Medical transcription: The beginning and the end

Medical transcription has become popular both as a profession and as a service needed by healthcare facilities. Though most people are aware of medical transcription as a process of converting audio files of a patient-healthcare professional encounter into a text format, the role of medical transcription is still not clear and is often confused with Medical billing or that of a medical secretary.

Medical transcription is more than just the conversion of audio files of the patient-healthcare professional into text format. The records created by medical transcription play an important role in the following:

1. Patient treatment: Information plays a vital role in continuity of patient treatment. Factors like age, sex, occupation, lifestyle, allergies, previous treatments & medication etc are vital to the ability to provide quality care. Medical transcription plays an important role in recording these details as accurately as possible.

2. Permanent Patient records: Medical transcription creates records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter to form part of the permanent patient record. This enables the healthcare professional to draw information from a reliable source rather than depend on his/her memory or the patients themselves. The medical record containing the patient’s medical history is especially important while providing emergency care, where the patient is not in a condition to provide details about himself/herself.

3. Referrals to other doctors: A patient may be required to be referred to a specialist for further treatment. In this case the medial record provides information of the findings and treatment given till date and prevents wastage of resources by preventing duplication.

4. Evidence in case of malpractice suits: In case of litigation the medical record provides important evidence of the process of healthcare provided by the healthcare professional. Documenting the patient-healthcare professional process in detail can lessen the ambiguity and clear the healthcare professional of any malpractice.

5. Satisfaction of regulatory norms: The law requires that the patients’ record should be maintained by the healthcare facility for a minimum period of time.

The role of medical transcription is not just limited to the healthcare aspect. Medical transcription also plays a vital role in the accounts receivables cycle. The information recorded in the patient’s records form the basis of:

• Coding: Based on the information in the medical record coding is done as per CPT (current procedural terminology) and ICD (international classification of disease) with the help of coding books and maintaining coding guidelines.

• Billing: The bills are then generated as per the coded records, which are then sent to the relevant insurance providers for claims.

Medical transcription plays a vital role in both the provision of quality healthcare as well as the commercial aspects. Medical transcription starts with the patient-healthcare professional encounter and continues to play an important role in collections as well as providing information for other factors like research, profiling of diseases, prevention of epidemics and preventive disease management.

Considering the vital role played by medical transcription, choosing a medical transcription service provider requires careful consideration. The medical transcription service provider needs to be assessed on the basis of accuracy, turnaround time, security, pricing and the technology used by the medical transcription service provider.

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!

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

Medical transcription: Billing methods and line count methodology.

When it comes to outsourcing medical transcription needs, there are many factors to be considered. A healthcare facility needs to analyze what it exactly hopes to gain from outsourcing and then has to evaluate a medical transcription service provider on the basis of these criteria.

But one of the most important and often ignored factors is the billing method used by the medical transcription service provider. On the face of it, this could seem trivial, but it is really important to study this to ensure that the partnership with the service provider works in the long run. Comparing quotes by different providers could be like comparing apples to oranges. One needs to understand the variables in the billing methods used to make an equitable evaluation.

There are different methods of billing; some of the methods are as follows:

Page: Under this method the client will be charged on the number of pages transcribed. This seems like a fair and verifiable method unless one looks at it in depth. The disparity arises because of differences in the contents of a page. A page could have as many as 46 lines or have a low as 10 lines. However the amount charged would remain the same regardless of the contents of the page.

Report: Under this method the client will be charged a flat rate on each report transcribed. Again this is not a fair method of calculating rates for transcription as the number of pages and lines in a report could vary vastly.

Minute: Under this method the client would be charged on the number of minutes transcribed. This would mean that a slow talker would be charged more than a fast talker. This method would also include interruptions and any other intrusions that occur while a healthcare professional is dictating. Factors like accent, specialty of the healthcare professional could affect the cost of transcription.

Gross lines: Under this method a client would be charged on a visual count of lines. Many healthcare professionals do prefer this method given the ease of calculation. However what they do not realize is that under this method the bill could be beefed up by double spacing and other formatting tricks.

Visible black character: Under this method the client would be charged on the characters that are visible. This method does not provide for equitable charges for the efforts put in by the medical transcriptionists for spacing, formatting, bolding, italicizing, underlining, tab sets etc. Normally the charges under this method are inflated taking into consideration these factors, making this method unattractive.

Character line: Under this method the total number of characters transcribed including space and returns are added and the total is divided by a predefined number like 50, 60, 65 characters to arrive at the total number of lines transcribed.

The character line method of billing has the advantage of meeting all the criteria of “ Billing method principles” as recommended by the MTIA.

According to the billing method principles advocated by the MTIA a billing method has to be:

• Verifiable
• Definable
• Measurable
• Consistent
• Fair and honest

TransDyne has adopted the character line method of billing, charging 10 cents for a 65-character line. This ensures that the client is charged a price, which is fair and easy to understand. Care is taken to make sure that the healthcare facility has no doubts about the method about the line count methodology and the billing method.

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 low cost medical transcription services for TransDyne, click here

Medical transcription: Role played in healthcare

Medical transcription is a very important part of the healthcare cycle and plays an important role in both the operational and commercial aspects of healthcare.

• Role of medical transcription in the operational aspect of healthcare: When a patient visits a healthcare professional, it could be for various reasons like an emergency, sudden illness, regular visit or continuation of an ongoing treatment plan. These visits need to be documented as part of the patient’s records.

Not only does this information form a permanent part of the patient’s health record, it forms a foundation for future encounters. Factors like demographics, lifestyle of the patient, past medical history, past treatment/procedures availed, past medications, allergies etc., have an effect on the future treatment plan.

In case the patient is availing a new mode of treatment, which is in the experimental stages, this information needs to be captured for record and research purposes. In case of any findings from the tests conducted require further treatment, the record forms the basis of referral to a specialist. Medical transcription enables the healthcare professional to take informed decisions instead of relying on memory or guesswork by creating accurate and timely records.

• Role of medical transcription in the commercial aspect of healthcare: The secondary, but equally important role played by medical transcription is the commercial aspect. Medical transcription forms the basis of claiming payment from the insurance company. The information from the record created by the medical transcription process is used as the basis of coding, billing and insurance claims. Any delays in the medical transcription process could adversely affect the receivables cycle.

Medical records also provide evidence in case of any litigation issues and it is also a statutory requirement to maintain patient records for a certain period of time. Medical transcription plays an important part in record creation by capturing all the information of the patient-healthcare professional encounter.

• Where does medical transcription process begin?

The process of medical transcription begins when the patient enters the healthcare facility for availing treatment. The front office collects details like date of birth, gender, Social security no., employer details and details of the policy name and number etc. The patient meets the healthcare professional for consultation and treatment. This total encounter is dictated into a recording device by the healthcare professional. The audio recordings are then transmitted to the medical transcription service provider for transcription.

• What are the various stages of the medical transcription process?

The audio records are downloaded at the medical transcription service provider’s site and distributed for transcribing among the medical transcriptionists based on their expertise. Once the transcription process is over, the proofreader goes through the record to ensure accuracy and fill any gaps, which are left blank. Then the files are passed on the Unit in charge who goes through the record once more to ensure accuracy. Before finally transmitting to the client the quality assurance does random checks to ensure total quality and the final corrections are made if required.

• What are the attributes that define quality medical transcription?

The attributes that define the quality of medical transcription are:

1. Accuracy: Needs to be above 99%
2. Turnaround time: Needs to be within 24 hours
3. Price: Needs to be reasonable and fair
4. Security: Has to cover all aspects that is, technology, infrastructure, people and processes.
5. Technology: Needs to be easy to use and provide maximum benefits.

It is important to have medical transcription support for both the operational and commercial aspects of healthcare. At the same time one needs to have the right provider to have benefits like accuracy, turnaround time, price, security and the right technology for ease of use.

TransDyne offers 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: The myths and truths

In recent times there have been many myths and misconceptions regarding medical transcription, giving it a bad press. Given below are a few myths about medical transcription:

• Medical transcription is easy and anybody can be a medical transcriptionist: This is a common myth about medical transcription, given that entry into this profession is relatively easy. No formal qualifications are required except for an aptitude for the English language, good keyboard skills and a keen ear. In spite of the easy entry to qualify as a medical transcriptionist, a person has to go through extensive training in medical terminology, procedures and drugs. This profession also requires a person to constantly educate themselves on the latest developments in the medical field.

Over and above all a medical transcriptionist trained in a particular specialty of medicine adds value to the work done by being a domain specialist increasing accuracy and turnaround time.

• Medical transcription is just a data entry service: Medical transcription is a service, which requires attributes like good listening, applying context when in doubt and an extensive knowledge base to draw from unlike data entry. Moreover medical transcription goes beyond just a data entry service by having additional benefits like effective report distribution, archiving and adding value to the healthcare facility in terms of reducing staff burden, reducing capital investment in medical transcription, and freeing up resources like utilities and real estate.

• Medical transcription can be replaced with voice recognition software: Voice recognition software is software that automatically converts the dictation of the healthcare professional into a typed text. On the face of this, it sounds like the answer to the medical transcription needs of a healthcare facility.

But this software is not easy to use due to the following reasons:

1. The software has to be “taught” to recognize the voice of the user and terminology used
2. A healthcare professional has to dramatically slow down his usual way of dictation and speak in a structured way, including punctuation etc., resulting in loss of productivity of the healthcare professional.
3. In spite of all these preparations the accuracy of the voice recognition software has been found to be only 60%-80%.

Because of such low accuracy levels the need for medical transcriptionists arises to proof read the reports and edit them to bring them up to the desired level of accuracy.

• Outsourcing medical transcription is time consuming: Outsourcing medical transcription can be made easy and quick by analyzing the specific needs of the healthcare facility and evaluating a prospective service provider by these attributes. A quick way to assess the medical transcription company is through:

1. Methods of quality assessment
2. Billing method used
3. Technology used
4. Measures for ensuring HIPAA compliance
5. Training methods used
6. Assessing if all the work in done in-house or through the use of sub-contractors.
7. Testimonials
8. Free trial

All these information can be accessed through the service provider’s website

• Outsourcing medical transcription affects the turnaround time negatively: Outsourcing medical transcription actually fine tunes the turnaround time and regularizes any overflow needs due to rise in patient visits. Outsourcing also takes care of weekend and holiday transcription needs, thus lessening the turnaround time.

• Outsourcing medical transcription will adversely affect the quality of reports: Outsourcing actually improves the accuracy level of the reports transcribed, when done right. The healthcare facility needs to look a service provider who has a thorough method for attaining accuracy, specialty based training methods and executes all medical transcription work in-house.

• Outsourcing medical transcription has hidden costs that will increase the cost per line: The cost per line of medical transcription is largely determined by the billing method used. Picking a medical transcription service provider that uses a fair and simple method of billing will ensure that there are no hidden costs, and help keep costs down.

• Outsourcing medical transcription is not safe: This is one of the main myths perpetuated due to a few unfortunate incidents in the past. The security measures used by the medical transcription service provider need to be assessed in detail to ensure security breaches are prevented. The service provider needs to be assessed for security on the basis of:

1. Technology
2. Facilities and infrastructure
3. People and processes

• Outsourcing medical transcription would require an entirely new Information Technology (IT) infrastructure: Outsourcing to the right service provider would ensure this does not happen. Care needs to be taken to choose a service provider who understands the special needs of the healthcare professionals and ensures that the technology takes care of all the needs and at the same time is very simple to use. Features like a flexible mode of dictation, easy uploads & downloads and archiving facilities need to be considered in the assessment process.

TransDyne is a medical transcription service provider that busts all these myths and provides 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 know more about the advantages of outsourcing medical transcription to TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription outsourcing; Getting started with TransDyne

Once the process of evaluating and selecting a medical transcription service provider is over, the next step is the transition from the current mode of transcription to that of using the services of the service provider. Getting started on a new mode of transcription can be complicated and time consuming unless the service provider has a simple process for integration.

TransDyne has made transition to outsourced services an easy and stress-free process allowing the healthcare facility to start using their services without having to make any major adjustments. The process of transition to TransDyne medical transcription services would involve:

• Identifying the right solution: TransDyne believes that the needs of each and every customer are different. That is why TransDyne does not offer a “vanilla” product. Rather, TransDyne believes in having discussions with the healthcare facilities on the various aspects of the service needed and customizing their products to suit that of their clients. This ensures that the healthcare facility and TransDyne are on the same page from the very beginning.

Identifying the right solution for medical transcription needs of the healthcare facility would be done taking into consideration the following factors:

1. Number of doctors at the facility: This would have an impact on the volume, the formats required and the turnaround time of the reports

2. The specialties of the doctors: TransDyne believes in catering to the needs of doctors based on their specialization. Specially trained medical transcriptionists would be assigned according to the specialties

3. The volume of transcription: This would help plan the kind of system integration required and planning for holidays and weekend requirements

4. The types of reports: The type of reports required would help configure the systems.

5. Turnaround time required: Turnaround time would vary according to the type of report and these needs to be considered while customizing solutions for the client.

6. Dictation modes: The dictation modes used by the healthcare professionals need to be configured into the system

7. EMR integration required: In case of integration with EMR is required then HL7 integration needs to be provided.

8. Additional features like remote printing and faxing: These features need to be incorporated on the basis of the needs.

9. Electronic signature: This feature also needs to be integrated into the system.

10. Archiving requirements: Each client has specific archiving requirements, which need to be customized accordingly.

11. Preferred billing method: There are different billing methods based on minute of transcription, gross line, page, report, and character line method of billing. The method of billing needs to be agreed upon to commence services.

12. Access levels to different users: The healthcare facility may want to give different levels of access to reports on the system this needs to be ascertained beforehand.

13. Expansion plans of the healthcare facility: This will determine what could be the future medical transcription requirements

• Agreement: This stage involves formalizing the solutions that have been identified into the agreement. TransDyne has a standard business agreement, which is provided to the client for scrutiny by their legal team. Efforts are made to incorporate any changes required by the clients on this.

• Gathering the right information: At this stage details like formats, macros and templates will be gathered for inclusion in the reports produced. The individual needs of the healthcare professionals are taken into consideration.

• Shipping hardware and software: This next stage involves shipping the necessary software and hardware required for starting the transcription process. It could be as minimal as digital recorders considering that TransDyne believes in using simple and effective technology

• Technical integration: The integration of the systems with that of the healthcare facilities’ system is done at this stage. Any other requirements by the clients in this regard are also taken care at this stage.

• Training: The teams at the healthcare facility are provided orientation to work with the system to enable easy usage.

• Using the service: At this stage the healthcare facility can start using the services by uploading dictation files on the TransDyne systems. The transcribed reports will be made available to the healthcare facility as per the turnaround time guaranteed.

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 get started on superior medical transcription services by TransDyne, click here

Medical transcription outsourcing : What makes good services exceptional?

Outsourcing medical transcription can be a mind-boggling exercise. It not only involves extensive analysis of the healthcare facility, but once this is done it also entails careful and detailed examination of the options available. On the face of it this could seem like fairly simple and straightforward exercise.

The process of analyzing the options available becomes complicated due to the following reasons:

• Varying needs of a healthcare facility could comprise of the following:

1. Different specialties requiring different report formats, turnaround time etc
2. Unpredictable inflow of patients, causing medical transcription needs to vary.
3. Weekend and holiday medical transcription requirements
4. Flexible options required for expansion plans
5. Integration with existing systems.
6. Healthcare professionals wanting to retain their current dictation modes.
7. EMR adoption

• A medical transcription service provider needs to be evaluated on the following:

1. Quality/Accuracy: The quality of the transcribed document refers to the percentage of accuracy in the transcribed document viz. a viz. the audio files.

2. Turnaround time: Turnaround time is the duration between uploading dictation to the server and when the final transcribed document is made available to the healthcare facility

3. Price: Pricing refers to the price per line of transcription

4. Security: Security refers to the means by which the medical transcription company protects confidential patient data during transmission and during the transcription process.

However these are just the basic criteria for evaluating a medical transcription company, a healthcare facility needs to look for qualities that make a medical transcription company exceptional.

The qualities that make a good medical transcription service exceptional are as follows:

• Billing method used: Billing methods used by the medical transcription service provider have a direct effect on the bottom line of the healthcare facility. Billing methods vary from charging for a page, a gross line a report or that of a character line. The billing method used by the medical transcription company needs to verifiable, measurable, definable, consistent and fair & honest.

TransDyne uses the 65-character line method of billing, which is approved by the AHDI. Care is taken to explain the billing methodology at the beginning so that there is no ambiguity.

• Quality assessment methods used: The quality of the transcribed document is measured by the percentage of accuracy of information transcribed. Minimum or zero error means that the records of patients reflect the correct information. This is critical for the ability to give quality care. A medical transcription company needs to be assessed by the methods used for achieving accuracy to assess its’ ability to achieve promised accuracy levels

TransDyne offers 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 Quality Assurance team which tries to minimize errors before returning the finished reports.

• Training methods used: Training methods used by the medical transcription company has an effect on both the accuracy and the turnaround time.

TransDyne believes that it takes a specialist to take care of special needs. That is why medical transcriptionists here are trained on one or two areas of specialty. This makes them domain experts. This reduces the learning curve and enables them to meet stringent accuracy standards from the very beginning, and they are also able to meet the turnaround time guarantees.

• Technology used: Technology used by the medical transcription company has its impact on ease of use as well as the security of data. Because medical transcription involves the transmission of data, care has to be taken to make that appropriate security measures are in place. Technology can save a lot of time for healthcare professional by including features like flexible modes of dictation, easy upload and download of finished transcripts.

TransDyne ensures security by incorporating security measures like 128-bit data encryption, multi-tiered application architecture, design level security, safeguards, firewall protected networks, sterilized e-mail servers, denial of access procedure and multi modal alerts.

TransDyne’s system has features like Smart Upload, Smart Delivery and allows for flexible modes of dictation. TransDyne also offers a web delivery system, which offers archiving facilities. TransDyne has HL7 interface for easy integration with EMR

• Flexibility in services: Considering that the needs of healthcare facilities can vary due to various factors, it is important that the medical transcription service provider is flexible and adapts itself to suit varying needs.

TransDyne has experience serving all types of healthcare facilities by offering services that are tailor made to suit their unique needs

• Free trial without obligatory sign up: This is very important to assess the services of a medical transcription company before signing up with them.

TransDyne offers the opportunity to have the benefit of their services for a limited period by offering a free trial. This enables the healthcare facility to understand the advantages of partnering with TransDyne for their medical transcription needs

To avail exceptional medical transcription services from TransDyne, click here.

Medical transcription and Voice Recognition

Is voice recognition the new solution for medical transcription needs? Voice recognition or speech recognition is one of the new developments in the medical transcription field. It has been touted as the solution for a health provider’s documentation needs.

How does it work? The doctor is offered a digital platform by the Voice recognition service provider where the doctor can dial in and dictate his patient notes at the end of the day. The software converts it to typed form, which is made available to the doctor to edit and correct as needed.

Seems simple enough. But is it as simple as that? Apparently not! Voice recognition needs to be evaluated on all the criteria used while finalizing a healthcare facility’s medical transcription service provider.

Time saved: When medical transcription needs are outsourced one of the main benefits is the time saving factor. Time is a precious commodity for Doctors and they would like to utilize it for providing quality care to their patients. But when voice recognition software is used the doctor has to spend more time on it in the following areas:

1. Training time: Voice recognition software requires the doctor to personally ‘train’ the software on the speech pattern, accent, standard terms and various nuances of his/her speech pattern so that the software can ‘learn’ it and adapt accordingly. This could involve a huge time commitment from the doctor using it, which he may ill afford to make.

2. Time for dictation: Voice recognition software requires the doctor to change his style of dictation to include punctuations, grammar, spellings, detailed terminology, paragraph and report start and ending etc., as opposed to the free flow form of dictations that the doctors are used to.

3. Time for editing: Unlike the traditional method of medical transcription where the records are subject to rigorous proof reading and quality checks, here the doctor needs to spend considerable time editing and correcting before signing off on the reports

.

Accuracy: The accuracy levels of the finished reports is of utmost importance as it affects care of the patients at every level as well as forming the basis for all further documentation needs. The accuracy level from voice recognition software is found to be about 60%-65%. That means correcting and editing the documents have to make up for the remaining 35%-40% accuracy.

Cost: The cost factor for voice recognition software will vary according to the number of users and the size of the organization. It will also have to factor in additional costs required for editing the documents to an acceptable level. One may find that it is costing more per line than was quoted in the beginning.

Learning curve: When healthcare facilities look for solutions for producing their patients’ medical records they would like to have solutions that are expert and accurate from the very beginning. In the case of voice recognition software there is a definite learning curve that affects the quality of finished reports till the software ‘learns’ to follow a particular doctor’s speech patterns and even then the accuracy levels are only 60%-65%.

Flexibility: When new doctors are added to the practice the voice recognition software has to be trained further to accept the speech nuances of the new joiners. There is no flexibility offered by voice recognition software for this.

In conclusion we can safely say that voice recognition software will never be able to completely replace manual medical transcription. The important point to be considered here is that medical records are created of human beings, dictated by human beings and therefore needs another human being to transcribe it. Medical transcriptionists will have an important role to play at least as editors and proofreaders.

Medical transcription requires a certain amount of training, subjective judgment and understanding the context to be accurate and relevant, which will not be possible to achieve completely through software, no matter how expertly created.

For the transcription needs of a healthcare facility one should look for a medical transcription service provider that offers commitment on accuracy, turnaround time, reasonable pricing and data security.

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