Medical transcription outsourcing: Helps make the organization structure leaner

Medical transcription is the process of creating records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter. It is a non-profit making but essential part of the healthcare process. It is considered to be one of the cost heads.

The aim of most healthcare facilities is to reduce the cost of medical transcription as much as possible. Outsourcing medical transcription helps reduce costs both directly and indirectly.

How does outsourcing medical transcription reduce direct costs?
Outsourcing medical transcription reduces direct costs by reducing the following cost heads:

· Reduce the cost of medical transcriptionist staff on the rolls: One of the main contributors to the cost of medical transcription in-house is the need to maintain the manpower to execute the work. Outsourcing medical transcription needs can bring down not only the salaries paid to the medical transcriptionist but also bring down other costs like taxes, benefits like insurance, down time when work is slow, overtime payments, the cost of weekend and holiday transcription etc.

· Bring down the cost per line of transcription: Outsourcing medical transcription ensures that the healthcare facility ends up paying very less per line of transcription due to benefits like economies of scale, lower cost of living at the outsourcing company location, and the benefits of best practices adopted by the service provider.

· Reduce the cost of medical transcription equipment: For medical transcription to be executed in-house the healthcare facility has to invest in medical transcription equipment like computers, servers, earphones, foot pedals etc. These expenses are eliminated with the outsourcing option.

How does outsourcing medical transcription reduce indirect costs?
Outsourcing medical transcription reduces indirect costs by reducing the following cost heads:

· Reduce the cost of management resources: Managing medical transcription in-house would involve allocation of management staff for activities like recruitment, training, supervision of medical transcription work. By outsourcing medical transcription, management expenses towards managing medical transcription in-house would be dramatically reduced.

· Reduce the cost of utilities: Utilities like power, water, stationery, consumables etc. add to the cost of medical transcription in-house. Outsourcing medical transcription would eliminate all these costs.

· Reduce the cost of real estate: Executing medical transcription in-house would mean allocating space for this purpose. This cost of real estate would add to the cost of transcription. Outsourcing medical transcription would totally eliminate this cost head.

Outsourcing medical transcription needs would make the organization structure leaner by eliminating the need to maintain a huge staff on the rolls, while at the same time bringing down the cost of transcription dramatically. It allows the healthcare facility to take advantage of opportunity costs which would have been lost by allocating essential resources to in-house transcription like investments in capital equipment, space allocation, management resources etc.

Outsourcing medical transcription to TransDyne helps not only eliminate direct and indirect costs of in-house transcription, it also offers advantages like:

Medical transcription: Outsourcing can reduce the information technology burden of the healthcare facility

The success of any organization lies in being able to concentrate on the core business and outsource all other activities that are not part of the core business. The core business of a healthcare facility is that of providing quality healthcare. All other activities are support functions. They play an important role in achieving the core objective, but may not be part of the core competency of the healthcare facility.

One such activity is medical transcription. Medical transcription is the process of documenting the patient-healthcare professional encounter.

What is the importance of medical transcription in the healthcare process?

Medical transcription plays an important part in the following:

· Patient treatment
· Permanent Patient records
· Referrals to other doctors
· Evidence in case of malpractice suits
· Coding, billing and insurance claims
· Satisfaction of regulatory norms

One can see that medical transcription plays a very important role in major areas of healthcare like quality of care, diagnosis and in the receivables cycle.

What role does Information Technology (IT) play in Medical transcription?
With the evolution of medical transcription from the manual to the virtual world, Information Technology plays a very important role at every stage of medical transcription like:

· Collections of patient-healthcare professional encounter data.
· Transmission of data to the medical transcriptionists
· The transcription process
· Transmission of transcribed files to the healthcare professionals
· Archiving of files for future reference
· Integration with EMR systems

The whole process of medical transcription needs Information technology at every stage to make the process quicker and secure. Executing medical transcription in-house would require that the healthcare facility have massive investment in Information technology to enable all these functions. It would involve investments in servers for uploading dictation, secure file transfer protocols to distribute work to and collect work from medical transcriptionists, distribution network for report distribution and powerful archiving to trace dictations, work-in-progress and finished transcripts.

The simple step of outsourcing medical transcription needs to a technology savvy medical transcription service provider can eliminate the total burden of investment in Information technology towards medical transcription. These valuable resources could then be put to better use.

TransDyne a leading name in medical transcription believes that technology needs to be advanced so that the service provided is of the best standard, but should be simple to enable ease of use for healthcare professionals.

Some of the features of the software and tools used by TransDyne are as follows:

· Smart upload: TransDyne offers doctors the choice of using modes of dictation they are already comfortable with. Then these files are uploaded to the servers to be made available for transcription. Smart upload enables transfer of dictation files from the healthcare facility’s server to TransDyne’s server by checking for new dictations at pre-fixed intervals.

· Web Delivery: TransDyne’s web delivery system tackles all issues related with tracking dictations, receiving documents and finding old files from the archives.

· Smart Delivery: Smart delivery is an automated program that addresses the automatic downloads, saving files and printing needs of a healthcare facility.

· HL7 integration: TransDyne can configure and send healthcare information as HL7 messages to the client’s EMR with no additional costs.

By using the right technology TransDyne provides medical transcription with benefits like:

Medical transcription: Pick a company that thinks like their customers

What gives TransDyne the edge over others in the field of medical transcription?

TransDyne is the new standard in medical transcription that provides excellent services by using their extensive background in software to develop systems which provide advanced technology with ease of use

Beyond that what sets TransDyne apart is the mindset of the company towards its’ customers. TransDyne has actually put itself into the shoes of their customers i.e. healthcare facilities to anticipate any questions, doubts or issues they may have with the outsourcing decision and addressed them all.

Typically the decision to outsource lies in the hands of the individual/team who looks after the administration of the healthcare facility. They would be responsible for the business end of the healthcare facility including medical transcription and record keeping among their many other responsibilities.

What questions/ doubts / issues would healthcare facility administrator/s have regarding medical transcription?

· How important is medical transcription to the running of the healthcare facility?
Medical transcription is vital for the smooth running of a healthcare facility. The finished transcripts are used for:
1. Patient treatment
2. Permanent Patient records
3. Referrals to other doctors
4. Evidence in case of malpractice suits
5. Coding, billing and insurance claims
6. Satisfaction of regulatory norms.

TransDyne offers Quality Transcription with accuracy of 99% or above by applying four level quality checks

· How much is the cost per line of medical transcription currently?
Depending on whether an in-house employee or an independent contractor is doing the medical transcription work, it could cost anywhere between 18-35 cents per line of transcription.

TransDyne offers prices as low as 10 cents for a 65-character line that is subject to verification from both ends through a transparent billing method.

· Is medical transcription a part of the healthcare facility’s core business?
Medical transcription is not part of the core business but does play an important role in providing quality healthcare and improving the bottom line of the healthcare facility.

TransDyne is a professional company whose core business is medical transcription

· What are the opportunity costs of medical transcription activity in-house?
Apart from the direct costs involved in medical transcription in-house there are numerous opportunity costs  like management resources, space allocated for medical transcription, information technology investment etc.

By outsourcing the medical transcription needs of a healthcare facility to TransDyne one can not only save on cost per line of transcription but also save on opportunity costs like management, human resource development, space management etc.

· Are volume fluctuations in medical transcription due to holidays/staff shortage/weekends being met?
Normally it is difficult to anticipate the fluctuations in the volumes of transcription and staffing fluctuations and thereby it is very difficult to plan medical transcription volumes accordingly.

TransDyne can provide medical transcription according to the volume fluctuations and any holiday/weekend needs due to the availability of a
large pool of trained medical transcriptionists.

· What are the concerns with regard to outsourcing medical transcription?
The concerns for outsourcing are mainly the accuracy, turnaround time, hidden costs and data security.

TransDyne offers medical transcription with an accuracy of above 99%, turnaround time of 24 hours, with a 4-12 hours turnaround time for stat reports, with a fair and simple billing method that has no hidden costs and data transmission through secure channels to ensure HIPAA compliancy.

· Is further investment in technology required to make the transition to outsourcing?
No! There are no investments to be made in technology or software for outsourcing medical transcription to TransDyne

· Is the transition difficult for doctors in terms of dictation methods and equipments?
The transition to outsourced medical transcription can be made simple by using the existing modes of dictation.

TransDyne believes that the doctors’ time is precious that is why they offer flexible modes of dictation. Doctors can dictate using their existing dictation devices, use digital reorders or even use mobile phones to record their dictation into their toll free number.

Will the medical transcription company be available at all times in case of doubts and clarifications?
TransDyne believes in being available to the customer 24/7 so that any doubts/clarifications are sorted out at the earliest.

· What are the advantages of outsourcing medical transcription to TransDyne?

Pricing: TransDyne offers fair and verifiable pricing for the services rendered.

Zero investment: Medical transcription with TransDyne requires no investment.

No opportunity costs lost: TransDyne offers total solutions for the medical transcription process thereby no opportunity costs are lost.

Focus on core business: Once a professional company like TransDyne meets the medical transcription needs, it leaves the administrator of the healthcare facility free to focus on the core business of health care.

Turnaround time: TransDyne guarantees a turnaround time of 24 hours and 4-12 hours for STAT reports, hence the quality of care improves and the receivables cycle is reduced.

Fluctuation in volumes managed: TransDyne is geared to take on the fluctuating volumes of medical transcription needs by having a huge pool of trained transcriptionists available at all times.

Medical transcription: The myths and truths

In recent times there have been many myths and misconceptions regarding medical transcription, giving it a bad press. Given below are a few myths about medical transcription:

· Medical transcription is easy and anybody can be a medical transcriptionist: This is a common myth about medical transcription, given that entry into this profession is relatively easy. No formal qualifications are required except for an aptitude for the English language, good keyboard skills and a keen ear. In spite of the easy entry to qualify as a medical transcriptionist, a person has to go through extensive training in medical terminology, procedures and drugs. This profession also requires a person to constantly educate themselves on the latest developments in the medical field.

Over and above all a medical transcriptionist trained in a particular specialty of medicine adds value to the work done by being a domain specialist increasing accuracy and turnaround time.

· Medical transcription is just a data entry service: Medical transcription is a service, which requires attributes like good listening, applying context when in doubt and an extensive knowledge base to draw from, unlike data entry. Moreover medical transcription goes beyond just a data entry service by having additional benefits like effective report distribution, archiving and adding value to the healthcare facility in terms of reducing staff burden, reducing capital investment in medical transcription, and freeing up resources like utilities and real estate.

· Medical transcription can be replaced with voice recognition software: Voice recognition software is software that automatically converts the dictation of the healthcare professional into a typed text. On the face of this, it sounds like the answer to the medical transcription needs of a healthcare facility.

But this software is not easy to use due to the following reasons:

a. The software has to be “taught” to recognize the voice of the user and terminology used
b. A healthcare professional has to dramatically slow down his usual way of dictation and speak in a structured way, including punctuation etc., resulting in loss of productivity of the healthcare professional.
c. In spite of all these preparations the accuracy of the voice recognition software has been found to be only 60%-80%.

Because of such low accuracy levels the need for medical transcriptionists arises to proof read the reports and edit them to bring them up to the desired level of accuracy.

· Outsourcing medical transcription is time consuming: Outsourcing medical transcription can be made easy and quick by analyzing the specific needs of the healthcare facility and evaluating a prospective service provider by these attributes. A quick way to assess the medical transcription company is through:

a. Methods of quality assessment
b. Billing method used
c. Technology used
d. Measures for ensuring HIPAA compliance
e. Training methods used
f. Assessing if all the work in done in-house or through the use of sub-contractors.
g. Testimonials
h. Free trial

All these information can be accessed through the service provider’s website

· Outsourcing medical transcription affects the turnaround time negatively: Outsourcing medical transcription actually fine tunes the turnaround time and regularizes any overflow needs that arise due to rise in patient visits. Outsourcing also takes care of weekend and holiday transcription needs, thus lessening the turnaround time.

· Outsourcing medical transcription will adversely affect the quality of reports: Outsourcing actually improves the accuracy level of the reports transcribed, when done right. The healthcare facility needs to look a service provider who has a thorough method for attaining accuracy, specialty based training methods and executes all medical transcription work in-house.

· Outsourcing medical transcription has hidden costs that will increase the cost per line: The cost per line of medical transcription is largely determined by the billing method used. Picking a medical transcription service provider that uses a fair and simple method of billing will ensure that there are no hidden costs, and help keep costs down.

· Outsourcing medical transcription is not safe: This is one of the main myths perpetuated due to a few unfortunate incidents in the past. The security measures used by the medical transcription service provider need to be assessed in detail to ensure security breaches are prevented. The service provider needs to be assessed for security on the basis of:

a. Technology
b. Facilities and infrastructure
c. People and processes

· Outsourcing medical transcription would require an entirely new Information Technology (IT) infrastructure: Outsourcing to the right service provider would ensure this does not happen. Care needs to be taken to choose a service provider who understands the special needs of the healthcare professionals and ensures that the technology takes care of all the needs and at the same time is very simple to use. Features like a flexible mode of dictation, easy uploads & downloads and archiving facilities need to be considered in the assessment process.

TransDyne is a medical transcription service provider that busts all these myths and provides quality Medical Transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert Medical Transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!

Medical transcription: Role played in healthcare

Medical transcription is a very important part of the healthcare cycle and plays an important role in both the operational and commercial aspects of healthcare.

· Role of medical transcription in the operational aspect of healthcare: When a patient visits a healthcare professional, it could be for various reasons like an emergency, sudden illness, regular visit or continuation of an ongoing treatment plan. These visits need to be documented as part of the patient’s records.

Not only does this information form a permanent part of the patient’s health record, it forms a foundation for future encounters. Factors like demographics, lifestyle of the patient, past medical history, past treatment/procedures availed, past medications, allergies etc., have an effect on the future treatment plan.

In case the patient is availing a new mode of treatment, which is in the experimental stages, this information needs to be captured for record and research purposes. In case of any findings from the tests conducted require further treatment, the record forms the basis of referral to a specialist. Medical transcription enables the healthcare professional to take informed decisions instead of relying on memory or guesswork by creating accurate and timely records.

· Role of medical transcription in the commercial aspect of healthcare: The secondary, but equally important role played by medical transcription is the commercial aspect. Medical transcription forms the basis of claiming payment from the insurance company. The information from the record created by the medical transcription process is used as the basis of coding, billing and insurance claims. Any delays in the medical transcription process could adversely affect the receivables cycle.

Medical records also provide evidence in case of any litigation issues and it is also a statutory requirement to maintain patient records for a certain period of time. Medical transcription plays an important part in record creation by capturing all the information of the patient-healthcare professional encounter.

· Where does medical transcription process begin?
The process of medical transcription begins when the patient enters the healthcare facility for availing treatment. The front office collects details like date of birth, gender, Social security no., employer details and details of the policy name and number etc. The patient meets the healthcare professional for consultation and treatment. This total encounter is dictated into a recording device by the healthcare professional. The audio recordings are then transmitted to the medical transcription service provider for transcription.

· What are the various stages of the medical transcription process?
The audio records are downloaded at the medical transcription service provider’s site and distributed for transcribing among the medical transcriptionists based on their expertise. Once the transcription process is over, the proofreader goes through the record to ensure accuracy and fill any gaps, which are left blank. Then the files are passed on the Unit in charge who goes through the record once more to ensure accuracy. Before finally transmitting to the client the quality assurance team does random checks to ensure total quality and the final corrections are made if required.

· What are the attributes that define quality medical transcription?
The attributes that define the quality of medical transcription are:
a. Accuracy: Needs to be above 99%
b. Turnaround time: Needs to be within 24 hours
c. Price: Needs to be reasonable and fair
d. Security: Has to cover all aspects that is, technology, infrastructure, people and processes.
e. Technology: Needs to be easy to use and provide maximum benefits

It is important to have medical transcription support for both the operational and commercial aspects of healthcare. At the same time one needs to have the right provider to have benefits like accuracy, turnaround time, price, security and the right technology for ease of use.

TransDyne offers Medical Transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert Medical Transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!

Medical transcription outsourcing: Dependable and prompt

Medical transcription is a service that has been associated with healthcare for a long time. Through out the evolution of healthcare from the beginning till date documenting the patient-healthcare professional encounter has always been important. The documentation of the patient-healthcare professional encounter is important because medical records fulfill the following purposes:

- Providing continuity: Documenting every encounter between the patient-healthcare professional provides information so that the patient’s medical history is continuous and has no breaks. This enables the healthcare professional to impart the right form of healthcare

- Providing information on the progress: Every time a patient comes in for continued treatment, the progress made by him can define all future steps to ensure his further recovery

- Providing context: Context in case of healthcare is important so that the right treatment program can be designed at the right time

- Providing feedback: Maintaining records provides feedback about the patient’s response to a certain treatment. This is an important diagnostic tool to monitor therapies

- Providing information for innovation and change: In case a new procedure or drug is used, maintaining a record on the frequency of usage and the reaction to it can help make innovation and necessary changes

- Providing basis for research: Patient records are a valuable source for research inputs

Apart from these aspects, documenting the patient-healthcare professional encounter provides the basis for coding and billing, leading to realization of payments. Enumerating the purpose of medical records serves to highlight the role of medical transcription.

Outsourcing medical transcription has always been one of the most efficient and economic ways of assuring that both low costs of transcription and the quality of reports are maintained. This affects the bottom-line of the healthcare facility and the quality of care imparted. To fulfill both these criteria a medical transcription service needs to be both dependable and prompt.

What defines dependable medical transcription?

Dependable medical transcription can be evaluated based on the following criteria:

o Accuracy: For medical transcription to be dependable the accuracy of the data in the transcribed document needs to be as close as possible to the audio records. This ensures that both the quality of healthcare and accuracy of coding and billing are maintained

o Pricing: For medical transcription to be dependable the pricing needs to be fair and consistent to ensure that the financial planning of the healthcare facility does not get affected. Terms of pricing need to be clearly defined so that the prices are clearly understood by both the parties

o Security: For medical transcription to be dependable the security of confidential patient needs to be maintained through the use of right technology, right processes and the right people

o Technology: For medical transcription to be dependable the technology used has to facilitate easy uploads and downloads of files through secure channels.Technology has an impact on both the turnaround time and security aspects. Technology has to provide additional features like archiving, HL7 interface and flexible modes of dictation

What defines prompt medical transcription?
Prompt medical transcription is defined by:

o Turnaround time: For medical transcription to be prompt the turnaround time guaranteed has to be met under all circumstances including weekend and holiday transcription requirements.

TransDyne provides dependable and prompt medical transcription services, with reasonable prices, done by expert Medical Transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time executed through secure HIPAA compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!

Types of medical transcription reports

What are the types of reports that need to be transcribed?
A patient-provider interaction typically happens when a patient visits a doctor or healthcare provider for:
· Regular health checks
· Specific health issue
· Emergency care
· Specialist referral
· Procedure
· Surgery/ Diagnostic test
Once the patient-doctor encounter ends detailed records need to be created of the whole process. This is not only a statutory requirement, but also aids the doctor in the treatment process, checking on the progress of the patient, providing proof in case of litigation and also used further for billing and reimbursement. Medical transcription plays an important part in the process of record creation.
The types of reports that are created by medical transcriptionists are as follows
Ø Patient History and physical examination report: This contains a brief about the patient name, age, gender, occupation, family health history, habits like smoking etc. and the details of the physical examination.
Ø Consultation report: This contains the details of the findings by the consultant to whom the patient has been referred to for further treatment or diagnosis depending on the symptoms
Ø Operative report: This contains the details of the operation/surgery that a patient has undergone including details of the procedure, duration, the anesthesia given etc. This may also contains some postoperative details.
Ø Radiology report: This contains details of the radiologists’ findings on the X-rays, MRI scan, Ct scan, nuclear medicine, fluoroscopic studies etc along with the reports.
Ø Pathology report: This contains the findings of a pathologist of the tissue sample.
Ø Laboratory report: This contains the laboratory findings on body fluids
Ø Emergency report: This is a summary of the patient’s visit to the emergency room for emergency care.
Ø SOAP note report: This contains
q Subjective: This section contains patient’s current condition like age, gender, and pertinent symptoms etc.
q Objective: This section contains vital signs, findings from physical exams. Lab test results, co morbidity etc.
q Assessment: This contains quick summary of symptoms and diagnosis etc.
q Plan: This contains treatment plans, document goals for the patient with reasonable time lines etc.
Ø Progress note report: This contains progress of the patient after treatment/ operation/ procedure etc.
Ø Therapy report: This contains details of the therapy given to the patient
Ø Discharge summary: This contains all the details which are generated when the patient is discharged including the treatment given, the progress of the patient, any reports and findings etc.
In light of the vital information that comes out of each patient encounter with a healthcare facility, medical transcription is an important component in the healthcare delivery cycle.
One needs to focus on a medical transcription service provider not just for creation of physical records but based on the following criteria:
· Accuracy of above 99%
· Turnaround time of 24 hours
· Reasonably priced
· Secure channels for data transmission
TransDyne offers quality Medical Transcription at reasonable prices, done by expert Medical Transcriptionists with a very quick turnaround time and executed through secure HIPAA compliant channels, with very high levels of accuracy and all this with technology that is advanced but easy to use!
TransDyne’s medical transcription service is proven and our team has vast experience in:
· Family Practice transcription
· Internal Medicine transcription
· Orthopedics transcription
· Cardiology transcription
· Neurology transcription
· Psychiatry transcription
· Radiology transcription
· Rehab Medicine transcription
· Pediatrics transcription
· Podiatry transcription
· Physical Therapy transcription
· Ophthalmology transcription
· Hematology & Oncology transcription
· ENT transcription
· Plastic Surgery transcription
· ER transcription
· Ob/Gyn transcription
· Nephrology transcription
· Urology transcription
· Gastroenterology transcription
· General Surgery transcription
To know more about TransDyne’s expert medical transcription services click here.