The healthcare industry is one of the most specialised in the world. Doctors and nurses have a lot on their plate catering to patients and keeping them hale and healthy. Added to these life-saving tasks, are the often mundane and onerous tasks of documenting every interaction with patients, their prescriptions and other documents that take away from their more important duties.
With outsourcing tasks having opened up a world of possibilities, the medical transcription industry started as a reprieve to doctors and nurses, helping them focus on what is important. However, with the number of companies mushrooming, it is important that you choose the right partner to help you with your transcription.
In this article, we will take a quick look at what medical transcription is and 5 things to look for when you choose a medical transcription service.
What is Medical Transcription:
Simply put, medical transcription is the act of transcribing audio recordings of healthcare professionals into text.
Since documentation is a tedious process, doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals typically use high-quality voice recorders to record patient notes, discharge summaries and other patient records. These audio files are then transcribed and converted into text files by medical transcriptionists. Once transcribed, these text files are then made part of the patient’s records for easy access anytime.
Since this frees up a good chunk of time for healthcare practitioners, medical transcription is a very lucrative option for both the service providers and healthcare professionals. Typically, medical transcription is a task that is outsourced to firms that specialise in it.
That being said, there are a few risks, especially when dealing with such sensitive data. This is why, keeping a few things in mind will go a long way towards ensuring a mutually beneficial, hassle-free and long term medical transcription arrangement
5 things to look out for when choosing a Medical Transcription Service:
Since medical transcription is a specialised transcription service, the quality of which has a far-reaching impact, there are a number of critical things to look for before you go about hiring a service provider. If screening the number of providers is keeping you from choosing the best provider for you, here are 5 things you should be looking for before zeroing in on a medical transcription service provider.
1) HIPAA and Security Compliance:
One of the cardinal rules of healthcare is patient confidentiality and conforming to HIPAA rules. Ensuring that your service provider is well aware of HIPAA rules and compliant with them is tantamount to ensuring that you stay on the right side of the law.
Apart from that, checking with them that their data is well protected and what kind of data protection they use will help you breathe easy without worrying about data leaks.
Making sure your patients’ data is secure and compliant should not only be yours but also your medical transcriptionist’s #1 priority.
2) Quality Control and Accuracy of transcription:
In the medical world, the slightest variation from dictated notes when it comes to critical parameters like the dosage of medicines can be fatal. To avoid patient mishaps and such disasters, checking with the provider on what their quality control methods are is essential.
Some things to look out for are what their margin for error is, what their current quality control procedures are, their accuracy rate compared to industry standards and what they do when an error is identified.
3) Customer Support and Reviews:
In an industry that is short of transcriptionists, even though it is booming, it is only natural that each firm has multiple clients. A little bit of looking around and prodding will get you accurate ideas of what the company’s reviews are.
Ask to speak to other clients, look up online forums and take those reviews into consideration. Remember, a company with zero negative reviews is as much a red flag as one with lots of them.
Another important thing to look out for is what a company does with those reviews. Have they worked on client feedback? Are they known for brushing issues under the carpet? These will give you a good idea of what your working relationship could be like!
4) Evolving Technology and Compatibility:
In a world that is technology-driven, finding that your technology is not compatible with your service providers’ will prove to be too expensive. Before finalising a medical transcription partner, ensure that your technology and theirs are compatible. Not just that, ensuring that they are on top of the technology game will ensure that as the world advances, they are willing to evolve too. This will lead to a more fruitful and long-term engagement.
5) Transcriptionists Skill and Turnaround Time:
Medical transcription needs a significant understanding of professional terminology and jargon. Unlike transcribing movie dialogues, this needs more than just typing and editing skills. Find out what qualifications the transcriptionists come with. Ask for a skill assessment and how they regularly upskill their transcriptionists.
Similarly, there is no point in having all these checks in place if you are unable to access patient records when you need them. Find out what their turnaround time for transcribing your audio files and providing you with text versions of them is. Make sure they are at least equal to the industry standard if not better.
Now what?
If documentation was eating a chunk of your productive time and you were looking for a way to optimise the time you spend looking after patients, outsourcing your medical transcription needs is the way to go.
We understand that this can be a very daunting task considering the risks involved. However, with a little research and armed with these pointers, you can make your and your patients’ lives much easier.
Go ahead, find that medical transcription firm today!
