Every time a healthcare professional attends to a patient, they take down notes. The notes state the patient’s symptoms, allergies, and any current prescription medication. They will also ask about what transpired and any over-the-counter medicines the patient is taking.
Taking accurate notes ensures you have the correct information to determine the treatment that a patient needs. To avoid losing the notes, someone must file, transcribe and record the information.
When it comes to medical transcription services, companies have only two options; work with in-house transcribers or outsource the work to a third-party company.
There are many benefits of hiring an in-house team. However, most medical practices prefer outsourcing because it has far more significant benefits than having an in-house team.
Read on for the main medical transcription service benefits.
1. It’s Cost-Effective
There are several costs involved in employing one person to handle in-house transcription. The average cost of hiring an employee is $4,120, including the money spent to advertise for the position, review the resumes, and conduct interviews for the candidates.
The average time needed to fill a new, vacant position in a company is 40 days. Once you employ someone, you will be required to pay them even if there are no documents or notes to transcribe.
On top of paying the salary, you will also be required to pay employee benefits and taxes. These are costs you would not incur if you outsourced your transcription services.
When outsourcing medical transcription services, you will only pay for the materials transcribed. If no patients have come to your facility for a while, you will not have to worry about paying the salary of an employee who doesn’t have a job.
For this reason, the cost of medical transcription services is cheaper compared to hiring an in-house team.
2. You Don’t Need to Maintain or Purchase Any Equipment
Setting up an in-house medical transcription department requires purchasing transcription software and hardware. The team will transcribe the notes and documents from recorded files. Thus, they will need equipment and software to help them easily stop and playback the audios.
The required equipment often includes high-quality headphones and an audio file player. You may also need to buy expensive tools such as a foot pedal and in-house voice-recognition software.
On top of purchasing this expensive equipment, you will also need to train your team to use it. Outsourcing medical transcription services will help you avoid the hustle of purchasing this equipment. You will also no longer have to worry about the training and maintenance cost of the equipment.
3. Easy Access to Trained Professionals
Medical transcription service is much more than just typing up notes and audio files. There is a lot of medical jargon used in the industry. Therefore, the transcriptionist needs to understand what is in the audio file or notes.
Most transcriptionists are required to complete training and certificate programs. The training helps them understand medical terms and learn how to transcribe.
Medical transcription outsourcing gives you access to experienced and trained professionals. This means that your documents will be accurately transcribed, and your patient notes will be correctly recorded.
4. Offers You a Dedicated Service
Today, most medical practices offer different services and have a lot on their plate. Most medical professionals spend their time doing the following:
- Keeping up with insurance claims and billing
- Providing high-quality care for their patients
- Ensuring patient files are orderly and up-to-date
- Confirming that the practice complies with regulatory services such as HIPAA
Medical transcription outsourcing will make work easier. Working with the right transcriptionist service will ensure that you get dedicated service from the company. Unlike hiring an in-house team that handles other responsibilities, a transcription service company will be solely focused on transcribing your work.
5. HIPAA Compliant
Patient information must be kept private.
The goal of HIPAA is to ensure that patients’ private information is protected. This protection also extends to information sharing among parties who need to know.
Medical transcription companies stress HIPAA compliance and privacy rules. Any organization that handles patient data is supposed to be HIPAA compliant.
6. It’s Easy to Get Started
When working with an in-house team, you will need time and money to train the team before getting started. The team may take up to months before they get started. They will also need training before they can efficiently and accurately transcribe your records.
Working with a medical transcription company makes it a lot easier to get started. You will not train employees, purchase expensive equipment and learn how to use the different software tools. The service you hire will have experienced individuals ready to start transcribing.
7. Minimizes the Risk of Employee Burnout
Even when no many patients are visiting, your employees will be quite busy trying to keep up with the paperwork. This may lead to burnout and reduced efficiency. Being too busy also leads to a high risk of work-related stress and exhaustion.
Burnout is quite prevalent in the medical field. It affects everyone in the healthcare profession, including doctors and nurses.
Finding effective ways to reduce the workload of your employees will reduce the burden on your team. Outsourcing medical transcription services will reduce work-related stress and minimize employee burnout.
You Have Good Reasons to Outsource Medical Transcription Services
Outsourcing medical transcription services is a money-saving option for most practices. It has many, which include improved accuracy and efficiency. Your employees could use the time and money saved from outsourcing these services on other administrative tasks.
Keep tabs on our blog for more insights.
