Medical Transcription FAQs: What You Need to Know

If you’re new to or not yet clear on the concept of medical transcription (MT), it’s a service that can be cost-effective, time-saving, and beneficial in many appealing ways. So let’s start by taking a moment to learn more about the benefits of this nature. Below, you’ll find answers to common medical transcription-related FAQs.

Just What Is Medical/Healthcare Transcription?

Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals often have complete to-do lists. While this profession can be rewarding in many ways, most practitioners aren’t thrilled about the need to keep up with documentation duties while seeing patients and juggling other tasks.

One clerical task that can suck up a lot of time for healthcare providers is transcribing audio notes, often dictated during or after patient visits, into easily accessible text. Many healthcare professionals spend hours transcribing notes, or they’ll hire in-office help to do this – which can stretch an already tight budget.

Medical transcription services can conveniently take this burden away from healthcare professionals. Professional medical-related transcription typically involves:

• Writing patient letters based on audio dictations
• Preparing patient summaries based on audio notes
• Providing written versions of patient visit notes or follow-up instructions
• Preparing written transcriptions that need to be digitally sent to patients’ pharmacies or specialists patients may be referred to

Why Hire a Medical/Healthcare Transcription Company?

Even if you hire an office assistant to handle transcription duties, the process may take too long, especially if you have a substantial patient load. A transcription company, however, has the staff and software needed to provide fast, reliable results.

Accuracy is another reason to hire a transcription company. If you rely on existing staff members, for instance, to handle transcription duties, there may still be errors, especially if the transcription isn’t what they usually do. Even if you do the transcription yourself, it’s surprisingly easy to make some errors here and there. This can be a problem since seemingly minor mistakes can seriously affect patients.

By outsourcing transcription work to an experienced company, you’ll also be able to spend more time interacting with patients. In addition, you can do so stress-free by knowing you don’t have to worry about time-consuming transcription work.

Is Professional Transcription Affordable?

Absolutely! With professional transcription, you’ll only pay for the services you need. If you hire someone internally, on the other hand, you’ll likely pay for them to remain on staff for a set number of hours even when there are no transcriptions that need to be done. You may even be rewarded with a boost to the practice’s reputation and patient load if you’re more attentive to patient needs.

Trusted medical transcription companies like 360 Transcription, which partners with WebChartMD, provide a wide range of affordable services that can make medical offices run smoothly. This is especially important since it’s ultimately the care of patients that matters most, not worrying about a backlog of clerical tasks.