Monday, July 29, 2013

Professional Transcription Services And Solutions

By Maryanne Goff


Professional transcription services are at a premium today, mainly because this is a service that is hard to automate, and needs a skilled transcriptionist equipped with the right tools. The key to it is in the details, since many professions need 100 percent accuracy in transcribed output. One single mistake in the data can be catastrophic for these clients.

Perhaps it might be easier to start with a simple explanation of the process, and then proceed to real-world needs and solutions. At its root, the transcription business consists of converting speech (audio or video) into text stored in a digital format. The transcriptionist is supposed to listen to the audio and type it up accurately.

No doubt the first thought that comes to mind is that anybody could do this. True, but that doesn't guarantee accuracy and speed. This is where the professional part comes into the picture. There are hardware and software tools that can be used to improve on the quality and volume of the work done. The industry standard is that 15 minutes of audio should be transcribed in an hour.

Tools aside, the job calls for intensive training and has a fairly high learning curve. Medical transcription providers require their staff to be well-versed in the field of medicine and aware of all the terminology that physicians use. Many will hire pharmacy and nursing assistants and train them to be transcriptionists.

Doctors record their diagnosis and everything they want included in a case file, and this audio then has to be transcribed perfectly. A single mistake can prove fatal to the patient, and would lead to a medical malpractice lawsuit. It could easily end the careers of the involved physicians and hospital or clinic administrators.

Another critical aspect involves the security of the data as it goes back and forth between the client and transcription company. Health care records must be HIPAA compliant in the U. S. In order to protect the privacy and security of a patient's information, and this applies to third-party providers too. Compatibility is another concern, because the EMR/HER (electronic medical record) system used requires input data that is standardized in terms of nomenclature and other protocols.

Legal firms need just as high a level of accuracy as the health care industry. A lawyer may record several hours of depositions and then needs to have it transcribed verbatim, just like a court stenographer. Again, even a single error can cause the lawyer to lose a perfectly winnable case, and such clerical errors are also a cause for malpractice lawsuits.

Apart from such standard transcriptions of recorded speech, there are quite a few other professional transcription services that may be required. Translated transcription (audio in one language to text in several languages) comes to mind, as does closed captioning for live video feeds. Once more, there is no room for error in live transcriptions because there's no time for verification and corrections. In other words, not paying a professional to do this kind of work will turn out to be hugely expensive in the end.




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