Medical transcription: Radiology

Radiology is the branch of specialty medicine that deals with the study and application of imaging technology like X-ray and radiation for diagnosing and treating disease. Radiologists direct an array of imaging technologies such as ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to diagnose or treat disease.

Scope of radiology also covers:

· Mammography radiology
· Cardiac radiology
· Musculoskeletal radiology
· Neuroradiology
· Pediatric Radiology
· Nuclear radiology

Medical transcription is the process of converting the audio records of healthcare professional-patient encounter into text format, which then forms a permanent part of the patient’s health record. This ensures the continuity of care by ensuring the patient’s detailed health history is available as reference.

Medical transcription for Radiology requires the skill level of medical transcriptionists to be high. The medical transcriptionists need to be well versed in the terminology, techniques and procedures that form part of radiology.

TransDyne acknowledges that the field of medicine is vast and has many specialties; therefore medical transcription for a particular specialty requires the team providing medical transcription support to have in-depth knowledge about the specialty. This ensures that the audio records dictated by the specialists are fully understood by the medical transcriptionists and the records are transcribed with maximum accuracy and within the requisite turnaround time.

TransDyne has a team of specially trained  medical transcriptionists working on radiology medical transcription. This team has been extensively trained on the terminology, techniques and procedures related to radiology.

How does specialty training in Radiology in medical transcription affect accuracy?
Specialist training in radiology medical transcription ensures that the teams working on the transcripts are domain experts. This ensures familiarity with the “language” used by the radiologists and reduces errors dramatically.

How does specialty training in Radiology in medical transcription affect turnaround time?
Turnaround time of the finished transcripts is dependent on the skill level of the medical transcriptionists. Specialty training in radiology transcription helps develop the skill level of the medical transcriptionists, thus enabling them to meet turnaround time commitments.

How does specialty training in Radiology in medical transcription affect pricing?
Specialist training in radiology increases the productivity of medical transcriptionists and also minimizes errors. Both these factors help bring down the cost per line of transcription.

TransDyne gives healthcare professionals in radiology the benefit of specialist transcription maintaining high levels of accuracy, turnaround time and reasonable prices..

Not only that, availing medical transcription services from TransDyne has the following benefits:

Data Security: TransDyne ensures data security of medical transcription by incorporating security measures like 128-bit data encryption, multi-tiered application architecture, design level security, safeguards, firewall protected networks, sterilized e-mail servers, denial of access procedure and multi modal alerts. TransDyne also ensures data security by ensuring that the data doesn’t leave their premises physically. To ensure secure medical transcription all the transcription is done in the company’s own premises and the premises are secured through appropriate security measures. TransDyne meets and exceeds all HIPAA and HITECH regulations that apply to electronic exchange of information.

Technology: Considering that time is one of the most precious commodities for healthcare professionals, TransDyne believes in using technology that provides multiple features with ease of use. 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 can be 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 form 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.

Medical transcription: How does outsourcing help increase cash flow?

Outsourcing is the process of obtaining certain services through an outside service provider. Usually the services that are outsourced are essential services that form part of the costs. Outsourcing is a good method to cut down costs and sharpen focus on the core business.

Medical transcription is the process of creating medical records of the patient -healthcare professional encounter. Though medical transcription is an essential part of the healthcare process and plays an important role in the receivable cycle, it is not part of the core competence of the healthcare facility. Outsourcing medical transcription to professional service provider is a cost effective method of record creation in a timely, accurate and secure way.

Apart from the obvious advantages of outsourcing medical transcription, there is the added advantage of increased cash flow.

How does outsourcing of medical transcription services improve cash flow?

· By restricting cost of transcription: Outsourcing medical transcription limits the cost of transcription to the cost per line of transcription. There is no wastage of idle production capacity during slack times and no extra expenses for medical transcription when the patient influx is high. A professional medical transcription service provider would provide a package deal including weekend and holiday transcription requirements.

· By reducing investment in infrastructure: Outsourcing medical transcription eliminates the need for investment in capital investment like computers, furniture, and servers with regard to medical transcription. The healthcare facility can channel these funds for other purposes.

· By reducing expenses in utilities: In-house transcription would incur a large expense in terms of utilities like power, Internet etc. by outsourcing medical transcription the cost of utilities would be dramatically reduced, thus improving the cash flow.

· By shortening the receivables cycle: It is a known fact that the medical record of the patient is the basis for coding and billing and medical transcription is the process of creating these records. Timely medical transcription accelerates the process of reimbursement, thus improving cash flow.

TransDyne is a professionally managed medical transcription service provider that has been providing outsourced medical transcription services for over a decade. TransDyne provides medical transcription services, which are tailored to suit the specific needs of different healthcare facilities. Apart from increasing the cash flow of a healthcare facility, the advantages of outsourcing medical transcription to TransDyne are:

Medical transcription: Understanding cost

Medical transcription is the process of converting audio files of the patient-healthcare professional encounter into text format. These records form a part of the permanent patient record and are used for various purposes, including coding and billing for the purpose of reimbursements. Medical records are a valuable resource to the healthcare professional for providing quality healthcare on a timely basis.

In spite of being an important part of the healthcare process and an accelerant of the receivables cycle, medical transcription is one of the cost factors. To understand the cost of medical transcription it is important to evaluate all options available for availing medical transcription and evaluate the cost components of each method. A healthcare facility can avail medical transcription services by the following means:

By having an in-house transcription team: To calculate the cost per line of transcription under this method, the healthcare facility needs to include indirect costs like cost of real estate, overheads, utilities, managerial/supervisory costs, cost of training, cost of repairs & maintenance, cost of weekend & holiday transcription, cost of Information Technology(IT)  along with  direct costs like Salaries and benefits paid to the medical transcriptionists. Factors like cost of overtime and loss of productivity during slack hours also need to be added to arrive at realistic costs.

By having independent contractors working for them: To calculate the costs under this method, apart from the cost per line of transcription, factors like cost of coordination of transcription activities, cost of in-house IT towards medical transcription, server costs for upload & download of files, cost of equipment & software provided to the Independent contractors, cost of security measures, needs to be added to arrive at the actual cost per line of transcription.

By outsourcing to a professional medical transcription service provider: Under this option the cost per line of medical transcription is clearly defined by the service provider. However the medical transcription service provider needs to be evaluated on  accuracy, turnaround time, security, technology used and the billing method before arriving at the final costs.

By having a combination of the above methods: Using more than one source to meet medical transcription needs can lead to complexities like different methods of billing, different methods of calculating accuracy, different technology used by different providers, cost of coordination and the additional cost of ensuring security of data. This method could probably create confusion and additional work.

In conclusion, it can safely be said that outsourcing to a professionally managed medical transcription service provider can help the healthcare facility curb costs and limit it to the cost per line of transcription. However while doing so, care needs to be taken to evaluate the medical transcription service provider on the following:

· Billing method
· Security measures taken by the medical transcription service provider
· Quality measures to obtain accuracy
· Turnaround time
· Technology

TransDyne is a professionally managed medical transcription service provider. Some of the advantages of outsourcing medical transcription to TransDyne are given below:

Fair and transparent method of billing: TransDyne uses the character line method of billing. This method is measurable, verifiable, definable, consistent and fair & honest. TransDyne takes care to explain the billing method in detail at the very beginning so that both parties understand all the components of cost.

Secure medical transcription: TransDyne ensures security of confidential patient data by securing technology, infrastructure and people & processes. The methods used by TransDyne to ensure security of data not only meet HIPAA and HITECH standards but also exceed them.

Accuracy of above 99%: TransDyne ensures accuracy levels by training their medical transcriptionists in one or two specialties making them domain experts enabling to transcribe at top quality. TransDyne further adopts a four level quality check method to attain maximum accuracy.

Turnaround time of 24 hours: TransDyne ensures turnaround time using the right technology, the right training method and the right people.

Medical transcription services for Podiatry

Podiatry is a branch of healthcare devoted to the study, diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the foot, ankle and lower leg. A podiatrist is a doctor of Podiatric medicine,  also known as podiatric physician or surgeon, qualified by his/her education and training to diagnose and treat conditions affecting the foot, ankle and related structures of the leg. Podiatrists are uniquely qualified among medical professionals to treat the foot and ankle based on their education, training and experience.

Medical transcription is a service allied with the field of healthcare by creating accurate, timely and reasonably priced records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter. To provide medical transcription based on all the parameters, medical transcriptionists needs to be well versed in the language of medicine, along with listening skills, keyboarding skills and research abilities.

Having acknowledged that catering to special needs requires a higher level of expertise, TransDyne has geared their training practices to meet these needs. TransDyne has formed special teams of medical transcriptionists who are trained in specific specialties, to make them domain experts in that specialty. TransDyne has a team of medical transcriptionists who have been trained in podiatry to enable them to provide podiatry medical transcription services.

How does specialty training in podiatry medical transcription affect accuracy?
Specialist training in podiatry ensures that the medical transcriptionist is well versed in the terminology and the procedures used in podiatry, thus ensuring that the complex terminology is easily understood by the medical transcriptionists, ensuring that the highest levels of accuracy are maintained from the very beginning.

How does specialty training in podiatry medical transcription affect turnaround time?
Specialist training in podiatry medical transcription enables medical transcriptionists to not only achieve high levels of accuracy but also enables them to meet the turnaround time committed. Moreover due to the high level of accuracy, the need for more number of quality checks are reduced, thus reducing turnaround time.

How does specialty training in podiatry medical transcription affect pricing?
The productivity of the medical transcriptionist are high, the accuracy levels are high and the need for quality checks are lowered, thus reducing the cost per line of transcription. The healthcare facility  benefits in terms of cost saving due to the expertise of the medical transcriptionists.

Apart from meeting the commitments of higher levels of accuracy and turnaround time, at lower prices, Podiatry medical transcription by TransDyne has the following benefits:

Data Security: TransDyne ensures Data security by incorporating security measures like 128-bit data encryption, multi-tiered application architecture, design level security, safeguards, firewall protected networks, sterilized e-mail servers, denial of access procedure and multi modal alerts.

TransDyne further ensures data security by ensuring that data doesn’t leave its premises physically. To ensure secure medical transcription all the transcription is done in TransDyne’s premises and the premises are secured through appropriate security measures. TransDyne meets and exceeds all the HIPAA and HITECH regulations.

Technology: TransDyne believes that the technology used for medical transcription like uploading dictation and downloading finished transcripts should be advanced to ensure reliability, but very easy to use requiring very less or no training. TransDyne also has a system with powerful archival features enabling the healthcare professional to easily trace old records. TransDyne also facilitates HL7 interface for interacting with other systems.

Medical transcription: Document Delivery system

Medical transcription has evolved a lot since the days of typewriters and micro cassettes. The days of dependence of healthcare facilities on the courier services are long gone. This is the electronic era where information is available  at the touch of a button or at the click of a mouse.

When a healthcare facility is looking at options for outsourcing medical transcription, it is important to keep Document Delivery Systems in mind while making the final decision. Accuracy of the transcript vis-à-vis the audio dictated, turnaround time of the transcripts, pricing of the service,security of data,  all these factors are very important for decision making, but Document Delivery system should be given equal importance for ease of usage.

No Health professional would like to spend an enormous amount of time on tracing reports and following up the delivery of finished transcripts. Then there is the matter of Data Security while transmitting confidential electronic data. Taking all these factors into consideration it is important for a healthcare facility to choose a medical transcription service provider that can provide an automatic and secure Document Delivery System.

It is important to choose a system which enables support staff to track dictations sent on any particular day, the number of documents in a single dictation etc to ensure that all documents were transcribed and stored.

TransDyne offers the best technology for all functions related to uploading of dictation files and downloading of finished transcripts. TransDyne has made sure that the technology used is very simple to operate. Some or the facilities offered by TransDyne are as follows:

Web Delivery
TransDyne offers  Web delivery system with multiple features that are easy to use making it an important component of medical transcription tools. TransDyne’s Web Delivery System addresses all the problems associated with tracking dictations, receiving documents, and in accessing old records from archives. The Web Delivery system is a browser-based system, and enables users to work with little or no software on their computer.

Some of the advantages of the Web Delivery system are:

· Reduce work in filing and tracking dictations
· Zero investment in hardware and software
· Configuration is flexible according to the number of users
· Up gradation is continuous without changes in the client’s computer.

Smart delivery
Smart delivery is a document retrieval system that enables automated download, saving and printing. It has features like:

· Inbox: Where all newly delivered documents are displayed.
· Automated downloads: Automatically download newly delivered documents into the folder specified.
· Automated printing: This enables auto printing for specified users and specified printers.
· User profiles: Multiple users can be configured into the system and can be assigned access privileges.
· Powerful archival and search options: The system enables user to search based on different criteria.

Some of the advantages of the Smart Delivery system are:

· Ease of tracking all new documents
· Automated downloads and printing
· User defined folder paths to enable easy imports to EMR systems
· User defined user profiles to use in a multi-user environment

Smart upload
TransDyne offers dictators the choice of using any dictation mode. Users can choose to dictate into the phone system, use their existing dictation system or use a digital recorder and transfer the dictations to the servers. The Smart Upload utility helps users transfer files from their computers or dictation systems to TransDyne’s servers. Smart Upload facilitates transfer of dictated files by checking at predefined intervals.

Voice Recognition and medical transcription

Is voice recognition the new solution for medical transcription needs? Voice recognition or speech recognition is one of the new developments in the medical transcription field. It has been touted as the solution for a health provider’s documentation needs.

How does it work? The doctor is offered a digital platform by the Voice recognition service provider where the doctor can dial in and dictate his patient notes at the end of the day. The software converts it to typed form, which is made available to the doctor to edit and correct as needed.

Seems simple enough. But is it as simple as that? Apparently not! Voice recognition needs to be evaluated on all the criteria used while finalizing a healthcare facility’s medical transcription service provider.

Time saved: When medical transcription needs are outsourced one of the main benefits is the time saving factor. Time is a precious commodity for Doctors and they would like to utilize it for providing quality care to their patients. But when voice recognition software is used the doctor has to spend more time on it in the following areas:

1. Training time: Voice recognition software requires the doctor to personally ‘train’ the software on the speech pattern, accent, standard terms and various nuances of his/her speech pattern so that the software can ‘learn’ it and adapt accordingly. This could involve a huge time commitment from the doctor using it, which he may ill afford to make.

2. Time for dictation: Voice recognition software requires the doctor to change his style of dictation to include punctuations, grammar, spellings, detailed terminology, paragraph and report start and ending etc., as opposed to the free flow form of dictations that the doctors are used to.

3. Time for editing: Unlike the traditional method of medical transcription where the records are subject to rigorous proof reading and quality checks, here the doctor needs to spend considerable time editing and correcting before signing off on the reports

Accuracy: The accuracy levels of the finished reports is of utmost importance as it affects care of the patients at every level as well as forming the basis for all further documentation needs. The accuracy level from voice recognition software is found to be about 60%-65%. That means correcting and editing the documents have to make up for the remaining 35%-40% accuracy.

Cost: The cost factor for voice recognition software will vary according to the number of users and the size of the organization. It will also have to factor in additional costs required for editing the documents to an acceptable level. One may find that it is costing more per line than was quoted in the beginning.

Learning curve: When healthcare facilities look for solutions for producing their patients’ medical records they would like to have solutions that are expert and accurate from the very beginning. In the case of voice recognition software there is a definite learning curve that affects the quality of finished reports till the software ‘learns’ to follow a particular doctor’s speech patterns and even then the accuracy levels are only 60%-65%.

Flexibility: When new doctors are added to the practice the voice recognition software has to be trained further to accept the speech nuances of the new joiners. There is no flexibility offered by voice recognition software for this.

In conclusion it can safely be said that voice recognition software will never be able to completely replace manual medical transcription. The important point to be considered here is that medical records are created of human beings, dictated by human beings and therefore needs another human being to transcribe it. Medical transcriptionists will have an important role to play at least as editors and proofreaders.

Medical transcription requires a certain amount of training, subjective judgment and understanding the context to be accurate and relevant, which will not be possible to achieve completely through software, no matter how expertly created. For the medical transcription needs of a healthcare facility one should look for a company that offers commitment on accuracy, turnaround time, reasonable pricing and data security.

TransDyne offers 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!

Unleashing core business potential by outsourcing medical transcription

Providing quality healthcare and making a profit while doing so are the goals of a healthcare facility. Outsourcing medical transcription can help achieve both the goals.

How does medical transcription help in the provision of quality healthcare?

· By creating accurate records: The continued quality of healthcare depends on availability of accurate information. Outsourcing of medical transcription ensures that medical records are transcribed by experienced and expert medical transcriptionists ensuring maximum accuracy.

· By creating timely records: Timely records are vital for providing quality healthcare, by outsourcing the medical transcription function a healthcare facility can be ensured that transcription would be timely because of a availability of a large pool of qualified personnel at all times. The turnaround time of the finished transcripts are also ensured by use of technology that has features that provides the convenience of using flexible modes of dictation, easy upload of audio files, easy download of finished transcripts.

How does medical transcription help in profitability?

· By creating records at reasonable price: The cost per line of medical transcription can be cut down dramatically by outsourcing to a professionally managed medical transcription service provider. The healthcare facility can benefit from the economies of scale of the medical transcription company. The billing method used by the medical transcription service provider also has bearing on the cost per line of transcription and this in turn affects profitability.

· By cutting down associated costs: Outsourcing of medical transcription would also have enormous cost saving benefits like, managerial expenses, real estate costs, cost of utilities, cost of information technology, capital investment in medical transcription equipment among many other expenses, to the healthcare facility. One of the main benefits of outsourcing medical transcription is that it accelerates the receivables cycle. This ensures that the process of reimbursement is quickened leading to profitability

· By creating records through secure channels: Choosing a HIPAA compliant medical transcription company for outsourcing medical transcription needs that healthcare facility would be able to protect itself against any litigations arising out of potential data security breaches. This could mean a huge potential saving for the healthcare facility

One can see that choosing a professionally managed medical transcription service provider as a long-term partner for creation of medical records, can have an impact on the bottom line of the healthcare facility. It is vital that the process of selection should include a company, which is able to provide all these benefits.

TransDyne offers quality Medical Transcription with an accuracy level of above 99% Accuracy levels are achieved by training medical transcriptionist in specific areas of medicine making them domain experts and having a four level quality check to eliminate errors.

TransDyne offers medical transcription at reasonable prices by using a fair and reasonable method, achieving and passing on the benefits of economies of scale, and executing all medical transcription work in-house.

TransDyne offers quick turnaround time for medical transcription work by use of the right technology and well-trained medical transcriptionists.