Studies on Health Benefits of “Moderate Drinking” Could be Misleading

05-June-2017 Julie Clements Medical Transcription

Moderate Drinking Could be Misleading The consultation reports that medical transcription companies provide from physicians’ dictated reports include details of patients’ lifestyle habits, especially alcohol and tobacco consumption. Alcohol-related problems are common in primary care practice and physicians work at changing patients’ drinking behavior before it becomes chronic. When studies reported that “moderate drinking” could protect against cardiovascular disease, many people were elated. However, Medical News Today reports that a recent in-depth review of these studies shows that the benefits on alcohol on health could be misleading.

Moderate alcohol intake is defined as no more than one daily drink for women and no more than two drinks per day for men. Several large prospective studies had found an inverse relationship between moderate drinking and risk of heart attack, ischemic (clot-caused) stroke, peripheral vascular disease, sudden cardiac death, and death from all cardiovascular causes. For instance, a Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for Evaluation of Cancer Risk in a cohort of 97,432 men and women aged 40-79 over a duration of 10 years found that while heavy drinking increased the risk of all-cause mortality, men and women who consumed less than 23 grams per day of alcohol had a 12%-20% decreased risk of all-cause mortality. An Eastern France study with a cohort of 34,014 men and women followed over a period of 10-15 years reported that those who consumed alcohol in moderation had a 25-30% reduced risk of cardiovascular death. The effect was found to be fairly consistent, corresponding to a 25 percent to 40 percent reduction in risk across many similar studies.

These studies cited scientific and biological evidence to support the association between moderate drinking and protection against heart disease. They claimed that moderate amounts of alcohol appear to raise levels of high-density lipoprotein or “good” cholesterol, which has, in turn, is linked to a lower risk of heart disease. Other beneficial changes include better sensitivity to insulin and improvements in factors that influence blood clotting, thereby protecting against heart attacks and stroke caused by a clot or other blockage within an artery leading to the brain.

The recent review of these existing studies from the Centre for Addictions Research at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, which was was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, questions these findings. The researchers evaluated 45 cohort studies which reported that people who drink moderately enjoyed better health than those who abstain from alcohol. Though the review found an association between moderate drinking and lower risk of heart disease mortality at the time of the study, the results were different when people’s drinking habits at a younger age were considered. The findings of the review are as follows:

Studies in a cohort aged 55 or younger who were clinically followed into older age found no association with alcohol
Studies that evaluated participants’ heart health at baseline did not show any benefits from alcohol
Older “non-drinkers” included in the studies were actually former drinkers who chose to abstain because of poor health
Healthy seniors who had a glass of wine with dinner are not healthy because they drink, but because they are already in good health
Non-drinkers were found to be less educated overall – this finding is significant in that good health and longevity are associated with education

The researchers concluded that it was not abstaining from alcohol that led to poorer health. On the other hand, they point out that older “non-drinkers” had quit because their health was already poor and this had misled the results of existing studies.

Management of drinking patients is a common problem that primary care providers face. According to a recent article published in http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth, alcohol is the fourth-leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., killing an estimated 88,000 people a year. The author, a primary care physician, reiterates that counseling about alcohol use and other appropriate interventions can prevent people from getting addicted. As physicians focus on this challenging task, medical transcription service companies will continue to help them ensure consistent care with error-free EHR-integrated documentation solutions.

The Global Medical Transcription Market to Grow Phenomenally from 2017 to 2021

01-June-2017 Rajeev Rajagopal Healthcare News

The Global Medical Transcription Market Medical transcription companies have always been an asset to healthcare industry and most hospitals and clinics depend on these services for accurate medical documentation. These services also enable physicians to save valuable time and focus on providing better patient care. In addition, outsourcing medical transcription allows hospitals and other providers to reduce costs and improve the quality of medical documentation without additional capital investment.

The global medical transcription service market is expected to grow at a CAGR rate of 6.3 percent from 2017 to 2021 and reach US $70 billion in 2021, according to findings by iHealthcareAnalyst, Inc. The following factors contribute to the growth of this market:

Government initiatives in the health information infrastructure
Adoption of medical documentation and recording systems
Implementation of EHRs
Technological innovations through the use of electronic technology to reduce turnaround time
Increasing focus on reducing costs while improving productivity and quality of patient care

The global market report estimates the market size and composition of the market based on medical services like mode of procurement, forecasts and growth trends during the period 2017 to 2021. The report further segments the market geographically and provides detailed data regarding market landscape, market drivers, restraints, opportunities. It provides market attractiveness analysis and profile of major competitors, financial snapshot, key products, technologies and recent developments.

According to service type, the global market is divided into:

Consultation report
Discharge summary
Operative note or Report
Others like pathology, radiology reports

As per mode of procurement, the global market for transcription service in the healthcare industry is divided into off shoring, outsourcing and combined.

Geographically, the global market for transcription services in the healthcare sector is segmented into North America (US, Canada), Latin America (Brazil, Mexico and rest of LA), Europe (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and rest of EU), Asia Pacific (Japan, China, India, Rest of APAC) and the rest of the world.

The key players in this market are Nuance Communication, Inc., MModal, Inc., Acusis, LLC, Transcend Services, Inc., TransTech Medical Solutions, Precyse Solution LLC, and iMedX Information Service Pvt Ltd among others.

There is no doubt that medical transcription services will continue to be popular, maybe in a new and more important role providing EMR-integrated transcription for healthcare providers. These services are very much in demand because they ensure high quality documentation and also streamline the workflow with the use of technology enabled quality checks. They provide the ground work for documenting EHR. They ensure accurate medical documentation, reduce costs, improve quality of medical data, and ensure better productivity for physicians.

Healthcare CEOs recommend improving EHR Usability to reduce Physician Burnout

29-May-2017 MTS TEAM EHR Transcription

Improving EHR Usability can reduce Physician Burnout Physician burnout affects patient safety, quality of care, and medical costs, and is a threat to the U.S. health care system. Medical transcription outsourcing helps alleviate the problem to some extent. However, according to a recent report in EHR Intelligence, top healthcare CEOs point to EHR technology as a key contributing factor to physician burnout. Industry stakeholders consider physician burnout a public crisis.

Negative Effects of Physician Burnout

The healthcare CEOs who authored a report published in Health Affairs draw attention to two studies that reveal the negative effects that physician burnout have on the quality and cost of care.

Mayo Clinic’s prospective longitudinal studies show that for every 1-point increase in burnout score, there is a 43 percent increase in likelihood a physician will reduce clinical effort in the following 24 months
According to experience from Atrius Health, replacing a physician who retires early or leaves to pursue other career opportunities can cost between $500,000 and $1 million due to recruitment, training, and lost revenue during this time.”

The CEOs point out that high levels of physician burnout could be seen as an indicator of poor performance by the underlying system and environment.

Reasons for Physician Burnout

Healthcare worker burnout is attributed to various factors that have altered workflows and patient interactions. These factors include:

Loss of control over work: A study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) found that time pressure during office visits affected 53.1% of physicians, while 48.1% said their work pace was chaotic, 78.4% reported low control over their work, and 26.5% noted burnout.
Increased performance measurement: Today, performance measurement is one of the key factors in the efforts to improve health care quality, cost, and patient experience. However, quality reporting can take a toll on physician practices in time and money, according to a 2016 report in Modern Healthcare. Several hours are spent each week on quality reporting. Increasing responsibilities and stress lead to physician burnout.
Increasing complexity of medical care: The increasing complexity of modern medicine has exceeded the ability of an individual doctor to deliver care safely. With thousands of diagnoses and thousands of drugs, physicians find themselves under greater stress. Clinicians must understand each patient’s specific issues and tailor therapies accordingly. They must monitor the patient’s treatment progress, whether drugs are causing any adverse effects, and take steps to prevent interactions between the patient’s drugs and treatments for other health conditions. Managing this rapidly increasing complexity of care can be very stressful.
Inefficiencies in the practice environment: Practice environments are extremely chaotic and inefficient due to both incompetent administrative and care processes. Conflicting payer requirements and complex documentation, billing and coding are among the reasons for a stressful work environment. If they do not have efficient support, physicians find it difficult to deliver quality care. They have to be exceptionally vigilant to avoid errors. All of this perpetuates physician burnout.

Role of EHRs in Physician Burnout

Implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) is a major reason for physician stress. Last year, a nationwide study led by Mayo Clinic and conducted in collaboration with investigators from the American Medical Association linked EHRs to physician burnout and dissatisfaction. The amount of time needed for clerical tasks (data entry in EHRs) was linked to low levels of provider satisfaction with EHRs and computerized physician order entry (CPOE).

While EHRs can improve patient safety and enhance coordination of care, they have drastically changed and disrupted established workflows. EHRs have become a source of interruptions and distraction, taking the physician’s attention away from patient care. EHR data entry is also very time-consuming. The healthcare CEOs published their report in Health Affairs say that delivery organizations, organized medicine, payers and other stakeholders need to work with EHR vendors to improve their product offerings, which could reduce that EHR burden on physicians.

Medical transcription services can play a key role in addressing physicians’ issues with EHR documentation. As a recent article from the Center for Health Journalism says, “Giving doctors more time to dictate their charts is good. Allowing more time per patient is better. And providing a scribe, a trained medical transcriber to document everything in the visit while the doctor focuses both eyes on the patient and thinks instead of hunts and pecks, is best.”

Study: Respiratory Infections Multiply Heart Attack Risk

22-May-2017 Julie Clements Healthcare News

Respiratory Infections Multiply Heart Attack Risk ScienceDirect recently reported on a new study from the University of Sydney that confirmed the link between respiratory infection and a heart attack by analysing the medical records of 578 consecutive patients. The cardiology reports that medical transcription service companies provide ensure accurate information about patients for medical records and it is these reports that form the basis of such advanced studies.

The study which was published in Internal Medicine Journal was based on the clinical symptoms reported by patients with heart attack due to coronary artery blockage and who also experienced symptoms of respiratory infection. The researchers confirmed what prior studies had suggested – that a respiratory infection can act as a trigger for a heart attack. More precisely, the team found that the risk of having a heart attack is 17 times higher in the week following a respiratory infection.

In the first stage of the analysis, patients were asked about activities and flu-like symptoms before their heart attack. They were considered as facing higher risks of heart attack if they reported sore throat, cough, fever, sinus pain, flu-like symptoms or if they had a diagnosis of pneumonia or bronchitis.

In the next phase, the researchers studied those with symptoms only related to the upper respiratory tract such as common cold, pharyngitis, rhinitis and sinusitis.

The key findings of the study are as follows:

17% of patients had symptoms of respiratory infection within 7 days of the heart attack, and 21 percent, within 31 days
The risk of heart attack was 13 times higher even for those with mild upper respiratory tract infection symptoms

According to the study, the reason why respiratory infection causes heart attacks include the increased tendency of blood clotting, inflammation and toxins to damages blood vessels and cause changes in blood flow.

As the incidence of heart attacks in Australia is highest in winter, the study has special significance for people living in that country. Based on their findings, the medical experts recommend that people take steps to minimize their exposure to infection, including flu and pneumonia and to not ignore symptoms that could trigger a heart attack.

Putting cardiology reports together that provide a clear view of patient symptoms and other matters takes a lot of time and effort and many medical offices are now outsourcing medical transcription to ensure accuracy in the medical record. Cardiology transcription is a process that requires considerable knowledge of complex heart conditions, tests, procedures, and related terminology. Established cardiology medical transcription service companies have expert clinical documentation specialists who can provide accurate EMR-integrated documentation solutions for cardiologists. They can transcribe vascular reports from physician dictation precisely, in the required format, and in time to meet their needs. Importantly, it these reports form the basis for advanced research focused on better understanding medical conditions and improving the quality of care.

Study finds that Many Admissions for Diverticulitis Could be Avoided

18-May-2017 Rajeev Rajagopal Medical Transcription

Many Admissions for Diverticulitis Could be Avoided Gastroenterologists treat various diseases and pathology of the gastrointesinal tract as well as diseases affecting the gall bladder, liver and pancreas. Gastroenterology transcription service providers help physicians manage their busy schedules by ensuring timely documentation of dictated medical reports. Management of gastroenterology conditions can be challenging, with many patients landing in emergency rooms (ERs) for conditions like diverticulitis. However, a new study published as “in press” on the website of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons suggests that these ER visits may not be necessary for diverticulitis and that about half of such patients can be sent home, thereby saving healthcare costs for the system as well as the patients.

Diverticulitis is an inflammation of an outgrowth or pouching in the colon, leading to severe abdominal pain. In complicated diverticulitis, there is a small perforation of the pouching or outgrowth of the colon which shows up on a computerized tomography (CT) scan. On the other hand, uncomplicated diverticulitis involves no such identifiable perforation on a CT scan. Extreme cases also involve inflammation of the abdomen. Treatment is focused on relieving the abdominal pain and inflammation, and restoring normal bowel function. Severe cases usually require surgery.

According to the EurekAlert report on the study, about 150,000 people are hospitalized each year for this condition, with ER visits spiking 21 percent in recent years. Researchers at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis examined data on 240 patients with diverticulitis who were treated in 5 ERs in in the Fairview Health System from September 2010 through January 2012. Up to 144 (60 percent) were admitted to the hospital and 96 (40 percent) were discharged to their homes on oral antibiotics

The team found that:

Admitted patients were mostly age 65 years or older
Besides diverticulitis, admitted patients have other health problems, are on steroids to treat inflammation or agents that suppressed their immune system, have excess air in the digestive system, or have an abscess or perforation in the diverticular area as seen on a CT scan
Two key factors determining the severity of diverticulitis were: high fever and high white blood cell counts
Of the patients discharged from the ER, 12.5 percent returned to the ER or were admitted to the hospital within 30 days
Only one patient required emergency surgery, but only 20 months later
Patients who were admitted from their ER visit had a slightly higher hospital readmission rate at 15 percent

The researchers concluded that:

Hospitalization could avoided in most of the cases
Most patients with uncomplicated diverticulitis could be safely discharged with a prescription for oral antibiotics after their ER visits
These patients faced a very low risk of re-hospitalization

National statistics seem to corroborate the study’s findings and show that only 15 percent of patients with diverticulitis who enter ER need an operation immediately. The report cites the lead study author says that more data is needed to clarify whether there are even more people seen in the ER who could be safely managed at home.

The researchers say that physicians and hospitals could use the Minnesota study findings to develop protocols for ER doctors to provide better treatment for diverticulitis and to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations. A check list approach and examination of CT scan results can help ER physicians determine whether a patient needs to see a surgeon or whether they need to be admitted to the hospital or can be safely sent home. Making the right decision will save costs and hospital resources, benefiting both patients and the healthcare system at large.

ER physicians and gastroenterologists require timely, error-free emergency department medical transcription services to ensure effective patient record-keeping. Moreover, studies such as the above utilize data from transcripts of consultation notes, history and physical examinations, discharge summaries, and lab and scan reports to arrive at their conclusions. This shows just how crucial the services of a reliable medical transcription company are for physicians as well as researchers.

National Medical Transcription Week, May 14-20

15-May-2017 MTS TEAM Medical Transcription

National Medical Transcription Week Medical transcription companies and health care providers across the U.S. are celebrating National Transcription Week from May 14-20, 2017. This week is dedicated to acknowledging and celebrating the contributions of medical transcriptionists and healthcare documentation specialists.

National Medical Transcription Week owes its origins to President Ronald Reagan. On May 21, 1985, President Reagan released Proclamation 5345 declaring that “it is appropriate for our Nation to recognize the contributions of medical transcriptionists”.

The declaration recognized medical transcriptionists as a vital link between the physician and the patient. It noted that the medical record, including reports prepared and edited by a medical transcriptionist from physician dictation, is the permanent history of a patient’s medical care. Transcribed medical reports allow physicians to easily and quickly review a patient’s medical history. The declaration stated that the work done by trained medical transcriptionists ensured patients that the history of their medical care is portrayed accurately and legibly.

With changing requirements, new guidelines, and advancements in technology, medical record documentation has undergone significant developments in recent times. Today, all healthcare specialties need dedicated electronic health record (EHR) integrated documentation solutions. Medical transcriptionists serving U.S. based medical transcription service companies have kept pace with these changes, and provide physicians with accurate and timely support for data capture and documentation from dictated reports. This is crucial to ensure the quality and continuity of patient care.

Medical transcriptionists in reliable transcription companies have a wide range of skills that they continue to hone and update. They convert audio or video records of physician notes, medical imaging reports, patient histories, discharge summaries into error-free text files in custom turnaround time. They are well-trained in the terminology and jargon associated with the medical specialties they serve. In addition to good typing skills, they are keen listeners and have excellent language skills, and focused on ensuring accuracy in spelling, grammar, and punctuation in the reports they produce. In fact, by outsourcing medical transcription to a reliable service provider, physicians can be ensured of clinical documentation with accuracy levels of up to 99 percent.

As an experienced medical transcription company providing HIPAA-compliant documentation solutions for all healthcare specialties, MTS Transcription Services joins the industry in recognizing the contributions made by medical transcriptionists.

Happy Medical Transcription Week!

Better Doctor-Patient Communication with Medical Transcription Services

11-May-2017 Julie Clements Medical Transcription

Better Doctor-Patient Communication Outsourcing medical transcription has been the traditional way in which physicians ensured accurate and timely documentation as well as more time to spend with their patients. A common complaint of patients now is that they are not able to communicate with their physicians comfortably, and with the advent of the electronic health record system, physicians are forced to spend hours and hours in front of their computers for medical data entry. This affects the performance of the physicians as they are not able to spend quality time with or focus exclusively on their patients. However, medical transcription companies can still be of support providing effective EHR integrated medical transcription that helps physicians to focus more on their patients.

Placing documentation responsibilities on physicians not only affects their performance but also the quality of patient care provided. Physicians play a crucial role in the healthcare industry and their duty is to provide quality care to patient and not spend valuable time on documentation.

What Patients Face

Doctor visits are often hurried and patients hardly get 15 minutes with the physician, which means that each and every second counts and the patients must use them wisely. According to a study by the University of South Carolina, which casts a gloomy picture of doctor-patient communication, upon entering the examination room, doctors interrupted their patients on an average after 23 seconds and after that the interruptions continued as many as a dozen times more till the visit ended. This leads to patient dissatisfaction and even poor documentation when the patients don’t communicate or are not allowed to communicate well. If the doctor is engaged in some other task like reading a chart or spending time on the computer documenting patient data he/she may fail to hear what the patient is saying. Since the patients have very less time with the doctor, every second should be spent wisely. There should be a normal and natural interaction between the patient and the physician.

Effective doctor-patient communication is a central clinical function for delivering high quality healthcare. It is important to establish good communication between the doctor and the patient. Good communication with the patients is therapeutic and the patient’s perception of the quality of healthcare depends on his/her interactions with the physician. With effective communication patients can ultimately improve their health by participating in their care and via adherence to treatment.

A good transcription service helps to reduce the documentation task of physicians and this enables physicians to focus more on the patient.

Accurate Medical Documentation with Medical Transcription Services

Error-free, high quality and accurate patient data is necessary for any healthcare unit. A minor error in the billing records can result in delayed or denied reimbursement and increased scrutiny on hospitals, physicians and other healthcare organizations. The EHR system undoubtedly has many benefits. Doctors can still leverage those benefits while also staying free from the data entry tasks with outsourced medical transcription solutions. The physician’s role in documentation should be focused on dictation rather than manual data entry into the EHR. EHR voice recognition software is another option that enables doctors to narrate directly into the system and later review the dictation to ensure accuracy. However, speech recognition software is only evolving and it may take some time before we can have a flawless and efficient system that can understand accents and distinguish between similar sounding words, be able to handle multiple speakers, and address other challenges such as background noise and other disturbances.

Introducing Infants to Peanuts can build Allergy Resistance

04-May-2017 Rajeev Rajagopal Immunology Transcription

Introducing Infants to Peanuts can build Allergy Resistance Food allergies are among the most common conditions treated by allergy and immunology specialists. Treating allergies can be quite challenging, more so when the patient is a child. As an experienced medical transcription company, we support immunologists and allergy specialists with timely and error-free EHR-integrated immunology transcription services. Reliable medical transcriptionists keep track of the latest developments in the field they serve, and as far as allergenic foods are concerned, the new thinking is that introducing kids at an early age to allergens can build allergy resistance.

According to a recent New York Post report, 6 million children in the US and 1 million in the UK have been diagnosed with life-threatening food allergies. Peanut allergy is widespread among children in Western countries. This has led people to avoid feeding peanuts to infants and young children. However, the results of the UK’s Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (Leap) study showed that starting regular peanut consumption in infants and continuing it until the age of five resulted in a staggering 81 per cent reduction in the development of allergy in high risk children. Research published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association found similar results and reported that infants fed peanuts or eggs at an early age had a lower risk of developing allergies.

The findings of the LEAP study led the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology to revise its guidance on allergenic foods In January. The new guidelines advise parents to begin feeding infants small amounts of allergenic foods in infancy as a way to prevent food allergies. The recommendations, according to a report published by cnn.com on January 5, 2017, fall into three categories:

The first category includes children who are believed to be most likely to develop a peanut allergy, that is, infants who have severe asthma, egg allergy or both: These children can be introduced to peanut-containing food at 4 to 6 months or get a reference to an allergist who will give the child a skin prick test or a blood test to identify if peanut allergy exists. If the child is not allergic, peanut-containing foods can be introduced at 4 to 6 months. This recommendation does not apply if the infant is allergic, and peanuts should not be given.
Infants with mild to moderate eczema and less likely to have an allergy come in the second category. These children should be introduced to peanut-containing foods at about 6 months of age.
The third category comprises children with no eczema or food allergies and no family history of these. Depending solely on family and cultural preference, they can either be given peanut-containing foods or not, at any age.

The New York Post report talks about the new book “Allergy-Free Kids: The Science-Based Approach to Preventing Food Allergies” in which author Robin Nixon Pompa discusses the “critical window” that experts say the immune system has. This critical window starts closing when the child is between 4 and 6 months and is typically, although not fully, shut by late childhood, maybe as early as 5 years old. So it is important to teach the immune system in the critical window that allergens are not dangerous. Pompa points out that some researchers assume that the window can be propped permanently open for most kids via repeated exposure to food allergens during the first five years of life.

Diseases guidelines in food allergy management include

Documentation of a diagnosis based on reaction history
Proper diagnostic testing and test interpretation
Prescription of appropriate medications
Counseling and educating patients’ families on prevention and treatment
Referral to an allergist

As physicians deal with the challenges of treating various types of allergies in young children, an experienced medical transcription company can go a long way in ensuring documentation compliance.

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The content on this website is provided by Managed Outsource Solutions (MOS) and is only for general guidance and informational purposes and does not constitute legal or other professional advice on any subject matter. MOS is only passing on information that is already published and does not accept any responsibility for any loss which may occur due to reliance on information contained on this site.

Study: Letting Patients enter EHR Notes Ahead of Office Visit Improves Patient-clinician Communication

27-April-2017 MTS TEAM EHR Transcription

Patients enter EHR Notes Ahead of Office Visit Even in the electronic health record (EHR) era, outsourcing medical transcription continues to be a viable solution when it comes to maintaining accurate and timely medical records. Expert medical transcriptionists provide dedicated EHR-integrated documentation solutions that allow providers to focus on care rather than EHR data entry.

A new study has found that patients can play a meaningful role in helping physicians generate EHR notes. The OpenNotes study published in the research published in the March/April issue of Annals of Family Medicine reports that both patients and primary care physicians would benefit when patients were allowed to enter type a portion of their own visit note in their EHR ahead of the office visit. The researchers found that this strategy could better prepare clinicians, improve the efficiency of the office visit, and enhance patient-clinician communication.

A total of 101 patients of Harborview Medical Center Adult Medicine Clinic in Seattle, WA, were chosen to participate in the study. The patients were met in the waiting room by a research assistant and provided with a laptop computer with the clinic’s [EHR/EMR] interface. They typed their agenda into the EHR and the entry was put in the clinician’s “progress notes” field and marked as a patient note to become a part of the permanent visit record. Their 28 clinicians reviewed these patient self-entered notes either before or when they entered the exam room and completed post-visit surveys.

The participants contributed to their notes and detailed their expectations for the medical appointment. The post-visit survey revealed that both patients and physicians were positive about the experience and strongly agreed to the following statements:

Made the clinicians more prepared (78% of providers, 82% of patients)
Improved clinician understanding of patient concerns (74% of providers, 75% of patients)
Made the visit more efficient (63% of providers, 79% of patients)
Helped prioritize the visit (82% of providers, 84% of patients)
Improved patient clinician communication (74% of providers, 79% of patients)
Want to use patient agendas in the future (82% of providers, 73% of patients)

Patients’ comments revealed their positive experience. One patient said: “Doctor and I on the same page,” said one. Another patient noted, “New doctor so this was excellent way of getting my feelings across.”

Clinicians’ comments were also insightful. For example, “Got time to think about issues ahead of time” and, “Engaged patient to participate more in the visit; he felt heard.”

Although the authors concede that their study had its limitations, they point out that patient generated notes can reveal how they are really feeling. This can prove very valuable in improving the patient-physician relationship. The strategy could also save money if physicians could better address patients’ concerns during the clinic visit, which would reduce the chances of their returning to the clinic or visiting the emergency room.

Medical transcription companies provide EHR-integrated documentation solutions for clinicians’ progress notes, H&P reports, diagnosis and treatment plans, emergency reports, surgical reports, examination reports, lab reports, and discharge summaries. Such support goes a long way in improving physician-patient interactions during the office visit.

New Study: Physicians Waiting Longer to See New Patients

24-April-2017 Julie Clements Healthcare News

Physicians waiting longer to see New Patients Physicians need to track and maintain records of both new and existing patients. Outsourcing medical transcription is a viable strategy for busy health care providers as it allows them to focus on care instead of time-consuming and distracting EHR data entry. Now a new study says that physician appointment wait times are increasing for new patients. Consulting firm Merritt Hawkins’ study shows that the time taken to schedule a new patient appointment in 15 major metropolitan areas has spiked 30 percent in 2017 compared to 2014.

To measure the average new patient appointment wait times across the U.S., the study tracked 1,414 physician offices in 15 of the largest cities. It covered five different medical specialties: cardiology, dermatology, obstetrics/gynecology, orthopedic surgery and family medicine. The findings of the survey are as follows:

24 days is the new average time to schedule a new patient appointment, higher from 18.5 days in 2014.
The average time to schedule a new patient appointment had been falling – from 20.5 days in 2009 and 21 days in 2004.
Boston has the longest wait times, with 52 days being the overall average for a new patient to get an appointment.
In Boston, patients wait an average 109 days to see a family physician, 45 days to see an obstetrician/gynecologist, 45 days to see a cardiologist and 11 days to see an orthopedic surgeon.
Dallas had the shortest average wait time of 15 days.
Averages for other cities were: 37 days in Philadelphia, 28 days in Portland, 28 days in Seattle, 27 days in Denver, and 24 days in Los Angeles.
In 15 mid-sized metropolitan areas with about 90,000 to 140,000 people, the average wait time was 32 days, 33 percent longer than in the major cities.
While Yakima, Washington showed the longest average wait time at 49 days, Billings, Montana had the shortest at 11 days.

According to Mark Smith, president of Merritt Hawkins, the spike in physician appointment wait times shows that the nation is experiencing a shortage of physicians.

With fewer physicians treating an ever-increasing number of patients, efficient documentation support such as that provided by medical transcription companies is crucial. Maintaining clear, accurate and legible medical records is necessary for proper treatment and follow-up as well as to ensure a defense against malpractice litigation.

Today, medical transcriptionists provide timely, error-free customized EHR documentation support for different specialties. In fact, their comprehensive support has made it easier for physician practices, clinics and hospitals to transition easily from manual record-keeping to electronic medical records (EMRs). EMR-integrated medical transcription services allow physicians to effectively maintain, track and access new and existing patient records.

Medical records have come a long way from being stacks of paper files to a critical requirement for meeting federal regulations, proper claim submission and reimbursement, and medico-legal compliance. With increasing appointment wait times exacerbating matters, partnering with a reliable medical transcription company is the best strategy for physicians to manage the records of new and existing patients.