Standardization of Medical Transcription and Reports
Medical transcription primarily is about converting voice-recorded reports as dictated by physicians and/or other healthcare professionals into text format. With so many of different types of specialties in the healthcare sector, there are a wide range of medical reports with different formats. But how is it possible to judge so diversely different areas of specalizations? There has been a growing need for a standard unit of measurement for all the different types of medical transcription reports.
The AAMT line was the previously advanced standard unit of measure for medical record transcription. It was a 65-character line. But the main problem with this system is the inclusion of nonprinting characters and formatting instructions that makes it difficult to validate the line count of individual documents.
AHIMA and MTIA's Joint Task Force on Standards Development had recommended a standard unit of measure for medical transcription that can be applied to all types of medical reports and various technologies. This standard will address the issue/ confusion caused due to the use of various types of medical billing methods.
The above mentioned task force has identified that VBC or "visible black character" as the only counting method that could be easily understood, verified, and replicated by all parties in the medical transcription business processes. It is said to be the only counting method that can be easily understood, verified, and replicated by all in the medical transcription business processes.
OK, so what is the current medical transcription industry heading at with regards to standardization of reports? Providers with standards-compliant electronic medical records will be the big future winners as a result of an effort to establish interoperability specifications for common types of clinical documents. The project is called "Clinical Document Architecture for Common Document Types" (CDA4CDT). It will create implementation guides for the most common types of dictated clinical documents. The guides will use the Health Level Seven (HL7) Clinical Document Architecture (CDA), the same framework used by the ASTM/HL7 Continuity of Care Document (CCD) besides other projects.
Here is a list of the forthcoming AHIMA 2008 meetings that will be very useful for those in this area of the medical transcription and medical billing industry, http://www.ahima.org/meetings . Professionals in the health information management sectors must attend these meetings.
OSI (Outsource Strategies International) is a US based medical transcription company that offers professional cost effective services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription services to clients in all the US States, Canada or from any global location.
Labels: AHIMA, CDA4CDT, HIPAA medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription, medical transcription technology
Medical Transcription Program Approval
Today medical transcription has become an established and essential process for the health care sector and a profession that is well accepted and respected with increasing demands. There are many colleges and universities that provide medical transcription education and training programs at various levels. When we refer to the medical transcription approval process we are mentioning about the approval of such MT educational programs by the concerned authorities.
It was the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) that instituted the medical transcription program approval process. The Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM) is the accreditation organization of AHIMA. The approval process was done to make sure that compliance with the AHDI Model Curriculum is maintained by different educational bodies so that it provides,
- Good educational programming
- Produce competent entry-level transcription professionals
- Good quality assurance
- Consistent education
http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/Downloads/ModelCurriculum.pdf
List of approved programs can be seen at, http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/mtapproved.cfm
The AHDI along with AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association) has established a certifying committee for the approval of medical transcription programs called the ACCP (Approval Committee for Certificate Programs). The ACCP approval is an ongoing process and must not be confused with a guarantee as there is no formal accreditation process for medical transcription programs.
More details are available at, http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/eduprogramapproval.cfm
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is an Oklahoma based medical transcription company that offers professional outsourcing services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription to clients in the US and also globally.
Labels: AHDI, AHIMA, CAHIIM, medical transcription, medical transcription company, medical transcription program approval
Medical Transcription Standard Recommended
Should there be a Standard for all the finished medical transcription reports and documents? This was a question that did run into some controversies as some MT professionals felt they will lose valuable domain knowledge. The MTIA (Medical Transcription Industry Association) was formed to give leadership to such transcription industry issues. MTIA along with AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association) have recommended a standard unit of measure for medical transcription of patient medical records.
What was the need for such a standard? The goal of the project was to implement a standard for content measurement that health information management (HIM) practitioners can use to evaluate in-house transcription staff and external transcription service suppliers. The 65-character line standard (also called the AAMT line) had been a standard industry wide unit of measure for content measurement that includes space bar, shift key, bold, underscore, and other keystrokes. With this system the cost for the line/character goes beyond just labor as the cost of the technology is bundled along with domain knowledge and human resources. Thus it became mandatory to develop/choose the best possible Industry standard. What are the benefits of having a standard? They are,
- Better business relationships between healthcare organizations and medical transcription service organizations (MTSOs): Hospitals, physician practices, and clinics commonly outsource their transcription to MTSOs, which typically charge for services on a per-unit basis.
- Support of HIM departments in establishing and maintaining service level agreements; patient medical record transcription may be managed in-house by facility HIM staff or by an outside service supplier.
- Improved tools for evaluating and selecting transcription service providers: many suppliers have adopted unique line-counting or character counting definitions in order to differentiate them and stand out in a crowded field.
It has been recommended by the MTIA /AHIMA task force that among all the existing counting methods like ASCII line, the 65-character line, gross line, gross page, per minute pricing, and visible black character (VBC) measurement standards, VBC is the only counting method that can be easily understood, verified, and replicated by all parties in the medical transcription business processes.
Refer the MTIA whitepaper at http://www.mtia.com/downloads/StandardUnitOfMeasure.pdf
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers professional yet affordable outsourced services (both domestic and offshore) in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription.
Labels: AHIMA, medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription, MTIA, standards
