Medical transcription: Document Delivery system

Medical transcription has evolved a lot since the days of typewriters and micro cassettes. The days of dependence of healthcare facilities on the courier services are long gone. This is the new era of information at the touch of a button or at the click of a mouse.

When a healthcare facility is looking at options for outsourcing, it is important to keep Document Delivery Systems in mind while making the final decision of outsourcing medical transcription.  Accuracy of the transcript vis-à-vis the audio dictated, turnaround time of the transcripts, pricing of the service, all these are very important for decision making, but Document Delivery system should be given equal importance for ease of usage.

No Health professional would like to spend an enormous amount of time on tracing reports and following up the delivery of finished transcripts. Then there is the matter of Data Security while transmitting confidential electronic data. Taking all these into consideration it is important for a healthcare facility to choose a medical transcription service provider that can provide an automatic and secure Document Delivery System.

It is important to choose a system which enables support staff to track dictations sent on any particular day, the number of documents in a single dictation etc to ensure that all documents were transcribed and stored.

TransDyne offers the best technology for all functions related to uploading of dictation files and downloading of finished transcripts. TransDyne has made sure that the technology used is very simple to operate. Some or the facilities offered by TransDyne are as follows:

Web Delivery

TransDyne offers you Web delivery system with multiple features that are easy to use making it an important component of medical transcription tools TransDyne's Web Delivery System addresses all the problems associated with tracking dictations, receiving documents, and in accessing old records from archives. The Web Delivery system is a browser-based system, and enables users to work with little or no software on their computer.

Some of the advantages of the Web Delivery system are:

·       Reduce work in filing and tracking dictations

·       Zero investment in hardware and software

·       Configuration is flexible according to the number of users

·       Up gradation is continuous without changes in the client’s computer.

Smart delivery

Smart delivery is a document retrieval system that enables automated download, saving and printing. It has features like:

• Inbox: Where all newly delivered documents are displayed.
• Automated downloads: automatically download newly delivered documents into the folder specified.
• Automated printing: This enables auto printing for specified users and specified printers.
• User profiles: Multiple users can be configured into the system and can be assigned access privileges.
• Powerful archival and search options: The system enables user to search based on different criteria. 

Some of the advantages of the Smart Delivery system are:

·       Ease of tracking all new documents

·       Automated downloads and printing

·       User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems

·       User defined user profiles to use in a multi-user environment

Smart upload

TransDyne offers dictators the choice of using any dictation mode. Users can choose to dictate into the phone system, use their existing dictation system or use a digital recorder and transfer the dictations to the servers.

The Smart Upload utility helps users transfer files from their computers or dictation systems to TransDyne’s servers. Smart Upload facilitates transfer of dictated files by checking at predefined intervals.

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 outsourcing; A catalyst for quality healthcare

The core objective of any healthcare facility is to provide quality healthcare. There may be other goals like strengthening the bottom-line, gaining a reputation for providing quality care, minimizing litigation issues and research etc. All these are important milestones to the final goal of providing quality healthcare.

As a healthcare facility grows it becomes important for administrators and chief doctors to start focusing on activities other than healthcare. These are activities that act like catalysts in the process of healthcare. They speed or impede the process of healthcare without actually participating in the process.

One such activity is that of medical transcription, which plays an important role in the process of healthcare. The convenience of accessing patient records at the click of a button/mouse can be invaluable to a healthcare professional as information plays a key role in further treatment plan, verifying test results, and referrals or simply as evidence in case of litigations.

An easy and convenient option available to healthcare facilities for medical transcription is that of outsourcing their needs to a professionally managed medical transcription service provider who will provide tailor made solutions to take care of their medical transcription needs.

What defines a professionally managed medical transcription service provider?

• 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: Reduced costs are 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. 

Outsourcing medical transcription help a healthcare facility focus more on the core business by freeing up resources that would have been used for in-house medical transcription:

• Capital investment: By outsourcing medical transcription a healthcare facility can free up capital investment that would have otherwise been dedicated to medical transcription.

• Management resources: A sizable portion of management time would be spent on coordinating medical transcription activities. Outsourcing medical transcription would free up these management resources to concentrate on the core business.

• Real estate: The space allocated to medical transcription would be freed up by outsourcing medical transcription.

• Information technology: IT resources which would be required for coordinating medical transcription in-house would be freed up by outsourcing medical transcription.

• Human resources department: Recruiting and training of medical transcriptionists takes a large chunk of the Human resource department’s time, this would be freed up by outsourcing medical transcription. 

Partnering with a professionally managed medical transcription service provider like TransDyne would have benefits like a 99% accuracy, with a turnaround time of 24 hours, data transmission through secure channels and pricing which is both reasonable and transparent. TransDyne offers benefits like flexibility with regards to varying volumes of transcription, holiday & weekend transcription, archival facilities with secure and easy access, free trial and promotional offers etc.

This creates a synergy of core competency of the healthcare facility with the expert medical transcription services of TransDyne to create superb healthcare services.

To avail complete 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 company that offers commitment on accuracy, turnaround time, reasonable pricing and data security.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry has used their extensive background in information technology and their experience in serving the needs of the healthcare sector to provide affordable and integrated medical transcription solutions.

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

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

Medical transcription: Getting value for money?

It is easy for a healthcare facility to imagine that by having transcriptionist/s in-house they have resources right at hand that will take care of all their transcription needs instantly and at reasonable costs. It is not as simple as that. There are two factors that determine the value for money that they get from the amount spent on in-house transcriptionists. One is the cost of having transcriptionists in-house and the other factor is the transcription volume.

To understand this better one needs to look at what constitutes the cost of an in-house transcriptionist.

Item	Cost in US $ per annum
Salary	30000
Benefits	8000
Real estate	2000
Furniture	1000
Computer	2000
Management	5000
Consumables	1000
Utilities	500
Miscellaneous	500
Total cost	50000

Then a look at what is the productivity of an average medical transcriptionist

Production
Number of lines per 8 hour day	1250
Work hours per year	1920
Lines per year	300000
Downtime in %	10
Actual lines produced in a year	270000
Cost per line	18.5

The annual costs of an in-house transcriptionist have been arrived at, and the number of lines an average transcriptionist can transcribe in a year now the cost per line transcribed can be ascertained. The cost per line transcribed is 18.5 cents per 65-character line.

But this is a not a fair analysis of cost per line as it is based on the assumption that the volume of transcription is constant. The volume of transcription would vary according to the influx of patients, which is not predictable. The cost per line of transcription will vary accordingly.

The chart below shows clearly how the cost per line can vary according to the volume of transcription:

Number of lines transcribed by 1 medical transcriptionist in 1month	Monthly cost of in-house Medical transcriptionist in $	%  Decrease in transcription volume	Cost per line in cents	% Increase in cost per line transcribed	TransDyne cost @ 10 cents per line	Savings by outsourcing to TransDyne in $
22500	4166.67	0%	18.52	0%	2250	1916.67
20000	4166.67	11%	20.83	13%	2000	2166.67
18000	4166.67	20%	23.15	25%	1800	2366.67
16000	4166.67	29%	26.04	41%	1600	2566.67
14000	4166.67	38%	29.76	61%	1400	2766.67

As can be seen, as the volume of transcription decreases the cost per line increases considering that the cost outlay is fixed. Hiring a professionally managed Medical Transcription Company like TransDyne to take care of Medical Transcription needs will solve both the problems of planning for volume as well as staff requirements. Not only that TransDyne takes care of any holiday staffing needs that arise, leaving the healthcare facility free to focus on other areas.

TransDyne offers quality Medical Transcription at 10 cents per 65 character line, 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.

What is HL7 and how does it affect Medical Transcription?

When healthcare facility come across references to HL7 in the context of medical transcription and one always wonder what it is and how it affects healthcare business.

HL7 or Health Level 7 is a standards development organization that is accredited by the American National Standards (ANSI). HL7 creates standards that define how to represent and communicate data related to healthcare.

The importance of having resources and tools that can accept HL7 based transmissions is emphasized in medical transcription. Medical transcription is the process through which the audio records of the patients are transcribed into computer files.

These records form the basis for record keeping, further treatment, and referral to other doctors, as information for insurance claims, as evidence in case of litigation or part of the patient’s Electronic Medical Record. That means that the information in a patient record needs to be shared with various sources.

HL7 focuses on the interface necessities of the whole healthcare organization.  HL7 functions as a standard to ensure that critical healthcare information is made available to various sources without the meaning getting lost.

When a healthcare facility decides to assess the medical transcription service provider 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 Company being outsourced to should be HIPAA compliant. The Medical Transcription Company 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

·       HL7 integration: It is important to ascertain that the service provider has the ability to interface with other systems in the form of HL7 messages. This would enable easy integration with any EMR system.

TransDyne has the resources and tools to accept HL7 based ADT (Abstract Data Types)/ order transmissions via TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)/IP (Internet Protocol), HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Server) and /or VPN (Virtual Private Network). TransDyne also has the capabilities to transmit back the transcribed document as a HL7 message back to client's interface engine via TCP/IP, HTTPS and or VPN.

ADT feeds accepted for acquiring patient scheduling and demographic information can be done using standard of customized ADT messages. Transcribed reports are transmitted back as text or rich text embedded in multiple ORU segments in a single HL7 message.

For clients needing integration with EMR’s requiring reports to be sent back as HL7 messages, TransDyne can configure the interfaces and deliver reports as HL7 messages and at no additional cost to the client.

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 solutions from TransDyne, click here.