Transcription: Why is Dictation indispensable?

Why keep a record of the patient-healthcare professional meeting?

The documentation of the patient-physician encounter takes place for a number of reasons, some of which are given below:

· Records provide the health history of the patient enabling healthcare professionals to administer the best care possible.
· It is legally mandatory to maintain patient reports.
· Patient transcripts offer the foundation for referrals
· Patient records are the basis on which insurance claims are made
· Patient records offers evidence in case of malpractice suits.

Having looked at the importance of having to create medical reports, now the focus is on the process of records creation. Medical transcription plays an important part in the speedy and accurate creation of medical transcripts. The transcription process starts when the health professional dictates notes of the patient meeting into a recording device.

Many people have questioned the need of the health professionals dictating notes rather than directly typing out the reports. Let us examine why dictation is necessary:

Time: Time is a precious resource for healthcare professionals and dictating free style could be squeezed in at any time of the day, and would not require any equipment other than their mobile phone. Recording notes would also take less time than actually typing as it has been proven that people can narrate faster than they can type.

Expertise: The skill set of a health professional may not necessarily include typing promptly and exactly.

Speed: A medical transcriptionist would have better typing speed than a health professional. Moreover the creation of patient reports would be speedier by medical transcriptionists as this is their only work; therefore the concentration is absolutely on this.

Comfort of use: It is easier for the healthcare professional to dictate into his/her recording equipment while doing other things than to sit and type out the records.

Expenses: It is economical for a medical transcriptionist to transcribe the records rather than the physician waste his/her expertise and productivity on this task.

It is therefore better for health professionals to focus on their business; delivering quality health management and for the medical transcription vendor to focus on their business; skilled medical transcription and medical transcripts creation.

How to make better dictation caliber?
We have looked at the plus points of dictating vis-à-vis typing, now let us concentrate on how dictation can be improved to enhance the accuracy of the transcribed records:

Given below are a few dictation guidelines towards accurate healthcare transcription:

Allocate time for dictation: This will help the physicians to finish recording the patient encounter when their memory is still fresh and capture all the information.

Allocate space: Assigning a effective space for dictation will make sure that things like disturbances, distractions do not have effect on the competence of recording.

Collect papers: Gathering all the documents/reports required would empower physician’s finish dictating exactly in less time.

Speak at a steady speed: Dictating a steady speed will make sure that words are not distorted and help the medical transcriptionist focus.

Spell difficult terms: Spelling difficult terms will ensure that the make sure captured is accurate.

Wind back and listen: Sometimes reversing oneself and listening to the dictation will help clarity by highlighting the areas for improvement.

Know the apparatus: Knowing the device being used for dictation will help physicians to modulate his/her dictation, mike distance, stop/start features etc.

Relax while dictating: Treat the time spent dictating, as time for a break and this will help health professionals relax and capture all details.

Pause during interruptions: In case of any interruptions, it is better to use the pause button so that superfluous details are not captured.

Following these easy tips will go a long way to help create correct reports at an optimum turnaround time.