ASTM Standards For Medical Transcription

Medical Transcription is about skilled human beings listening to dictations by physicians and typing up every word to make it into a recorded document/transcript. They must obviously have a proper understanding of medical terms and be able to understand most medical jargon and just cannot afford to make any errors.

Besides the human skills factor in transcription there are other factors too that contribute to the ultimate quality of medical transcription. There are four basic factors that determine the quality of a transcript. They are,
# Dictation

# Transcriptionist skill

# System Management

# Components of Quality assurance

An organization called ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) has been responsible for developing the Standard Guide for a Quality Assurance Program for Medical Transcription. ASTM International is over a century old organization and was originally known as the American Society for Testing and Materials. It is one of the largest voluntary standards development organizations in the world.

There are seven ASTM standards that are very important to the medical transcription industry and for proper healthcare documentation. These standards can ensure accuracy, security, and patient confidentiality during the maintenance, transmission, storage, and also during the retrieval process of healthcare documentation.

The ASTM E2117 - 06 is a Standard Guide for Identification and Establishment of a Quality Assurance Program for Medical Transcription. Similarly there is the WK10383 which is the New Standard Guide for Medical Transcription Workstations and this guide will help to make informed decisions related to the design of an efficient medical transcription work environment compliant with federal regulatory agencies.

And there is also a Standard Guide for Requests for Proposals Regarding Medical Transcription Services for Healthcare Institutions. More details are available at the ASTM website.

With medical transcription outsourcing becoming a common procedure today the importance of International Standards in medical transcription cannot be ignored and all industry standards have to be met.

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