The U.S. Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and Obamacare insists on the adoption and meaningful use of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) by physicians and hospitals in 2015. Those that fail to meet this deadline will face penalties and reduction in incentives. The EMR system, offers several benefits such as easy accessibility to medical records, better patient engagement with healthcare providers (especially nurse practitioners and physical assistants), and improved patient data evaluation capability for quicker improvements compared to paper charts. Following this, many healthcare providers switched from transcription systems to direct entry of data into the medical record.
However, transition to EMR/EHR is fraught with issues such as high costs of adoption and implementation, maintenance costs, disruption of workflows and loss of productivity leading in turn to loss of revenue. Patient privacy violation can also result when so much of information is exchanged electronically. These factors are acting as a disincentive for hospitals and physicians when it comes to EMR implementation.
Medical transcription can help EMR/EHR adoption. Transcription allows healthcare providers to use secure platforms for the transfer of electronic records. These electronic document exchange solutions can be used by healthcare facilities to resolve many workplace challenges with EHR/EMR implementation. Leading medical transcription companies offer documentation solutions that integrate smoothly with EMR systems.
Reputable medical transcription service providers ensure error-free documentation which in turn, assures safe patient outcomes and deserved reimbursement. With transcription, all patient encounters are captured accurately ensuring quality, compliance, greater productivity and higher revenues for the healthcare provider. That’s why physicians need to continue to use dictation and transcription. Medical transcriptionists have the knowledge and experience to support workflow practices in busy healthcare facilities, helping physicians move smoothly from paper-based systems to the efficient electronic systems to manage patient records.
