The Medical Transcription Industry Association will be holding a MTIA Member Reception at the upcoming AHIMA Conference. MTIA plans to share their plans to revamp the medical transcription association’s membership experience.

The meeting with be held at the Gaylord Texan Hotel on Sunday, October 4 in Pecos 3 room on the Lobby Level from 6:30pm-7:30pm.

Phil Cohen, CEO of PRN Funding, LLC, recently wrote a piece for the August 2009 edition of Health Data Matrix (the business and technology journal of AHDI and MTIA).  From pages 18-20 in the journal, Cohen outlined five questions every medical transcription service owner (MTSO) should ask their factoring company.  The questions are listed below:

1. Do you understand the medical transcription industry?
2. How flexible is your factoring program?
3. How long will it take to get my questions answered?
4. How long have you been in business?
5. What are your fees?

These questions don’t just apply to MTSOs; all health care vendors should ask these questions to become comfortable with their factoring firm.

Lea M. Sims, a CMT with AHDI, recently wrote a an article for AdvanceWeb.com detailing the fast-changing future of medical transcription and what industry insiders can do to keep up.  With health care reform slated to be passed before the end of the year, the Association of Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) has been endorsing the crucial role that health care documentation specialists play within the industry.  These professionals are responsible for capturing and documenting patient encounter information.  The future of this industry is uncertain, however AHDI has been promoting that Capitol Hill includes this critical part of the health care system into the final bill that is signed towards the end of 2009.

Technologies such as the electronic health record (EHR) and speech recognition technology (SRT) are evolving faster than ever.  AHDI’s newest campaign, called Knowledge is Everything, calls on students, postgraduates, and MTs in the industry to stay connected and up-to-date. The organization is suggesting that everyone in the industry complete the following 5 tasks (if they haven’t already):

• Graduate from an ACCP-approved school
• Earn your registered medical transcriptionist (RMT) credential upon graduation
• Subscribe to Benchmark KB to stay informed within the industry
• Become a member of AHDI
• Embrace level II credentialing through the certified medical transcriptionist credentialing program

Click here to read Sims’ entire article: Knowledge is Everything

Even though medical transcription is an integral part of the health care system, the process can become tedious and boring for the people transcribing.  The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) and the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) are currently updating their “Metrics for Measuring Quality in Medical Transcription”, which is slated for a fall debut.  If you cannot wait a couple more months, Cheryl McEvoy of Advance’s Journal for Health Information Professionals, has you covered with tips for improving health documentation.  Below is a summary of her advice:

Rushing: Do not focus on your speed while transcribing.  Accuracy is the most important part of documentation and typing faster does not improve the quality of the document.  According to Barb Marques, President of AHDI, you can improve your pace without sacrificing quality by building templates around each doctor that has a customary way of dictating specific sections.  However, don’t assume that every dictation will be standardized and be sure to listen to each one carefully.

Zoning Out: Marques says that transcriptionists should be actively engaged while at work.  You need to be extremely focused on what you are typing and if it actually makes sense within the context of the document.

Distractions: This is mainly a problem for MTs who work from home.  Instead of working from the living room with the TV on and your kids running around, find a quiet area in the house to get your work done.  Also, have quality head phones and a comfortable chair to make the experience enjoyable.

Blanks: Sometimes there are spots where we cannot decipher what the doctor said.  Don’t worry about it, and continue with the rest of the document.  By the end, you should have a better grasp of the context of the document so you can go back and try to fill in these blanks. 

Errors: Donna Brosmer, a quality officer at Spheris in Franklin, TN strongly encourages MTs to proofread their work.  It doesn’t take too long to go over the work you have done.  By doing so, you can eliminate grammatical errors and typos and avoid mistakes with drug names and doses.  She also advises to get in the habit of seeing errors by searching for errors in signs or restaurant menus. 

Falling Short: It is unlikely to achieve perfection in every document you produce.  However, striving towards a perfect score is commendable.  Ask your quality assurance supervisor for regular and timely feedback.  You should look to accept constructive criticism from your QA supervisor to improve your work.

In preparation for their 31st Annual Convention and Expo, the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity is asking its members to generate video welcome messages.  AHDI is encouraging members who plan on attending ACE09 as well as companies that will not be able to appear at the show to contribute.

The video should be 1-2 minutes long and include a welcome message to ACE attendees.  Webcam video is the only format that will be accepted.  Once you are finished recording, upload the video to AHDI’s FTP folder (more details below).  Also, download a free FTP solution program, such as FileZilla for Firefox users, so that you can upload your video. 

Address: ftp.aamt.org    Username: AHDIVideo      

Password: acemovies      Port: 21  

As the technology used by medical transcriptionists changes, so too does the type of work throughout the profession.  Because of this, many medical transcriptionists argue that the term “medical transcription” is outdated and no longer represents the constantly evolving types of work in the industry.  

Due of the broad nature of the field and emerging technologies, the U.S. Department of Labor has asked the medical transcription industry to come up with a new title for the profession.

For those MTSOs and medical transcriptionists who are interested in taking the survey and adding your input, click here: Medical Transcription Career Title Survey

Stephen Denick, national director of sales for Outsourcing Solutions Inc., recently published a short ‘buyer’s guide’ for Advance Web about partnering with an offshore medical transcription service.  Below is a summary of his questions to consider when hiring an offshore medical transcription service:

• Economies of scale? Going overseas is a risk in itself, but the fact is your company could save money.  Make sure your offshore partner has up-to-date technology, plenty of resources, proper quality assurance (QA), and good communication.
• How can the production process help me? Overseas transcriptionists are working while you are sleeping.  Turnaround times can be faster offshore and new technologies such as speech recognition can ease the language barrier.
• What are their security safeguards? Make sure your MTSO has proper internet and computer safety guidelines in place.  Also ask if they perform workstation audits to ensure operations are running smoothly. 
• Will the work be done out of a central facility or via home-based transcription? Home-based transcription abroad is very different from here in the states.  Make sure your MTSO has a central location where the transcribing is performed. 
• Does the company sub-contract work out? Your MTSO should not sub-contract without your permission.  Ask about the review process of documentation and how many times it is checked over before it gets to you.
• What is their technical competency? Ask you IT team to do a little investigative work to see what kinds of IT practices are in place overseas.
• How’s your communication with your vendor? Ultimately, if you cannot understand the person on the phone, do not sign up with the company.  It is important that language barriers are kept to a minimum and that the people answering the phones are fluent in English. 

Click here to read the entire article: Heading Offshore? Tips for Researching Your MTSO.