FATAL MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTIONS FALLACIES

A minor error in medical transcription can cost a healthcare practice a fortune or even a possible lawsuit in case the documentation is severely flawed which is why outsourcing a medical transcription service from a credible billing and coding company like Medphine is a preferred choice by all healthcare providers. Not only this ensures accuracy in the documentation but also saves time and money of the practice, which can be best utilized in providing quality service to the patient.

Wondering how vital medical transcription could be that it needs to be outsourced when it can be done with just the same diligence by the in-house team?

Do you think that a consultation session and the follow-ups are just you sharing your plight with the doctor, doctors listening and prescribing appropriate medicine?

Have you ever given this a thought that whether or not every prescription, recommendation adhere to the standards laid down by the national authority such as HIPAA or not?

Well, ensuring all the records from medical history, present medical condition, tests reports, diagnosis, prescribed medicine are kept in a manner compliant to the HIPAA standards is the job of a medical transcriptionist.

SIGNIFICANCE OF MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION:

• Medical transcription is a well-kept record as per the HIPAA format from which anybody from the healthcare facility be it, physician, staff or pharmacy will have the ease to comprehend the details they need for further processing. The details need to be accurate to ensure smooth communication between various medical departments.
• Aside from smooth processing throughout the facility, accuracy and HIPAA compliance of the medical records is necessary to claim reimbursements from the insurance company. The healthcare insurance carriers pay for the treatment and healthcare providers are paid by the insurance company accordingly, as long as these records are accurate and compliant to the standards.
• Also, it is worth mentioning that you do not get treatment throughout your life from a single doctor or medical practice. The medical transcription of the records helps in the smooth flow of information from one doctor to another so that the treatment can be provided to the patient as quickly as possible without them having to go through the same medical proceeding at every hospital.
• And in case, you didn’t already know every healthcare facility is required to maintain these records to avoid any legal conflict in the future.

ERRORS:

Whether you run a clinic or operate a multi-specialty healthcare facility, accuracy of a medical transcription should never be overlooked. A slight miscalculation or ignorance can pose a severe threat to the organization, with the medical practitioners losing their practicing license, in adverse cases.

Let us have a look at some of the common medical transcription fallacies that can prove fatal to the patient and the medical practice:

• IMPROPERLY SET RECORDING DEVICE:

Since a medical transcriptionist document a recorded session of the consultation, it is essential to make sure that the device is set correctly. An improper setting can distort the recording which will reflect in the documentation as an error.

• LANGUAGE MISTAKE:

When writing the voice notes, medical transcriptionists often end up making minor yet impactful language mistakes such as unable to differentiate between homophones, spelling wrong words, missing grammar characters. These small mistakes in putting down patient’s information can lead to misdiagnosis or delay in the treatment.  

• NUMERICAL ERRORS:

A slight increase or decrease in BP, glucose sugar level, vital organ parameters can result in a different diagnosis, treatment. Variegated dialects and speech can result in the numeric mix-up. Which is why it is of critical importance to verify the numbers before putting it on the record. Transcribing wrong numerical value can also lead to error dosage error which can be detrimental for the patient’s health.

• LABORATORY RESULTS:

Having discussed mathematical errors, it is worth noting that they generally stem from mistakes made when recording the laboratory results. Which is why every abbreviation should be clarified, repeated and the dictation should be done slowly.

WHY OUTSOURCE MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION SERVICE?

Medical transcribing is an intricate and time extensive process, which should only be handled by those holding significant expertise. Instead of burdening your in-house team with the workload and wasting their time, to have your medical record riddled with errors, outsourcing medical transcription would be a wise choice.

Why you ask?

By outsourcing, you can rest assured that your records are being managed by a team of professionals, who are well aware of the importance of every shred of the document being generated. Medphine transcription specialist and quality analysts will ensure 100 % accuracy, HIPAA Compliance and timely delivery of the reports.

Instead of stressing in-house to perform such difficult processes, why not outsource medical transcriptionist services from Medphine which will result in a reduction of labor and processing cost. Medphine will ensure searchability of the documents making information accessible across the facility from nurses to doctors to staff.

You can trust upon Medphine in providing comprehensive medical transcription ensuring, from prescribing to documenting to transcribing to dispensing to monitoring; all is accurate and consistent with the patient information provided to the doctors. Medphine’s transcribing team holds extensive experience in efficiently managing recording and documentation across various healthcare facilities. We assure absolute medical information security and the shortest turnaround time.

Why waste time, money and efforts on going back and forth with the documents, when you can instead outsource and invest that in dispensing quality treatment to those in need?