Medical Transcription Outsourcing And Healthcare

Healthcare is an essential service that has to be patient-centric to be effective. To be patient centric healthcare services need to be

· Transparent
· Individualized
· Respectful
· Preserving the dignity of the individual
· Offering choices to matters related to the treatment of one’s person, within reason
· Confidential

Healthcare facilities draw inputs from various sources to achieve this end. There are many contributors to making the healthcare process successful and profitable. One of the elements that contribute to the success of the healthcare process is information. Information that is in the form of patient records including:

· Demographics
· Pre-existing health conditions
· Current medication
· Medical allergies
· Family health history
· Habits that affect health
· Details of previous encounters
· Progress
· Test/x-ray/scan results
· Physical symptoms

The above information helps healthcare professionals in making informed decisions regarding the patient’s health and in formulating treatment plans. Medical transcription aids in the process of creating patient records by transcribing the audio records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter as narrated by the healthcare professionals into text format.

However the process of creating patient medical records is a specialized skill requiring a lot of resources, focus and competence. Outsourcing this process to a professional service provider is one of the most effective, efficient and economical methods of creating patient records.

Outsourcing of medical transcription services should be done after a process involving the careful selection of a transcription vendor who can tailor their services to the specific needs of the healthcare facility. Once the right service provider has been chosen, there are numerous advantages of outsourcing including:

· Accuracy: It is very important to document the patient-healthcare professional encounter as accurately as possible. The accuracy level of the patient records is maintained due to the following factors:

a) Multi level quality checks: A professional transcription vendor would try and maintain the accuracy of the transcripts by having stringent quality checks to ensure minimum error rate

b) Trained team: A continuous process of recruiting and training transcriptionists would ensure abundant, qualified teams. Moreover specialized training techniques like training in one or two specialties helps enhance the accuracy level in the transcripts

· Speed: Information in the patient records not only needs to be accurate, but also needs to be available on a timely basis. Outsourcing ensures that patient records are transcribed within an optimum turnaround time. The service provider can maintain turnaround time due to the following factors:

a) Enormous pool of transcriptionists: A large pool of well-trained personnel for transcription would be available on a regular basis. Due to this the turnaround time of transcripts would be unaffected by factors like absenteeism, shift changes etc.
b) Technology: Use of the right technology by the service provider can speed up the process of transcription by having features like flexible modes of dictation, automatic upload and download etc. speeding up the process of transcription
c) Total focus: Medical transcription is the core activity of the service provider, this means that all the resources of the medical transcription service provider are focused on providing timely and accurate services

· Savings on cost: One of the main benefits of outsourcing is that of huge savings on cost of transcription to the healthcare facility. The cost of transcription is reduced by at least 40% and is limited to the cost per line of transcription. This is possible due to the following factors:

a) Economies of scale: Having to deal with huge quantities of helps the service provider to optimize the production process reducing costs. The benefits of this are passed on to the healthcare facility
b) Billing methodology: The billing method used can make a lot of difference to the cost of transcription. The billing method used should be measurable, verifiable, definable consistent, fair and honest
c) Savings on idle capacity/overtime: Availing specialty services ensures that the healthcare facility pays only the price per line. Factors like extra expenses on overtime for weekend and holiday transcription, and wastage due to idle capacity are eliminated

· Technology: Technology plays a huge part in the process of medical transcription by providing the following benefits:
a) Multiple utility: Technology adds value by having many time saving utilities that ease the life of healthcare professionals and support staff
b) Easy to use: The use of the right technology ensures that not only do healthcare professionals get multiple benefits but also ease of use
c) Security: Technology has a large role in securing confidential patient information during the record creation process

· Security: Outsourcing ensures that confidential patient information is secure during the process by securing the following:
a) People
b) Processes
c) TechnologyAuthor: Expert MTSource:http://www.articledashboard.com/