One of the biggest criterions for successful adoption of Electronic Health Record (EHR) is integration of medical transcription. Electronic health records are implemented in healthcare units to help physicians improve care provision and co-ordination but it poses real challenges and makes the entire consultation process tedious for both patient and physician. This is because many physicians feel that they spend more time typing rather than listening to their patients. When physicians are forced to change their habit of dictating patient details and instead struggle with EHR templates to input complex patient information, they find a lot of valuable time lost. The need to enter data into the EHR will also extend the patient’s visit and reduce eye contact. This can cause distress in patients and also distract the physicians from processing the information and obstruct their workflow.
While physicians can continue dictating notes and use a speech recognition system to transcribe the notes, it would require a human editor to make complete sense of the notes transcribed by the software. Now there is another interesting solution put forward.
- The physician can perform the consultation and a trained medical coordinator or a medical transcriptionist will perform data entry from a remote location, while securely listening to the entire physician-patient encounter.
- The data entered will be displayed in real time on a large monitor or iPad in the consultation room.
- The only thing the physician has to do is to review the data and authenticate. The medical coordinator will be in constant communication with the physician to correct any wrong details or uncertainties.
The medical coordinator can also perform other duties like calling nurse, accessing lab reports and make them available when necessary, inform the physician if a patient’s record is missing etc. This process will allow the physician to concentrate more on the interaction with patients and provide quality care to the patients.
It is best to appoint a medical transcriptionist as medical coordinator. This is because they are trained and have extensive knowledge about medical terminology and common clinical processes. This will reduce the chance of errors; moreover they require only minimum monitoring by physicians unlike staff that is untrained in listening to and transcribing physician notes.
Whatever may be the transcription requirements of a healthcare organization or entity, large volume or small volume, a reliable medical transcription company can provide customized solutions. They offer the service of staff that can function as medical transcriptionist, medical editor or medical coordinator, offering the best services to their clients. These services are the best alternative for healthcare providers wanting to focus on patient care, streamline medical documentation and enhance revenue.
