Pathologists are medical professionals that diagnose and research diseases using a variety of laboratory techniques. With the aid of medical transcription services, conversations between doctors, pathologists and patients, and medical histories and other vital information, can be recorded and transcribed. For the benefit of the medical specialists and the patients, these recordings must be transformed into text format accurately and also flagged if there are any discrepancies.
What is a Pathology Report?
A pathology report is a medical analysis of a body organ, blood sample, or piece of tissue that has been removed from a patient’s body. A pathologist examines the samples and then compiles a report for the healthcare professional who either requested the report or had the treatment done. The healthcare professional will use pathology reports to make a diagnosis and develop a treatment strategy for a particular illness or condition.
The majority of pathology transcription service entails typing descriptions of surgical specimens from tissue samples that are taken using biopsies. Pathologists need to transcribe medical records and patient reports from larger samples taken from the patient’s body. Most of the reports are only a few sentences long usually, but they all matter. Therefore, it is essential to accurately record pathology results in order to deliver appropriate and excellent patient treatment. A patient may suffer if a pathology report is erroneous or incomplete.
How to Document a Pathology Report
A pathology report is a crucial document that directs decisions regarding diagnosis and prognosis. Therefore, it is essential to accurately record pathology results in order to deliver appropriate patient treatment. Patient treatment can suffer from incomplete and inaccurate pathology results and even a small typographical error can significantly alter a report’s interpretation.
So, to generate an accurate radiology report, it is important to understand what constitutes a pathology report.
- Identification data: The patient’s name, the hospital-issued medical record number, the date of the biopsy or surgery, and the specific specimen number are all included in the general identifying information and this is assigned in the lab.
- A clinical report: The doctor who extracted the tissue sample will usually provide information on the patient in the report’s following section. A medical history and any particular requests made to the pathologist may be included here as well. For instance, if a lymph node sample is being taken from a patient who is already known to have cancer in another organ, the doctor will record the type of the original disease. This knowledge is often useful in assisting the pathologist to decide which specialized tests may be required to determine whether any cancer in that lymph node is a metastasis (spread) from the primary disease or a new cancer that developed in the lymph node.
- Gross description: The gross description is the name of the report’s next section. “Gross” in medicine refers to something that cannot be magnified. The pathologist only needs to look at, measure, and feel the tissue sample to see this. This description for a tiny biopsy consists of a few phrases that list the sample’s size, color, and consistency. The quantity of tissue-containing cassettes submitted for processing is also tracked in this area. Larger biopsy or tissue specimens, like those from a mastectomy for breast cancer, will have much longer descriptions that include the size of the entire piece of tissue, the size of the cancer, how close the cancer is to the closest surgical margin (edge) of the specimen, the number of lymph nodes found in the underarm region, and the appearance of the non-cancer tissue.
- Diagnosis: The final diagnosis is the most significant component of the pathology report. Although this section may be at the top or bottom of the page, it represents the “bottom line” of the testing procedure. This final diagnosis is used by the clinician to guide selection of the most appropriate course of treatment. If cancer is the result of the diagnosis, this section will specify the specific type of cancer and typically describe the malignancy’s stage.
- Comment: The pathologist may want to provide additional details for the treating physicians when the definitive diagnosis is reached. The comment box is frequently used to address questions or suggest additional testing.
- Summary: Some pathology reports for tumors include a summary of the findings that are most crucial for choosing a course of treatment.
Accurate pathology transcription is essential for healthcare providers as well as the patient’s peace of mind. By giving important medical information in clear, concise writing, medical transcription services can significantly reduce the strain placed on medical practitioners. A reliable transcription provider provides HIPAA-compliant transcription that streamlines your workflow and allows for the fastest turnaround times available. They complete your anatomical or clinical reports anywhere from a one-hour turnaround time to 24-hour turnaround times.
