WHAT IS MEDICAL DICTATION:-

The sole purpose of the working of doctors is to save lives. They always try their best to improve the wellbeing and health of their patients.
    For providing effective care, a physician always requires the exact information. He really needs to know exactly what is going on with the patient. Sometimes it becomes very difficult to determine. It often takes so many appointments, tests, scans, diagnoses before a conclusion can be reached.
   The documentation is the key that draws together all the strands of information. Each and every interaction is recorded in detail so as to draw a complete picture of the conclusions and the outcomes.

THE PROCESS OF DICTATION WORKS IN THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY:
If a new see the whole process of the dictation work, it looks very simple. The core process of dictation is:- A physician or a healthcare professional dictates into a device, that audio is sent to a transcriptionist who then types it into a document. The clinician can then review the document, sign it and allow or authorize it to be sent.
A number of dictation workflows call the audio creator the author and the transcriptionist a typist.
All the attempts of formatting, editing and typing are taken away from the physicians. The doctor only needs to produce the initial dictation file.

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MEDICAL DICTATION:-
There are the basic 3 levels that the medical dictation requires. First an author, second a typist and finally a process of connecting the audio produced by the physician with the typist.

Generally, the authors in the medical industry are clinicians and doctors. Being fond of dictation is not always easy. One needs to speak clearly and eliminate the low sounds as much as possible that is used in the general conversation (like Umm, err, hmmm mm ). But dictation is many times faster than writing the document by hand.
Typists are the backbone of the dictation system. In the medical setting a dictated audio file is tough to use and can’t say to other users at a glance what they need to know. Typists, like clinicians, require some training and experience to perform according to the requirements of the healthcare industry. Typists need the familiarisation with the dictation files, with the patterns of speech and with some of the nuance that each and every clinician might have the way they work.
Finally, a dictation system is needed. Something that can collect the dictation files from the authors and connect typists to perform the transcription. In recent years it has often been performed with the audiotapes. Nowadays digital dictation is very popular. The digital dictation system includes an input device like a dictaphone or mobile phone and software to manage the files. Depending upon the needs for data security the system may need a server solution.

There are so many latest techniques for medical dictation to use. Let me talk in brief. Have you ever faced such kind of problems when you are trying to record a patient’s data with maximum quality and clarity but you are unable to get the desired result? As a doctor or medical faculty, you better know that the clarity of dictation is very important. Especially it greatly contributes to the accuracy of the transcribed medical record. If the recording will not be clear, even a certified Medical Transcription Companies will find it inconvenient to convert the records and might end up wasting too much time and effort. Also yet, there is no assurance that the records will be accurate. And we better know the quality rating of the most transcription companies depend upon the sound quality of the audio files.

FEW MEDICAL DICTATION TIPS TO USE WHILE RECORDING AN AUDIO FILE FOR MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION:

THE NOISES OF SURROUNDINGS:
Always try to choose an area with less surrounding noise, especially microphones catch noises very easily. Dictating in a quiet and secure surrounding will definitely improve the result and also maintain the patient confidential. It is the best practice for Medical Dictation not to record in the areas having surrounding noises and distractions like – people talking, ringing cell phones, music sounds, vacuum, other speakers and beepers, etc. Even the voice of air conditioning can increase the unwanted sound in the surrounding. Sometimes, you have no option but to dictate in the outdoor location, then you should try to avoid such areas like a lot of traffic noises, very windy type of areas. These factors can compromise audio quality.

TRY TO SPEAK CLEARLY IN THE MICROPHONE:
The conversational tone should be at a normal rate. So, the transcriptionists can understand the dictation easily. who needs to provide the quality records. Also depending upon the microphones. The recorder needs to be placed about 3/4″ from the mouth in an upright level position so that sound hits over the top of the microphone and not directly into it. If you are using a smartphone or tablet then it’s essential to know where the mic is to make sure that you are not covering it with your hand while recording. Generally, microphones over built-in microphones provide better quality.

SPEAK ONLY ONCE AT A TIME:
Brief your team members about the digital audio recording and if they too are going to participate in the recording. For better quality request them to speak one person at one time in a clear voice and slow rate of speech. You may also tell him to avoid talking to one another during the recording.

QUALITY ASSURANCE:
Before sending the recording to the transcriptionist, it will be the best to first conduct a test of your own recording. Talk a few sentences and then check the sound level and the quality of the recording. It will give you an overall idea of quality and your speech. It will also give you an idea about what you need to include and what you need to remove.

BE AWARE OF DIFFICULT TERMINOLOGY:
The medical terminologies can be difficult for the transcriptionists to decipher at times. You should make a note of unusual or difficult terms, similar sounding words and the names of referring physicians. If you think there can be a chance of confusion then it’s better to spell it out. While most certified dictation services hire competent transcriptionists who generally do double check the spelling. Sometimes when the words are not able to transcribe they end up leaving the blank spaces in the transcript.

Overall it’s better to use well-certified transcriptionists who can easily understand a wide spectrum of accents and dictations to a certain degree. To get to know whether your accent will be understood by the transcriptionist, you should first submit a sample dictation as a test. Physicians are highly concerned about the accuracy of transcribed reports. Especially as mistakes can cause considerably severe legal and financial impact.   As it depends upon the dictation. You should try as much as possible to record a file that has no background noise.

FEEDBACK:
The feedback is also a major part to improve the quality of your work. Timely feedback is very important when working with new transcriptionists, and continues to be important if an issue arises. Changes due to author error generally incur a charge.

SUMMARY:

Key for Better Services- Good Dictation & Work Habits

Instead of using a keyboard and mouse using speech to document encounters are more natural. In a recent NIH-supported research study by ZyDoc, Clinical dictation has been shown to be an average of 2.5 times faster than typing. Someone should learn n dictation where speaking is a more natural modality, good speech habits.

Achieving excellent transcription also demands attention to workflow details such as providing completed information and correct information. Getting the right information saves time and frustration for both the author and the transcriptionist, and reduces the probability of the errors.

NOTE ABOUT SPEECH RECOGNITION:

In the early stage “Speech Recognition Technology” emerged as the proposed solution for saving the clinical documentation time. Front-end SRT allows an author to dictate, also monitor the text on the screen with minimal lag time and perform immediate edits. Back-end SRT reviews correct, or in some cases, re-types the report after completion of a dictation session for subsequent routing to a transcriptionist or editor.

Medical transcription services work on transcribing medical reports that are dictated by doctors, nurses or any other healthcare professional. Usually, dictations are voice files which are either called in over the telephone or uploaded digitally through the Internet and smartphone applications.

In today’s technology-driven world, there are various electronic devices can be used to record audio files, like toll-free call-in voice servers, digital handheld recorder, iPhone App, etc. The provider dictates chart reviews, operations, office visits, emergency room visits, diagnostic imaging studies and final summary, which is then given to a transcriptionist who further types them.

To keep a check on the patient’s health, doctors, nurses, or other healthcare professionals dictate a note in digital audio format. After that, the medical transcriptionists transcribe dictations into a word document which is sent back to the physician electronically.

Upon receiving, physicians will review them and make changes, if required. After that, it stores it with the patient’s medical record.

Earlier, professionally skilled medical transcriptionists working in the medical records department had to transcribe medical records. However, over the years, there has been a change in the medical transcription. Now instead of having an assortment of handwritten notes for the record, this approach has gone digital. Nowadays more and more healthcare companies are shifting their base to electronic format. It means these patient reports are safely stored in the electronic database. Also, they are available for immediate access and retrieval 24×7.

Medical transcriptionist’s convert dictated audio files into transcribed medical transcription reports.  It’s not only conversion, but they also edit and format reports and safely transmit them back either in a printed or electronic format for the review of a physician. Medical transcriptionists have complete knowledge of medical terminology, and they work in accordance with the global standards.

Though a healthcare unit can do medical transcription in-house as well; there are several benefits of outsourcing it to a competent transcription provider:

1. Pay for services only when you need them

If you need medical transcription services occasionally, it is not a good idea to have an in-house staff to manage these tasks. If you compare the expenses of paying employee salaries with outsourcing medical transcription, you might find out that the latter option is much more cost-effective in the long run.

Alternatively, even if you need medical transcription services on a regular basis, outsourcing services to a reputed medical transcription service provider can still cut down your costs. Keep in mind that a competent medical transcription provider makes fewer text errors. In many cases, these errors can prove costly to your business in the form of expensive litigation.

Then some medical transcription providers will also work with your current employees to streamline the process. These service providers can help you by covering your employees’ vacation or sick time. They are always ready to meet your additional needs if any.

2. Cut down your expenditure on IT

Medical transcription involves advancing software and investment in the best hardware to enable listening and transcribing of calls with minimum errors. However, a healthcare facility doesn’t need to worry about such expenses when they outsource medical transcription.

3. Free from the responsibility for hiring and training employees

With medical transcription services, it becomes the responsibility of the service provider to hire and train medical transcriptionists. It means the HR work that would have been involved in identifying, interviewing and hiring medical transcriptionists is reduced.

Proper medical care is the right of every individual, and suitable medical transcription services can make it happen. Companies like Eyered, offer you medical transcription services for the different branches of healthcare, like cardiology, pathology, dental, etc. Don’t forget to go for a free trial before signing up for any medical transcription service provider.

More Blogs:-  KNOW THE TRAITS OF THE BEST MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION PROVIDERS

Medical transcription today is one of the most sought-after services and the demand for such services is at an all-time high. With the ratio of patient to doctors increasing over the years, and hospitals having to cope with a number of issues; hospitals are finding it much better to hire medical transcription solutions providers than going at it all by themselves. We at Eyered, are one of the industry leaders in transcription services and today we are going to explain the pros and cons of hiring a service like ours to having your own in-house team of transcriptionists.

Hiring is the Biggest Issue

Say you have an in-house team of transcriptionists and one of them decides to leave. It’s obvious that you are going to have to find a replacement; however, it’s often very difficult to immediately find a replacement since finding a good transcriptionist is difficult and it takes time. Now compare this to a professionally managed medical transcription service provider and you don’t have to ever worry about anyone quitting or finding a replacement.

Staff Going on Holiday

Everyone needs a break at some point in time and so will your team. Moreover, you will need to give them the statutory pay as legislated in your jurisdiction even if they are obviously not going to work during this period. Compare this to outsourcing and you don’t have to worry about stuff going on leave and you have to bear the costs.

Slow Periods Vs Busy Periods

Eventually, you will have to deal with either slow or busy periods and they are both going to prove difficult. This is because during slow periods the pay remains the same for the employee and this will result in increased costs. Busy periods will result in a high volume of work putting additional pressure on your staff; thereby likely resulting in a backlog.

When you outsource your requirement, no matter whether it’s a slow period or a busy period, you will only pay for the amount of work that gets done. Moreover, since industry leading transcription providers are solely dedicated to this craft, your work will not delay in times when additional workload pours in since they are well-equipped to handle such contingencies.

Editing and Backing up Documents

All the editing happens on-site when you have an in-house team and this can give a certain level of control on the final output; however, it’s time-consuming and can result in backlogs if repeated edits are required during busy periods. Moreover, you will need to invest in additional infrastructure to backup documents resulting in increased overhead costs. When you outsource, the editing happens off-site; however, the quality doesn’t suffer as it’s done according to your specifications. Moreover, you don’t need to invest in additional infrastructure to backup documents as it’s taken care by the firm handling your transcription.

If we look at it, the pros of outsourcing your requirements heavily outweigh that of having an in-house team of transcriptionists. Moreover, if you look at it, the overall savings over the years will be exponential since you will only be paying for the work that gets done. Medical transcription solutions help you not only save money but also offer competitive services that have a quick turnaround time and the quality is always at par with your expectations.

Typist, the right hand of any company! Every company needs the help of professionals to take down notes, dictations, and correspondence in a really quick time without making any errors. This may sound an easy task but can turn into a situation of chaos if not done in a tactful manner. Here comes the role of a professional typist, stenographer or a transcriptionist depending upon their field of specialty. A stenographer cannot work as a medical transcriptionist, and a general typist can be involved in many other assistant jobs apart from taking notes.

Typist: A profession that got modified with technological advancement

The Typist, a famous movie of the year 1971, revolved around the love story of two typists and showcased the working style and situation in the time when this profession was quite in demand. With time, this profession has undergone major upheavals but survived the storm to retain its demand till today. From a typing machine to laptop, the medium has changed but typists still type documents, correspondence, and take notes from senior professionals in the company to circulate their memorandum. They are like general transcriptionists who can create documents out of recordings or from written notes. Typists who can type 50 to 90 words per minute on a computer have great career opportunities as word processors and data entry professionals. For creating subtitles and captions out of audios and videos, typists can come in handy. When a specialization is required, typists give way to stenographers and transcriptionists who are experts in specific terminologies of respective fields.

Stenographers for instantaneous transcription services

In courtrooms and academic settings where the transcript is required immediately, stenographers come in the scene. They can either type in shorthand or work on regular computers depending upon the turnaround time provided. In the courtroom, they work as court reporters penning down every word that is uttered during the proceedings. This helps in keeping a record of the proceedings for future reference when more clarity is required. In a traditional setting the stenographers are required to be available in the courtroom to document the event, but with advancement in technology, they also have the option to work from remote places as a CART specialist. These are Communication Access Real-time Translation specialists who make the best use of communication technologies to be virtually present during the courtroom session. The work of court reporters has been simplified with the advent of specialized editing software. To note down and transcribe different types of oral proceedings, stenographers need to have exceptional comprehension ability that distinguishes them from others.

Medical transcriptionists for creating accurate medical reports

To survive and to succeed in the field of medical transcription, the transcriptionists need to have the required skill set needed to create different types of medical reports with high accuracy and efficiency. Medical transcriptionist companies look for professionals who have the knowledge of vast medical terminologies that doctors use during the dictation. Medical transcriptionists adopt different dictation processes depending upon the requirement of doctors. They can either take down dictation in person or make the use of handheld digital voice recorders to transcribe them into the text format. The Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system helps professionals in making the use of technology in taking down notes and managing the transcribed documents. Reputed medical transcriptionist companies get works outsourced from different medical professionals and health care companies for creating medical reports in the given turnaround time. With the help of experienced medical transcriptionists, these companies have taken away the burden of such doctors and medical professionals who find it difficult to manage documents with patient’s diagnosis details for future reference.

Along with medical transcriptionists, there are many other specialized transcriptionists in different fields like – academic transcriptionist, legal transcriptionist, financial transcriptionist, etc. These transcriptionists have detailed knowledge of their respective fields, and most of them also have diverse work experience in the specific arena. These transcriptionists work either as in-house employees or as freelancers by making use of technological updates in the field.

It’s the better comprehension ability of typists, stenographers and transcriptionist that make them the need of the time even when technology is ready to overpower their task. To rely completely on technology, which gives little scope for understanding different accents and styles of speakers, is not a wise choice. Any video or audio recording needs to be transcribed to be easily accessible in all forms. These typing and comprehension experts will be in need even in future to transcribe and to manage written documents from various streams and sectors.

Apart from ICD-10, shorter deadlines; the influx of data, stricter regulations, and tighter budgets are all propelling the medical industry through a plethora of changes. All of these changes have left physicians with little or no time on hand to handle medical transcription needs in-house; especially with the hassles involved in finding the right people to handle transcriptions. So while getting transcription done in-house can help you have – direct communication with the in-house staff and involves your decision in their recruitment and training; it also turns out to very time consuming and expensive in more than one way. This is where outsourcing can turn out to be beneficial.

Here are a few reasons why medical transcription outsourcing may turn out to be beneficial.

Reduced capital investment & direct staff costs

Outsourcing means eliminating the need for buying a typing platform or a dictation system. Capital expenditure gets further reduced as you would not require upgrading to newer equipment and software time and again resulting in increased savings. Moreover handling in-house staff means increased training; higher salaries for specialized services; staff attrition rate management; staff costs and so on. Getting transcription services done from a specialized firm results in; eliminating all these direct staff costs and considerable reduction of direct staff costs.

Enhanced Accuracy

Medical transcription outsourcing can mean increased accuracy because most transcription companies being specialists in their field tend to employ several levels of quality control. To maintain their customers they need to be sure that the end result has no typos, misspelled words or incorrect medical terms. If your office is dealing in a specialization like dermatology, neurology or cardiology; then few transcriptionists train their staff to deal in these specific medical specialties. Moreover, some companies will also employ professional editors and clinicians to proofread your documents. To match these quality measures in-house you would need to invest on-going time and effort to streamline your office in this manner.

Improved time management

Either you wish to get home earlier or administer qualitative care on a higher number of patients; outsourcing can play a considerable role in helping you find increased time; to be able to handle these
tasks. Doing transcription yourself; involves sitting for hours in front of the computer; which is most of the time after work to catch up on charting; hence leaving you very little time for anything else. Outsourcing can definitely benefit you with a great avenue for improved time management.

 Faster transcription services

Outsourcing means a firm is solely managing only transcription services and does not need to balance it with other health care tasks; which results in much faster turnaround time as compared to doing it in your office. Transcription firms have dedicated professionals and staff who can take on an increased workload as and when needed; resulting in the work getting done much more faster. If the same increased workload was done in your office it would not only be done slower due to limited staff but also affect or slow-down other important tasks being done by the staff at that point. Overall outsourcing by improving turnaround time; results in shortening of your accounts receivable cycle, and helps your practice in getting paid much more quickly.

Easily access specialized staff at a relatively lower cost

Finally, the best part of outsourcing is that you can access expertise or specialized services at a fraction of the cost you would otherwise incur with getting a full-time employee. While transcription requires a lot of expertise being a highly skilled task; by outsourcing, you can easily get professional services of highly knowledgeable and specialized staff without making much of an effort.

Overall if you are bogged down with a lot of clerical work at your office and need more time for healthcare; then getting an outsourcing service makes sense. The key is to find one which can ensure good quality services; without you having to worry about maintaining the necessary technology or staff, resulting in faster services and more accuracy. As all of these benefits typically come at a cost reduction, it is clear why outsourcing has gained so much popularity over the past few years.