Medical Transcription Outsourcing - Cost Benefit Analysis

Any business decision needs a good look at the options available and a detailed cost-benefit analysis to be successful and profitable. A healthcare facility faces numerous decisions to be made on a daily basis. Some of these are pertaining to the core business and some are towards services that support the core business. Generally these additional services do not directly contribute to the bottom line, but play an important role in the acceleration or slowing down of the revenue flow.

One such service is medical transcription, it does not directly contribute to the income stream of the healthcare facility, but efficient transcription can accelerate the receivables cycle and reduce costs. Therefore it is important to analyze the costs and benefits of in-house transcription versus the costs and benefits of outsourcing transcription.

Cost benefit analysis for in-house medical transcription:

Costs of in-house transcription

* Salaries
* Real estate costs
* Management expenses
* Cost of utilities
* Cost of in-house information technology (IT)
* Cost of overflow transcription
* Costs incurred due to delay in transcription.
* Cost of equipment
* Cost of training
* Consumables

Benefits of in-house transcription

* Single level of communication
* Familiarity of the transcriptionists with the healthcare professionals.
* Security

It can be seen from the above table that in-house transcription has hidden costs that dilute focus from the core business. And being dependent on in-house transcriptionists can create additional hassles for weekend and holiday transcription requirements. Any delay in medical transcription can in turn can affect both the quality of care and the receivables cycle.

Cost benefit analysis for outsourced medical transcription:

Cost of outsourced transcription

* Cost of sourcing the right service provider, like the evaluation process and travel
* Cost per line of transcription
* Minor expenses for upgrading the healthcare facility systems to work in tandem with the service provider's systems

Benefits of outsourced transcription

* Cost of transcription is restricted to the cost per line of transcription
* Holiday and weekend requirements are covered automatically
* Guaranteed turnaround time
* Accuracy of above 99%
* Security measures as regards to technology, processes and manpower are taken care of by the service provider
* There are added benefits like freeing up of resources like real estate, management and utilities
* Training of transcriptionists are undertaken to cover the specialties of the healthcare professionals.
* Automatic integration with the EMR/EHR systems is the possible.
* Flexible and familiar modes of dictation can be retained
* Information Technology needs for transcription is taken care of by the service provider.

Outsourcing medical transcription can help the healthcare facility in saving cost per line of transcription, quickening the receivables cycle, providing quality health care and freeing up of important resources, which can then be used of other purposes. However to avail all the benefits of outsourced it is important to have a careful process of qualification and evaluation. The payoff from the lengthy selection process would have long-term benefits.

TransDyne, a leader in the outsourced medical transcription industry offers customized medical transcription solutions tailored to suit the needs of healthcare facilities. Visit http://www.transdyne.com for more details. Click http://www.transdyne.com/html/contactus.aspx to avail medical transcription services from TransDyne.
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