Medical Transcription – Yep, It’s Still Not Dead

Contrary to what you may have heard, medical transcription did not die years ago when speech recognition and electronic medical records entered the scene. Medical transcription is alive and well. Thriving medical transcription businesses are a testament to this. Fortune Business Insights lends further perspective with its valuation of the medical transcription software sector at 1.32 billion USD in 2019. By 2027, it’s slated to reach 4.89 billion USD. Writing the obituary on transcription is premature.

While futurists have predicted the demise of the medical transcription industry for decades, it’s continued to thrive. Physicians smartly leverage medical transcription services in hospitals every day to alleviate physician stress and burnout. Likewise, practitioners in solo practices, surgery centers, and multispecialty groups all use transcription companies. Why? Because providers can quickly speak their findings and depend on trained, professional medical transcriptionists to swiftly deliver highly-accurate transcripts for review and signature directly in their EHR.

Granted, competing alternatives deliver attractive solutions. So, caregivers have a choice when it comes to creating patient records. Smart options include:

• Front-end speech recognition. A provider can speak and see her words appear on the screen instantly. This can be a superb option for caregivers who want to use productivity tools to give them substantial control over record-keeping for a flat cost.
• Medical scribes. Caregivers who want an in-person assistant to support them can hire a medical scribe to shadow them during their clinic visits and populate the patient record in real-time. Scribes can often help with non-charting admin tasks too.
• Manual EHR data entry. Physicians who are keen to multitask are often willing to self-document while caring for their patients during clinic visits. For Type A personalities with fast typing skills and EHR dexterity, this can be a good option.

So, what’s led to the misnomer that transcription isn’t a thing anymore? Because competing charting options are available, many healthcare facilities have disbanded their transcription teams or canceled their outsource transcription contracts. Organizations have lowered their costs by eliminating office space and payroll expenses for transcriptionists, the associated technology costs, and payments to transcription services. Having doctors populate notes in the EHR has been a big money saver.

However, these cost-cutting measures have spurred a dangerous side-effect, namely physician burnout. When providers self-document on top of treating their patients, caregivers pay the price in longer work hours and added stress. MedScape’s 2020 National Physician Burnout and Suicide Report shows that 55% of providers cite that patient charting contributes to their job dissatisfaction. And, surprisingly, Millennial caregivers, who traditionally embrace technology, are hardest hit by charting requirements.

For those that think medical transcription is an artifact of a bygone era, consider what a transcription service can do for you. Transcription services can do wonders to ease physician job dissatisfaction and burnout. Take, for instance, these examples. The most advanced transcription companies are:

• Compatible with your EHR. Through a technical interface, API, or manual human input, transcription companies can deliver completed reports directly to your electronic health record. The data appears just as if you’d typed it in Epic, Cerner, or Allscripts yourself. All you need to do is review and sign the chart in your EHR.
• HIPAA Compliant and secure. Transcription businesses know that they must have advanced physical, administrative, and technical protocols in place to secure protected health information. They background check their staff, conduct annual risk assessments, sign BAAs, carry professional liability insurance, and submit to client security reviews.
• Sensitive to your budget. The most diverse transcription companies will have transcription staff in the US and abroad in places like the Philippines and India. With international staffing options, you can reduce your transcription costs. They’ll also provide you real-time analytics so you can independently audit throughput.
• Fast with transcript delivery. Transcription companies realize you need charts completed quickly so you can get paid. Professional medical transcription services will offer you various turnaround times, from as quick as 4 hours. Faster stat options exist too.
• Flexible with technology. Today’s medical transcription companies provide clients with options to dictate reports via iOS and Android mobile devices. They can even integrate with your ADT to streamline demographic lookups and mitigate transposition errors. While HL7 interfaces are an option, lower-tech manual integrations are too.

If you’re like many doctors who are struggling to do it all, but your blood pressure is going through the roof and your personal life is suffering, it may be time to consider a transcription service like Athreon. Athreon has been providing medical transcription solutions for over 30 years. They offer a free trial and a variety of pricing options that fit any budget. Contact Athreon for a free consultation.