Medicaltranscription:makingthe right choiceEvery good businessman regularly considers possibilities of reducing costs and optimizing investments. When creating this document AsterOffi ce aimed to help healthcare facilities evaluate the options for dealing with medical transcription tasks they have and therefore allocate their resources in a more benefi cial way.

In this document:

— Types of medical transcription service providers

— Phenomenon of outsourcing

— Outsourcing barriers

— Benefi ts of outsourcing medical transcription

What are the options healthcare facilities have when it comes to medical transcription? As every organisation, medical centers face numerous non-focus tasks that have to be done to ensure that the entire process runs smoothly. Information found in patient records plays crucial role in healthcare. With medical transcription being an integral part of patient records management, the choice of service provider matters much. Here healthcare facilities could resort to the help of:

It goes without saying that for healthcare centers that do not have a stable amount of medical transcription tasks, professional providers of medical transcription services are the optimal way out – beneficial and risk-free. And even large healthcare institutions with in-house transcriptionists having an escape hatch will help avoid unexpected complications. And while all the aforementioned solutions encompass organizational aspect of collaboration, adding geographical factor – outsourcing to regions with lower manpower costs – creates a solution for real strategy experts. But for many companies negative stereotypes create an impassable barrier on the way to the numerous benefits.

1. In-house staffOpportunity to choose and test a new team member, his complete dedication to your needs, unlimited control over all processes, obligations clearly stated in a labor contract – an in-house medical transcriptionist seems to be a lossless solution. But it is an expensive treat. Firstly, you have to provide such a person with working place and equipment; secondly, you’ll have to pay fixed salary even if you your employee is occupied only 80% of working time; thirdly, when your employee falls ill you will have to look for urgent help to do the job; and finally, it is not only the employee who has obligations: you will have to deal with insurance costs, thick and maternity leaves. So this idea is ok if you have enough resources and workload to hire a dedicated professional.

2. Independent professional This solution would probably be the cheapest but also the riskiest one. It’s vital to understand that these seemingly beneficial deals are fraught with lack of information security and confidence. Independent professionals – or simply freelancers – will hardly observe any obligations in case problems occur. Nothing to say about quality assurance. So if you are ready for that risk, probably independent contractors could be an option for you.

3. Professional service provider

When you entrust your medical transcription tasks to a professional service provider you get flexibility and confidence. You pay only for the job that is done, only when you have job to be done and you get quality results on time, with information protection guaranteed by your contract. The majority of healthcare facilities finally arrive to this solution and those who choose the right service provider gain numerous benefits and become industry leaders due to reason-able investment, resource allocation and effective workflow management.

So how to turn outsourcing from a risky venture into an unalienable factor of success?

The idea is to know the limit for economy and be able see other benefits you get when outsourcing.

Those companies for whom outsourcing is the source of unique competitive advantage are not simply luckier than others. The secret is that from the very be-ginning they sought not simply cheap workforce but efficient collaborative business model.

- Reduced costs

- Lower payroll expenses

- Lower infrastructure costs

Yes, outsourcing is about cutting costs but this is not the main reason to outsource. Reasonable approach to outsourcing may provide your company with a mix of advantages that will leave your com-petitors far behind:

- Accelerate business process

- Access talents

- Improve workflow

Have you ever experienced the benefits of outsourcing? Do not hurry to answer. We all know that every cloud has a silver lining and outsourcing of any tasks, whether medical transcription or else, has disadvantages as well as benefits. But let’s have a comprehensive look at the situation.

What do the enemies of outsourcing usually complain of? Low quality?...Lack of control?... Risks?...

But is it specific to outsourcing only? I’m sure, you can remember a couple of stories from your own experience or those told by a friend of yours when collaboration with local service providers turned out to be a complete failure due to partner’s dishonesty, letdowns or as the result of mere stinginess. We must admit, there is no need to outsource to learn that business, just like life itself, is full of pitfalls.

Without understanding of the concept of outsourcing people hurry to make up a conclu-sion that outsourcing is about cost reduction only. And with this belief they try hard to squeeze out the maximum choosing the cheapest contractor or even a freelancer. Do you agree, it is funny when they get so surprised at the result of such collaboration?

To reap real benefits it is important to realize that outsourcing is not a mercenary impulse but a mature business strategy. Well-weighted outsourcing decision will result in cost reduction without sacrificing quality and with a bunch of additional benefits.

Outsourcing: myths and facts

Turnaround Time 61%

Reduced Costs 29%

Increased Efficiency 13%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Progrès constatés par les entreprises qui externalisent la transcription médicale à des fournisseurs professionnels

As a matter of fact, the barriers companies face, when it comes to outsourcing are mere-ly physiological. Defi nitely it is diffi cult to ac-cept that sending important tasks to another company, another country you will not lose control; that paying considerably less than local vendors charge you will still get ser-vices of good quality; that sending your fi les to some distant place will not affect your in-formation security and that exporting jobs to another country you do not push your coun-trymen below the poverty line. However it is true.

Let’s evaluate the situation with our eyes open. The volume of outsourced jobs grows signifi -cantly year after year – companies all over the world outsource tasks to gain competitive advantage, to provide better service for their clients, to get resources for development in focus directions. Call centers, IT services, accounting, legal processes, medical tran-scription – outsourcing of these jobs increases by 40% annually. Impressive number, isn’t it?

Patients keep demanding lower prices, com-petitors keep trying to win your clientele, more and more resources are required to stay the course. In such environment switching to a new business model is a must for every pru-dent business. And there is no crime in out-sourcing some processes for a company that creates enough jobs, observes the laws and pays the taxes. Is there really anything evil in trying to develop the business, provide patients with better price-quality ratio and trying to succeed on the market instead of becoming bankrupt and making all the employees jobless?

As for lack of control and security in out-sourcing, this problem is now in times past. Information technologies of today leave no place for such doubts. Professional outsourc-ing vendors provide their partners with com-plete control over the outsourced operations, detailed real-time reporting and monitor-ing functionality. Multilevel data protection systems and encoding of security-sensitive elements eliminates the risk of data loss or disclosure. You will defi nitely get these guarantees from partnership with a profes-sional provider of medical transcription ser-vices, with dedicated IT team and informa-tion security systems maintained at top-level performance.

Overcoming the barriers

Getting the most out of medical transcription outsourcing

For those businessmen who consider outsourcing to be a method of cost-reduction only, price is the decisive factor. Choice of a service provider with the lowest prices often ends up with broken expectations and aversion to the concept of outsourcing itself. However ability to see other opportunities for business process optimization allows to achieve many strategic benefits:

Cut expenses- Right vendor with right team, right technologies, right process

will save you about 40%-50% of your current costs without compromising quality

Accelerating workflow

- Entrusting your medical transcription to a vendor for whom it is the core activity ensures stable quality and turnaround time what will inevitable facilitate your internal processes and planning

Reduce payroll costs

- Having a professional and experienced in-house transcriptionist is quite expensive and imposes many obligations on the employer. Outsourcing is a chance to avoid this pitfall

Cut infrastructure costs

- In-house specialists require serious investments in space, furniture, equipment and training. Avoiding these costs is a great benefit for many companies

Access talents- Professional medical transcription companies hire qualified

specialists and ensure their knowledge base is regularly updated. It means you will have your tasks done by professionals

Win competition

- Reducing your costs you will get extra funds for core investments, improved turnaround time will speed up processes, reliable partnership will contribute to overall service quality

Increase customer satisfaction

- Reducing your costs you will be able to provide your patients with more attractive pricing models, optimization of business processes will free resources for improvements in client servicing

So, now think again – have you ever experienced the benefits of reasonable outsourcing? Probably now you know what to expect and it is the right time to switch to a mature business model.

AsterOffice will be happy to provide you with any additional information and answer your questions.