The job of a medical transcriptionist is rather unique. The work of listening, interpreting, writing, and organizing the medical records is different from any other career. It is important that a medical transcriptionist understands the different aspects and medical terminologies and is sound in anatomy, physiology, grammar, language, and basic computer knowledge. However Medical Transcriptionist does not blindly transcribe voice files into blocks of text. He listens to the word files, analysis the same and arranges all information in standard formats as per the physician’s requirement.
The need for medical transcriptionists will exist for a long time but it is important that they are updated with the latest developments. The role of a medical transcriptionist has changed over the years and is now no longer limited to only transcribing. The medical transcriptionist must now be skilled to proofread reports and edit voice recognition draft reports as well. The increase in demand of healthcare services is expected to bolster the demand for Medical Transcriptionists in an otherwise declining scenario.Due to new technologies, such as speech recognition software being developed and used today, there has been a drastic change in the medical transcription field. To stay updated with these changes and developments one must be ready to accept and follow new trends. In order to be in demand professional, the medical transcriptionist needs to keep himself updated on all the latest developments and be willing to multitask by not limiting himself to transcribing alone.
In the last few years India has shown amazing success in the field of outsourced medical transcription business. Largely because of the large pool of well-educated professionals, Internet revolution, favorable government policies and other changes that have catapulted India to the top position, as a quality source.
India is one of the most favored destinations for outsourced medical transcription; this is evident from the strong market share it has in medical transcription outsourcing mainly because of its large pool of young, educated and productive workforce. The dominant use of English as the main medium of communication is another cause for India’s traditional edge in medical transcription outsourcing.
Exposure to English language and the influence of western media in younger generation by means of movies, TV channels and books makes the average Indian familiar with the American usage and accent. Along with best-in-class medical transcription, training methodologies shore up the inherent advantage that India offers in medical transcription outsourcing.
The Medical Transcription business in India, largely depends on business and revenues generated from the health care hospitals and institutions in the United States. As Americans focus on curbing down the outsourced business, it is perceived that the Industry would suffer a setback. Contrary to this notion, experts in this area expect to secure greater business, especially from the hospitals within India. In the coming years as the health insurance business booms, the need for documented healthcare requirements automatically drives the growth of the Medical Transcription industry. It’s all set to gain greater acceptance among the people in India and other Asian countries.
Medical transcription industry has always been one of the fastest growing industries in the healthcare domain for a very long time. It was valued at around $41 billion back in 2012 and this figure is estimated to reach a staggering $60 billion by 2019, by growing at a steady CAGR of 5.6%. This massive growth is attributed to the large increase in the number of companies outsourcing medical transcription.
The global medical transcription services market is known to be highly competitive and challenging and is predicted to grow much faster in the coming years due to the rise in healthcare automation services in most regions of the world. To stay ahead in the competition, companies need to embrace the changes in the market and follow the trends and predictions of the outsourcing field.
A Medical Scribe Specialist is essentially a real-time personal assistant to the physician, performing documentation in the Electronic Health Record system, gathering information for the patient’s visit, and partnering with the physician to deliver the pinnacle of efficient patient care and electronic payment processing.
Many physicians report that working with medical scribes—who assist with administrative tasks during patient visits, such as by entering information into EHRs—enables them to spend more of their time caring for more patients.
Little research exists, however, on whether employing scribes leads to a large enough boost to physician productivity to save hospitals money on the whole, or how the presence of scribes affects patient safety.
To help close the research gap, Katherine Walker, director of emergency medicine research for Cabrini Hospital, and her colleagues randomly assigned medical scribes to 88 doctors in five EDs in Australia between November 2016 and January 2018. The study was the first multicenter, randomized study to evaluate scribes’ impact on physician productivity or patient safety incidents.
Researchers collected data from 589 shifts with scribes and 3,296 shifts without scribes. The researchers also tracked self-reported patient safety incidents associated with scribed shifts.
The study found that medical scribes increased physicians’ productivity throughout most of the ED sites. Across all shifts, the presence of scribes increased the number of patients seen per doctor per hour by almost 16%. The biggest increase in productivity was seen in primary consultations, during which scribes increased the number of patients seen by more than 25%.
Average salary of a medical transcriptionist ranges from USD 24,000 per year to USD 30,000 per year