The process of healthcare depends on a lot of inputs that help in delivering quality services. Of these inputs some inputs are part of the core skills that are essential to the process like the education, skill and experience of the doctors the support staff skills, the surgical implements, laboratory facilities etc. But there are also other factors that affect the delivery of quality care, one of them being information in the form of patient records. The process of creating patient records by conversion of audio files of the patient- doctor encounter into text format is known as medical transcription. Though patient records play an important part in the delivery of healthcare and quickening the reimbursement process, it is not part of the core business of the hospitals/clinics etc. In fact the process of creating these records is an expense head.

Outsourcing the entire process of creating patient medical records is a smart solution to ensure that patient records are created in a speedy, accurate, cost-effective and secure manner. Outsourcing not only an effective, efficient and economical way of creating patient records it has many other advantages. Some of the advantages of availing specialist services are as follows:

• Increased focus on core business: It allows both the doctors and the support staff at the healthcare facility to focus on the core business of providing quality care
• Curbs capital investment: This process requires capital investment on computers, servers, furniture, earphones and other transcription equipment. This can be avoided by outsourcing the entire process
• Controls costs: It ensures that the cost of transcription is not only reduced dramatically, but also ensures that the cost is restricted to the cost per line of transcription
• Improved efficiency: Outsourcing ensures that the flow of audio files being converted to patient records is automatic and speedy. This improves the efficiency of the healthcare professionals and the support staff in providing timely treatment
• Lowers the cost of overheads: It ensures that the cost of overheads like rent, utilities, cost of information technology, and even resources like management and administrative staff is reduced
• Benefits from best practices of the service provider: Medical transcription is the core business of the service provider, this means that the healthcare facility can benefit from the experience and the best practices of the service provider
• Reduces payroll: It helps the healthcare facility lower payroll costs. The salaries and other benefits paid to the transcription team can be avoided
• Creates value: The systems used by the transcription vendor adds value to the service by enabling the healthcare professionals and the support staff to maximize the use of their time and providing service with additional benefits like flexible modes of dictation, remote printing & faxing etc.
• Reduces burden of support staff: By having systems in place that enable tracking of dictation and finished transcripts, the transcription vendor reduces the burden of the support staff to a great extent
• Benefits from the technology used by the service provider: The technology used by the service provider can lessen the burden of the healthcare facility to a large extent by enabling a huge number of features including integration with the EMR system

Medical transcription can play an important role in the smooth running of the healthcare facility in many aspects, both operationally and commercially. Therefore it is important to choose a service provider who can provide maximum benefits in a cost effective manner.

Renee Kelly has written numerous articles on the services provided by a medical transcription company, which has served as an amazing resource for healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals seeking the services of transcription companies