Medical Transcription Services: Hire a Transcription Company with Stability

Selecting the right medical transcription company is an important decision for all medical practices. No medical practice is the same or has the same needs, and a quality transcription company will take the time to understand your practice needs. While there are many things to consider when choosing a medical transcription service, this article will discuss a very important concern: the stability of your transcription provider. Whether you are a small or large practice, this information will be beneficial to you.

The more you know about medical transcription and what you need from a transcription partner, the easier it will be for you to choose the right company that best fits your requirements now and will grow with you in the future. Hiring the right medical transcription company can help you reduce your operating costs, improve productivity and increase provider satisfaction and help you transition to an Electronic Health Record (EHR).

A quality medical transcription services provider with a proven track record of success will take the time to understand your medical practice and work with you to assess your unique needs. And as you plan a long-term strategy for your practice, you may or may not be considering a transition to Electronic Health Records, or EHR. You”ll need to make sure that you”re working a with a medical transcription provider that can seamlessly integrate with your future EHR/EMR system.

Medical Transcription Services: Stability

It is extremely important to consider the reputation of your medical transcription services provider and their success in the industry. Transcription companies who have the ability to thrive in a struggling economy will be able to grow with you in the future.

When selecting a financially secure medical transcription company with proven quality you will need to consider many things including, is the company growing? How have they grown their business? Do their services integrate with your EHR?

Other questions to determine if you”re working with an established company include:

- How long has the company been in business? Well-known companies can provide you with years of experience in streamlining your workflow to recruiting the best medical transcriptionists.
- Does the company provide references? Quality companies will always provide you with as many as you require. Ask for referrals of practices in your specialty or in your physician size range to get the most accurate report on the company.
- Does the company follow Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) standards? This Association along with the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) offer guidelines for medical transcription companies that are designed to help improve the quality of clinical documentation.
- What is their process for transcription services? Reputable companies will take you through their documentation process procedures so you can have confidence your files will be returned in a timely and HIPAA secure manner.
- What does their website say? You can tell immediately the type of company you are working with based on how they describe their company. Also pay careful attention and see if you can spot and typos. Many of our clients have researched medical transcription companies only to find numerous spelling errors on their website and marketing collateral.

Choosing a medical transcription provider who demonstrates growth in the industry and financial stability will be an asset to your medical practice in the long run. As technology advances and security requirements change, you”ll need a provider you can count on - not one who might go out of business next week.

Being knowledgeable about what you need from a medical transcription service provider while considering companies will give you considerable advantages in time, cost, quality of care, legal issues and efficient billing. Only by knowing what you need and what is being offered will you be able to select a company that will help you today and grow with you tomorrow.

Article Source : http://www.intervestonline.com/blog/2009/11/19/medical-transcription-services-hire-a-transcription-company-with-stability/

Your Chart, In the Cloud

Everything about healthcare these days has become a hot-button issue, even down to digitizing medical records. This was one of Barack Obama’s top technology talking points on the campaign trail. But so far, progress on this front has been slow. According to a report co-authored by University of Virginia economics professor Amalia Miller, a big hindrance to getting medical records digitized is privacy protection, such as HIPAA and state regulations.

So while doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies are dragging their feet, the Web has stepped up as a way for individuals to take matters into their own hands. Specifically, companies such as Google and Microsoft are creating ways to put your chart in the cloud.

For example, Google Health, which launched in October, lets users import their medical records, fill prescriptions, get lab results, set up text-based pill alerts, and keep track of immunizations. The service has partnered with pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS, as well as the American Heart Association and medical testing facility Quest Diagnostics. Users can opt to share their information with such partners, but currently such sharing is an all-or-nothing venture. You can’t choose to share only portions of your records (functionality Google says is coming soon).

For those who feel the Web opens their medical data to prying eyes, Roni Zeiger, Google Health product manager, says that the records entered into Google Health remain completely private.

“No Google Health user will ever find their health information as search results on Google,” Zeiger says. “That information is yours and only you have access to it.”

Though Google Health has made a big splash, Microsoft has actually been in the game longer, with its HealthVault. Along with storing medical records, HealthVault also lets you share those records as well as access health-related articles.

A site named RememberItNow has taken a slightly different tack. Instead of serving as an online filing cabinet for your medical history, the site is geared toward caregivers. After uploading the medical records of a person you are caring for, you can use RememberItNow to track doctors’ appointments and remember medication schedules. The service uses e-mail and SMS reminders, as well as tracks overall well-being with a health journal and other tools. The fee for this service is $24 a month.

So how can such services exist amid the strict HIPAA and state laws? Google Health’s information page states: “Unlike a doctor or health plan, Google Health is not regulated by HIPAA. This is because Google does not store data on behalf of health care providers. Instead, our primary relationship is with the user.”

Article Source : http://www.emrnews.com/2009/11/your-chart-in-the-cloud/

Computerization of Health Records: A “Meaningful Use” Perspective

Computerization of health records vis-Ã -vis electronic health records (EHR) or electronic medical records (EMRs) is arguably the most important healthcare information technology (IT) trend these days. Although the healthcare information management arena has been relatively slow in catching up to technology, physicians and others in the healthcare industry are starting to see the impact that IT has had on other industries and are ready to utilize technology as a tool as well.

As paper begins to disappear, utilizing technological devices to provide secure, timely and logically organized access to clinical information will become more realistic and imperative. Of course, with President Obama’s economic stimulus package offering monetary incentives for adoption and use of EHRs through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, there is no doubt healthcare IT has received a much-needed boost.

On Feb 17, President Obama signed the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) into law that qualifies hospitals and physicians for $17 billion worth of incentive payments from Medicare and Medicaid over a five-year period. Under ARRA, specifically the HITECH Act, $40,000 to $60,000 may be available for each physician proving “meaningful use” of an EHR.

“It’s an investment that will take the long, overdue step of computerizing America’s medical records to reduce the duplication and waste that costs billions of healthcare dollars and medical errors that cost thousands of lives each year,” President Obama said at the stimulus bill signing on February 17.

While the exact definition of “meaningful use” is yet to be determined by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the legislation outlined three requirements:

 · E-Prescription — The EHR must include e-prescribing.

· Electronic Exchange of Health Information — The EHR must provide electronic exchange of health information.

· Report Clinical Quality Measures — The EHR must allow submission of clinical quality measures.

In the words of David Blumenthal, M.D., the national coordinator for health IT, “This is the beginning of a conversation that will continue for some time,” adding “there is a long way to go” before a final definition of “meaningful use” is achieved. The task of defining “meaningful use” is assigned to the Meaningful Use Workgroup, which presented its initial recommendations to the HIT Policy

Committee on June 16. The key goals postulated in the initial recommendations vis-Ã -vis a three-page preamble to the report and a well-defined, simple-to-understand matrix are:

to improve quality, safety and efficiency, and reduce health disparities to engage patients and their families to improve care coordination to improve population and public health to ensure privacy and security protections for personal health information

The Workgroup has clearly developed the foundation of an inspiring and comprehensive definition that sets the groundwork for a tangible and substantial vision of transforming healthcare delivery while highlighting that this is a progressive undertaking focused on results and not merely an exercise in software implementation.

The preamble states, “The ultimate vision is one in which all patients are fully engaged in their healthcare, providers have real-time access to all medical information and tools to help ensure the quality and safety of the care provided, while also affording improved access and elimination of healthcare disparities. This ‘North star’ must guide our key policy objectives, the advanced care processes needed to achieve them, and lastly, the specific use of information technology that will enable the desired outcomes, and our ability to monitor them.”

Of course, technology will play a tremendous role in the realization of this vision, which is highlighted by the Workgroup’s early call for adoption of EHRs and computerized physician order entry (CPOE), including time- and cost-saving features such as electronic transmission of permissible prescriptions and incorporation of lab test results into EHRs.

According to an Institute of Medicine report, an estimated 100,000 people die each year from medical errors in hospitals. To the extent that such errors are attributed to faulty software systems, companies should focus on providing EHR software solutions that promote using health IT to improve patient safety reporting and data analysis and to prevent such errors by providing built-in safety management protocols and risk assessment tools, including early warnings and alerts.

The functionality of the EHR product a company offers is a key element. At the same time, there are other factors that are equally significant towards the fulfillment of EHR adoption. At the end of the day — no matter how technologically and functionally advanced a product may be — service and support are critical in the overall adaptability, transition, implementation and continued success. Sound implementation strategies with emphasis on an “evolutionary” versus “revolutionary” approach — keeping in mind the diverse needs of users, whether small practices and clinics or large hospitals and organizations — will be the cornerstone of meaningful EHR adoption. Indeed, successful customer implementation experience proves that those users who started utilizing EHRs early on not only have had the luxury of implementation time on their side, but also have improved their workflows and quality of patient care in a progressively “meaningful” manner while benefiting from advances in technology along the way.

In addition, the role of information networks will be vital in improving communication among healthcare organizations. An information and communications infrastructure is critical as many avoidable errors and poor outcomes can be attributed to inaccessible data, lack of properly documented information and the inability of agencies to share critical information in a secure and timely manner. Therefore, coordination, integration and overall management of clinical information across localities, regions and providers of care is critical if any healthcare IT initiative is to succeed.

Computerization of health records is inevitable. The challenge lies not in its necessity — whether it should be done. Rather, it lies in the approach — how it should be done. Many have and will continue to raise myriad concerns, whether from a technology, privacy or security point of view. However, as stated by Dr. Blumenthal, “It is a journey we must take if we are to improve care through the use of EHRs.” Whether we are for it or against it or somewhere in the middle, it cannot be denied that the effort towards the realization of “meaningful use” is a positive step on the road to EHR adoption and computerization of health records. With initiatives such as those undertaken by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) under the auspices of ARRA, physicians and others in the healthcare industry are starting to see the positive impact that IT has had on other industries and are more encouraged to utilize technology as a tool themselves. As we progress towards the ultimate vision, utilizing technological advances to provide secure, timely and logically organized access to clinical information will become more realistic, imperative and ultimately “meaningful.”

Article Source : http://www.limed.se/2009/11/02/computerization-of-health-records-a-%E2%80%9Cmeaningful-use%E2%80%9D-perspective/