Medical transcription: definition and relevance

Medical transcription is a process of turning the medical records, e.g., hospital history sheets, pathology reports, prescriptions, and diagnostics. It includes transforming media files into an accurate textual version. They are a critical part of medical histories for access by physicians, nurses, and healthcare providers of different specializations. The quality of transcription directly impacts the method of treatment.

The Global Medical Transcription market has grown tremendously. General medical and surgical hospitals employ medical transcriptionists most frequently. This article reveals the interrelation of transcription with medical practices and suggests the purposes of the implementation of audio and video to text conversion into medical activity.

Key functions of medical transcription for healthcare workers

Becoming a doctor is one of the most stressful and responsible tasks compared to other professions. Physicians carry the life of their patients in their hands. It demands constant focus and continuous education to be well-informed about the recent tendencies and technologies in treatment.

Modern software and artificial intelligence technologies aim to ease the life of physicians and provide patients with a higher level of treatment. Transcription firms supply a wide range of transcription services using automatic transcription software and human transcribers. Let’s enumerate which benefits medical transcription can health workers get:

1. Accurate report delivery: just a doctor has no right to make a mistake – a transcribed file should be accurate and reliable subsequently. The transcribed reports aim to provide access to the condition of an inmate for a team of doctors and explain the situation in detail. It is crucial to avoid any possible complications during healthcare. Based on the report, doctors can make decisions regarding the minor changes and react adequately. Even the slightest errors can affect the therapy. Therefore, pure correctness is paramount.
2. Draws up a detailed medical history: thanks to reliable transcription, physicians get a reference to evaluate the current medical state of patients and draw up a plan of treatment with urgent measures. Transcriptions allow storing the reports for a detailed health state motioning, impacting the entire treatment. Navigating and searching for the data addresses to the earliest periods has become easier with a textual version of the reports.
3. Elaborates a direct communication between a doctor and a patient in stationary conditions: recording a detailed description of the health state assists in detecting the issues timely. Moreover, sending the records to the lead physician releases the necessity to stay under constant medical observation in the controlled cases. Patients can record their health state reports at home and send them to doctors. Having the transcribed reports, physicians can store them and correct the treatment or detect minimal health changes timely.
4. Informs nurses and supporting staff. The transcribed documents contain very detailed information that helps provide medical care of higher quality, e.g., laboratory test results and dosage of prescribed medicine. The transcribed medical records can choose a medicinal drug better considering the concomitant diseases. Unfortunately, no one from the medical service has time and opportunity to listen to the audio/video records made by health care consumers, neither recent nor made several months or years ago.
5. Corroborates the bills documentation for insurance companies, reimbursement, and claims: transcribed records serve as legal proof of the impairs that a patient sustained. A complainant can use them in court during judicature. Also, diligent notes are an integral part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) transcription.
6. Reduce capital investments and labor costs. Outsourcing medical transcribers cancel the necessity of investments in dictation or voice systems, maintenance, and upgrading. Hiring specialists who can turn the recorded dictations into a standardized, concise, timely, and accurate report will save plenty of money for clinics. The genuine specialists obtained medical terminology, specific formatting standards, and the most modern word processing software are cost-efficient for private enterprise and state healthcare establishments.
7. Reduces burnout in physician practices: doctors often work in very stressful conditions. Managing the records along with their prime job responsibilities may lead to the feeling of endless work, depression, or even suicide. Physicians experience burnout feelings more frequently compared to other workers in the US. Excessive stress, negative emotions, and high workload worsen not only a condition of a particular doctor but causes a devastating influence on the medical healthcare quality all over the country. Managing the records proficiently eases the life of healthcare providers significantly. It saves time on the documentary routine and assists in creating a well-formed history for quicker patient observation and identifying correct diagnoses.

Decent quality medical transcription helps in many aspects. Medical process involvement makes professional transcriptionists responsible for the cure quality. The documentation accuracy may significantly affect the financial expenses of patients and medical practices. With so many offers to provide medical transcription services, be aware of hiring genuine professionals.

The crucial points of a successful collaboration between transcriptionists and doctors

Considering the endless number of records in medical practices, hiring medical transcriptionists makes sense. The selection process of the right candidate is crucial but time-consuming. The education and skills of hired transcriptionists directly impact the result of the medical practice and the quality of the services it supplies.

Choosing the best candidates for this position, check out how the invited specialists will cope with the daily duties. They should:

1. Be masters of medical terminology. Although the work of pathology transcriptionists does not imply a medical degree, knowledge of at least basic terms in physiology, anatomy, illness processes, and procedures, strictly relates to the accuracy and correct documentation. Without a clear understanding of the medical basis, dictated notes conversion into transcription becomes very complicated. That leads to an entire work project failure, wrong diagnosis, or treatment. Hiring an employee, ensure that a medical record transcriber is familiar with medical terms, has a proven working experience, or has taken a training program. Medical transcriptionists with poor work performance may put medical practice and the career of many colleagues at risk.
2. Excellent computer skills. Awareness of the recent software technologies in transcription is crucial for successful work. A skilled specialist can coordinate the work between records listening/ editing smoothly. The better the skills, the less time the transcription process will consume, and the quicker doctors receive the textual reports. Hiring transcribers with a slow work proceeding will break your workflow. Unfortunately, successful medical establishments do not have time to practice newbies.
3. Fast typing. The generally accepted speed starts from 35 words per minute and reaches 50. This skill impacts the efficiency of work and productivity. Many online services can provide typing speed results. Check them before hiring a person for your open position. Also, certified medical transcriptionists know about the four prime work modules: disease history and examination, consultation, report, and patient care.
4. Excellent grammar and punctuation. A perfect understanding of the language (writing, grammar, and spelling) is crucial for high-quality transcription. The transcription document must have sense and contain no errors. The poorly provided document will significantly affect the reputation of your medical practice.
5. Accurate listening skills. Best transcribers should know how to sort and check the information, verifying words and numbers. Sometimes, deciphering incomprehensible accents might be challenging. Also, the record is not always magnificent (depending on a speaker’s skills); the records might have some background noise. However, these are the specifications of the transcription job. Errors may cost a lot to the medical establishment and destroy its reputation due to wrong treatments. Physicians are aware of the legal consequences and always do their best to provide additional attention to each cure step.
6. Have research skills. At first glance, the profession of transcriber includes writing down the heard speech. However, research skills are necessary for this profession. Not each transcriptionist has a degree in medicine. They may need to check up on the information about illnesses and drugs to ensure that they follow the right path. Certified transcriptionists may need less research due to accomplished training and becoming familiar with the basic medical facilities.

A medical practice that has been seriously thinking about hiring a medical transcriptionist has two options. Hire:

• An in-house transcriber. Usually, such specialists are low trained and may imply some additional costs for educative programs;
• Outsource company: the specialists are usually well-trained and provide affordable transcripts of any volume.

The respectful medical establishments that care about their reputation hire certified medical transcribers only. Their outstanding quality of work helps doctors manage their time, prevents burnout at work, and supplies more accurate diagnostics for efficient medical cures.

Summing up

The role of medical transcriptionists has gone beyond the transcription job only. Today a professional transcriber should have enough skills to provide reports proofreading, including editing voice recognition outlines. The modern technologies in this field assist in providing services at a high level. Being fair, accurate, and convenient for medical workers, they enhance the quality of treatments in the shortest terms.