Is Medical Transcription a Dying Profession?

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Is Medical Transcription a Dying Profession?

According to a study published by the Annals of Family Medicine, around 80% of family physicians will adopt EHR (Electronic Health Record) system by the end of 2013. The HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act of U.S Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), which offer Medicare and Medicaid incentives for eligible health care professionals who use (meeting meaningful use requirements) certified EHR technology and strict EHR adoption by Obamacare serve as the major impetus to the widespread use of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). EMRs are designed to collect and store patient data from physicians and clinicians. With physicians entering the information directly into the EMR software instead of dictating notes to a toll-free number or into a digital recorder, it seems as though EMR adoption would end the need for medical transcription services. This article discusses the future of medical transcription in the light of these developments.

EMR V/s Medical Transcription EMR is supposed to allow the easy sharing of patient information between practices and among assessment, diagnosis and treatment sections. Clinicians can capture key information quickly and

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provide timely treatment to their patients. The system facilitates high quality documentation with auditable, readable and organized charts as well as records. It is expected to shorten billing cycles and help claim the reimbursement by reducing the possibility of errors. Moreover, this digitization of patient information makes it possible to track mistakes easily in the case of insurance malpractices. Unlike paper records, EMR can recover crucial medical documents efficiently in times of a natural disaster. For example, when tornado hit Joplin city in Missouri on May 22, 2011, wind had blown away most of the paper records in St. John’s Regional Medical Center, Missouri, but what saved the situation was the availability of patient electronic records. However, health care institutions need to implement stringent security measures (for example, password protection, imposing penalties for unauthorized access) to maintain the confidentiality of EMRs. The cost for storing voluminous paper-based patient records can be reduced with the EMR system.

However, though EMR can capture and store patient details, physicians have to take time during the patient encounter to enter details into the system. This would mean less time spent on patient care. It would even mean that they see a smaller number of patients. All this would reduce productivity and revenue. Certain EMR system makes use of speech recognition software to reduce the time physicians need to enter patient data. But such software is prone to errors as it may not always interpret dictation correctly.

Physicians need not be skilled in typing and this can result in documentation errors.

On the other hand, a professional medical transcription company would have a dedicated and skilled team on the job of transcribing dictations to result in quality, timely medical documentation. By outsourcing their transcription tasks to a reliable service provider, physicians can focus on what is really important – patient

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treatment and care. With stringent quality checks in place, a transcription firm can ensure error-free documents which are necessary not only for enhanced care but also to ensure proper reimbursements. HIPAA compliant medical transcription services follow standard security guidelines to ensure the confidentiality of patient data. These companies also offer documentation solutions in customized turnaround time to suit the need of medical specialists.

Blending EMR and Medical Transcription EMR implementation poses several challenges and medical transcription offer solutions to overcome those challenges. So blending EMR with transcription is a viable option for healthcare providers to create and manage patient documents in wellorganized, accurate and secure manner. Medical transcription can accelerate EMR adoption in the following ways.  As medical transcription facilitates electronic exchange of documents, healthcare providers can easily incorporate accurate transcribed documents into their EMR system. This will reduce the time needed for data entry into EMR and increase physician productivity.  As conventional transcription services involve the use of human resources to transcribe physician dictations, they are superior to speech recognition enabled EMRs.  By incorporating error-free documents generated by medical transcription services into EMR system, healthcare providers can access accurate electronic medical records quickly in times of need.

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 Majority of physicians prefer dictations to checkbox and templates for capturing patient data effectively. EMR along with transcription will give the opportunity for physicians to dictate and document patient information correctly as well as to enjoy the benefit of automation.

To summarize, EMR with transcription enhances the quality of reporting, reduces the risks associated with reimbursement claims, allows quick data access and retrieval, increases productivity and enhances revenue. Medical transcription companies can help the healthcare institutions to maximize the potential of their EMR systems. So we could say that medical transcription is not dying with EMR adoption, but that it opens up new possibilities for enhancing the usefulness of EMR.

About the Author MTS Transcription Services (MTS) is an established medical transcription outsourcing company in the US, offering comprehensive transcription solutions for a wide range of clientele.

Our medical transcription services are secure and available 24/7.

Contact Us: Headquarters: 8596E.101stStreet,SuiteH Tulsa, OK 74133 Main:(800)6702809 Fax(877)835-5442 E-mail: info@managedoutsource.com