Medical transcription has evolved from simple dictation-to-type processes to innovative, dictation-to-web reporting services. As more healthcare organizations and medical professionals shift toward outsourced transcription services, demand for these types of services is steadily on the rise. The entire process of capturing the dictation and formatting into a report for the doctor or healthcare organization can take time, but working with a reliable medical transcription company can increase the efficiency of this process and reduce turnaround time substantially.
What is Medical Transcription?
Medical transcription is the process of converting voice recorded information into text in the form of a report. Medical transcriptionists are professionals who have been trained to type via dictation, and accurately transcribe all notes and related information into a specific format. Many of today’s innovative transcription service providers now use web-based programs to capture data, convert it into text, and make it available in the form of electronic reports and other reporting documents. The entire process has become more efficient and accurate, but still requires the work of certified medical transcriptionists to capture the data.
A medical transcription company may hire a team of certified medical transcriptionists to complete various projects, or work with home based medical transcription service providers. Outsourced medical transcription companies offer many advantages and benefits over utilizing in-house support staff such as secretaries and administrative assistants, and most work with a guarantee of HIPAA compliance and high standards of accuracy.
There are three main entities involved with the medical transcription process: the provider (a doctor, physician, or healthcare organization manager who has captured a conversation or speech on an electronic device); the transcriptionist; and the transcription service company. The provider dictates the information directly into a digital recorder, phone, or other electronic device and submits the information to the transcriptionist. Today, this may be in the form of a secure FTP server or other secure communication channel such as a file attachment.
