Medical Transcription Outsourcing – Providing Value Added Services

Medical transcription is the process of creating patient medical records of the patient- healthcare professional encounter, converting audio to text. These services have always provided valuable support to healthcare in both the operational and commercial aspects. However as the process of creating patient medical records is a specialized service requiring healthcare facilities to source the right team, purchase the right equipment and have efficient processes in place to ensure accurate and prompt creation of patient records. Moreover this process also requires substantial commitment from the healthcare facility in terms of overheads like space allocation, utilities and participation of staff from several departments. All these factors add to the costs, making having an in-house medical transcription department an unattractive option.

Outsourcing to a professional transcription vendor has been found to a convenient solution for healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities seeking to create patient records in a hassle free and cost effective manner. Outsourcing ensures that patient records are created in an accurate, prompt and secure manner, while bringing down the cost of transcription by more than 40%. Though substantial savings on cost of transcription is one of the foremost benefits of outsourcing medical transcription it is important to concentrate on all the factors that could add value to the process.

What are the factors that add value to these services?

Providing a system transcription – Though the concept of transcription is fairly simple; converting audio to text, it requires technological backup to follow a sequence from dictation to transcription. The typical sequence would be –

Dictation Hospital Management Wikipedia

Uploading audio files Biggest Dieting Myths to the server

Transmitting audio files for transcription

The actual process of transcribing

Transmission of transcripts

Delivery of transcripts through preferred modes

Archiving of files

EMR adoption

Availing specialized services from a professional vendor would ensure that healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals would benefit from the software and tools used by the service provider which would ensure an automatic sequence for the entire process.

Customized delivery modes -Another major benefit of outsourced services is that the healthcare professional and healthcare facility can specify the preferred mode of document delivery. Options like delivery to specified folders, delivery to multiple users, remote printing/ faxing options etc. could be customized as per the specifications of healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals.

HIPAA and HITECH compliant – The major concern of healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals is that of protecting confidential patient information. By outsourcing to a HIPAA/ HITECH compliant service provider the healthcare facility can rest assured of the security of data through the entire process.

Leveraging on the service provider’s experience – The experience of the service provider is another factor that should be considered during the process of outsourcing. This factor ensures the healthcare facility/ healthcare professional of long-term hassle free services.

While outsourcing medical transcription it is important for healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals to look beyond the price quoted by the vendor. This will ensure that the healthcare facility/ healthcare professional can benefit from the experience and expertise of the transcription vendor on a long-term basis.