The more value you give, the more accountability and responsibility you also get. Primary health care physicians and specialty doctors are some of the noblest careers out there which also demand precision and accuracy. After all, the lives of critical patients depend on them. Since society’s standards have risen due to digital transformation, these professionals must also adhere to advanced technology. Doing so will make them more efficient in their line of work. Whether you operate a healthcare facility or practice as a doctor, you can start by getting a well-trained and experienced medical transcriptionist offshore. In this article, you will be enlightened more about the advantages of outsourcing medical transcriptionists. Here, you will gain more information on how to leverage them effectively without putting your profession at stake.
What is a Medical Transcriptionist?
A medical transcriptionist is someone who listens to the audio from a doctor or other healthcare professional and then types the information into a document. Thus, this is a vital part of the healthcare team. This transcript is necessary for doctors to review their patient’s progress.
Medical transcriptionists are exposed to a wide variety of medical terms, procedures, and diseases. They will also hear audio from a variety of fields and are always required to learn medical terminology that they might not have known before their career as medical transcriptionists.
Outsourcing Your Medical Transcriptionist
Although some companies are still adamant about adapting to the idea, the number of companies that outsource medical transcription services grows by about 10% annually. This was according to an executive director of the Medical Transcription Industry Alliance, Molly Malone. Contrary to popular concerns, medical transcribing offshore has actually been effective over the past years, just like medical billing. This has become the best solution for the shortage of professionally-trained medical transcriptionists in the US, or anywhere onshore.
However, to give you a clearer point of view, you will first need to know the common misconceptions about outsourcing a medical transcriptionist.
Listed below are the following:
- Language/slang barrier
- Lack of patient privacy
- Possibly jeopardized urgency due to electrical or connectivity problems
- Injury-prone transcription error
Language Barrier
Some of the best outsourcing countries are the Philippines and India. Professionals here might not be familiar with some American slang words. However, they are undeniably proficient in the English language. Specifically, in the Philippines, schools give high regard to the universal language which is why students are taught English literacy as early as kindergarten days. With regards to the unfamiliar slang, trusted Business Process Outsourcing companies let these medical professionals undergo training. Plus, you can always choose to have a native onshore or in-house to check if the transcriptionists have met your standards and requirements.
Furthermore, offshore management also requires proper credentials from applicants. One must have a medical background or have taken medical courses in College. Most of them require a Bachelor’s degree from their applicants that is related to the medical field.
Privacy Concerns
If it is the privacy of the patients’ medical records you are concerned about, partnering with a BPO company might even be a solution instead of a threat. Even if you hire from transcription companies onshore or in-house, the probability of data leakage is still high. Whereas when you entrust the operation to a reputable third-party service provider, you also get to leverage the advanced databases they use and the IT resources they have to keep everything secure. Additionally, preparing a non-disclosure agreement will also keep the third party’s accountability on paper. Always seek legal advice and a second opinion when signing a contract or making one.
Unattended Urgency
These transcriptions are needed as soon as possible without a doubt because every health professional will need these to work on their patients’ critical conditions. This makes every transcription a priority in any way. The good thing about having a trusted third party comply with transferring the data from a recorder to a sheet is they keep strict deadlines. They delegate transcribing tasks to their employees and require deadlines, just enough to undergo quality control, and accommodate possible revisions.
Errors That Cause Liabilities
The worst thing that could happen to a patient is to go through a medical procedure based on mistakenly transcribed data. It reminds you of Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos biotechnology, doesn’t it? Although medical professionals are well-respected for their years of genuine medical practice, these errors would still be on their account. However, reports have shown that the number of companies that outsource each year just keeps growing.
This means that offshore BPO centers have already created a proven and tested process to make sure that everything that is produced has accuracy and high precision. Every prestigious BPO company has its own QA team that ensures the consistent production of well-proofread outputs.
Advantages of Outsourcing Medical Transcriptionists
Clinics and hospitals that pioneered transcription outsourcing solutions knew they had all these benefits coming. For them, one of the smartest decisions you can make in your business today is to borrow other people’s time and expand your service provider options by leveraging advanced technology.
Here are all the advantages of outsourcing medical transcriptionists you can enjoy when you partner from offshore BPO centers:
- Instead of paying an hourly wage in dollars when you hire in-house, you pay per result. Fees will also be in a less expensive currency when you outsource.
- You or your medical professionals will have a lighter workload during peak seasons. You get no more backlogs despite the influx of patients.
- The wider the options, the more you attract the right people to your team. BPO companies have strict requirements when qualifying the right medical transcriptionists. You will work with focused professionals who are already familiar with medical jargon.
- Without a doubt, you will only expect accurate records from their qualified medical editors and QA professionals.
- You’ll have more time for core responsibilities. This is because the BPO agency will handle all the hiring processes and paperwork.
- Last but not least, along with the finest quality of outputs, you benefit from every technology that BPO centers use to improve their services, without having to set them up or maintain them.
Understandably, professionals have these considerations in mind before outsourcing medical transcriptions. However, it is also fair to say that for as long as you partner with high-quality outsourcing providers offshore, you can start shrugging off those worries away. What businesses don’t realize yet is that you can have full control over the quality of the outputs you want. You do not simply buy services from a third party. Instead, you partner with them.
