Medical Transcription Outsourcing Benefits
Medical transcription is one of the most widely outsourced jobs in the healthcare industry and is adopted as a part of easing the tedious process of medical records documentation. Processing of medical transcription jobs in-house means medical care providers have to invest a lot in terms of time and money for selecting and training the right manpower, apart from installing and maintaining costly infrastructure such as dictation equipments and computers. To keep operating costs low, outsourcing of medical transcription is the preferred choice for most healthcare firms operating in the US and UK.
A key factor that persuades developed economies such as the US to outsource their medical transcription jobs to developing countries such as India and the Philippines is the availability of cheap and qualified labor in these countries. The medical transcription firms in these countries have better infrastructures with backups for labor and internet and are thus capable of providing round-the-clock uninterrupted transcription services.
To ensure maximum accuracy in transcription jobs, all these transcription facilities have experienced editors and proofreaders. These firms also take special effort to update the knowledge base of their employees so that they are aware of the latest advanced medical treatments and medicines available in the market.
Another major benefit of outsourcing these medical transcription jobs is that backup copies of patient records are always available at the servers of these outsourcing companies and hence it is easier to search and access patient records which are years old.
Today, most medical transcription providers make available other related services such as medical coding and patient bill processing. Thus with these medical transcription service providers ensuring flexible, fast and economic transcription services, medical care providers can concentrate on their core services and serve the needs of patients much better.
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Outsource Medical Transcription to Improve Your Workflow
If you are a busy medical practitioner or are running a hospital, you need to outsource medical transcription to improve your workflow. It's common for doctors, hospitals and large transcription companies to outsource the medical transcription work in order to reduce the workload and improve efficiency.
Medical transcription basically deals with transcribing or converting voice reports by doctors or other healthcare professionals into files in text format.
- Medical transcription is an allied health profession heavily dependent on the skills of professionals (called medical transcriptionists) who can comprehend the accent and language of the physician. These professionals transcribe the voice recordings of the physicians into the required text format. It is important to send back the text files on time for the processing of insurance claims and other financial and legal processes.
- The medical transcriptionist must not only comprehend each and every word dictated by the physician and include it in the text document, but also correct the document for grammatical errors or errors in medical terminology made by the physician while dictating.
- The finished document must be free from all errors, easily readable and should comply with HIPAA regulations and other medical and legal norms.
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Remote Medical Transcription Services
In the competitive healthcare arena, remote medical transcription services have great significance. Every healthcare facility, whether small or large, has to maintain proper and consistent healthcare documentation. Even though the demand for medical transcription has gone up steadily over the years, there has been a lack of skilled and trained personnel in key areas of medical transcription.
Excellent remote medical transcription services are now offered by many medical transcription firms, where the medical transcription specialists work from remote locations, even from their own homes. As this line of service is of great help for healthcare facilities, it is now being availed by medical facilities and establishments of all sizes including hospitals, professional practices, pain clinics, and others in the field, in all medical specialties. As per the needs of clients, remote medical transcriptionists transcribe the medical records dictated by doctors and others, including history and physical reports, discharge summaries, clinic notes, office notes, consultation notes, operative reports, x-ray reports, psychiatric evaluations, laboratory reports, pathology reports, and more.
By availing of the remote medical transcription services, you can gain many competitive advantages and benefits in terms of higher output and turnaround time.
Apart from these initial benefits, other benefits that can be gained include:
- Superior work product
- HIPAA compliant transcription practices
- 24x7 customer support service
- Cost-effective rates
- Security and confidentiality
- Customer satisfaction
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Medical Transcription Companies in USA
As the demand for medical transcription work is increasing at a rapid rate, medical transcription companies are mushrooming in the USA. Medical transcription is a necessity in all healthcare facilities, whether they are clinics, hospitals, or other organizations. Medical transcription companies in the USA occupy a unique niche in the medical transcription field.
Most of the medical transcription companies in the USA can provide superior quality, accurate medical transcription services as they employ highly skilled and experienced medical transcriptionists on staff. Moreover, these services are mostly cost-effective to cater to all kinds of budgets. These companies take care to apply and maintain up-to-date digital technologies to provide value-added transcription services.
The greatest advantage of availing of the medical transcription services from a standard MT firm in the USA is that you can get access to accurate and efficient services within fast turnaround time. Apart from this, other benefits that you can gain include:
- 99% accuracy
- Security and confidentiality of the medical records and documents
- Three-tier quality checking with assured high quality work
- HIPAA compliant medical transcription services
- Electronic Medical Record (EMR) solution
- Total dictation and transcription solution
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HIPAA-Compliant Transcription Practices
In today's business world, the demand for HIPAA compliant transcription service is increasing steadily. In the healthcare industry, healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities require the conversations between the doctor and patient to be recorded and filed for effective documentation and future reference. Therefore transcription services have become highly significant for the smooth handling of medical records.
Medical transcription is the process of converting voice recorded dictations made by doctors and other healthcare personnel regarding the treatment history of patients into the required format. To meet the needs of clients, many specialized firms are providing comprehensive transcription solutions to a wide range of medical practices and organizations including healthcare facilities, hospitals, clinics, laboratories, individual doctors and physicians' groups. Most of the transcription companies are committed to providing you with end-to-end workflow management for your practice on a 24/7 basis.
As there is great demand for HIPAA-compliant transcription practices, most of the transcription firms implement stringent security measures to ensure foolproof services. Every establishment where business functions are performed using electronic means is required to meet HIPAA deadlines. Since medical transcription deals with transcribing and storing patient records in electronic form, every medical transcription service provider is required to meet these deadlines.
Implementing and complying with HIPAA takes reasonable effort, but the benefits are well worth the effort. It will benefit not only the patients, but also the healthcare entities.
Benefits of HIPAA compliance in medical transcription:
- Guaranteed security, privacy and confidentiality of patient records and data
- Increased efficiency
- Streamlined process workflow
- Increased data efficiency
- Customer and industry confidence
- Public exposure risk is low
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HIPAA Medical Transcription Services
Medical transcription is one of the most outsourced jobs in the healthcare industry and is aimed at easing the process of documentation of patient medical records. The process which involves transcribing doctor prescriptions requires highly accurate documentations to be done within limited time. Most of these transcription jobs are now being outsourced by healthcare firms, as they often find it difficult to handle such large numbers of patient records. With most transcription providers now offering HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliant services, these transcription jobs are now being done in a highly secure and confidential manner.
With these medical transcription jobs outsourced, healthcare facilities enjoy a lot of benefits which include huge savings in keeping employees and equipments. By outsourcing these jobs, healthcare firms can concentrate more on their key services and worry less about their daily requirements in client record and insurance claim processing. Moreover the HIPAA compliance always ensures that all patient records remain safe and to ensure data safety, most providers also have backup services so that disaster recovery functions are much easier.
With the availability of high speed internet and the booming of cost-effective information technology services, almost all healthcare providers are guaranteed quality services in medical transcription jobs. Most HIPAA compliant medical transcription facilities are also offering a number of other related medical services for their healthcare clients which include medical coding and medical billing. Thus with the help of these medical transcription service providers operating 24x7, every need of healthcare facilities for faster client record processing is fulfilled.
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Medical Transcription for Physicians and Doctors
Medical transcription (MT) services are valuable for healthcare firms in developed nations such as the US and UK, where daily documentation of patient records is proving difficult with considerable increase in the number of patients. The outsourcing of these services to offshore locations including India helps medical firms to have huge savings in terms of both time and money. The process is also highly advantageous for individual physicians and doctors who have their own private clinics and healthcare centers.
Hospitals and private medical practitioners require the medical records of patients including treatment modalities to be transcribed accurately and within time to enable smooth functioning. These records are also essential for patients to have their insurance claims processed faster.
The quality of medical transcription services provided is also much higher in these outsourcing firms. Most offshore medical transcription firms are providing intensive training to their employees with the help of their in-house doctors and language specialists. To ensure high levels of accuracy, most firms have employed experienced proofreaders and editors who can double check the processed records for errors. The combined effort of the entire team results in records which are almost 99% accurate, as demanded by the healthcare industry.
Most medical transcription firms offer their services for long term as well as short term requirements of the healthcare industry. These firms also have the necessary backups for staffs and equipments so that client records can be processed in time.
Thus with no capital investments required and no future upgrading services involved, having these medical transcription jobs outsourced ensures benefits to healthcare professionals. The most important of all the advantages is that they can concentrate more on personal patient care and worry less about maintaining patient records.
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HIPAA Compliant Medical Transcription Service
Medical transcription assignments are jobs most widely outsourced by healthcare firms, and are aimed at having faster processing of medical records in a much cost-effective and time-saving manner. With medical transcription services being catered in accordance with the standards prescribed by the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) enacted by the US Congress in 1996, healthcare providers who are outsourcing the medical transcription jobs are now ensuring the required privacy and security for data regarding their patient's health.
Outsourcing medical transcription services has the following main benefits:
Healthcare firms will have more time to concentrate on their core healthcare services
Less investment in costly infrastructure
Documentation of medical records with high quality and accuracy
24 hour uninterrupted service availability
Faster processing of medical records
To be competitive in the field, most medical transcription service providers have employed highly skilled and experienced medical transcriptionists. To have faster workflow, high speed internet facilities with backups for equipments, technicians and transcriptionists are also being made available at these firms. For ensuring the accuracy of medical records, most MT service providers have proofreaders, quality analysts and editors who can ensure almost 98-99% accuracy in the processed medical records.
As part of covering every sector in the healthcare industry, most HIPAA compliant medical transcription service providers also have related services such as medical billing and coding. With customized medical solutions available at most MT service providers, every requirement of healthcare firms for cost-effective, time bound and quality services can now be fulfilled...
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Affordable Medical Transcription Services for Hospitals
Medical transcription is one of the highly acclaimed jobs in the business outsourcing sector and is aimed at reducing the workload of staffs in various healthcare facilities, including hospitals in developed countries. The entire procedure aims at easing the day-to-day processing of patient records and insurance claims so that healthcare firms can concentrate more on improving their key services. These affordable medical transcription services are now proving to be highly beneficial for hospitals, outpatient clinics, rehabilitation facilities, long term care facilities and more.
Now with the increasing requirement of hospitals to substantially reduce their operating costs, most medical transcription firms are offering their services at highly affordable rates and also in a reliable and efficient manner. With most of these offshore facilities working in accordance with the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations, all electronic transactions involving sensitive patient records remain secure.
With offshore medical transcription centers having all the necessary infrastructure including dictation equipments, dedicated servers and high-end computers with uninterrupted high speed internet, everything required for immediate patient record processing is being done in a time-bound manner.
To help hospitals further in their daily healthcare job requirements, most medical transcription outsourcing firms also undertake a number of related services such as medical coding and medical billing. Thus with minimum turnaround time in medical records documentation and much reduced costs involved, having these medical transcription services outsourced will enable healthcare facilities including hospitals to stay competitive and profitable in their business.
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Medical Transcription and Voice Recognition
Medical transcription (MT) assignments are one of the highly acclaimed outsourced jobs in the healthcare industry and are mainly aimed at enabling US and UK based healthcare providers to have cost-effective solutions in maintaining day-to-day patient records. All major medical transcription service providers are now offering their medical transcription and voice recognition services in a highly customized and time-bound manner.
Voice recognition technology has a key role to play in medical transcription services and is one of the major advancements being made in the transcription sector. Voice recognition technology uses computers to recognize doctors' dictations but current technologies are not capable of providing 100% accuracy in the transcribed documents and hence all documents generated using voice recognition technologies still require manual proofreading to maintain the high accuracy levels required.
Almost all medical transcription facilities are now offering their services in accordance with the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations. These regulations ensure that all online transactions involving patient records are done in a safe and secure manner. To have accurate documentation of medical reports, most MT facilities have employed highly skilled and trained transcriptionists.
The medical transcription facilities also have a number of related services for their clients which include medical coding and medical billing. To provide benefits for the healthcare industry on the whole, most medical transcription providers are now offering their services for a wide range of healthcare clients. Healthcare clients in the US who are heavily dependent on medical transcription and voice recognition services include private practitioners, hospitals, clinics, long term care facilities and acute care centers.
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Future of Medical Transcription
With the demand for quality medical transcription services rising, medical transcription (MT) outsourcing jobs seem to have a bright and secure future. Medical transcription is the most outsourced job in the healthcare industry and is provided with the aim of reducing both time and cost factors involved in the daily documenting of patient details.
Almost all US based healthcare facilities find medical transcription outsourcing to be highly beneficial and these services have now become an integral part of their daily functioning. By outsourcing these jobs, healthcare providers can concentrate more on providing better infrastructure and facilities for patients and have to worry less about hiring and training medical transcriptionists. Most medical transcription providers' offer related services such as medical coding and medical billing for their healthcare clients.
India and Philippines are two emerging powers in the medical transcription field and are set to become the hub of future medical transcription jobs. The availability of a vast pool of graduates who are computer-literate and fluent in English and the turnaround time of 24 hrs for submitting assignments, are factors working in favor of the growth of medical transcription firms in these countries.
Right from its initial stages, the medical transcription industry has been undergoing revolutionary changes regarding the equipments and technologies used. From the initial typewriters and Dictaphone transcribers to high end computers, the medical transcription industry is always moving with the latest trends in technology. The quality in operations and the flexibility of the industry in adopting new technologies all ensure that the medical transcription community will have a long and bright future.
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Affordable Medical Transcription Services for Clinics
In today's business world, there is an ever increasing demand for medical transcription services in the healthcare industry. Medical transcription involves transcribing the dictated medical recording made by doctors and other healthcare professionals into text formats. Medical transcription is an important service in the healthcare field because physicians need to keep patient histories and treatment procedures in written form to serve as records and for future references. As it is a very time consuming process, it's more practical to seek the help of a medical transcription company to carry out this process.
By availing of the transcription services from a medical transcription firm, clients can minimize their workload, and save valuable time and money involved in maintaining medical records.
With a view to providing comprehensive and affordable medical transcription services for clinics in a timely and efficient manner, the firms appoint technically trained and experienced medical transcriptionists who are well versed with the terminologies used in most specialties of medicine. They help in transcribing patients' records dictated by doctors and others, including history and physical reports, operative reports, emergency room notes, progress notes/office visit, consultation reports, pathology reports, operative reports, discharge summaries, referral letters, radiology reports, and more.
A standard medical transcription firm provides the following service features:
- Three levels of quality control
- Superior work product
- Prompt guaranteed turnaround
- Supports digital dictation machines and toll free number
- HIPAA-compliant transcription practices
- Flexible dictation formats
- Reduced cost of operation
- Guaranteed accuracy
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Possibilities in Medical Transcription Files Delivery
If you have outsourced your medical transcription work either domestically or to an offshore country, it is important that you receive back the finished transcripts in time. This is possible only when the system is well planned and organized. There are different technologies and methods that one can choose from. Depending on the available infrastructure and the convenience, expenses, time available and other factors, we must adopted from one of the below mentioned methods for getting back the finished transcription files.
Here is a list of the seven different delivery possibilities;
- As Paper documents
- By e-mail
- Modem transfer
- Web access method
- By fax
- TASP
- By FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
Email is an option for delivery only when you are dealing with a small client and when time is not an important factor. However sending files via e-mail require 128 bit encryption so that all sensitive patient information is always kept secure and confidential.
In the modem-to-modem transfer method, files are transferred from a computer directly via phone lines into a database ata hospital/clinic. Factors to be considered while adopting the modem transfer method should include,
- Modem speed
- Firewall /network penetration
- Phone charges
The TASP (Transcription Application Service Provider) provides end-to-end technology solution from the physician to the MTSO (or hospital transcription manager) to the medical transcriptionist and back, all with a high level of security and work flow automation. It invests in servers, firewalls, and software / security technologies, including T1 voice and data connectivity.
In the FTP methods, files are either "pushed" or "pulled" from one PC to the other using the Internet. Using just the local Internet connection this method helps in avoiding telephone charges. The transcription company will have installed a transcription database into which files are delivered.
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a USD based medical transcription company that offers highly secure and affordable outsourcing solutions in medical coding, medical billing and medical transcription.
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What is Osteopath Medical Transcription?
In the United States, an osteopath (or an osteopathic physician) must be a graduate of one of the nation's osteopathic medical schools. Each school is accredited by the AOA and has recognition by the U.S. Department of Education. Thus Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.s) are fully licensed medical physicians and surgeons and do practice all clinical specialties along with their M.D. colleagues. However, they are trained to be generalists first, and specialists second. Osteopaths being one of the fastest growing segments of healthcare professionals in the United States, it is estimated that, by 2020 at least 100,000 osteopathic physicians will be in active medical practice.No wonder more and more medical transcription professionals are specializing in the field of Osteopathy medical transcription.
Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is practiced by osteopathic physicians and involves the use of hands to diagnose illness and injury and encourages the body's natural tendency toward good health. Along with all other available medical options, Osteopathy physicians are able to offer the most comprehensive care available in medicine today.
Here is a list of all the different osteopathic associations: http://www.osteopathic.org/index.cfm?PageID=lcl_assoc
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers professional services in medical coding, medical billing and osteopathy medical transcription services.
Labels: American Osteopathy Association, AOA, medical coding, medical transcription, Osteopath medical transcription, osteopathy transcription
Medical Transcription Tools and Equipment
Medical transcription has evolved over the years and has always made use of the cutting edge technologies. Many different tools/equipment get used during the medical transcription process. Here is a list of the different tools/ software and equipment that are used either during home based medical transcription or at a bigger work unit that may consist of transcriptionists, editors, Quality Assurance, leaders etc. This list of equipment and tools is not exhaustive.
- MP3 playback software
- Document processor software (like LYX)
- Version Control software
- Time markers
- Bud microphone
- Digital voice recorder
- Headphone
- Computer with Internet/PrinterDesk and comfortable chair
- AAMT Book of StyleEncryption software
- File/Documents management software
- Blue Cross/ Shield Directory
- Electronic Medical Dictionary
- Fax machine
- Document shredder
- Word processing program
- Audio playback software
- Anti virus program/
- Thesaurus/dictionary for windows
- System recovery software
- Drug/pharmaceutical reference guide
- Foot pedal
- Ad blocker
- Medical specialty books
- Google toolbar
- Spyware removal Utility
- Monthly newsletter
- Telephone line
- Editing software
- Conference recorder
- Voice recognition software
- Dictation recording equipment
- Text counting software (for home based work)
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers outsourcing solutions in medical transcription, medical billing and medical coding for clients in the US and outside.
Labels: medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription, medical transcription equipment, medical transcription tools
Medical Transcription Book of Style 2008 Edition
The 3rd edition of "The Book of Style for Medical Transcription" will be released in March 2008 by AHDI (Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity). It has been the standard manual for the medical transcription industry and maintains a superior data capture and documentation quality.
The AHDI site says that this third edition will deliver a streamlined and strategically reorganized flow of critical data, enhanced explanation of standards and practical application, robust examples taken from clinical medicine settings.
The book can be preordered at https://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/bos3epreorder.cfm
What is going to be new in this edition? Well here is the list:
- Reorganization of all content into topical sections and chapter
- A detailed content index at the beginning of each chapter
- A professionally drafted content index at the end of text
- Foreword written by John H. Dirckx, MD
- A "What's New in This Edition" preface that provides a detailed list of all changes in standards of style addressed in the text for ease of reference
- Completely redrafted content sections throughout the text, particularly in Section 2: General Standards of Style
- More detailed, comprehensive content explanations and rationale for standards and style recommendations
- More and better style application examples taken from a clinical medicine context
- A complete chapter dedicated to medical record types and formats, including a new section addressing turn-around times (TATs)
- A complete chapter dedicated to medical record privacy, security, and integrity, including all standards and recommendations previously housed in AHDI's HIPAA for MTs paper
- A complete chapter dedicated to amending and modifying the patient record
- Trend Notes included throughout the text that alert the reader to the current and/or potential impact of emerging technologies (EHR/EMR, speech recognition, etc.) on a particular standard of style
- An entire section of chapters addressing trends and drivers in the industry, including:
- Chapter 25-ASTM Standards for Healthcare Document Formats
- Chapter 26-CDA for Common Document Types (CDA4CDT)
- Chapter 27-Standardized Nomenclature for Medicine (SNOMED)
- Chapter 28-Speech Recognition and SR Editing
- Medical specialty chapters with organized standards, including many new classification systems not included in the 2nd edition
- Cross-referencing throughout the text to redirect users to related information and standards Duplication of specific standards, where appropriate, in more than one chapter in anticipation of where users will most likely look for information
Labels: medical transcription, medical transcription book of style 2008 edition, medical transcription manual, MT style book
Medical Transcription Security
Everyone realizes that medical transcription projects are being increasingly outsourced to low wage countries like India and the Philippines. This is mainly because these Asian countries are in a position to deliver the goods with good quality at a much lower rate than is made available within the US. But, what happens to the confidentiality of online personal / patient information? How safe is transmission over the Internet? What if someone with vested interests tries to access it? Without some assurance of the confidentiality of the data it would be futile to take the risk of outsourcing. Well HIPAA is here to take care.
So what is HIPAA? It stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996. This act regulates the exchange of all patient information using electronic methods. Patients are protected from unlawful disclosure. Thus we see that companies must be HIPAA compliant. Only then will the doctors be sure that all their valuable patient data and dictations are safe and never get into wrong hands.
What are the different requirements of HIPAA compliance for any medical transcription company? Thes include,
Maintain traceable trail of all personnel who handle specific data
- Password protection
- Encryption of data
- Compliance officers must be appointed
What is the purpose of encryption? Encryption and password protection is essential to protect patient data and one can be sure that no one will be able to access the sensitive information without an authorization. Data encryption makes sure that even if some one else happens to get access to the file he will no able to understand/ decipher whatever is written. Therefore, all digital voice recordings/dictations that are sent via the Internet for transcription must be encrypted. Thus the different requirements include,
- Encrypted e-mails
- Secure FTP (file transfer)
- Physical protection /security
- Login codes for employees
- Filters
- Firewall
- Monitor each desktop
- Backup of tapes
- Be prepared for natural disasters
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers affordable services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription services for clients across the USA.
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TROTTS and Medical Transcription Turnaround Time
It is indeed a small Global world today. The Internet and globalization has made it possible to get back office work done half way round the globe as if it were being done in the next room. Medical transcription is one BPO service that is greatly appreciated because it involves critical medical data and involves medical billing, insurance claim and reimbursement. Hence all vendors have known the importance for a minimal TAT (Turn Around Time). Offshoring of work to Asian locations with about 12 hour time difference is a very naturally convenient feather in the Asian service provider's cap, especially for bigger and regular hospital transcription projects.
Different Turnaround times from 72 hrs to 24hrs to 12 hrs to a few hours to almost realtime transcription have been provided by the domestically outsourced agents as well as from these offshore locations using the latest state of art web technologies. Today you also have voice recognition software being used that instantly displays the "text form on screen" though of course it has to be humanly edited by the transcription professional or physician. However, faster need not necessarily always be better. Everything needs a standard and so does the transcription outsourcing industry. That is why TROTTS is here!
What is TROTTS? Well it stands for Transcribed Report Optimal Turnaround Time Standards (TROTTS). Last September the The AHIMA-MTIA Task Force on Transcribed Report Optimal Turnaround Time Standards (TROTTS) invited all transcription managers to participate in an industry survey. The TROTTS task force was given the responsibility to jointly developing recommended standards for transcribed report turnaround times on selected report types.
So what are the new standards of MT TATs, I mean TROTTS? If anxious, be there for the 19th Annual Conference of the Medical Transcription Industry to be held at Long Beach CA from April 23-26, 2008. Here is a link to it. http://www.mtia.com/Conference.cfm The New Standards: TROTTS is on the agenda and will be presented by the MT Industry leader Sean Carroll. Sean Carroll has got the Smithsonian Computer World Award for technology innovation in healthcare for automated speech recognition applications and has been the elected president of the medical transcription's international trade association many times.
Here is the schedule of events for the conference we have been waiting for.http://www.mtia.com/downloads/MTIA%202008%20Schedule%20at%20A%20Glance.pdf
OSI (Outsource Strategies International) is a US based BPO pioneer and medical transcription company that offers professional domestic and offshore medical coding and medical transcription services.
Labels: medical coding/ billing, medical transcription, medical transcription standards, TAT, TROTTS
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: How to Ensure Good Quality Recordings
If you are representing a hospital that produces voice/dictation recordings which are outsourced / offshored outside your premises for medical transcription and conversion into typed text, then you must be very wary of the quality of your audio material recordings because it can directly affects the costs.
The main fact to remember is that taking care of your audio quality will greatly enhance the cost affectivity of your outsourcing campaign. How? Let me explain. Did you know that all transcription material that comes in for transcription is first assessed? The time taken and charges for transcription will depend on the quality of the recordings. Obviously with bad recording, transcription takes more time and so more work hours and higher charges of transcription. Some of the factors that affects the time /cost of transcribing that are considered while assessing a transcription /dictation recording include,
- Background noise level
- Clarity of recording
- Speed of speech
- Clarity of voice
- Number of speakers
- Accents of speakers
- Technical language used
- Content
- Collect essential details of the material transcribed
- Get details of all participants/leaders
- Making a test recording
- Minimize tape "hiss"
- Use digital recording
- Minimize background noise
- Use more microphones if more than two people
- Plan all breaks beforehand
- Avoid speakers from speaking among themselves
- Get all details of the speaker/participant (Gender/ title/ representation etc)
- Note Words/minute
Labels: medical transcription, transcription audio quality, transcription quality
Medical Transcription Rules for Preparing Reports
There are certain basic rules that must be followed by all the professionals in the medical transcription industry. The American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT) style guide is very popular and is in use around the globe. The style guide guides the medical transcription professional in all the different aspects of transcription that includes topics spacing during typing of text,numbering/ numerical typing, punctuation, hyphenation, drug terminology, capitalization rules, measurements, symbols to be used, classification rules, proofreading and more.
Let me now mention about some of the important rules that must be followed during the transcription/preparation of various medical reports.
- While writing the history of the present illness it is preferred to use the present tense or a mixed tense.
- Use past tense only while writing about a past medical history.
- Type all allergies in capital
- The Assessment/Diagnosis/Impression report must be entirely in capital letters without abbreviations for any medical terminology. However measurement units can be abbreviated.
- Use past tense in discharge summaries
- If no allergies found, type "No known drug allergies."
- All major physical examination reports to be in the present tense
- Use the correct verb tense to communicate the appropriate time of the action.(even if the dictation is wrongly tensed)
- The title "Doctor" is to be written in full
- Capitalize brand name medications. One must not capitalize generic medications.
- Use Latin drug abbreviations.
- Arabic numerals must be use when referring to strength, dosage and directions in medication.
If you are looking for a professional medical transcription company that can offer outsourced medical transcription service along with medical coding/billing, just call the Oklahoma based OSI (Outsource Strategies International).
Labels: medical coding/ billing, medical reports transcription, medical transcription, medical transcription company, medical transcription style guide
Tips for Medical Transcription Dictation
Years back when I was in India, I knew a pharmacist who was the only one who could decipher everything our hospital's only physician scribbled /prescribed on his pad. (Many rural Indian hospitals still follow the system). Believe it or not, whenever the pharmacist took a day off or was on leave, the pharmacy would give out wrong medications that turned up to be tragic. We later solved the problem by getting a mobile phone for our pharmacist friend whom we called up even on his "off days" and clarified what the physician prescribed. Surprisingly he could solve the problem even over the telephone.
Today it is not bad handwriting but bad dictation. It indeed makes the medical transcriptionist's job more difficult and highly prone to mistakes. Further it causes waste of valuable time. So what can be the solution to this problem? Is it possible to have an exclusive transcription professional for each doctor so that he gets know the physician like the back of his hand?
Well here is a guide with tips to proper dictation that will be very useful for the physician to give good dictations and get error free transcripts. I recently came across a group of medical transcription from different specialty groups who all had similar types of requests/appeal for the dictating physicians /doctors.
- While dictating a difficult medical term it would be greatly appreciated if care is taken to see that the term gets well recorded via the microphone.
- Please start the dictation mentioning about the type/title of document that is been dictated instead of keeping the transcriptionist guessing about it till the end.
- Please avoid the tendency to summarize every thing/procedure and include everything in few long sentences. It would be ideal to present the facts in shorter and more communicative sentences if possible.
- Would appreciate if uncommon abbreviations are expanded and dictated when possible.
- Please move your face away for a moment from the microphone to sneeze/cough.
- Please finish your snack before beginning the dictation or keep it for afterwards.
- Never forget to mention the basic information like date/name/ summary etc
- Try and avoid talking fast/ yawns /hiccups while dictating.
Outsource Strategies International(OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers outsourcing solutions in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription service for clients globally.
Labels: medical coding, medical transcription, medical transcription dictation tips, tips for dictation, tips for transcribing physicians, transcription company
Surgery Medical Transcription
In any allopathic medical practice, surgery is an important aspect. Surgery transcription involves converting all the surgeon's voice tapes about a surgical procedure into neatly typed documents. And thus surgery transcription is an important specialty in medical transcription. Surgery transcriptions are used for settlement of insurance claims and legal matters.
Some of the different types of surgery transcription areas include,
- Dental surgery
- General Surgery
- Cardiovascular/thoracic surgery
- Abdominal/ gastrointestinal surgery
- Orthopedic surgery
- Obstetric and Gynecology surgery
- Neurosurgery
- Plastic surgery
- Surgical instruments (Scissors / scalpels etc)
- Surgical Diathermy
- Endoscopic instruments
- Suction apparatus
- Anesthesia machine
- Pulseoximeter
- Plethysmographs
- Multi parameter patient monitors
- Defibrillators
- Autoclaves
- Infusion pumps
- Autoclaves
Labels: medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription, surgery medical transcription, surgery transcription
HIPAA Compliant Medical Transcription
What is HIPAA? It stands for The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. It is the standard for electronic exchange of sensitive patient data and protects patients from disclosure of their medical data without authorization. HIPAA has many regulations for electronic transmission of sensitive patient data that define internal procedures that have to be followed for privacy and security. It has become mandatory for all medical transcription service providers to comply with all HIPAA requirements.
Thus HIPAA compliant medical transcription service providers must,
- Ensure security of PHI (Patient Health Information)
- Maintain record of all those who access patient information
- Implement new technology/processes
- Provide physical security requiring password protection.
Take a look at the full text of HIPAA at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HIPAAGenInfo/Downloads/HIPAALaw.pdf
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based BPO company that offers professional yet affordable services in medical transcription, medical billing and medical coding.
Labels: health insurance, HIPAA act, medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription
Medical Transcription Quality Assurance
It is true that to err is human but all medical transcription must have minimum error and a good level of quality assurance is mandatory. Transposition errors are different from transcription errors. As the name suggest, transposition errors occur when characters have "transposed" (switched places). The most common errors in transcription include omission of a dictated word, using of the wrong word, misspelling of words, typographical errors and grammatical errors.
This is what The American Association of Transcription has stated on the principles of quality in Medical transcription.
Principles of Quality
When a document is reviewed (i.e., audited) for quality, key principles in establishing quality assurance criteria for that document are:
- The transcribed report should be reviewed against the actual dictation. Reading the report without listening to the dictation does not provide an accurate comparison of the transcription to the dictation.
- The review should apply industry-specific standards as provided by current resources and references. When evaluating style, punctuation, or grammar, The AAMT Book of Style is the industry standard.
- The review should encompass attention to risk management issues and the documentation standards of accreditation and healthcare compliance agencies.
- Accuracy scores (ratings) should be quantified with the use of a numeric calculation that weights varying degrees of error against the length of the report. AAMT recommends the following quality goals: 100% accuracy with respect to critical errors; 98% accuracy with respect to major errors; and 98% accuracy with respect to all errors in the report, including minor errors (see below for definitions of "critical," "major," and "minor" errors).
- The reviewer (or the review process) should provide timely and consistent feedback to the medical transcriptionist in order to eliminate repetition of errors.
- All measurements, standards, and benchmarks should be disclosed to the medical transcriptionist and should be set forth in written guidelines by the healthcare provider or transcription service.
Take a look at the AAMT statement at http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/qualityassurance.cfm
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers services in medical transcription, medical coding, and medical billing to clients globally.
Labels: AAMT, medical billing, medical transcription, medical transcription errors, transcription quality assurance
Medical Transcription Professional: See Where He Comes In!
You are not well and have decided to see a specialist about that nagging pain. You go and start talking about the problem to the doctor. Now you may need to talk about the past history of the problem which you will have to remember and maybe rack your brains to remember everything just as it happened. (Ideally you must have some past papers and also made specific notes about the problem).
Anyway, after you have explained your problems and also answered all the queries of the doctor, he will physically examine you and also prescribed for various laboratory tests before he is able to make a diagnosis/differential diagnosis. Only after diagnosis does the doctor comes up with the plan of treatment which he explains and gives you / your family members the required instructions/prescriptions that must be followed. Finally as you come out of the doctor's office, you see the other people waiting for their turn to get in and talk to the doctor. But before someone else walks into the doctor's cabin there is something the doctor does after you have left. Well it's just that the entire encounter he had with you is quickly recorded into a voice recording device (either a cassette recorder, telephone or some other device).
In a few minutes the doctor is on to another patient, another issue and thus the voice recordings continue. By the end of the day/session the doctor has seen many patients requiring various types of treatments. Now where is all that critical patients' data? Can we expect the doctor to remember some of the details? Certainly not! Well as of now, most of the information is on tape and tomorrow the doctor or someone else (like say the insurance people) may need to know exactly what happened with say, patient number 6 who came in last Monday?. Should they be given access to those voice recordings? Can they follow the doctor's rumblings? No indeed, everything has to be neat, and in paper. But then the doctor can't type nor does he have the time for paper work. So who does all that work of converting that technical "doctor talk" into a typed document? You guessed it!
OSI (Outsource Strategies International) is an Oklahoma based domestic and offshore outsourcing solutions provider, for medical transcription, medical billing and coding.
Labels: medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription, medical transcription professional, transcription company
MTIAPI and Medical Transcription in The Philippines
The Philippines is the preferred offshore location after India when it comes to outsourcing medical transcription work to Asia. MTIAPI or The Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines, Inc. is a non-stock, non-profit industry organization recognized by the Philippines government and its BPO industry, with the following objectives.
- Promote the outsourcing of medical transcription services.
- Promote the development and education of individuals and corporations with respect to healthcare information and management.
- Organize any lawful activities within the purposes for which a corporation may be organized under the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Here is a list of the MTIAPI members:http://www.mtiapi.com/memlist.html
Take a look at the new set of the MTIAPI board of trustees for 2008 at http://www.mtiapi.com/trustees.html and its new contact /address at http://www.mtiapi.com/Announcement/Announcement.html
The Philippines has the distinct advantage of having a vast pool of English speaking people. It is actually the third largest English speaking country in the world and also the second largest American English speaking country in the world with a literacy rate of almost 94%. It also has the advantage of having the much preferred 12 hour time difference with the United States. The Philippine government had recently announced that Philippines medical transcription companies have won medical transcription and medical coding contracts worth $1.4 million with American clients.
The Philippines also has registered medical transcription training program institutes like The MTC Academy (MTCA) that provides the latest medical transcription training software and reference materials that are currently being used as industry standards within the United States.
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based BPO service provider offering professional solutions in domestic as well as offshore medical transcription (from both India and The Philippines), medical coding and medical billing.
Labels: medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription, MTIAPI, outsourcing transcription, Philippines
The Evolving Medical Transcription
Medical Transcription is a fast growing and evolving sector that has been influenced by many factors over the years. As preferences and standards have changed, one of the significant aspects of medical transcription has been the shift to electronic patient record. What are the basic factors for this evolution? They include,
- Advancement in technology
- Practice workflow
- Regulations
In the distant future one can be sure that the voice recognition software will greatly improve and may slowly even replace manual transcription. Adopted technologies such as speech recognition software and application service providers (ASPs) can keep up with the demands of regulations, standards, and cutting-edge demands in this sector. One can also expect that unlike today, medical coding may become embedded within documentation thereby not requiring a separate process and reduce the overall cost of medical transcription.
There is also the growing need for medical transcription to comply with basic Principles of documentation that has been developed by the Consensus Workgroup on Healthcare Documentation & Report Generation. It will look into the following aspects of transcription.
- Patient details
- Accuracy of document
- Completeness
- Timeliness
- Interoperability
- Retrievability
- Authentication
- Accountability
- Auditability
- Confidentiality
- Security
Labels: medical billing, medical coding, medical technology, medical transcription
The Medical Transcription Profession
A Medical transcription professional is often referred to as a medical transcriber or just as an MT. Earlier in the late 1990s, medical transcription professionals were also called as Medical language specialists or Health Information Management professionals.
What is the work done by an MT? Well it is an MT's responsibility to convert the medical records of patients into type written formats. An MT professional has to do the transcription with the help of transcription equipment that may include tape recorders PCs foot pedals etc. They use the tape to playback the recording for listening in and transcribing the dictations that have been recorded by the doctors.
A good medical transcription should ideally have skills in the following areas.
- Good knowledge of medical terms
- Superior typing skills
- Communication skills
- Office automation skills
- Accuracy in sorting/counting and number verification
- Knowledge of Grammar/punctuation
- Experience with multiple medical specialties
Medical transcription professionals can gain the title of a Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) by passing a certification examination that is conducted only by the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI). The AHDI was formerly in the name of American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT).
For outsourced solutions in medical transcription, medical coding and medical billing please do contact OSI (Outsourced Strategies International) the Oklahoma based BPO pioneer.
Labels: Certified Medical Transcriptionist, medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription, MT, MT professional
Medical Transcription Equipment and Technologies
As in many other fields, digital equipment technology forms the backbone of the modern medical transcription industry. The keyword here is "digital". Over the years most transcription equipment have evolved and digital technology has made it possible for finished medical transcripts to be delivered across the globe in minimal turnaround time. It has also enabled effective outsourcing /offshoring of medical transcription and enabled transcription professionals from other developing countries like India/Philippines to offer their services at competitive rates. Good transcription professionals around the globe can now work even from the comfort of their homes.
Some of the technology/software and gears commonly used in the medical transcription business include,
- Digital microphones
- PC based transcriber software
- Digital transcriber stations
- Speed typing software
- Telephone dictation equipment
- Dictation management software
- Transcription desk reference
- Medical spelling checker
- Micro-cassette voice recorder
- Transcription wrist gloves (fingerless)
- FTP software
- Audio file encryption software
- Conference recorders
- Universal foot pedals
- Stedman's electronic medical dictionary
- Phone-in dictation system
- Transcriber headset
- Speech mikes
- Storage memory stick
- Document counting/ invoicing software
- Voice recognition software
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers affordable outsourcing of medical transcription, medical coding and medical billing to clients globally and in all the US States and cities.
Labels: coding, digital, gear, medical billing, medical technology, medical transcription, medical transcription company
Skills and Duties of a Medical Transcription Professional
Becoming a professional medical transcriptionist is today worth considering as a career especially because it is predicted that the MT profession will be in high demand for some time to come. This is chiefly because the rise in the total number of the aging population will cause the entire health care sector to experience a boom for the next ten years at least as predicted by the US Department of Labor. So as the years go by, one can expect that there will be more and more hospitals /doctors/ nurses and other health care technicians including Medical transcriptionists.
What are the basic requirements to become a good medical transcription professional? They include,
- High school level education
- Good communication skill
- Above average in spelling
- Should be good at sorting, checking verifying numerical data
- Ability to follow written instruction
- Records maintenance ability
- Good typing speed/skill
- Skill in use of computer/automation
- Good eye / hand / foot coordination
A good medical transcriptionist has to learn and have a good knowledge of basic to advanced medical terminology. The proper application of grammar and the ability to use correct punctuation are also essential to be successful as a transcriptionist.
Among the various duties of a medical transcription are,
- Transcribing patient information like Social security number/Medical record
- Maintaining references for medical terminology/ procedures
- Maintaining a transcription log book
- Collecting dictation tapes
- Distributing finished transcripts/ reports
Medical Transcription Supervisors are seniors who do all the follow ups on the physicians, take care of all the missing and /or late dictations and are responsible for the timely delivery of reports. Other duties include doing quality assurance checking, maintaining backups, ordering supplies, reports generation and reporting of problems in the infrastructure/ machinery etc.
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription from both domestic as well as offshore work groups.
Labels: medical billing, medical coding, medical transcription, medical transcription company
Medical Transcription Software
As of today, medical transcription is still preferred to be done manually but a lot of effort and research is going on to develop a software program and make transcription a totally automatic process. With our present day technology medical transcription software and other tools can be of great help to the professional medical transcriptionists. It can greatly reduce the work time and also increase the work productivity and efficiency. But the actual transcription and voice recognition has not been perfected, and thus cannot be totally depended upon.. One cannot yet expect the software to recognize words and use logic like a human being to perfectly come up with the right word all the time. However this is a dynamically evolving area and over the years perfection in automated transcription could become a reality.
So how is it that the present day medical transcriptionists use these software products? When audio dictations from doctors and healthcare professionals are recorded and sent to the transcriber the software is used to create a first draft which is then quickly reviewed by the transcriptionist and edited.
Some of the features / functions of MT software include,
- Capture of the voice
- Speech processing
- Speech recognition
- Document formatting
- Support wide range of audio/video formats
- Remote control /keyboard short cuts
- Quick editing
- Electronic signature
- Document distribution
- Support /manage different time frame rates
- Create time codes and navigate to any specific timeline
- Customize media appearance
- Audio playback possible
- Import data with different settings in text or XML
- Integrates with other healthcare systems
- Easy printing
- Exports / insertions made possible
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers high quality and affordable outsourced services in medical billing, medical coding and medical transcription.
Labels: medical billing, medical transcription, medical transcription software, medical transcription technology
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
Medical Transcription and the Accuracy of Medical Documents
The technique of medical writing is different from other writing as seen in literature or while writing essays or articles for publications. How is it different? Some of the typical features seen in medical writing:
- Has lots of abbreviations
- Have brief forms
- Shortcut language /word coinage
Adherence to prescribed or suggested stylistic guidelines as prescribed by the agency is very important. These can be vendor specific instructions with regards to editing, punctuation, or the grammar. However in the absence of any specific guide lines transcriptionists can follow the general rules as followed by other transcription professionals.
Challenges in transcribing mainly are seen because dictations are never ever close to being perfect. While dictating, doctors may even make mistaken or contradicting statements due to slip of tongue. Here it is up to the transcriptionist to be alert to all such issues and correct all such dictation mistakes done by the physician.
A sound knowledge of all medical terms and by listening and handling a wide variety of such dictations make a transcriptionist becomes experienced to face all types of audio files. But if a transcriptionist can keep listening to any particular physician on a regular basis and works on the same voice files then he/she can get quite used to a physican's personal style of dictation and can quickly produce a very accurate transcript.
The secret of the art of medical transcription is not in being aggressive but to be as subtle and careful as possible. Also it is very essential to have an attitude to impress and always get a favorable response from the dictator. Having a keen sense of awareness/ alertness to the possible mistakes in dictations along with good listening skills will go a long way in becoming a successful MT professional. However while editing a dictation one must also know where to draw the line and must be careful never to overdo it.
Contact Outsource Strategies International (OSI) a US based medical transcription company that offers highly accurate services in medical coding, billing and transcription at affordable rates.
Labels: medical transcription, MT company, MT outsourcing, transcription accuracy, USA medical transcription company
Medical Transcription and the US-India Time Difference
Doctors and other medical professionals across USA treat diseases and take care of the sick all day long. But just treating or curing is not enough. The why, what, how, and when details of every single patient that walked into a hospital has to go on digital record as is required by law. So after finishing every single process /procedure doctors are seen talking in and recording into Dictaphones.
Who will listen to these miles of hi-tech tapes? Well that is the medical transcription professional's job who must transcribe every uttered word into text to be stored as printed or electronic data and to become accessible in the future worldwide if required. Actually medical transcription has always been there since ages. The medical transcribers of yesteryears were usually those who assisted the doctors and manually made note of the patient and the treatment details.
Outsourcing of Medical transcription to Asia is very favorable. Of course primarily because Indian labor is good and cheaper and also because of the low TAT (Turn Around Time). All voice recordings are sent can get transcribed by the next day morning itself. Is it that someone sits all night and transcribes those tapes? Yes and No. Let me explain. The days audio files are daily sent by evening to India where it is now day break. (due to the natural 12 hour time difference) The data is then transcribed during the day (Indian day) and uploaded back via the Internet to the US in the evening (Indian evening) where it is going to be dawn. So the doctors are happy when they come in next day and see all there yesterday's dictations in print or as transcripts. Now isn't that naturally convenient?
Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based medical transcription company that offers professional outsourced services in medical billing, advanced medical coding and all types of medical transcription for clinics and hospitals in all the US states besides the UK, Australia and Canada.
Labels: India medical transcription, medical billing, medical transcription, MT outsourcing, outsourcing services

