Medical Transcription Outsourcing - Choosing The Right Partner
The process of healthcare has always depended on adequate documentation of the patient- healthcare professional encounter to draw inputs for providing quality healthcare and to use as the basis of billing for services. The process of documenting the patient- healthcare professional encounter has evolved from handwritten notes by the healthcare professional to exhaustive and informative reports transcribed by professional transcriptionists.
Medical transcription is a specialized skill requiring the right blend of people skills, processes and technology to produce accurate, speedy, secure and cost effective patient records. As this activity is not part of the core business of healthcare facilities the prudent option is to outsource the entire process of creating patient medical records to a professional service provider. The outsourcing decision is influenced by the accuracy, turnaround time, security measures and the price quoted by the service provider. However while outsourcing, healthcare facilities have to make sure that the service provider can deliver services as promised.
A healthcare facility needs to look for factors beyond the tangible benefits offered by the medical transcription service provider to ensure that the vendor has the capacity to deliver services as promised.
What are the intangible factors that a healthcare facility needs to look for to be assured of immaculate services?
Accuracy - This means the percentage of accuracy of the completed transcripts as against what was dictated. It is important for the information to be captured with maximum accuracy, as the information in the patient records is vital to the healthcare process. The ability of the service provider to deliver high quality transcripts can be ascertained by evaluating the following -
Training methods - The accuracy in the transcripts is dependent on the skill of the transcriptionists. A vendor that trains their team to be domain experts in one or two specialties of medicine would be able to deliver on high levels of accuracy as promised.
Quality check methods - The quality check method used by the medical transcription service provider is another indicator of their ability to deliver on accuracy as promised. Quality checks involving several levels would ensure quality transcripts with minimum errors.
In-house transcription - It is important for the transcription vendor to have hands-on control over the process to ensure accuracy. A vendor who believes in executing the work in-house instead of using sub contractors would be able to deliver quality transcripts.
Quality Guidelines - Having quality guidelines in place would ensure that the quality of documents are unaffected by changes like shift change, employee turnover etc.
Turnaround time - Turnaround time is the duration between uploading dictation to the server and when the final transcribed document is made available to the healthcare facility/ healthcare professional. Along with the factors that influence service provider's ability to deliver accurate transcripts, given below are some additional factors that reflect their ability to meet turnaround time commitment:
Technology - The technology used to capture and upload audio files and the document delivery modes influence the ability to meet committed turnaround time
Experience - The experience of the service provider in having served the needs of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities of varied types would also be an indicator of their ability to cope with varied turnaround time requirements.
Security - Protecting confidential information is both the legal and moral obligation of healthcare facilities, healthcare professionals and all other entities dealing with this information. The ability of the medical transcription service provider to provide for HIPAA and HITECH compliance can be judged by the measures used by them to secure:
People - Educating the team about HIPAA/ HITECH, transcription work done in own premises, restricting Email access, legal undertakings taken from employees and conducting periodic audits to ensure that all HIPAA and HITECH standards are met with.
Processes - Physically securing the premises, restricting access of sensitive information to authorized personnel, dis-allowance of any removable storage devices etc.
Technology - Technology to be secured by use of security features like 128-bit data encryption, multi-tiered application architecture, design level security safeguards, firewall protected networks, sterilized e-mail servers, denial of access procedures and multi-modal alerts.
Low costs - The main benefit of outsourcing medical transcription is that of enormous cost savings. Apart from all the above factors, to ensure that the vendor would be able to deliver quality services at low prices the following factors need to assessed:
Billing method - The billing method used has an impact on the cost factor. The billing method should be verifiable, definable, measurable, consistent, fair and honest. Care should be taken to understand the components of cost to ensure that there are no hidden costs.
Professional experience - The experience of the medical transcription service provider for diverse healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals would reflect on their ability to deliver professional service and reasonable costs.
Technology - Technology is an integral part of medical transcription services; it is important to assess the technological capabilities of the vendor to ensure seamless outsourced services. The service provider can be assessed on the following:
Flexibility - The technology used by the service provider should be flexible to accommodate the needs of healthcare professionals like flexible modes of capturing dictation, varied modes of document delivery etc.
Maximum benefits - The technology used for the process of creating patient medical records should provide maximum benefits to the healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals like Hl7 interface, archives, automatic upgrades, ability to be configured for multiple users, provide for secure transmission etc.
Easy to use - The technology used for this purpose should provide maximum benefits while still being easy to use.
No additional investments - Outsourced medical transcription should require minimal or no additional investment in technology.
Once a service provider has been assessed on all these factors, the healthcare facility can avail maximum benefits from the outsourcing process
Medical transcription is a specialized skill requiring the right blend of people skills, processes and technology to produce accurate, speedy, secure and cost effective patient records. As this activity is not part of the core business of healthcare facilities the prudent option is to outsource the entire process of creating patient medical records to a professional service provider. The outsourcing decision is influenced by the accuracy, turnaround time, security measures and the price quoted by the service provider. However while outsourcing, healthcare facilities have to make sure that the service provider can deliver services as promised.
A healthcare facility needs to look for factors beyond the tangible benefits offered by the medical transcription service provider to ensure that the vendor has the capacity to deliver services as promised.
What are the intangible factors that a healthcare facility needs to look for to be assured of immaculate services?
Accuracy - This means the percentage of accuracy of the completed transcripts as against what was dictated. It is important for the information to be captured with maximum accuracy, as the information in the patient records is vital to the healthcare process. The ability of the service provider to deliver high quality transcripts can be ascertained by evaluating the following -
Training methods - The accuracy in the transcripts is dependent on the skill of the transcriptionists. A vendor that trains their team to be domain experts in one or two specialties of medicine would be able to deliver on high levels of accuracy as promised.
Quality check methods - The quality check method used by the medical transcription service provider is another indicator of their ability to deliver on accuracy as promised. Quality checks involving several levels would ensure quality transcripts with minimum errors.
In-house transcription - It is important for the transcription vendor to have hands-on control over the process to ensure accuracy. A vendor who believes in executing the work in-house instead of using sub contractors would be able to deliver quality transcripts.
Quality Guidelines - Having quality guidelines in place would ensure that the quality of documents are unaffected by changes like shift change, employee turnover etc.
Turnaround time - Turnaround time is the duration between uploading dictation to the server and when the final transcribed document is made available to the healthcare facility/ healthcare professional. Along with the factors that influence service provider's ability to deliver accurate transcripts, given below are some additional factors that reflect their ability to meet turnaround time commitment:
Technology - The technology used to capture and upload audio files and the document delivery modes influence the ability to meet committed turnaround time
Experience - The experience of the service provider in having served the needs of healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities of varied types would also be an indicator of their ability to cope with varied turnaround time requirements.
Security - Protecting confidential information is both the legal and moral obligation of healthcare facilities, healthcare professionals and all other entities dealing with this information. The ability of the medical transcription service provider to provide for HIPAA and HITECH compliance can be judged by the measures used by them to secure:
People - Educating the team about HIPAA/ HITECH, transcription work done in own premises, restricting Email access, legal undertakings taken from employees and conducting periodic audits to ensure that all HIPAA and HITECH standards are met with.
Processes - Physically securing the premises, restricting access of sensitive information to authorized personnel, dis-allowance of any removable storage devices etc.
Technology - Technology to be secured by use of security features like 128-bit data encryption, multi-tiered application architecture, design level security safeguards, firewall protected networks, sterilized e-mail servers, denial of access procedures and multi-modal alerts.
Low costs - The main benefit of outsourcing medical transcription is that of enormous cost savings. Apart from all the above factors, to ensure that the vendor would be able to deliver quality services at low prices the following factors need to assessed:
Billing method - The billing method used has an impact on the cost factor. The billing method should be verifiable, definable, measurable, consistent, fair and honest. Care should be taken to understand the components of cost to ensure that there are no hidden costs.
Professional experience - The experience of the medical transcription service provider for diverse healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals would reflect on their ability to deliver professional service and reasonable costs.
Technology - Technology is an integral part of medical transcription services; it is important to assess the technological capabilities of the vendor to ensure seamless outsourced services. The service provider can be assessed on the following:
Flexibility - The technology used by the service provider should be flexible to accommodate the needs of healthcare professionals like flexible modes of capturing dictation, varied modes of document delivery etc.
Maximum benefits - The technology used for the process of creating patient medical records should provide maximum benefits to the healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals like Hl7 interface, archives, automatic upgrades, ability to be configured for multiple users, provide for secure transmission etc.
Easy to use - The technology used for this purpose should provide maximum benefits while still being easy to use.
No additional investments - Outsourced medical transcription should require minimal or no additional investment in technology.
Once a service provider has been assessed on all these factors, the healthcare facility can avail maximum benefits from the outsourcing process