The healthcare industry is facing a lot of challenges in providing quality treatment and care to the patients. Medical transcription plays an important role in improving the quality of patient care in healthcare facilities. Due to the increased demand for medical records, the number of medical transcription companies has significantly increased in the past few years.
The process of converting audio reports into text formats can be done for detailed medical reports, discharge summaries, and operative reports. These text reports are later used by various healthcare providers, departments and organizations for diagnosis and treatment purposes. These documents can also be referred by insurance companies to process insurance claims for patients. Therefore, as per government guidelines, it is mandatory for healthcare organizations internationally to maintain clear records of the diagnosis as well as treatment of the patients.
Importance of Transcription Companies
Earlier, most physicians and healthcare facilities would depend on dictating medical speech to the voice-recognition software programs that will further need a proofreading. Irrespective of the advancements in these software programs, they would make many mistakes and require human supervision. This would often leave the physicians with unnecessary work overload and irritation. The need to work on a medical record over and over again led to the need for medical transcription companies. In addition to this, the ability to deliver accurate and high-quality documents in a quick turnaround time makes these companies even more important.
Factors to Consider
When it comes to choosing a medical transcription company, you may get confused due to the consistently growing number of companies in the field. Consider the following factors before joining hands with a company and you will have the right solution.
Certified Transcriptionists– Hiring a certified transcriptionist ensures that the transcriptionist has a working knowledge of transcription standards, medical terminology, and HIPAA requirements. In addition to this, it will also ensure maximum accuracy and quick turnaround time due to the high typing speed. In short, these elements make a specialized medical transcriptionist superior to a general transcriptionist.
Past Clients– You should prefer a transcription company that has earlier served clients in the healthcare sector.
HIPAA Practices– Not all companies offer HIPAA compliant services; so, you may ask the medical transcription company whether it follows the HIPAA best practices or not.
Quality Assurance– It’s important to ask the medical transcription (MT) company how it handles the potential errors and discrepancies in the text files. A company that has a dedicated team of transcribers and editors is likely to carry out the transcription copies with maximum accuracy.
