Medical Transcription

When it comes to choosing the right kind of healthcare transcription service, there are three things which need to be looked at carefully before you make your final decision. Below we will take a look at these.

However, first let us take a look at what a healthcare transcription service is. This is a company who will transcribe all the work that has been dictated, either by a doctor, HMO provider or other healthcare professional, from the spoken word into a text document. They will transcribe all work relating to the medical industry including diagnostic reports, treatments and procedure reports, along with a prognosis report for each patient that the doctor or health care professional is treating. But in order for the work to be produced correctly, the transcriptionist needs to have extensive knowledge of all medical, anatomical and pharmacological terms as well as the names of specific medicines.

We have looked briefly at what such a service does, now we will take a look at the 3 factors that you will need to take into consideration in order to choose the right service for your practice.

1. What is their turnaround time?

Look for a service which offers a turnaround time of between 24 and 48 hours. However, there are some which can provide you with a turnaround time of between 1, 2 and 4 hours if you so wish. Generally, if you are able to provide the work that needs transcribing before 8pm many services that provide such a quick turnaround time as described previously will carry out the work immediately in many cases.

However, you will need to ask what guarantees do they offer if they are actually late getting back transcriptions to you. Also, if they do return them late, then will they provide a reduced billing cost for carrying out the work, or will they not charge you at all?

2. How accurate are they?

You need to ensure that the accuracy of the work they produce is 100%. Unfortunately, inaccurate transcriptions can well endanger your patient's life. So it is best that you choose a service where the transcriptionists have experience in the field of healthcare that you work in. Also, look for those companies that also employ staff who will proof-read all documents before they are released, to ensure that the standard of work is the highest possible.

3. What security procedures do they have in place?

As well as having security procedures in place for their communications and computer systems, you also need to find out what security procedures they have with regard to their employees.

Most healthcare transcription services now use 128 bit SSL security. But if the one you are interested in does not, then ask them about the steps they have taken to ensure that all computer and communication systems they use are secure. If they do not use any kind of secure system for transferring audio files or transcriptions, then look elsewhere. You also need to find out how they keep the data that they receive secure at their location and what screening procedures do they use when employing new members of their staff.

By keeping the above points in mind you should soon find a healthcare transcription service which meets your requirements perfectly.

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