Healthcare Informatics posted a brief article in regards to a new Orem, Utah-based KLAS Medical Transcription Services Organizations (MTSO) report.  The data from the report shows a decline in MTSOs using offshore medical transcription services.

38% of the 400 MTSOs surveyed said they used offshore transcription services in 2007, and this year, the number has dropped 3 points to 35%.

KLAS also reported that “quality, turnaround time and cost continue to be the main drivers for engagements in this market segment…Adding that healthcare providers are faced with growing dictation volumes, a shrinking transcription labor force, and rising costs due to the influx of new technologies being introduced to hospitals.”

Click here to read the entire post: KLAS: MTSO Use of Offshore Transcription Services Dropping

In the last quarter of 2007, a research team at the Bentley College (Waltham, MA) implemented a new study to help understand the role of medical transcription within in the healthcare industry.  The preliminary results of the 2007 Survey of Medical Transcriptionists were shared at the AHDI/MTIA Advocacy Summit in May 2008.  The survey’s results are based on 3809 generated responses from an online survey created by the Bentley College research team in conjunction with representatives from the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI). 

PRN Funding wanted to share a few of the study’s preliminary findings:

1.Much like the rest of the workforce, medical transcriptionists (MTs) are aging quickly and   recruiting younger replacements is a real concern. 

2. Medical transcription is a predominately female profession in the United States.  Globally, however, there is a higher representation of men working in the field.

3. 41 percent of the survey respondents never completed college, but MTs have a strong desire to continue learning, especially when it comes to medical subject matter.  (It’s important to note here that the majority of older MTs entered the workforce before medical transcription training programs existed.)

4. One of the continued challenges to attracting new medical transcriptionists to the profession is the inability to make sustainable wages.

5. One of the primary challenges for MTs is how they are compensated, which is usually per production unit or “per line.”  With the introduction of speech-recognition technology, more medical transcriptionists are being paid as “editors,” which decreases their per unit pay because it’s expected that “reading” is easier than “typing.” 

6. Medical transcriptionists work in a number of different environments.  The largest percentage of MTs (39.3 percent) work for a healthcare institution.  However, 54.1 percent work in association with a Medical Transcription Service Owner (MTSO)-24.7 percent as independent contractors, 6.1 percent as medical transcription service owners, and 24 percent as an employee of an MTSO.

7. Regardless of who they work for, the majority of medical transcriptionists work from home.  This type of situation presents challenges in terms of how to create and maintain an effective workforce.

8. Most medical transcriptionists (58.9 percent of the survey respondents) transcribe for multiple doctors from multiple hospitals and/or practices.  Due to the lack of standardized reporting formats, MTs must learn a wide range of document styles and protocols.

The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) is proactively reaching out to NextGen medical transcriptionists to combat a pending medical transcription workforce and recruitment challenge. AHDI believes the healthcare documentation industry “will soon reach a critical point of disconnect with the demands of an evolving healthcare delivery system – a system that will continue to seek other documentation solutions to meet the high-volume documentation needs that are anticipated in health care as Baby Boomers enter the long-term care continuum” and Baby Boomer medical transcription workforce enters retirement. 

AHDI feels so strongly about attracting next-generation documentation specialists into the profession that they have developed an entire campaign around it, Next Gen Campaign for 2008. Partering with the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA), the two medical transcription trade associations are encouraging its medical transcription business owners to help them raise awareness and recruit Next Gen medical transcriptionists. 

For your convenience, we’ve included a bullet-point list of AHDI’s ideas to help promote MT awareness: 

·         Host an open informational event for the general public to educate them about the profession and the career.

·         Participate in a local high school or community college career fair to recruit interested candidates into the profession and guide them to the right career information and selection of an approved-school program.

·         Host a military spouse informational meeting at a local military institution or military base.

·         Host a reception, preferably during National Medical Transcriptionist Week (May 18-24, 2008), for all local students, recent graduates, and new MTs to encourage their membership and involvement in AHDI.

In addition, healthcare documentation specialists and MTSOs are encouraged to enter the I Love My Career contest, and wear AHDI’s eye-catching recruitment button “I Love My Career…Ask Me Why?” to educate the general public about a career in healthcare documentation and to point interested individuals to the career information found at the AHDI website.

Click here to learn more about AHDI’s Next Gen Campaign and MTWeek.

As part of AHDI’s 2008 Next Gen Campaign, the organization dedicated to serving healthcare documentation professionals is holding an “I Love My Career” contest on YouTube.

According to AHDI’s Web site, AHDI members are encouraged to come view these videos and vote on their favorite, most creative video. The winner will receive a copy of The Book of Style for Medical Transcription, 3rd Edition and have their video highlighted at the AHDI Annual Convention and Expo in Orlando, Florida, in August of 2008.

All other videos will be shown throughout the convention in attendee areas and will be compiled into a “testimonial” video that can be used by AHDI components to promote the profession during Next Gen events in 2008.

Click here to learn more and tell the world Why I Love My Career.

AHDI-MTIA is putting on the third annual advocacy summit in Washington D.C. during National Medical Transcription Week this year (May 15-17). This major event has a history of attracting over 100 of the top leaders and movers and shakers of the medical transcription industry. So registering for the event is a surefire way to show your support of the rapidly changing role of the healthcare documentation specialist.

Click here to learn more about the third annual Advocacy Summit.

Click here to register for the Advocacy Summit.

PRN Funding has been a strong supporter of MTStars.com, and we’ve followed them all the way to their brand new web site, www.GoMDT.com.

We encourage our readers to check out the new and improved site. Surf the forums, post an open position, browse some of the products available at the online store, or read up on the latest medical transcription industry news. You can even enter goMDT’s Spring Fling Giveaway and have a chance to win prizes, including a PRN Funding stadium blanket.

From March 1-April 30, AHDI, formerly AAMT, is sponsoring a kickoff contest to promote membership growth. The goal of the contest is to gain 540 new members to generate new energy and momentum at all levels of the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity.

As an active supporter of AHDI, PRN Funding encourages medical transcription service owners to join the association. Not to mention, there are some great prizes being given away to the winners.

Click here for more information on the 2008 AHDI Membership Contest or click here to complete the AHDI application form.

We received a briefing the other day from the AHDI-MTIA partnership and it looks like they have been hard at work since they partnered in May 2007.  Here’s a glimpse of some of the current initiatives:

TROTTS, also known as Transcribed Report Optimum Turnaround Time, revolves around a study of both HIM directors/supervisors and MTSO managers/supervisors to measure their experiences with turnaround times (TAT), whether or not that time meets their needs and to help understand medical transcription industry challenges, financial impacts, as well as the impact of offshore medical transcription and Electronic Health Records (EHR).  This group will publish a White Paper that will establish defininitions and standards for TAT and will demonstrate how both the use of specific standards and turnaround time affect clinical decision-making.

ASRT (Automated Speech Recognition Technology Workgroup) is currently working on a type of “buyer’s guide to speech recognition technology,” which is scheduled to be completed in August 2008.

CDA4CDT, or the Clinical Document Architecture for Common Document Types brought together a large group of medical transcription industry stakeholders to help establish a common document architecture to preserve the narrative report component of histories, consultations, etc.  Within a year, the CDA4CDT group plans to make five mayor reports available: H&P, Consultations, Discharge Summary, Op Note and Imaging.

A QA Best Practices document is being put together which includes official verification of methods and sampling and still offers a methose to define errors in documentation in a numerical point system and also looks at the impact of time and cost involved with achieving quality assurance.  In addition, CEO Preziosi will eventually seek endorsement from The Joint Commission with a fully endorsed paper to follow in the fall.

Again, PRN Funding is excited about the partnership between MTIA and AHDI and the progress that it has made for the medical transcription industry during its first year is amazing.  We look forward to hearing more good news from them in the future.

As early as March, the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) will release the 3rd edition of The Book of Style for Medical Transcription.

The most recent edition of this widely acclaimed medical transcription industry standards manual comes with a boatload of new features.  Among the many changes, the AHDI web site highlights a reorganized layout for easier reference lookup, enhanced explanation of standards and practical application, robust examples taken from clinical medicine settings, and so much more.

Orders for the latest edition of the medical transcription stylus book are being taken now, with delivery dates occurring in March 2008.  AHDI also anticipates a subscription-based electronic release of the edition by the end of the year.

Click here to learn more about The Book of Style for Medical Transcription and how to pre-order it.