Medical transcription is a process that functions at the periphery of the healthcare industry and does not deal directly with the patient. However, it is one the most important functions in the medical industry. It is the process of converting dictations of the healthcare professionals into a well formatted text document. Transcription of physicians’ dictations is a vital step in creating the patient’s medical history, which is used for reference by the physicians and lays a foundation for future patient visits. Therefore, it is important that the medical transcriptions maintain an accuracy rate of 99% which is indeed possible with good audio.
Importance of Accurate Medical Transcription Service
Doctors go through medical transcripts and charts to review patient evaluations and decide which treatment is best suitable in each case. A minor error in the transcript or a misspelling of medicine or dosage can cause major health hazards to the patients or even death. Transcription, whether done in-house or outsourced to a medical transcription company, must maintain a high level of accuracy.
However, sometimes medical transcriptionists make errors while transcribing physician’s dictations and following are some of the common errors found in transcripts and the tips to rectify the errors.
- Wrong words: Sometimes transcriptionists continue type the wrong word again and again. It is important to be more meticulous when transcribing and proofread the content to make sure that the meaning of the words used matches the context.
- Omitted words: Omitting an important dictated word can be risky and so it is essential to ensure all dictated words are transcribed accurately. To avoid such errors, carefully listen to the dictation and slow down your pace.
- Typographical mistakes: Typographical errors are common and the ideal way to avoid this is by proof reading. Make sure that you allow time to elapse between the time to transcribe and the time to proof read.
- Misspelled words: To correct the misspelled words, mentally learn the spelling of the word or highlight the word in dictionary and write it down in your personal notebook.
- Grammatical errors: The most common errors in a transcript are grammatical errors. Medical transcriptionists are expected to correct all the grammatical errors in a dictation and transcribe it to an error-free text. This is why medical transcriptionists should ideally have a sound knowledge of the English language.
- Punctuation errors: A minor change in the punctuation mark can make a huge difference in the meaning. This is another area where the transcriptionist has to be extra careful.
