Medical transcription is a service that is vital for the smooth running of healthcare facilities, having an effect on both the operational and commercial aspects by creating accurate, timely and secure patient records. Though this plays a vital role in the smooth running of healthcare facilities it is not part of the core competencies of the healthcare facility. The best solution to ensure efficient and economic creation of patient records is to outsource medical transcription to a professional service provider.
Outsourcing not only ensures accurate, timely and secure creation of patient transcripts it also ensures substantial cost savings to the healthcare facility in terms of direct as well as indirect costs. The process of outsourcing essentially involve the following steps -
Defining the objectives - The first step would involve clearly defining the desired outcome/s from this decision. The objectives for outsourcing could consist of factors like reducing cost of transcription, improving quality of services, shortening the turnaround time, reducing indirect expenses incurred for transcription or a combination of any of the above objectives.
Sourcing vendors - The next step would involve sourcing service providers based on these criteria. This stage would essentially involve eliminating those service providers who do not meet the qualifying criteria defined by the healthcare facility.
Obtaining proposals, which would include -
- Pricing and billing methodology
- Assured levels of accuracy
- Turnaround time options
- Details of technology platform used for transcription
- Security measures to ensure HIPAA and HITECH compliance
Evaluating the proposals - It is important to evaluate not only the parameters of services as provided by the transcription vendors but also their capability to deliver these services as defined.
- Pricing needs to be carefully evaluated by studying the billing method used
- The capability to deliver accurate services can be assessed by evaluating the training methods and the quality control method.
- The capability to meet turnaround time commitment can be evaluated by evaluating the technology used along with their methods for achieving accuracy.
- The criteria of evaluating the technology used should be that the healthcare facility should not require further investments and the technology used for medical transcription should provide multiple benefits while still being easy to use.
- HIPAA and HITECH compliance can be evaluated by checking the measures taken by the vendor to secure technology, processes, infrastructure and people
Checking for references - The experience and expertise of the vendor can be evaluated by checking on the references of customers who have already availed services from them
Availing free trial - Availing a free trial would enable everybody concerned to test the service capabilities of the service provider and compatibility first hand
Signing the contract - This would involve formalizing and agreeing upon the specifics of the service required from the vendor.
Using the service -: Integrating the transcription system and actually start utilizing the outsourced services.
Checking for customer service channels - Throughout the process of outsourcing from the stage of sourcing vendors to the stage where the healthcare facility starts availing outsourced medical transcription services the channels available to the healthcare facility for communicating with the vendor play a vital role. The role of having multiple channels of communication for customer service and feedback is even more vital once the actual outsourcing process begins.
It is important for healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals to evaluate the channels of communication and customer services available to ensure smooth transition to outsourced services. The advantages of having multiple channels for customer service support include:
- Instant solution to any technical problems
- Instant customization of services
- Instant feedback and improvement in quality
- Instant clarification regarding billing
- Two-way communication for improvement of services
Evaluating the medical transcription service provider based on all criteria including availability of customer service channels can help smooth transition to outsourced services.
Author Resource:
Renee Kelly has written numerous articles on transcription services , which has served as an amazing resource for healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals seeking medical transcription services .
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