5 Advantages of Outsourcing Medical Transcription Needs
September 2021
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2 min read
Doctors and other healthcare professionals take notes when they meet patients. Sometimes, they also record the conversations. In general, such notes/recordings include the patient's health information, any over-the-counter medications, and recurring symptoms.
Accurate records are necessary to give proper care and treatment to the patient. The easiest and most secure way to store such records is to type them out and keep them on a computer. Or you can store printed copies in locked cabinets.
What is medical transcription outsourcing?
Transcription is a process of converting audio/video recordings to text. When someone hires a third-party service to transcribe medical reports, it is medical transcription outsourcing.
What is outsourcing versus in-house medical transcription?
In outsourcing, a medical institution gets its records transcribed with the help of a transcription company.
Some institutions choose in-house transcription, where they task employees with transcription responsibility.
Why outsource medical transcription?
There are several key advantages of medical transcription outsourcing over in-house transcription. We have listed some of the benefits:
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Cost: Medical transcription companies have people, processes, and technology to make the transcription process cost-effective and scalable. If you compare the per-minute cost of transcription for outsourcing and in-house transcription, outsourcing will definitely be a cheaper alternative.
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Quality: Transcription outsourcing generally provides more high-quality transcriptions than in-house transcription. It's true for medical transcription as well. Transcription services have experienced and trained transcribers.
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Turnaround time: Transcription service providers have a faster turnaround time. Such companies have a lot of transcribers at work who can all work in parallel on different chunks of the video/audio recordings to speed up the turnaround time.
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HIPAA compliance: Medical transcription outsourcing companies need to be HIPAA compliant. This protects patients' health information and keeps it confidential and secure. HIPAA compliance also allows the flow of information among parties on a need-to-know basis.
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Flexibility: Medical transcription services can tailor their services to a client's specific needs. They can play around with the formatting of the document, timestamps, speaker labeling, etc.
This may not be possible with in-house transcription because of the lack of custom audio and video transcription software.
Are there risks of outsourcing medical transcription?
When sharing your health data with another institution, it's natural to feel hesitant. You risk jeopardizing patients' data and the lawsuits that follow.
On the bright side, medical transcription companies are legally required to ensure data security before accepting PHI or ePHI. As part of compliances like HIPAA, they are liable for hefty fines in case of a data breach.
Securing patient confidentiality isn't just about technology and legalities, the risk of data loss looms even if you choose to do the transcription in-house.
Your in-house transcriptionists might need to access the institute's network from outside the hospital, or even take audio recordings home with them. What if they lose their device? Or if the hackers get hold of the patient's data? Such data breaches may compel the medical institution to face legal charges.
A transcription company invests in security, protocols, and data encryption to prevent data leaks, and also to reduce damage in the unlikely event of a data breach.
Medical Transcription at Reduct
At Reduct, we have been doing transcription for companies with extremely sensitive data.
We deliver high-quality transcripts through our team of experienced transcribers while being compliant with HIPAA and other security/privacy standards required to manage ePHI.
