Medical Transcription Services – Why Is It Important?

Medical transcription has been a part of the healthcare process creating patient records by converting the dictation of the patient- healthcare professional encounter into text format. These services have adapted themselves to the changing needs of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities adopting newer processes and technology. The role of this services has expanded from that of merely being a typing service to being an important part of health information management.
In recent times there have been many doubts about the need for transcription services due to the advent of technology like speech recognition and EMR. In spite of these developments the importance of the role played by them is undeniable.
Given below are some of the reasons that highlight the importance of these services:
The basis of the healthcare process is the sanctity of the patient- healthcare professional relationship. Availing specialized services from a transcription vendor helps preserve this by letting the healthcare professional concentrate on the treatment process: allowing him/ her to dictate his/her notes using flexible modes of dictation, instead of capturing the information at the point of care by entering the data themselves.
Quality healthcare requires a quality patient record capturing the narrative of the patient complaint along with all the details. All the details of the patient complaint are captured along with the background information provided by the patient as accurately as possible, which helps the treatment process.
Detailed patient records improve the communication between healthcare professionals. This is very useful when the patient has to be referred to a specialist for further treatment/ tests/ procedures.
This method of documentation ensures that all the details of the patient encounter including treatment history are captured accurately. This acts as a valuable evidence in case of litigation
Encouraging dictation as a means of capturing all the patient- healthcare professional encounter adds to the convenience. The process of narrating the encounter helps in the diagnostic process.
Patient records are created with maximum details under this method ensuring Bachelor Of Health Services Management that the healthcare professional has a reference for future patient visits.
This process creates transcripts capturing maximum details with accuracy and speed. Speedy medical transcription speeds up the reimbursement process and accurately capturing the details supports the claim for payment.
Medical transcription has an important role to play in the healthcare process whether it is by creating patient records from the dictation provided by healthcare professionals, or by providing editing facilities for speech recognition transcribed transcripts or adopting EMR through HL7 interface.
Outsourcing this process has been found to be the most effective, efficient and economical fix to ensure accurate, speedy, secure and cost effective creation of patient records.
The expertise of the medical transcription service provider 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 service provider can be evaluated on the basis of their recruiting and training processes. This would ensure that the service 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 service provider with Vitamin Supplement Definition the right expertise would ensure that none of the criteria for quality medical transcription are compromised by having the correct process in place.
Technology – The expertise of the transcription vendor can be evaluated based on the technology used by them to ensure speedy and secure services. The technology used by the service provider would ensure maximum benefits with ease of use.