Medical Transcription: How to Ensure Better Quality Recordings

The medical transcription industry has evolved of the years and today we have seen doctors and physicians verbally recording all their work details at hospitals for medical transcription professionals who will soon convert all these audio recording into neatly typed transcripts. Quite often transcription work may be done at a far off location like India. In this context it is right to say that the quality of the transcription dictation matter a lot.

Now if you are representing a hospital that produces voice/dictation recordings which have to be outsourced /offshored outside your premises for medical transcription into typed text, then you must be aware of the fact that the quality of your audio material recordings can directly affect your total transcription costs.

How? Well, one must know that all basic transcription material that comes in for medical transcription is always first assessed by the service provider? The time taken and charges for medical transcription will depend on the quality of the recordings. Obviously with bad recording, transcription takes more time and so will require more work hours and will thus result in higher charges of transcription. Some of the factors that affects the time /cost of transcribing that are taken into consideration while assessing a transcription /dictation recording include,

• Background noise level
• Clarity of recording
• Speed of speech
• Clarity of voice
• Number of speakers
• Accents of speakers
• Technical language used
• Content
• Collect essential details of the material
• Transcribed
• Get details of all participants/leaders

So how does one go about creating good quality audio recordings for your transcription outsourcing provider? Well, essentially one has to make sure that the recording is done as perfectly as possible by,

• Making a test recording
• Minimize tape "hiss"
• Use digital recording
• Minimize background noise
• Use more microphones if more than two people
• Plan all breaks beforehand
• Stop speakers speaking among themselves
• Get all details of the speaker/participant (Gender/ title/ representation etc)
• Note Words/minute

Medical transcription outsourcing and off shoring to Asian location like India and the Philippines has made transcription outsourcing a more affordable option. However it requires that initial investment is made for infrastructure development and modern technologies so that medical transcription dictation files /tapes are always clear resulting in a minimal error during the medical transcription process.

The author of this article is Ricci Mathew of Outsource Strategies International (OSI), a US based company that offers services in Medical Coding, Medical Billing, Medical Transcription for clients across the US.
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