Patient care involves more than providing the right treatment. The sentence might irk if you are a patient, but it will resonate well if you are a healthcare professional. Do you know why? At times, the background or backend work impacts the primary action and results. A fault in the background services can lead to a blunder in the final results. Healthcare services also function similarly. While the primary aim of healthcare providers is proper treatment, one of the backend works that highly impacts the aim is medical transcription. An error in medical transcription can affect the continuity of a patient’s treatment, their medical history, and insurance claims. It can also affect the healthcare services with lawsuits for risking patients’ health and their medical records. But, there is an alternative to in-house medical transcription, which is outsourcing the work to Medical Transcription Services.
In-House Medical Transcription vs Outsourcing Medical Transcription
Before understanding the solution, it is always recommended to identify the problem. Similarly, before understanding the benefits of outsourcing medical transcription, let’s identify the issues encountered by healthcare providers due to in-house medical transcription. Simultaneously, let’s also see how medical transcription services in UK solve each issue.
Accuracy
The biggest issue with in-house medical transcription is the lack of accuracy. To transcribe the health records of a patient from the audio, a skilled transcriber with knowledge of medical jargon, specificities, and speed is required. Often, in-house transcribers aren’t able to meet the expectations because of the lack of expertise. This leads to an error in transcribing, which further affects the accuracy of a patient’s health record.
However, when the transcription service is outsourced, accuracy is ensured. Best Medical Transcription Services in Birmingham provide around 98% accuracy in transcribing the health records of a patient. The services have professionals who are experts in transcribing medical audio with excellent knowledge of medical terms to avoid wrong spelling, misinterpretation, or missing details.
Cost
An in-house medical transcription is heavy on the pocket on the pocket of healthcare providers. According to some studies, the cost of in-house medical transcription is around £20,000 to £40,100 per year in the UK. In-house medical transcription is not just about hiring, but also about training, perks, pensions, in addition to possible risks. It becomes an administrative burden that doesn’t let the healthcare professionals focus on patient treatment.
On the other hand, Medical Transcription Services are cost-friendly while providing the perks of accuracy to the healthcare professionals. Studies suggest that outsourcing medical transcriptions for clinics in the UK costs £100 to £2,500 per month. Considering the proven accuracy, outsourcing medical transcription saves money and allows health professionals to focus entirely on patient treatment.
Time
Time is crucial for any treatment, and doctors cannot waste any minute. But, with in-house transcription, doctors have to invest time in transcription everything and ensuring accuracy. According to studies, during every documentation of a patient’s records, a health professional invests 5.5 hours in every 8 hours. The situation is such that professionals are divided between providing the right treatment and ensuring accurate paperwork. In the healthcare sector, such multitasking can be risky.
On the other hand, outsourcing medical transcription is committed to improving patient documentation with transcription that is not only accurate, cost-effective but also with a higher turnaround time. Transcription services receive the audio from healthcare professionals and transcribe it in fewer hours with more accuracy than in-house medical transcriptions.
Flexibility and Volume in Coverage
In-house medical transcriptions have limits beyond which they cannot function effectively. Patient’s records include everything from treatment details, lab records, to insurance claims. Correct documentation is essential to protect the privacy and relevance of the patient’s medical records. Moreover, during increased patient visits, in-house transcriptions cannot adapt to the fluctuating workload.
But outsourcing the transcription work provides flexibility and a higher volume of documentation. It is flexible enough to provide medical transcription for hospitals and private clinics. It adapts to the fluctuating workload through its capacity for a higher volume of documentation.
Compliance with laws
Non-reliant and faulty medical transcription creates between healthcare services and patient safety. This can attract penalties, lawsuits, and a threat to the license of some of the best healthcare providers.
On the other hand, every medical transcription service in UK is GDPR compliant. This means that their transcription services are strictly under the bounds of laws and legalities under GDPR. Hence, a GDPR-compliant medical transcription service can save healthcare providers from legal issues, too.
However, it is not enough to know the benefits of outsourcing medical transcriptions. Without knowing how to choose a reliable medical transcription provider, healthcare providers might get enmeshed in another threat to their stability. So following are certain specificities that every healthcare provider must ensure before choosing a transcription service.
Which is a Reliable Medical Transcription Service Provider?
GDPR-Compliant: Before choosing any outsourcing services for medical transcription, ensure that the service provider meets all the requirements and legalities of GDPR.
Accuracy: Choose a transcription service that provides 98% accuracy because this is what makes those services stand out.
Pricing: Often, a medical transcription service provider might charge more and is not as competent. Therefore, before choosing one such service provider, consider a pricing method of per-minute of audio. Moreover, ask for a standardised quotation based on the requirements. This will ensure landing on a service provider that is trustworthy and cost-effective.
Volume: Make sure that the service provider has a high enough volume to cover fluctuations in workload and detailed medical records of patients.
Competent with EMR: In-house medical transcription has another limitation, which is a lack of knowledge about EMR/EHR. Therefore, find a medical transcription service for clinics that has a good interface with EMR/EHR, and maintain it consistently.
The treatment of patients is the primary concern of healthcare professionals. However, a lack of proper medical transcription will not only affect the treatment but also compromise the ethics of data and healthcare providers. Therefore, let Best Medical Transcription Services in Birmingham. handle the paperwork, while health professionals can focus on what they are experts in—treating patients.
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