A patient’s medical history is of utmost importance while treating any condition. Access to past facts about illnesses and treatments can give headway to doctors to come up with the best treatment plan. Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare practitioners come together with medical transcriptionists to build a reliable and comprehensive record of a patient’s medical history.
So, how can Medical Transcription help in Healthcare?
Medical transcription consists of data pertaining to lab and pathology reports, various tests, diagnoses made, and medicine or treatment prescribed. This is a step forward in the healthcare service sector that battles all odds to save a patient’s life. The importance of medical transcription thus cannot be overemphasized.
Importance of Medical Transcription in Healthcare Services
Some of them are:
Life-saving communication:
A patient in a lifetime goes through many illnesses and takes care and treatment from different hospitals, clinics, and doctors. A precise and accurate record can help in sharing vital information about her past medical history among medical practitioners.
Patients often forget vital details about past illnesses and diagnoses. However, doctors and healthcare practitioners know how past medical history affects a patient’s course of illness, as well as treatment.
Medical transcription helps preserve these vital pieces of information to be shared among different healthcare providers and doctors used to save someone’s life.
Faster diagnosis:
Record and history maintained through medical transcription also help in the faster diagnosis of disease. This need not be reminded to doctors and other healthcare providers.
Medical transcription will provide all records-big or small, to doctors they need to check while making a diagnosis. Again, emphasizing the need for the right diagnosis is redundant. One wrong step in treatment, one wrong prescribed drug can prove fatal, and destroy the doctor’s reputation and career.
A professionally curated medical transcription can bring down these chances near to zero.
A necessity for support staff:
The treatment of a patient is no doubt decided by the expertise of a doctor. However, patient care comprises an extended healthcare staff. Nurses, dieticians, therapists, pharmacists-all work comprehensively for patient well-being.
When you make use of medical transcription and keep a record of a patient, you have not only made the work of the allied care providers easy but also provided them with vital information to customise the care routine as per need.
It is especially important for patients requiring critical care. Instead of going by the patient and patient kin word of mouth or waiting for the doctor’s availability, medical transcription will provide dependable data to the allied staff.
Help patient insurance claim:
Many patients depend on insurance money for their healthcare. It is heartbreaking to watch a patient skip essential treatment because of the high cost or, a treatment pinches a hole in their pocket. Having transcribed data, the hospital billing staff can use that patient record to send to the insurance companies for claim settlement.
The important part of claim settlement with medical insurance is verifying medical records. Transcriptions are the most reliable documents/files to refer to for that purpose. These can also be used as legal evidence in case of any tiff between patients and insurance providers while settling claims.
Legal safety net:
While it is rare, there is always a chance that an ailing patient or her kin or kin of a deceased patient knocks on the doors of the judiciary if they assume some mishappening while treatment. Doctors need a safety net in case of such an untoward happening.
As per HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) also record-keeping has become an essential part of healthcare. Doctors now need to curate meticulous reports about the treatment they are providing to a patient. The process of medical transcription is in compliance with HIPAA standards.
Meticulous and accurate:
Maintaining meticulous and accurate reports of illness, diagnosis, and treatment is crucial in delivering correct and timely treatment. As mentioned earlier it is beneficial in making data available to different healthcare centres and professionals. This is also a crucial in-house referral material that becomes a necessity in long-term treatment and caregiving.
Many doctors employ transcription specialists to take notes and curate a record. However, manual record-keeping is sometime not 100% accurate and prone to errors. Again, leaving a technical and legal loophole.
This can be done away with a voice-based transcription system. There are many solutions providers that have the technology to support you maintain an error-free, meticulous, and accurate transcription.
Stay stress-free:
In a job that is so demanding and full of stress, a doctor does not need additional pressure. If anything, she needs all support to help her provide her service with minimal pressure.
Medical transcription is the assistant, manual or automated, that a doctor needs to stay stress-free. Also, going back and manually checking the past medical record bogs up a lot of time for a person who is already pressed for time. This time can be used to devote to patient care, and also self-care which is of utmost importance in a highly demanding job of a physician.
The importance of medical transcription in healthcare is much more than mere convenience with the advent of Electronic Health Records. And with the changing healthcare ecosystem, it is more of a necessity to adapt to the new ways.
Make the best use of Medical Transcription in adapting to the new needs of the Healthcare
The healthcare system is changing. There are technological advancements and new discoveries made through research. And sadly, the range of diseases is also expanding.
At the same time, patients’ expectations are also increasing. The healthcare system gets overwhelmed. We have seen this in the ongoing pandemic. Amidst all this pressure, no doctor wants to compromise on the quality of treatment.
Medical transcription is a reliable assistance source that they can look for to make a quicker and more accurate diagnosis, and employ timely treatment. There are many service providers in this sector, like us, Oriental Solutions that can help you with medical transcription.
Get your transcription service today and say goodbye to the cumbersome tracking of a patient’s medical record.
