There are a few issues faced by most business enterprises today, and these issues are also relevant to the healthcare sector. The issues faced by the healthcare sector can be encapsulated into the following:

·        Shrinking margins

·        Slowing payments

·        The need to constantly upgrade the business to meet new challenges

·        The need to cut down costs

·        The need to maintain high levels of service

·        Increasing competition leading to pricing issues

Faced with issues like this it is important for healthcare facilities to look at their business critically and ask themselves the following questions:

·        What is our core competency?

The answer to this question is that the core competency of the healthcare facility lies in providing quality healthcare.

·        What are support functions for the healthcare process?

There are numerous support functions that contribute to making the healthcare process effective. One of the vital contributors to the process of healthcare is information in the form of patient records. Patient records provide valuable inputs regarding the patient’s past health issues, the treatments given, the results of tests, medications prescribed, allergy information, existing health conditions, procedures/therapies provided etc,

·        What is the cost of executing these activities in-house?

Executing medical transcription in-house has direct as well as indirect costs that add to the cost per line of transcription

·        Is it better to outsource these functions?

As medical transcription is not part of the core competency of the healthcare facility it is better to outsource medical transcription to make it efficient and economical.

·        What are risks of outsourcing these activities?

There are some risks while outsourcing medical transcription, like poor quality transcripts, delays in turnaround time and the risk of lax security during the medical transcription process.

·        What are precautions to be taken while outsourcing?

As there are few risks that are inherent to the outsourcing process, it is important to be cautious while outsourcing. The medical transcription service provider needs to be carefully assessed on the basis of criteria like accuracy, turnaround time, pricing, security and the technology used by the medical transcription service provider. Over and above all these criteria it is also important to verify the testimonials of the customers of the service provider, availing a free trial to ensure the right fit.

·        What is the cost of outsourcing?

One of the main advantages of outsourcing is the enormous cost saving benefits. It is important to ensure that the billing methodology used by the medical transcription service provider is verifiable, definable, measurable, consistent, fair and honest. It is also important to ensure that there are no hidden costs to ensure that the cost of medical transcription is restricted to the cost per line of transcription.

Medical transcription can be made efficient and economical by outsourcing to a competent medical transcription service provider.

Renee Kelly has written numerous articles on services provided by medical transcription companies, which has served as an amazing resource for healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals seeking information regarding transcription service.