Medical Transcription companies Pros & Cons.
Medical transcription firms are groups of trained transcriptionists who type and record clinical recordings. After a patient visit, instead of writing their notes by hand, providers can dictate their medical notes — clinical summaries, diagnoses, medical charts, and so on — and save them as an audio file. They send the completed audio file to a medical transcription company, where a transcriptionist converts it into a usable medical note.
It appears to be a good option, and many clinicians have switched to medical transcription companies over the last decade, but let’s look at the pros and cons of hiring a medical transcriptionist.
About Medical Transcription Companies:
Medical transcription services assist healthcare providers in converting audio into finished documents that can be used on paper or in electronic medical records.
Medical transcriptionists, also known as healthcare documentation specialists, listen to and convert voice recordings made by physicians and other healthcare workers into written reports. They may also review and edit medical documents created with speech recognition software.
Pros. of Medical Transcription
Training:
Medical transcription companies add value by accurately understanding and transcribing notes for clinicians. These transcriptionists are well versed in medical terminology and understand technical language because they have at least some level of training. Some reputable transcription firms conduct criminal background checks, ensure data transmission access control, and prepare their transcriptionists to be HIPAA compliant.
Concentrate on the Patient:
The ability to outsource note-taking allows providers to refocus their attention on the patient rather than their notepad. We’ve already discussed how the presence of a clinician in the exam room can have a significant impact on perceived quality of care, but it bears repeating. Being present and making eye contact with a patient fosters rapport and trust. Breaking down social barriers can be difficult when a provider spends the entire visit staring at a notepad or computer screen. To some extent, medical transcriptionists allow clinicians to return to providing direct care.
Functional Creep has been reduced:
The phenomenon of medical scribes absorbing more and more administrative tasks to the point where they end up taking on tasks that are outside the scope of their training, qualifications, and clearance is referred to as functional creep. Functional creep can put clinicians at risk of medical malpractice in some cases.
Cons. of Medical Transcription
Complete Standardized Training:
Despite each medical transcription company’s internal training processes, there is no industry-wide training that holds companies to a set standard. While some businesses are trustworthy and follow strict procedures, not all do. More importantly, not everyone is required to, so some do not.
These medical transcription companies are frequently outsourced overseas, where lower labor costs make the companies more profitable. Even if your transcriptionist is dependable and appears trustworthy, there is no industry-wide standardized network that can ensure note quality and data security.
Cutting a Line:
Many medical transcription companies have arranged payment systems in place, allowing clinicians to pay for a faster turnaround time on their medical notes. Ignoring any concerns about the quality of rushed notes, these layered systems mean that you will almost always have to pay the most expensive price or run the risk of losing your place in line to someone who can afford it.
Misconceptions and Note Quality:
In the medical transcription world, it is widely assumed that any note-taking done by a human is superior to any automated note-taking done by a computer or Automation device. This was once true, but as technology advances, it is becoming clear that we now have the ability to build artificially intelligent systems that outperform humans’ natural abilities. Humans make mistakes, misunderstand, and allow things to fall through the cracks. At the end of the day, despite their training, medical transcription companies are still human, prone to mistakes like the rest of us.
Recall:
When using a transcription service, clinicians must accurately recall all crucial data from a patient visit. Recalling all of that information can be extremely difficult if a clinician is completing their dictated session notes at the end of the day, hours after a patient has left. A clinician may be completely out of luck if he or she does not contact the patient again or keep a record of the patient encounter. Instead of simply sending an audio file, they may end up wasting time looking up lost information.
In Conclusion
Finally, medical transcription companies overlook the most pressing burden for clinicians: documentation.
Medical transcriptionists simply convert an audio file into a medical note, which a clinician can then use to populate an EHR and complete medical charts. Medical transcription companies do not relieve clinicians of their documentation burdens; rather, they replace typing with dictation. It’s a band-aid solution to a major problem.
What doctors truly require is a comprehensive tool that automates the entire documentation process, not just typing. A device that does not require a slew of explicit actions and can generate notes simply by listening in. One that completely reimagines how we relieve doctors of their most pressing burdens and thus transforms the way care is delivered.
