The current age of digital technology has drastically changed our daily lives and the way we interact today. So why not in the field of medicine which is primarily an information-rich field, and electronic medical records (EMR) allow a greater and smoother flow of data within the healthcare field. With the help of EMR transcriptions individuals and organizations, both can easily avail information whenever and wherever required. Besides the physical difference between the two, there are many other features of EMR which are highly advantageous, making the conversion of paper records to secure cloud storage very appealing.

Saving Costs

Though one may need to pay initially for availing EMR transcription service, the cost of maintaining records over time will decrease significantly. While paper records require more staff to manage, maintain and organize endless documents, an EMR system requires less staff, time and storage space, eventually savings costs over time.

Storage Space

Paper records have been taking up a lot of space of various healthcare facilities for ages now, besides taking up a lot of space these records are not environment-friendly and also difficult to maintain in terms of quality over a long period of time. EMR transcriptions help overcome all the challenges as they are stored digitally taking up no physical space and can be used easily as and when the need arises

Reduced Security Issues

Though paper and electronic records both are prone to security issues; electronic records can be more easily secured to a certain extent. In case of paper records generally only one copy is kept by a facility, loss of that record can mean it is gone forever, and a natural calamity or a loss of the record due to individual’s mistake also result in complete loss of the record. But in the case of electronic records various copies can easily be created and to ensure the security of the digital documents an established and compliant managed hosting provider and secure cloud storage offers the security of the documents to a greater degree than paper records.

Easier Access

While dealing with paper records any information required by an organization or individual requires to be first sourced from the storehouse then mailed or scanned, making it a lengthy and time-consuming process. Use of medical records helps providers instantly scan the documents without any time delay and patients are treated in a timely manner. While dealing with electronic records data can be accessed anytime anywhere; improving patient care substantially.

 Increased Accuracy

Sometimes the physician’s style of writing may be difficult to comprehend in the case of paper records; moreover, lack of space may also be encountered during penning down all the necessary information. Shifting to electronic records helps remove these hindrances as the data is generally written in a standardized typeface and terminology leaving very little room for any uncertainty and increase readability and accuracy to a great degree.

Patient Safety and Privacy

Foremost concern while designing the software is the safety of the EMR keeping in mind patient analysis and security of information shared. EMR transcriptions have led to a substantial reduction on medical errors resulting in advantages both to the patient and doctor.  Electronic records reduce ambiguous sharing of information with the elimination of handwritten errors; also removing challenges like lost of misplacing patient files.

This results in a visible increase in the health-related safety of patients and their welfare, along with also restricting the type of information available to the end user. All in all, this helps in increasing the personal security of a patient and meeting their privacy concerns.

TRANSITIONING TO ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS TRANSCRIPTIONS

Why wait when it is obvious that EMR transcription provides all the various aspects which help work effectively to form a functioning system that not only cares for patients but also benefits the medical practice.

The only disadvantage of EMR lies not in the utilization but the normal challenges faced during the investment, preparation, and training of staff while changing from paper records, but these get more than covered in the future with the reduction in staff costs. While transitioning from paper records to EMR Transcription organization needs to help staff feel as comfortable as possible, by providing training in updating computer skills, to bring everyone up to date with the current technology.

Medical transcriptions and EMRs (electronic medical records) go hand in hand, though when compared with each other medical transcription has various benefits, for example, transcription services make it easier and faster for a doctor to utilize electronic records system. Medical transcription services have enhanced the use of EMRs and helped physicians save time, by transferring the data-entry, clerical tasks to transcribers instead of documenting it themselves.

Medical transcription outsourcing makes things even simpler as all the requirements like managing staff, records, HIPAA compliance, technology, equipment maintenance, turnaround time and other variables linked to medical transcription services are also outsourced. Various organizations have enhanced patient care by outsourcing medical transcription services to specialized organizations. Some of the benefits acquired by outsourcing the medical transcription services are-

INCREASED TIME FOR PATIENTS

Dictation is a speedy way of completing clinical documentation and medical transcriptionists can easily find any errors and look into the quality of the documentation. In this case, the physician’s workflow and productivity are not affected and in fact gets enhanced further, giving them more time to focus on their patients and giving their full attention on patient problems without needing to worry about documentation.

ENHANCED CLINICAL PERFORMANCE

With audio records converted into medical transcriptions in a timely manner with medical transcription outsourcing, it becomes very easy for the doctors to enhance the care process, in turn also helping in handling risk management and accounts receivables more effectively. Easy to use technology and accurate medical records help doctors in sharing relevant data with other medical staff improving overall treatment of the patients.

Timely data also assist doctors in utilizing specified modes of delivery of documents to other healthcare facilities. Hence good documentation goes a long way in guaranteeing healthcare innovations and overall enhancing clinical performance to a great extent.

REDUCED EXPENSES

Outsourcing medical transcription services rather than doing the in-house help substantially reduce many in-house expenses and increase the profitability of a clinic. The reduction of expenses include lower direct labor costs, reduced training area expenses, lowered HR and administrative costs and most importantly elimination of annual maintenance costs for maintenance of digital and transcription equipment, hence proving to be highly cost-effective for the doctor’s clinic.

SKILLED AND EXPERIENCED STAFF

By outsourcing the services clients benefit from the significant industry experience that the medical transcriptionists have acquired due to working with so many varied customers. By specializing in medical transcriptions they are updating their knowledge constantly, hence producing superior medical records of high accuracy.

HIGH QUALITY AND ACCURATE MEDICAL RECORDS

Due to working with so many medical records the medical transcription service providers are constantly updated and adhere to the globally standardized, HIPAA Compliant Medical Transcription Process and also ensure that all the multi-level QA procedures have been followed. The QA procedures generally keep in mind- editing, proofreading and reviewing of the finished records. To increase efficiency the transcription service providers are constantly measuring performance and imposing penalties on the transcriptionists to ensure that the turnaround times and quality levels are met.

INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT LESSENED

Investment in expensive medical transcription equipment can be avoided by outsourcing the process to a specialized firm. Operating a full-fledged medical transcription service requires, blocking a certain amount of funds to invest into high-end dictation equipment, along with updated software for transmission, downloading, typing and submitting dictations. This amount saved can also be utilized in enhancing the treatment infrastructure further.

AVOIDING HIGH ATTRITION RATES

With the medical transcription industry highly characterized by high attrition rates, outsourcing the service greatly helps in averting the challenge to an external entity. In this way, the hospitals and clinics remained unaffected by high employee turnover levels.
Seasonal Fluctuations in Staffing

Winter seasons witness a rise in patient consultations and the holiday seasons healthcare organizations tend to be highly short-staffed, hence a major advantage of outsourcing is that these seasonal fluctuations and patient capacity do not let the workflow and productivity of the organization get affected.

HIRING, TRAINING AND ADMINISTRATION ACTIVITIES REDUCED

Medical transcription services are needed across all sections 24* 7, including the emergency room procedures. By outsourcing their transcription services healthcare facilities and hospitals can substantially reduce time, resources and effort spent on hiring, training and maintaining medical transcription staff on their payroll. Hence, a sizable staff requirement is completely eliminated with the process outsourced.

Interview transcription is an integral component of several qualitative research studies. While the role of transcription is not seen beyond “a behind-the-scenes task”, it is without a doubt a powerful act of representation.  Although transcription can be carried out in varied forms, there is further need for methodical consideration which is often guided by the core value and goal of the research itself.

Typically, transcription is performed under the purview of naturalized transcription where no detail or utterance is left out and denaturalized transcription that only focuses on rectifying grammar, removing noise and indistinct characters.  But as a newbie researcher, what are the standards of transcription one must ascribe to? To explore the answer to this question is the exact premise of this write-up.

Attentive listening

In order to facilitate the organization of verbal data, attentive listening is highly important.  The researcher may adopt the approach of naturalized transcription and pay close attention to every detail of the verbal texts. Repeated listening of the audio files, also gives the researcher insight and critique into their own work. In qualitative research, the way the researcher interacts with their participants, without mixing his or her own opinion and beliefs are important. By listening to the tapes, the researcher defines new standards for himself/herself which eventually becomes the core of the research.

Giving shape to the Data

Listening to the data setting a standard of conduction interview is just one aspect of transcription. How the researcher shapes and presents the data is the next big consideration.   This is when the approach of denaturalized transcription becomes relevant. While conducting an interview, both the participant and researcher may make grammatical errors, use slang, abbreviated language etc.   The researcher may also use code notes or number. Decoding these data and presenting them in a coherent manner for academic use is the next big step. The key is to present the data in such a manner which is well structured and readable.

Communicating with the Data

Establishing communication with the talking data involves interpreting the data in a sound and methodological fashion. The details of your talking data or recorded files can help you draw your hypothesis and the future course of your qualitative research. Here the principles of naturalized and denaturalized transcription come in handy.  It depends on the researcher, how he or she will communicate with the talking data. For example, denaturalized transcription helps in data structuring, but by adhering to the principles of naturalized transcription the data is more realistic, authentic and highly representative.  So, it depends upon the discretion of the research which principles of transcription would he or she wishes to give importance to during the course of the research.

Establishing Data Authenticity

When conducting empirical qualitative research, establishing data credibility is very important. This essentially involves taking feedback from the participants of the research. This is referred to “validation interview” as a way of initiating “a dialogue between [research participants] and [researcher] intended to confirm, substantiate verify or correct researcher [‟s] findings”.

Doing an interview transcription is a very mundane and repetitive task. Because of this many researchers engage professional Transcription providers such as Eyered. Hiring a professional transcriptionist is cost effective, but most importantly helps you save on time, thus allowing you to focus on other important aspects of your academic research.  Most transcription providers have highly trained and skilled transcriptionists, therefore accuracy of the work in not much of a concern. However, before outsourcing the task of interview transcription to an agency, if it best to let them know your requirement to reduce the complexity of the task.

ED or emergency department visit is on the rise in the US.  Health experts attribute this change to health reforms, in particular, the Affordable Health Act that stands for universal health coverage, enabling average Americans to seek health care facility.  As per a whitepaper titled “Physician’s Guide to Achieving Excellence in the ED” the following changes in the emergency department across the United States have come to light:

• Nearly 124 million people visited the emergency department in 2008.
• There was a14% increase in emergency department visits from 2007 to 2010.
• Almost 90% of emergency physicians expect a further increase in patient numbers in the coming years.

Many physicians feel that the increase in the number of a patient visit has impacted the efficiency of emergency rooms and there is an urgent need to fix this problem through EHR or electronic health record system.  However, several industry experts are of the opinion that nearly 50% to 80% of EHR implementation is a failure.  This has retorted health care provider to go back to traditional paperwork making EHR system a farfetched thought. The attempt of this write-up is to examine the role of medical transcription in leveraging EHR systems in hospitals that would lead to better patient care and emergency room efficiency.

ASSISTANCE IN DIGITAL DOCUMENTATION OF ALL DATA

With the assistance of medical transcription service providers, all pre-existing data related to hospital records, patients can be converted into digital format facilitating EHR adoption. This, in turn, would bring in a standardized health documentation process and allow an exchange of all information in a secured manner.  This will also enable generation of quick reports and access to patient data within a short time.

ASSISTANCE INACCURATE DOCUMENTATION OF DATA

Medical transcriptionists are highly trained professional and adhere to strict practices so as to produce very accurate documents.  Most professional agencies offering medical and audio transcription service assure up to 98% accuracy as well as quick turnaround time.

TAKING THE ONUS OF EHR IMPLEMENTATION

As the health care industry is warming up to the idea of EHR technologies to procure, collect and document health data, some medical transcription agencies are offering end to end solutions, without the hospitals having to implement a full-blown EHR systems themselves. This is an excellent way for hospitals and individual physicians to get hold of accurate and digitized data without having to spend an enormous amount of money in the adoption and maintenance of EHR software. This practice takes away the burden of paperwork and lets health care agencies to focus on their core-competency which is to provide patient care.

PERFECT FOR CONVERTING AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION INTO A STANDARDIZED DOCUMENT

Doctors and physicians have been recording patient consultation and reports in audio files.  It is estimated that nearly 1.2 billion clinical documentation is produced in the US every year, and of that, nearly 60% of the data are dictated documents. Historically, dictation has proven to be an efficient format to create patient data, as it ensures accurate representation of data and information. With the assistance of audio transcription services, all dictated documents can be transcribed into standardized files.

Transcribed files containing patient data are valuable documents. A well-transcribed file only allows physicians to render proper treatment and care plan to the patients, but the latter can also use them for health insurance claims. Standardized documents are piled in a safe and secure manner and are extremely critical for coordinated care which can take place across health departments in a hospital.  They are also important for assessment and documentation of all reports. The medical transcription agency in the likes of Eyered perambulates highest standards to maintain the quality of their work which can ensure efficiency across different departments, in particular, the emergency department of a hospital.

With many healthcare centers and hospitals preferring to outsource their transcription services to professionals; many may also consider online medical transcription services.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Doctors are provided with 24/7 secure online access and generally, the systems are set up for free along with free training and easy-to-use materials. Certain companies provide a dedicated account manager who can provide continuous support to help procure the most advantageous experience with skilled transcriptionists and online system.

Innovative software helps manage all documents which are saved online indefinitely and can be accessed anytime. The best advantage is that rather than a turnaround time transcriptionists are available 24/7 to meet practice’s demands.

GETTING TO KNOW THE PROCESS

• Submission of data – as in conventional medical transcription services, practice’s need to provide dictation of the patient information using the type of method they are familiar with to a secure site. Generally the transcription company with offer how to upload the files, like if the dictation is done with a recorder then how to transfer the same. If another method has been used for dictation the company lists the best way of uploading the information
• Transcribe- the transcriptionists are provided an updated online platform with various scenes that help provide efficient systems that guarantee fast and accurate service
• Audit and Review- this process is also done more quickly as the online system is able to automatically send the transcribed files between the transcriptionist and reviewer
• Online Access- the files can be accessed within a short time a time span as 24 hours and on review, if the physician is unsatisfied then they are quickly returned with the required changes; so that transcriptionists can take immediate action.

Online transcription services also provide benefits like a complete reporting capabilities system which helps manage information like productivity, costs, and turnaround times.

Few of the things companies need to ensure to enhance doctor’s satisfaction during online transcription-

• Providing solutions at the most economical rate possible
• Maintaining strict standards of quality service and client satisfaction by work process management and feedback mechanism
• Adopting innovative technologies and efficient work process management techniques

BENEFITS OF ONLINE TRANSCRIPTION SERVICES

• Helps decrease capital investments, expenses, and overheads, resulting in significant savings and increased profitability
• Specialized skills due to manpower proficient in the required area, assures better quality and results
• Healthcare units are free to focus on their core business activities
• Helps avoid the need for recruitment of a dedicated team to carry out transcription activities, saving on time, efforts and resources
• Other benefits like 24 x7 x 365 customer care support and rapid turnaround time

Transcription outsourcing has become an inseparable component of a healthcare unit today; the benefit lies in acquiring the best transcription service in the industry whether online or conventional transcription services.