Saturday, March 15, 2008
Translating Medical Terms And The Requirement For Translation Services
When we are injured, sick, or generally in need of medical assistance, we take it for granted that once we have reached a point of healthcare distribution, our needs will be expertly seen to. Even when the cause of distress is an emergency situation, we assume that all we need to do is to communicate the nature of our mishap and an expert will solve all our woes.
Imagine though, not being able to communicate that you were in severe pain, or that you couldn't move your leg, or even the circumstances that led up to your accident. The Doctor would lack the necessary background to make a proper assessment and subsequently his diagnosis might be inaccurate.
There are ever growing numbers of UK residents who speak a language other than English in their homes and who have limited proficiency in English. In the U.S. the last reported figures for similar statistics were that out of the total population, around 45 million people's first language was not English and out of these, about 18 million had limited proficiency in English. There are no figures available for the UK, however, as can be surmised; this is leading to growing problems of communication between healthcare providers and patients.
As well as the problem outlined above, which is one of interpretation, this also extends into another dimension, that of document translation. Ever increasing volumes of patient case notes, research notes and other medical documentation are arriving from foreign medical establishments, or need to be sent to establishments abroad and this throws up a unique set of problems.
Any medical data has to be translated precisely and accurately, however, problems can easily arise when attempting to translate medical terms as there is often no direct equivalency in terms. Put in a much simpler way: language is universal but medical terms are not.
The solution to medical translations lays in the use of medical translation specialists. These firms employ dually qualified translators to cut through the confusing terminology of medical terms to reach a coherent and accurate rendering of the source text.
The medical translators in question will all have a language qualification but in addition, will all be qualified in the medical field as well; it is just as well that this is so, as most medical tracts are indecipherable to non-medical staff, even when written in English.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Translating Medical Terms And The Requirement For Translation Services
When we are injured, sick, or generally in need of medical assistance, we take it for granted that once we have reached a point of healthcare distribution, our needs will be expertly seen to. Even when the cause of distress is an emergency situation, we assume that all we need to do is to communicate the nature of our mishap and an expert will solve all our woes.
Imagine though, not being able to communicate that you were in severe pain, or that you couldn't move your leg, or even the circumstances that led up to your accident. The Doctor would lack the necessary background to make a proper assessment and subsequently his diagnosis might be inaccurate.
There are ever growing numbers of UK residents who speak a language other than English in their homes and who have limited proficiency in English. In the U.S. the last reported figures for similar statistics were that out of the total population, around 45 million people's first language was not English and out of these, about 18 million had limited proficiency in English. There are no figures available for the UK, however, as can be surmised; this is leading to growing problems of communication between healthcare providers and patients.
As well as the problem outlined above, which is one of interpretation, this also extends into another dimension, that of document translation. Ever increasing volumes of patient case notes, research notes and other medical documentation are arriving from foreign medical establishments, or need to be sent to establishments abroad and this throws up a unique set of problems.
Any medical data has to be translated precisely and accurately, however, problems can easily arise when attempting to translate medical terms as there is often no direct equivalency in terms. Put in a much simpler way: language is universal but medical terms are not.
The solution to medical translations lays in the use of medical translation specialists. These firms employ dually qualified translators to cut through the confusing terminology of medical terms to reach a coherent and accurate rendering of the source text.
The medical translators in question will all have a language qualification but in addition, will all be qualified in the medical field as well; it is just as well that this is so, as most medical tracts are indecipherable to non-medical staff, even when written in English.
Medical Outsourcing - First Aid For Rising Health Costs
Thousands of American businesses, no matter their sector, have turned to outsourcing in recent years as a way to reduce their costs without cutting back on the services which they offer to their customers. Outsourcing non-essential parts of their operations allows them to concentrate on the essential ones, and most often, they outsource work to laborers in developing countries
Those companies choosing outsource outside of their own countries will either find a local subcontractor to supply workers, or establish a company branch in the chosen country, selecting a location with an abundance of qualified, inexpensive workers. As soon as these workers have been trained in the jobs being outsourced, the company can expect to see its labor costs reduced, and because it can hire more workers and still get a cost savings, the speed and reliability with which its work is done will improve.
Medical Transcription
Medical outsourcing is becoming more and more common, and most medical outsourcing is of medical transcription jobs. Medical transcription an IT based process of which requires transcribers, with specially designed software, to translate into digital text the voce dictated patient histories and medical treatment records they receive from medical firms. Because medical transcription must be absolutely accurate, it requires excellent listening skills.
Medical outsourcing of transcription is most often given to outsource providers in Israel, the Philippines, and India. Their location in time zones different from those of the US means that they can return the completed transcription in timeframes advantageous to US health care providers. And more importantly, Indian medical outsourcing providers can work very cheaply when compared to transcribers in the US, saving US hospitals millions, if not billions, of dollars each year.
Other Medical Outsourcing
Medical outsourcing, however, is not limited to transcription services. Billing, claims processing, and coding, as well as remote medical and medical help desk services are all outsourced, to the tune of two hundred billion a year when the global numbers are totaled. As the cost of healthcare continues to soar, healthcare facilities and related industries like laboratories have simply turned to medical outsourcing in poorer countries and in the process saved as much as seventy percent their associated expenses.
Medical outsourcing, in fact, has grown to include the clinical trials associated with bringing new drugs to market. The problem with this is that many countries to whom the drug companies have turned in order to save research costs do not have the same government oversight of such trials as the ES and European countries do. While the pharmaceutical companies slash their expenses, many people have questions about the safety of the drugs which result from these trials.
Medical Outsourcing - First Aid For Rising Health Costs
Those companies choosing outsource outside of their own countries will either find a local subcontractor to supply workers, or establish a company branch in the chosen country, selecting a location with an abundance of qualified, inexpensive workers. As soon as these workers have been trained in the jobs being outsourced, the company can expect to see its labor costs reduced, and because it can hire more workers and still get a cost savings, the speed and reliability with which its work is done will improve.
Medical Transcription
Medical outsourcing is becoming more and more common, and most medical outsourcing is of medical transcription jobs. Medical transcription an IT based process of which requires transcribers, with specially designed software, to translate into digital text the voce dictated patient histories and medical treatment records they receive from medical firms. Because medical transcription must be absolutely accurate, it requires excellent listening skills.
Medical outsourcing of transcription is most often given to outsource providers in Israel, the Philippines, and India. Their location in time zones different from those of the US means that they can return the completed transcription in timeframes advantageous to US health care providers. And more importantly, Indian medical outsourcing providers can work very cheaply when compared to transcribers in the US, saving US hospitals millions, if not billions, of dollars each year.
Other Medical Outsourcing
Medical outsourcing, however, is not limited to transcription services. Billing, claims processing, and coding, as well as remote medical and medical help desk services are all outsourced, to the tune of two hundred billion a year when the global numbers are totaled. As the cost of healthcare continues to soar, healthcare facilities and related industries like laboratories have simply turned to medical outsourcing in poorer countries and in the process saved as much as seventy percent their associated expenses.
Medical outsourcing, in fact, has grown to include the clinical trials associated with bringing new drugs to market. The problem with this is that many countries to whom the drug companies have turned in order to save research costs do not have the same government oversight of such trials as the ES and European countries do. While the pharmaceutical companies slash their expenses, many people have questions about the safety of the drugs which result from these trials.
Medical Outsourcing - First Aid For Rising Health Costs
Those companies choosing outsource outside of their own countries will either find a local subcontractor to supply workers, or establish a company branch in the chosen country, selecting a location with an abundance of qualified, inexpensive workers. As soon as these workers have been trained in the jobs being outsourced, the company can expect to see its labor costs reduced, and because it can hire more workers and still get a cost savings, the speed and reliability with which its work is done will improve.
Medical Transcription
Medical outsourcing is becoming more and more common, and most medical outsourcing is of medical transcription jobs. Medical transcription an IT based process of which requires transcribers, with specially designed software, to translate into digital text the voce dictated patient histories and medical treatment records they receive from medical firms. Because medical transcription must be absolutely accurate, it requires excellent listening skills.
Medical outsourcing of transcription is most often given to outsource providers in Israel, the Philippines, and India. Their location in time zones different from those of the US means that they can return the completed transcription in timeframes advantageous to US health care providers. And more importantly, Indian medical outsourcing providers can work very cheaply when compared to transcribers in the US, saving US hospitals millions, if not billions, of dollars each year.
Other Medical Outsourcing
Medical outsourcing, however, is not limited to transcription services. Billing, claims processing, and coding, as well as remote medical and medical help desk services are all outsourced, to the tune of two hundred billion a year when the global numbers are totaled. As the cost of healthcare continues to soar, healthcare facilities and related industries like laboratories have simply turned to medical outsourcing in poorer countries and in the process saved as much as seventy percent their associated expenses.
Medical outsourcing, in fact, has grown to include the clinical trials associated with bringing new drugs to market. The problem with this is that many countries to whom the drug companies have turned in order to save research costs do not have the same government oversight of such trials as the ES and European countries do. While the pharmaceutical companies slash their expenses, many people have questions about the safety of the drugs which result from these trials.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Common Questions to Ask When Choosing a Medical Transcription Company
Outsourcing of medical transcription services has experienced a steady growth in the last few years as hospitals and clinics come to a greater realization of outsourcing's strategic benefits. Combined with an increased shortage of medical transcriptionists as well as the emergence of increased technical capabilities, hospitals who are deciding to outsource are seeing many overall financial and customer service advantages.
With the increased ease of entry for new transcription companies into the marketplace, many different factors will determine how each will fit within an organization. How does the medical transcription company measure quality? Do they understand the impact they have on patient safety? How do they price? How do they reconcile invoices? Can they deliver the document on the timing physicians require? What processes do they have in place to meet the security requirements for protected health information? Do they have a platform in place to accommodate speech recognition technologies? These are some of the important questions to ask while making a decision that will affect an organization's overall profitability, and below are the answers that will help you when determining what company meets your needs and helps you achieve your goals without sacrificing important factors like quality, turnaround times and customer service.
How do the Medical Transcription Service Organizations (MTSOs) differ?
The outsourced medical transcription industry is fragmented and companies vary from small, locally owned operations to large international companies. MTSOs are different based upon technology, scalability, quality approach and focus, customer service processes, executive involvement and the ability to respond to and resolve issues. As your organization is thinking about partnering with an MTSO, you will want to carefully consider organizational goals and objectives and match them to the MTSO that best meets your company's needs.
What will it cost?
You can avoid surprises by thoroughly understanding the cost and units for billing at the offset. There are two standard ways to price transcription - Visual Black Character (VBC) and standard price per line. MTSOs have appeared to move more toward VBC in the last few years, as the benefits to the business have been growing. MTSOs choose to utilize VBC pricing as it gives their customers a greater ability to audit and verify their costs. In order to determine which cost/pricing strategy works better for your organization, it should give any prospective MTSOs a package that includes the company's existing reports that may help to set the future cost standard.
How does the MTSO guard protected health information?
Whether your MTSO keeps work within the United States or sends it offshore, it is important to determine how sensitive health information will be protected and whether the company has already established processes for handling health information. How is the work audited and how are these people trained to ensure they comply with all security standards? How are quality checks performed and have any others experienced security issues? If it is an offshore home-based model, are vendors required to sign a business associate agreement?
How are MTs assigned to my work?
Try to find out how MTs are assigned work. Does the MTSO have specialists for certain work types, or is there a general pool of MTs to perform various transcription specialties? Would the account have dedicated MTs assigned specifically to certain work types, or will they differ on a regular basis? Dedicated MTs will be able to become more familiar with individual physicians, their speaking patterns and the types of reports they perform, thus eliminating language barriers and transcription errors.
What type of support structure do they provide?
What is the overall structure of their customer service process? Will your company be able to reach its personal representative at any time, or will it be directed to a general 800 number? When it does call in, whom does the call go to and how quickly? Is the IT staff educated to help with varying technical issues and are they easily accessible and timely in their response?
What type of tools/technology do they provide?
The transcription industry is in the midst of an overhaul of its technology capabilities. Staying on top of these trends and learning to differentiate between each company's capabilities will ensure that the right company is chosen to meet personal business needs. Look closely at the capabilities available to distribute, track and capture inbound dictation and outbound reports. Find out if that technology will work for the physicians at your company and where they will be able to access that information. If the MTSO is utilizing a third-party for this technology, will it affect the timeliness of resolving issues? Also, if your organization changes its scope of work, does the MTSO have the appropriate technology in place for speech recognition and electronic health records should the need arise?
How do they ensure quality?
The need for quality work continues to far surpass other transcription needs. What is the quality assurance process? How quickly will the MTSO resolve quality issues, and if the work is unacceptable and fails to meets requirements within the service agreement what processes are in place to receive timely compensation? Is the MTSO currently analyzing their quality structure and taking steps to ensure all MTs are thoroughly trained and their suppliers are regularly audited? How are MTs held accountable? What training takes place? Are MTs organized in narrow work pools by specialty?
How are bills reconciled?
Some companies are focused on pricing transparency, which will allow the organization to be continually aware of any and all charges it will be responsible for. Some companies have a system in place that allows reports to be run in real time, thus allowing their customers to reconcile bills at any time. Find out how the process works and how you will be charged.
How difficult will the MTSO processes be to implement?
Ask how easily the MTSO technology will be to integrate into the organization. Is there an implementation team? How is service maintained once the technology implementation is complete?
About Heartland Information Services
Heartland Information Services specializes in high-quality, full-service medical transcription providing financial and service advantages that helps its clients reach or exceed goals. Heartland provides unparalleled efficiency, reliability and management capabilities while interfacing with virtually any health information system and software. Heartland's corporate headquarters is located in Toledo, Ohio, with work centers in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune and Delhi, India. Heartland Information Services can help you answer these questions.
Visit http://www.heartlandis.com or call 866-277-3199 to find out more about Heartland's quality transcription work and how they can help your organization reach its financial and business goals.
Medical Transcription - Physician Dictation Services
Medical Transcription involves the transformation to text variant of taped SOAP notes. The recording of SOAP notes is done by medical practices but the process of transcriptioning is left to the professionals as that operation can take away all the time and resources of a medical center.
On the face of it, all it seems to need is a word processing software and a dictation recording player. Still, a truly professed medical transcription service will go further than that. It will be instrumental in effective management of amount of SOAP notes that are supplied by the medical offices, along with ably tracking and storing it.
A medical transcription project has to be executed as per the succeeding steps. Foremost, accept recording tapes from the medical practice, transcribe the first SOAP notes duplicate, save it and do the aforesaid task for the whole batch of SOAP notes recordings. Now, crosscheck the transcripts for errors and transport transcript back to the medical practice.
A point to note is that medical transcription itself is of myriad types distinguished by the specialty of medicine as well as the variety of reports transcribed. We have host of MT types like Radiology reports transcription, Cardiology reports transcription, H&P reports transcription, Surgery notes transcription, Lab reports Transcription etc.
As can be seen plainly, medical transcription occupation can be done from homes too. This means that those who have family constraints of staying at home as well as pressing business needs, can surely opt for the activity of medical transcription.
Outsourcing of Medical Transcription Duties
One of the largest growing sectors of the medical field is that of medical transcriptionists. Hospitals, clinics and doctors offices require the doctors’ words to be put into writing for patients’ files and other documentation purposes. In addition, a most hospitals require it to be in digital format. Hence, the need has arisen for people to translate doctors’ oral reports into digital documents.
Although employed secretaries often do this job, it is quickly becoming big as an area for outsourcing. When outsourcing, the transcription can actually be done more quickly than it can in-house. This is because the outsourcing firm or individual devotes full time to the assignment, while a secretary is constantly interrupted with phone calls and other duties.
In a time of growing interest in home-based businesses, these two needs have merged. Many people make a good living from their home computer typing up medical transcripts. It’s a job that pays well. However, this isn’t an easy job. Specialized training and experience are required. If you have it, you’re in demand. Recent years have shown an increase in demand for medical transcriptionists, but a smaller supply. Therefore, it’s a ripe field for the entrepreneur.
As a outsourcing medical transcriptionist, you would be providing services to medical facilities of all types who outsource this activity. You don’t even have to live in close proximity, as long as you have a reliable computer and Internet connection. They will send you an audio file and you type it up, making sure each word is clear and spelled correctly. It is crucial that it be accurate, as this will serve as the doctor’s documentation.
Many American and foreign companies alike are getting on board and offering medical transcription services. In the U.S., it’s usually existing medical companies that offer these services to other medical facilities. Asian companies are the target of many other American health care institutions for outsourcing their transcription needs.
As an industry, it is growing particularly quickly in India and the Philippines, where labor costs are significantly cheaper. Some estimate it is the 4th largest outsourcing industry in India. It’s gaining ground in the Philippines, where it is one of the government’s top 10 priority growth sectors. It is particularly suited to this field because of the Filipino high literacy rate, proficiency in English and medical training. The population of both countries has always been adept at information technology.
Research shows that the U.S. spent $2.3 billion in 2004 for medical transcription outsourcing services. That number is expected to grow to $4.2 billion in 2008. Worldwide, the U.S. Department of Labor has projected the demand for medical transcriptionists to reach $20 billion.
The demand is there, at least for now. If you’ve always dreamed of your own business and are willing to be trained, go to the Internet and do a search on “medical transcription training”. Research several different courses and choose which one suits you and your present circumstances. You’ll be your own boss making a decent income all from home in no time!
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