Medical Transcription Outsourcing - Points to Be Considered During Outsourcing

Outsourcing medical transcription is a prudent business decision and helps the healthcare facility focus totally on their core business while providing the right support. However the outsourcing decision is not one to be taken lightly and needs a thorough analysis of what the healthcare facility hopes to gain from the outsourcing decision. To make sure that everybody in the healthcare facility is comfortable with the outsourcing decision it is important for the healthcare facility to ask itself some questions:

1. Is this activity part of the core business of the healthcare facility? Creating patient medical records is not part of the core business of a healthcare facility though it does play an important role in the operational and commercial aspects of a healthcare facility. It is a specialized skill requiring a combination of the right team, the right technology and process to be able to meet the criteria of being accurate, timely, secure and cost effective.
2. How much is it costing currently? Having this activity in-house could be costing the healthcare facility more than what they originally would have estimated. While calculating cost of in-house transcription factors like these should be taken into consideration:
* Overheads
* Allocation of management & administration staff for managing in house creation of patient transcripts
* Wastage of resources during slack times
* Overtime pay during excess inflow of work
* Extra pay for weekend and holiday transcription
3. What are the other resources being used? In-house medical transcription could also involve usage of resources like secretaries, Information Technology staff, capital equipment etc.
4. What are the accuracy levels and turnaround time of transcripts? In-house creation of patient medical records could result in varied levels of accuracy due to the varying volumes of transcription. The accuracy levels could be high when volumes are low and low when volumes are high. The turnaround time could also similarly vary depending on the volume of transcription. The turnaround time being shorter during slack periods and vice versa during periods with high volumes.
5. Is it important to retain this activity in-house? There are certain factors like concerns for security of the data that could be a hurdle to the outsourcing decision. Choosing a service provider with measures in place to secure people, processes and technology can eliminate security concerns and remove any hurdles to the outsourcing process.
6. What are the alternate options available? Healthcare facilities have the option of outsourcing their overflow transcription needs to a combination of independent contractors or professional transcription vendors. This could however result in the healthcare facility having to put in more efforts to coordinate this function from various resources. The easy fix to ensure that transcripts are created in a timely, accurate, secure and cost effective manner is to outsource the whole activity on a turnkey basis to a professional service provider
7. What is the cost of outsourcing? Outsourcing ensures that the cost of transcription is restricted to the cost per line of transcription. Initially the healthcare facility may have to have a minimum outlay towards finalizing the service provider and adapting to the technology used by the service provider.
8. What are pitfalls of outsourcing medical transcription? The common pitfalls while outsourcing a function as vital as this is the fear of poor quality and security concerns. Another major concern is that the price quoted by the service provider may have hidden costs. Both these concerns can be overcome by choosing a service provider who has the right team in place to meet quality concerns, has adequate measures in place to ensure total security and uses a billing method that is measurable, verifiable, definable, consistent and fair& honest.
9. What is the value addition in outsourcing? Outsourcing medical transcription provides the healthcare facility with many value added services like technology that offers multiple benefits like different modes of document delivery, archives making it easy to trace transcripts in different stages, specialty medical transcription etc.
10. What about the transition to outsourced services? Transition from in-house transcription to outsourced services can be eased when the service provider has open channels for customer service. This would enable the service provider to solve minor issues as and when they crop up.
11. What about existing investments in EMR? Existing investments is EMR/EHR can be protected if the medical transcription service provider has the capability for HL7 interface enabling data to be transmitted to the EMR/EHR system.
12. What are the options available to capture dictation? This is a main concern for time starved healthcare professionals, this concern can be overcome by choosing a service provider who allows the healthcare professionals to retain their familiar modes for capturing dictation.

The process of outsourcing medical transcription can become easier by choosing a service provider who alleviates these fears/doubts that may rise during the outsourcing process.

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