Medical transcription outsourcing: Expertise and experience

Outsourcing medical transcription is a vital decision; involving thorough analysis of the needs of the healthcare facilities and what it hopes to gain from outsourcing and then evaluating the service provider to ensure that the service provider can provide services as required by the healthcare facility. Medical transcription is a vital ingredient of the healthcare process and outsourcing of this process should be done with a lot of caution. One needs to source a service provider who has the right combination of expertise and experience to provide excellent services.

What defines the expertise of the medical transcription service provider?
Expertise refers to the skill or knowledge in a particular field. By this definition it is important to source a vendor whose core business is that of providing outsourced medical transcription services. The expertise of the transcription vendor needs to be evaluated on the following criteria:

· Team: Quality services require the right team to ensure accuracy and turnaround time. The expertise of the medical transcription service provider can be evaluated on the basis of their recruiting and training processes. This would ensure that the transcription provider has a pool of manpower to draw from as per the transcription requirements

· Process: The expertise of the vendor can be judged by the processes in place to ensure accuracy, turnaround time and security. A transcription provider with the right expertise would ensure that none of the criteria for quality services are compromised by having the correct process in place.

· Technology: The expertise of the service provider can be evaluated based on the technology used by them to ensure speedy and secure services. The technology used by for patient medical record creation by the vendor would ensure maximum benefits with ease of use.

What defines the experience of the medical transcription service provider?
Experience refers to familiarity with a skill or field of knowledge acquired over a period of time by actual practice resulting in superior understanding. By this definition it is important to source a service provider who has the expertise in providing outsourced services over a period of time enabling the vendor to understand the specific needs of the customer and provide solutions accordingly. The experience of the transcription vendor can be evaluated on the following criteria:

· Testimonials: An experienced vendor would have experience in providing outsourced services to healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals of all types. This would reflect in the testimonials / references provided by customers.

· Add on benefits: Patient medical record creation services have evolved from being just a transcription service to that of being a back office support function for healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals. An experienced service provider would be aware of the needs of healthcare facilities/ healthcare professionals and would provide advanced services including:

a) Flexible modes of dictation
b) Archiving
c) Multiple modes of document delivery
d) HL7 interface

While outsourcing medical transcription it is important to choose a transcription provider with both the relevant expertise and experience. This not only ensures accurate, timely and secure medical transcription services, it also ensures major cost saving benefits to healthcare facilities.
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