medical billing transcription supplier information

"I love what I do for a living," says Gerry Kelly, who runs All Type, a medical-transcription business, from her home in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Kelly is one of approximately 9,100 members of the American Association of Medical Transcription (AAMT), many of whom are home based. No matter what happesn to the health-care system, the field of medical transcription appears to be headed for strong growth in the 1990s.

At an AAMT conference last year, Robert Love, a Houston attorney specializing in the health-care industry, cited his projection that the industry will expand by 100 percent by the year 2000. In his opinion, barely one-third of the hospital market is being tapped. In addition, health-care facilities don't always have the space or the budget to keep all their transcription work on-site. The money you can earn as a medical transcriptionist, depending on the time you devote, your client base, and your location, ranges from $25,000 to $40,000 a year, according to most reports. Kelly herself made $43,000 last year.

Doctors dictate audiotapes describing patient care, operations, autopsies, and lab reports. Transcriptionists use a transcribing machine to listen to the tapes through headphones; they input the information to a computer. Doctors and hospitals need the records both to ensure consistent patient care and to protect themselves against malpractice suits. The transcribed documents become permanent records of patient care.

Typing skills are important for medical transcribing, but competence is not measured only in words per minute. "Medical transcription is a language specialty, not a keyboard specialty," says Pat Forbis, a certified medical transcriptionist and director of member services at AAMT. "Your speed and accuracy are determined by how well you know the language doctors use."

The main drawback to medical transcription is that it demands intense mental and physical concentration. Transcriptionists are hooked to headphones listening to doctors' hastily dictated notes for hours on end; when hospitals require quick turnaround, they may work well into the night. And after years of intensive typing, they run the risk of suffering a repetitive motion disorder.

"Over bill rates reached as high as 50% on some invoices," says Investigator; Suit is the First to Use Consumer Fraud Laws by Companies Against Another Company

Florida's South Broward Hospital District and international law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP announced today they have brought a class action suit against MedQuist (MEDQ.PK), a publicly-traded company based in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey and the world's #1 vendor for electronic medical transcription services, following an independent investigation of MedQuist's billing procedures.

Delisted from NASDAQ June 16, MedQuist identified accounting errors following the complaints of an employee. In its public statements, in late July, the company detailed the results of an independent audit by Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and Pricewaterhouse Coopers which found some hospital clients were overbilled for transcription services. As a result of the investigation, MedQuist replaced their CEO and fired their chief financial officer and chief legal officer. The Securities & Exchange Commission has also launched an investigation of the company.

SSI Advisors, a management consulting company headquartered in New York, spent almost a year for one large hospital system evaluating MedQuist's over billing problem. Based on invoices reviewed, SSI Advisors' principal, Jeffrey Litvack, found through their analysis that the MedQuist over bill rates reached as high as 50% on some invoices and estimated a loss exceeding ten (10) million dollars to the hospital system.

The class action has been filed in the United States Central District of California by the international law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP who charges that MedQuist "knowingly and fraudulently overcharged for transcription services."

"MedQuist's fraud and over billing was intentional and that the fraudulent invoicing was designed specifically so that it was nearly impossible for the customers to trace the actual costs of the services provided," said Mark Hogge of Greenberg Traurig's Washington, D.C. office.

The medical transcription outsourcing market has had to weather financial scandals, medical privacy threats, and offshoring trends that have threatened to decimate the U.S. market. Oddly, none of these factors has been sufficiently lethal to wreck or even weaken the transcription outsourcing industry that has grown around this important back-office task, mainly because it is crucial to the healthcare industry. In fact, new research published by IDC reveals that U.S. spending on medical transcription outsourcing services totaled approximately $2.3 billion in 2004. IDC forecasts that the market will increase to $4.2 billion in 2008, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.1%.

"Medical transcription outsourcing is not as high profile, or even headline demanding, as IT needs around other healthcare issues such as the electronic medical record," stated Scott Tiazkun, program manager for IDC's U.S. IT Opportunity, Healthcare research. "What is important to remember is that information from medical transcriptions will be valuable in populating many fields of information in electronic medical records, and in some cases today acts as a de facto medical record."

IDC's research shows that although much medical transcription is still being performed with antiquated technology, IT vendors are springing up to provide this business process with new technology and more efficient and accurate ways to deliver a quality product to healthcare providers. A side benefit will also be reduced medical error rates.

Among the key findings presented in this forecast document are the following:

--Medical transcription outsourcing in the United States will remain in high demand due to new initiatives around the electronic patient record, as well as HIPAA regulations that demand that certain health records do not make their way overseas.

--Although there is some consolidation among larger players, the medical transcription outsourcing market is so overpopulated with smaller providers that consolidation is practically meaningless. Therefore, IT vendors need to make IT solutions and technology available at a price point that makes sense to technology companies that are the equivalent of mom-and-pop operations.

This year has witnessed two mergers involving leading transcription service companies. Earlier this year, Webmedx Inc. acquired Atlanta-based Rodeer Systems. In the most recent deal, MedQuist Inc., the nation's leading provider of medical transcription services with $405 million in annual revenues, has acquired Lanier Healthcare, another company providing a broad mix of Web-based transcription and dictation services, electronic signature and speech recognition solutions, The new venture combines the forces of MedQuist's 9,800 transcriptionists serving 3,200 healthcare clients with Lanier's 480 employees and its established customer base of more than 285,000 physicians, estimated to be 50 percent of the acute care hospital market.

NEW YORK -- Targets India to Meet Growing Demand for Medical Transcription Services by U.S. Healthcare Sector

SPI Technologies Inc., one of the world's leading content outsourcing services providers, announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire KG Information Services and Technologies Private Limited's medical transcription business (KGMT). The acquisition of India-based KGMT will enable SPI to quickly expand its delivery capacity to meet accelerating demand for medical transcription services by U.S. healthcare providers. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"Providing medical transcription and other healthcare information management services is one of SPI's fastest growing lines of business," said Ernest Cu, President and CEO of SPI Technologies. "The KGMT acquisition gives us state-of-the art facilities in India with a capacity of more than 800 employees to complement our medical transcription operations in the US and the Philippines."

KGMT is located in Coimbatore, the second largest city in Southern India after Chennai and considered to be the education center of the region. "The acquisition of KGMT broadens our presence in the country, adding to our current staff count of nearly 1,000 across the cities of Chennai, Pondicherry, Kolkata and New Delhi. SPI Technologies is committed to building a greater presence in India and maintaining our leadership role in global business process outsourcing," said Mr. Cu.

Robert Cabato, President and Chief Operating Officer of SPI Healthcare Documentation, the healthcare division of SPI Technologies, said,"KGMT is an excellent fit for SPI. Like us, KGMT is a pioneer in its field, setting standards for the rest of the industry in terms of training and quality and hiring professionals with deep experience in the business. We look forward to serving our clients through our enhanced delivery platform, drawing from the best resources available in the US, the Philippines and now, India, for medical transcription and healthcare information management services."

The growth in global medical transcription services is being driven by increased demand from the US, where annual spending on medical transcription is expected to grow from $2.3 billion at present to more than $4 billion by 2008 (IDC, January 2005).

NEW YORK -- SPI Technologies Inc., the largest independent provider of content outsourcing services, announced today the appointment of David Woodrow as President of its medical transcription (MT) outsourcing services division, SPI Healthcare Documentation, effective immediately. Woodrow, who is currently Vice President of the Medical Transcription Industry Association's Board of Directors, is highly regarded in the industry for his success in starting up, building and managing medical transcription businesses, including the MT services division of Lanier WorldWide, which was acquired by MedQuist in 1999.

Based in Atlanta, GA, Woodrow succeeds Robert Cabato, who assumes new responsibilities at SPI's offices in the Philippines. Cabato is credited with building SPI's healthcare division into one of the company's fastest growing service areas. SPI Healthcare Documentation provides MT and other health information management services to major segments of the healthcare market, including hospitals, large physician groups and allied provider clinics.

Woodrow's appointment follows SPI's recent acquisition of KGMT, a medical transcription business based in India, adding to SPI's existing MT capabilities in the US and the Philippines. "David joins our organization at a very exciting time, as we rapidly expand our multi-country delivery platform to meet the growing demand for MT outsourcing services by the US healthcare sector," said Ernest Cu, President and CEO of SPI Technologies. "David is uniquely qualified to strengthen our leadership positioning in the MT services sector, bringing a wealth of hands-on experience in this business. I would also like to thank Robert for his success in building a great platform for the division's continued growth and success."

Woodrow was formerly founder and Senior Vice President of Business Development at Precyse Solutions, a leading provider of outsourced Health Information Management and Medical Records services to US-based hospitals and healthcare organizations. At Precyse, he helped grow the company from a start-up operation to more than $35 million in annual revenue over the course of three years.

Prior to founding Precyse, Woodrow worked for 17 years at Lanier WorldWide, a division of Ricoh. At Lanier, he established the company's MT services division, which under his direction, grew to $35 million in revenue in the five years prior to its strategic sale to MedQuist.

NEW YORK -- TransPerfect Translations, the leading provider of language solutions to clients in the medical, legal, and corporate arenas, announced the establishment of a new division--TransPerfect Transcriptions--to expand the company's existing transcription service offerings. The division has been formed to provide a full array of services to medical, legal, and corporate clients, while delivering improved turnaround time and quality. TransPerfect Transcriptions will be headquartered in the same building as parent company TransPerfect Translations.

According to President and CEO Liz Elting, "TransPerfect has more than a decade's experience providing transcription services in English as well as more than 100 other languages. The new division will offer our clients more competitive pricing, innovative solutions, and industry leading quality through our ISO 9001:2000-certified quality management system."

In addition to transcription services, TransPerfect also has translation, document management, and staffing divisions. Elting goes on to say, "By concentrating on this business segment, we're creating added value for our clients with a range of communications needs. Our existing client base has experienced our commitment to the highest standards of quality and client service. Now, they can turn to TransPerfect to meet their transcription needs with those same exacting standards."

About TransPerfect

TransPerfect provides a full range of services in more than 100 languages to multinational companies worldwide. These services include translation, interpretation, transcription, multilingual typesetting/graphic services, document management, staffing solutions, subtitling/voice-overs and multicultural marketing. With a network of more than 4,000 linguists and subject-matter experts, TransPerfect is one of only a handful of translation companies to be ISO 9001:2000 certified. TransPerfect has offices on three continents with its headquarters in New York and its European headquarters in London.

PITTBURGH -- Pittsburgh based Acusis(R), a leading provider of quality medical transcription services to hospitals, clinics, and large physician practices, announced today the addition of executive leadership to its management team. To help manage their rapid growth in the medical transcription industry, Acusis named Anne Palmerine director of customer satisfaction. Palmerine's position will support the Acusis mission to deliver a higher standard of medical transcription services to customers.

Palmerine's strong leadership portfolio reflects her ability to influence strategic customer satisfaction initiatives. She will direct the Acusis customer service department that currently operates on a 24/7/365 basis. Palmerine and her team will ensure the Acusis business process is backed with an end-result of exemplary customer satisfaction. By communicating with customers, Palmerine will introduce new technologies and processes that better serve customers' needs.

Palmerine brings a strong healthcare background to Acusis. Prior to joining Acusis, Palmerine worked as customer service manager at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health Plan. During the course of her career, she was active in the development of numerous strategic customer service plans. She led a team of over 100 people at International Masters Publishers, where she started incentive programs and established large call centers that maximized productivity and increased profitability.

"Acusis will benefit greatly from the addition of Palmerine to our leadership team," said David Iwinski, chief executive officer of Acusis. "Palmerine has the vision and expertise to further solidify the relationship between the customer and Acusis, which we view as the foundation of our organization. As we continue to grow as a company, this role is a necessity in order to enhance the world-class standard of satisfaction that we strive to provide our customers."

Axolotl Corporation, a leading provider of health information management products and services, took first place in the EHR Systems for Medical Transcription category at the recent Medical Records Institute 2005 TEPR (Towards an Electronic Patient Record) Conference.

The TEPR judges reviewed over 100 applications in seven categories. Top vendors in each category then presented to an independent panel of judges representing industry experts. Axolotl's robust transcription platform, attention to customer business needs, experience integrating transcription into EHRs, and demonstrable improvements to physician office and HIM processes all contributed to their selection as the award winner. The transparency Axolotl provides into transcription price and quality was also noteworthy.

Raymond Scott, CEO of Axolotl Corp., said, "We are very excited about being selected as the top provider in the EHR Systems for Medical Transcription category. With the award, the Medical Records Institute has acknowledged the important role that transcription has in the EHR. We strive to provide the best medical transcription service in the industry. We thank the TEPR award judges for selecting us as the first place vendor."

About the Medical Records Institute

MRI's mission is to be the global forum for healthcare consumers, providers, and technology vendors on the journey to improve quality of care through advanced information technology solutions. MRI is best known for its educational conferences such as TEPR, EHR Summits, EMR Road Shows, and the Annual Mobile Healthcare Conference.

Axolotl provides advanced Web-based products and services that automate health information management and communication between HIM departments, hospitals, clinics, labs, and physician offices. By connecting the healthcare community, our e2 technology increases efficiency, cuts the cost of information exchange, and improves the quality of care. Thousands of healthcare professionals nationwide are using Axolotl for electronic health record creation, health information access, exchange, and management, and transcription services.

Wall Street News Alert's "stocks to watch" this morning are: WaveScribe International Corp. (OTC: WSBL), Connetics Corporation (NASDAQ: CNCT), Elan Corporation (NYSE: ELN) and Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC).

WaveScribe International Corp. (OTC: WSBL) may appear on the radar screens of aggressive investors and traders this morning! Yesterday after the markets closed, the company issued a press release emphasizing the importance and size of the medical transcription market.

Recently, speech recognition solution provider ScanSoft acquired the transcription platform provider MedRemote in a deal valued at more than $12 million in stock and cash.

Details of the sheer market size in which WaveScribe operates could excite investors! The healthcare industry spends approximately $15 billion annually on transcription production. According to the company's press release, WaveScribe understands the magnitude of this and seeks to capture 1% of this growing market. WaveScribe President and CEO Cris Bahar stated, "We understand why ScanSoft would make this move. It's a natural course for them to pursue and validates what we have said for quite some time. WaveScribe continues to stress the importance of the medical transcription industry in our on-demand world. Hence, WaveScribe's on-demand word processing platform and services encompasses the medical transcription industry in addition to other fields that require mass document processing such as general business, legal and lectures on a global basis rather than only U.S.-based."

Investors continue to watch the progress of WaveScribe! WaveScribe offers the first web-based transcription software that was designed, developed, and deployed by transcriptionists. Documents created through WaveScribe have a 128-bit security encryption, HIPAA and Privacy Law compliance. Access to a transcribed document for editing, reprints, updates, 24 hours a day in a simplified and cost-effective manner to handle the task of document control is now available. The WaveScribe platform requires no software to purchase, and installation is not required. The typist/transcriptionist utilizing the platform can create documents on the go, including loading pre-existing documents. Traditional methods of dictation such as from tape, digital recorder, dial-in, pushed or PC-generated dictation can be maintained, creating a significant dollar savings.

MedQuist to become exclusive provider of medical dictation and

transcription services for WebMD's physician subscriber service

WebMD, the leading full-service healthcare Internet site, and MedQuist Inc. (NASDAQ:MEDQ), the largest national provider of electronic medical transcription and healthcare information management solutions, announced today a cross-promotion and integration agreement. MedQuist will be the exclusive provider of medical dictation and transcription services for WebMD's "virtual office" package.

Under the terms of the agreement, MedQuist and WebMD will create a joint marketing plan to introduce and promote the services using an array of marketing and sales tools, including direct mail campaigns and exclusive presence on their respective Web sites. The agreement will enhance WebMD's comprehensive suite of content and healthcare applications for physicians, enabling subscribers to use MedQuist's network of over 3,500 trained medical transcription specialists to quickly and accurately convert free-form medical dictation into electronically formatted patient records.

WebMD intends to initially promote the joint service by offering a free, one-year subscription to WebMD for physicians who agree to use $1,000 in MedQuist services per month.

Jeffrey Arnold, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of WebMD, said: "Physicians use dictation and transcription services every day for patient histories, operative reports and other important patient record data. By coupling the number-one dictation and transcription service in the U.S. with WebMD's extensive array of online medical-related communication, information and education services, we're taking one more step toward consolidating the many healthcare service providers into an accessible, seamless Internet-based system for physicians."

"There is an increasing need for fast turnaround of quality medical transcription in the healthcare industry. We look forward to offering physicians a unified MedQuist-WebMD platform as a speedy and secure return path for transcriptions, in addition to the value-added of WebMD's suite of services," David A. Cohen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MedQuist Inc., stated. "As important, the agreement with WebMD will also provide us with valuable access to the significant number of individual physicians in small group practices, and other health care providers that we do not currently serve."

Solution will further simplify process of incorporating dictated

information in patients' electronic medical records

In forming a strategic relationship with Marlton, N.J.-based MedQiust Inc. recently, MedicaLogic has shown its ongoing intent to make the electronic medical record (EMR) even more responsive to the day-to-day needs of the ambulatory physician practice.

Under the agreement signed in December -- the first EMR vendor partnership for MedQuist -- the companies are developing an interface between MedicaLogic's Logician(R) product and MedQuist's MTS(TM) transcription software, giving physicians the ability to have dictated information more easily incorporated in their patients' electronic records. The firms will market the solution to their respective customers and prospects, beginning with initial demonstration of it at the 1997 Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference in February. General availability is slated for the second quarter of this year.

The MedQuist interface will be the latest addition to the suite of connections between Logician and other information systems. Through LinkLogic(TM), its internal data exchange engine, interfaces have been completed that will allow Logician to work with nearly 50 leading accounting and billing systems, reference laboratories, laboratory information systems and interface engines.

"Many doctors who now use electronic charts want the option of continuing to dictate parts of the patient encounter," says Mark Leavitt, M.D., PhD., chief executive officer of MedicaLogic. "The interface between Logician and MedQuist will specifically address this need. As a solution, it will set the standard for accuracy and reliability."

Ron Scarpone, MedQuist's vice president and chief information officer, said Logician was selected following evaluation of a number of EMR products, and that it excelled in several important areas. "In our opinion, Logician is one of the most comprehensive electronic medical records for the ambulatory physician practice and among the most user friendly. These factors will make the solution appealing to all physicians who want simpler, more effective free-form dictation capability."

COLUMBIA, Md.--(BW HealthWire)--Aug. 6, 1998--

XML Based Backoffice for Healthcare Links "Best of Breed" Healthcare Technology Solutions

Sequoia Software Corporation announced today an alliance with MedQuist Inc. (NASDAQ: MEDQ) to create a comprehensive, common medical document repository for healthcare organizations regardless of the data source.

The strategic partnership will allow MedQuist to embed Sequoia Interchange98, a set of back-end technology components including such features as heterogeneous workflow, standard messaging, data distribution, security, and ubiquitous access to information.

Sequoia Interchange98 also packages sought after Microsoft BackOffice(TM) (NASDAQ: MSFT) components for quick, easy intergration and use by the front-end application developer.

Sequoia's partnership with MedQuist will speed to market MedQuist's MTS (a computer-based medical transcription package which incorporates a graphical user interface or GUI) with Sequoia Interchange98, healthcare's first XML server.

The new product package creates a distributed XML data repository enabling healthcare organizations to integrate information generated by MedQuist's MTS with other hospital systems.

The capabilities of the new solution resulting from the MedQuist & Sequoia partnership will save healthcare organizations time and money by allowing them to flexibly manage information generated by disparate applications, as well as, make data more readily accessible to a wide network of physicians, clinicians and administrators using a simple browser interface.

The product package will provide a powerful, universal reporting solution for emergency medicine, pathology, radiology, invasive cardiology and other specialized medical areas. Previously, users were forced to store data from disparate systems in a variety of locations and merge information manually, a costly, time consuming and often frustrating process.

David Cohen, chairman, president and CEO of MedQuist said, "Our alliance with Sequoia will expedite our goal of becoming a total-solution provider to our medical transcription clients, offering a suite of electronic medical transcription and related healthcare information products.

The new combined MedQuist front-end/Sequoia back-end solution will allow us to better serve our existing clients and more effectively penetrate specialized medical areas."

L&H Voice Xpress(TM) To Be Integrated With A-Life's

IntelliScribe(TM) Product for Medical Records Coding

A-Life Medical, Inc., the leader in advanced natural language processing (NLP) technology for the medical industry, today announced that it will add Lernout & Hauspie's (L&H(TM)) L&H Voice Xpress for Medicine speech recognition technology to its IntelliScribe automated medical records coding product.

L&H is a global speech and language technology company.

IntelliScribe is a member of A-Life's growing family of products and is designed for emergency medicine physicians and radiologists to directly dictate medical charts using speech recognition, with real-time automated coding of the text input. Utilizing L&H Voice Xpress for Medicine, IntelliScribe will now enable even faster and more accurate dictation than before.

L&H Voice Xpress for Medicine's speech recognition engine includes a special vocabulary module designed to understand complex medical language for a variety of clinical specialties, including the terminology for emergency medicine, radiology, and internal medicine, among others.

L&H Voice Xpress for Medicine was selected for integration with IntelliScribe because its speech recognition and vocabulary capabilities exceed those of the former competitive recognition engine, improving accuracy and decreasing training time for implementation of the IntelliScribe product.

"We are very excited about our growing relationship with Lernout & Hauspie," said Richard Wesson, president and CEO of A-Life Medical, Inc. "We are confident that L&H Voice Xpress will provide us with increased speech recognition and vocabulary capabilities, adding sophistication, improved accuracy, and speed to our IntelliScribe product. By combining the speed and accuracy of L&H's speech recognition technology and IntelliScribe's real-time automated coding and physician feedback, we are enhancing productivity and dramatically reducing transcription costs for our customers."

"Speech recognition technology is rapidly gaining acceptance in healthcare as a way to reduce transcription costs, reduce report turnaround time, and automate tasks like medical coding," said T. Ivan Mimica, vice president of L&H Healthcare Solutions Group. "By combining our award winning L&H Voice Xpress for Medicine product with their IntelliScribe application, A-Life Medical is breaking new ground in ease of use and productivity for their customers."

Masterpiece Technology Group, Inc. (OTCBB:MPTG) today announced that it signed a Letter of Intent to acquire 100% of the stock of Townsend Medical Management Systems, Inc. Townsend Medical Management Systems, Inc. is a Washington state-based firm that provides practice management systems addressing the needs of today's healthcare providers. Townsend Medical Management's practice management system incorporates integrated scheduling, billing, transcription, inventory control and complete electronic medical record service. The signature of the Townsend system is its scalability, easy-to-use format and its focus on maximizing the medical practice's bottom line. The Company anticipates having in place the web-enabled version of its software during the first quarter of 2000.

The software will offer clients access to their practice management systems on a World-Wide basis, as well as significantly improving the bottom line through a higher operating efficiency model.

Terms of the agreement with the privately held Townsend were not disclosed.

Masterpiece Technology Group President Dr. Newell Crane said, &uot;The acquisition of Townsend is a critical component of the next generation web-enabled software suites we are committed to provide the medical industry. Townsend will complement our current technology portfolio and offer a compelling competitive advantage over other packages now on the market. We also will welcome Dr. Coyne to Masterpiece as its new Director of Medical Software Strategy.&uot;

&uot;Our decision to join Masterpiece Technology Group stems from its commitment to provide the kind of technological excellence that produces a stronger bottom line and builds upon my years of experience as a practicing physician as well as a business manager. I believe that we should be able to contribute approximately $600,000 in revenues over the next twelve months, upon the signing of a definitive agreement,&uot; stated Dr. William Coyne, M.D., President of Townsend Medical.

Dr. Coyne is currently on the Masterpiece Technology Board of Directors.

Masterpiece Technology Group, Inc., an Ohio-based company, (OTCBB:MPTG) provides a suite of comprehensive software and technical software solutions for medical office management, physician financial and clinical outcome analysis and medical practice guidelines.

MINNEAPOLIS -- ProVation(R) Medical announced today that Doctors Hospital, part of the OhioHealth system of hospitals, selected ProVation(R) MD software for Gastroenterology, Pulmonology and Urology procedure documentation and coding compliance. ProVation's Gastroenterology software is currently in use at OhioHealth's Riverside Methodist Hospital and Grant Medical Center locations.

OhioHealth is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit, Columbus-based family of hospitals, health and surgery centers, home-health providers, medical equipment and other health service suppliers located throughout a 46-county area. In 2005 and 2004, OhioHealth was named in the top 100 integrated health networks by Verispan. The "IHN 100" ranks organizations that are using higher degrees of integration to excel clinically and financially.

ProVation(R) MD software for multi-specialty procedure documentation and coding compliance replaces the current dictation/transcription approach and streamlines the coding and billing process. Driven by deep medical content, ProVation MD allows clinicians to quickly and completely document medical procedures and apply the appropriate CPT and ICD codes, as well as CCI edits.

"At OhioHealth, we believe our patients and their families deserve the best possible healthcare experience, and we are committed to the pursuit of excellence in all that we do," said Mary Ann Cain, RN, BSNA, MSA, Director of Perioperative and Women's Health Services at Doctors Hospital. "Technological tools like the ProVation software, which reduce administrative steps and costs and streamline workflow, enable our staff to focus even more on patient care and the overall patient experience."

"OhioHealth is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit health system and a valued ProVation customer," said Mark Wagner, President and CEO, ProVation Medical. "Their decision to expand usage of ProVation software to additional hospitals and medical specialties is validation that our multi-specialty platform is aligned with the key enterprise initiatives of hospitals, health systems and ASCs across the country."

HEALTHvision, Inc. (www.healthvision.com), a leading healthcare Internet company has selected HealthScribe, Inc. (www.healthscribe.com), a leading provider of outsourced medical transcription service to enhance its physician solution suite, CAREvision.

Under the terms of the agreement, HEALTHvision will offer physicians the ability to have their dictated patient reports transcribed by HealthScribe and securely delivered for on-line reviewing, editing, and signature within CAREvision. With HealthScribe, physicians receive timely, high quality transcribed reports, common on-line access and distribution of clinical data, and the ability to maintain current dictating methods. They also get back additional time in their day that can be spent on patient care. Future plans will permit physicians to dictate directly to their PDA devices. This will be offered as a solution in conjunction with the CAREvision suite. Today, most physicians are inundated with paper filled patient charts. HealthScribe's ability to digitally deliver high quality reports to CAREvision, will ultimately help physicians manage workflow and information.

"Seeing and caring for patients is a physician's top priority, and automating office management and operations is key to the entire process," said Scott Decker, CEO of HEALTHvision. "Integrating HealthScribe with CAREvision enables us to increase our service delivery with state-of-the-art Internet-ready capabilities."

Once dictated voice files are uploaded through a secure connection to HealthScribe, HealthScribe's network of experienced medical transcriptionists transcribe the reports with numerous quality control checks taking place throughout the process. HealthScribe conforms to all HIPAA (electronic Transfer and Security) regulations. Promised turn-around times range from 2 to 24 hours, which enables the physician's staff to encode documents and expedite the billing process.

"Our relationship with HEALTHvision will provide physicians an integrated information management tool for accessing their transcribed reports on-line for reviewing and signature," added Mike King, president and CEO of HealthScribe. "This unique process will help streamline physician workflow, reduce overhead costs, and provide more time for patient care."

Information Tool Will Help Hospitals Meet JCAHO Standards

While Eliminating Transcription Costs

Surgical Information Systems announces the release of Surgeon's Notes, a new Paradigm software solution for the O.R. that will significantly improve hospitals' adherence to JCAHO Standards while saving an average of $30.00-$40.00 per case for most hospitals on surgery-related transcription costs.

Surgeon's Notes allows surgeons to create an Operative Report immediately following surgery, without the use of dictation or transcription, in less than 3 minutes of the surgeon's time. The software module is part of an integrated information system that covers "The Whole Operation," from pre-admissions through recovery.

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' (JCAHO) Information Management Standards require that an operative report be written or dictated in the medical record immediately after surgery (IM 7.3.2), and that the record be authenticated, or signed, by the surgeon immediately (IM 7.3.2.1) in order to manage the patient throughout the postoperative period and ensure that pertinent information is available to the next caregiver. Based on the number of hospitals receiving JCAHO Type 1 recommendations, indicating insufficient or unsatisfactory compliance, it is apparent that meeting the standards is not always easy. Surgeon's Notes provides a quick, effortless way for surgeons to complete this task.

Axolotl Corporation, a leading provider of Web-based applications that connect physicians to the entire healthcare continuum, and Straub Clinic & Hospital, Honolulu, Hawaii, announced today the successful rollout of Elysium Clinical Messaging and Workflow to affiliated physicians in Hawaii. The Elysium suite of integrated Web-based applications connects all of Straub's physicians and delivers electronic transcriptions and lab and radiology results. On-line access to patient information has enabled better patient care and management of data.

"We're tremendously pleased with the step-by-step approach the Elysium system is providing for building a full electronic medical record. The physicians and staff have eagerly adopted Clinical Messaging and have asked us to explore Elysium's wireless options," said Donna Lortrakul, Administrator, Information Services and Technology for Straub. "The Clinic is already realizing savings in the transcription and billing departments."

Elysium's workflow capabilities enable Straub physicians to electronically receive and annotate lab and radiology results and sign transcriptions on-line. In addition, repetitive workflow processes are automated allowing physicians with a one-button mouse click to send a result with instructions to their medical assistants for immediate follow up.

"Physicians are using the system to electronically sign transcriptions and deliver them to our Health Information Management Department (HIM) for filing into the medical records," said Vanessa Duplechain, Director of HIM -- who is encouraged by the efficiency of the system. "It used to be a lengthy, manual process to get dictated reports signed and into the HIM department for filing. Now with Elysium, signed documents are delivered within minutes, and are available for viewing by others needing access to the information. Axolotl is allowing Straub to streamline and become more efficient as we prepare to move to the next step of an electronic medical record."

"Straub Clinic & Hospital is moving full speed ahead," said Ray Scott, CTO of Axolotl Corp. "Straub's physicians and staff are leading Hawaii in the electronic revolution. The efficiency and time savings generated by Elysium will allow Straub physicians to greatly improve the quality of patient care."