is executed in-house and no subcontractors are used.

2.     Inbuilt security routines: All applications and processes have inbuilt security measures like password changes, access audits and related exercises.

3.     Joint access: Most confidential databases can be accessed only by a combination of passwords of a minimum of two individuals.

4.     Restricted Internet and Email access: Unlimited access to Internet can lead to security breaches. Access is limited to a few limited sites.

5.     Legal Declarations: Declarations are signed by employees undertaking to maintain the security of data.

6.     Security audits: Frequent audits are carried out to ensure that all procedures are followed and are effective.

Securing Infrastructure:  Infrastructure is secured by the following means: 

1.     Company owned and managed facilities

2.     Manned security

3.     Video surveillance

4.     No removable media

Securing Technology: Technology has been secured by use of security features like

1. All medical transcription related software applications are built in-house. 
2. Database based systems.
3. 128-bit data encryption
4. Multi-tiered application architecture,
5. Design level security safeguards, firewall protected networks
6. Sterilized e-mail servers
7. Denial of access procedures and
8. Multi-modal alerts. 

Apart from maintaining security standards that not only meet but also exceed HIPAA and HITECH requirements, TransDyne also offers medical transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert medical transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use.

To benefit from outsourced medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription services: Hematology

Hematology is a branch of internal medicine, physiology, pathology, clinical laboratory work and pediatrics that is concerned with the study of blood, the blood forming organs and blood diseases. Hematology includes the study of etiology, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and prevention of blood diseases. Physicians specialized in hematology are known as hematologists. Their routine work includes the care and treatment of patients with hematology diseases, although some may work at the hematology laboratory viewing blood films and bone marrow under the slides.

Hematologists and hematopathologists generally work in conjunction to formulate a diagnosis and deliver the most appropriate therapy if needed. Hematology is a distinct subspecialty of internal medicine, separate from but overlapping with the subspecialty of medical oncology.

Hematology medical transcription involves the transcription of audio records dictated by hematologists’ and other related healthcare professionals’ encounter with patients. Knowing that it takes a specialist to take care specialist medical transcription needs, TransDyne has trained a team of medical transcriptionists in the language of Hematology.  This has enabled the medical transcriptionists to become domain specialists.

How does specialty training in Hematology medical transcription affect accuracy levels?

Specialty training in Hematology 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 Hematology. Due to the specialty training in Hematology medical transcription the medical transcriptionists are able to achieve accuracy of above 99% maintaining the integrity of information captured.

How does specialty training in Hematology medical transcription affect turnaround time?

Specialty training in Hematology medical transcription enables the medical transcriptionists to produce high quality transcripts within the turnaround time guaranteed. Due to the familiarity with the language of Hematology, 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 Hematology medical transcription affect pricing?

Specialty training in Hematology 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.

Hematology 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 Hematology medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.