Challenges of Meeting Medical Transcription Turnaround Time Deadline

Medical transcription turnaround time has always been an important consideration when outsourcing this important healthcare process. At present, increasing EHR implementation and the need for real time information access has significantly increased the criticality of the speed and consistency with which a medical transcriptionist delivers quality transcriptions. Moreover, medical transcription is also important with regard to medical coding or billing, and physician satisfaction. With more complicated processes and advanced technology, meeting transcription turnaround time deadline has become strenuous and challenging.

Factors That Affect Turnaround Time Requirments

Jay Vance, the President of the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity who has 15 years of experience in healthcare documentation conducted a survey to identify the main factors that have the greatest impact on the ability to meet turnaround time deadlines. The survey was strictly informal and not significantly scientific but some major real world factors that have an impact on meeting the turnaround time could be identified.

192 respondents participated in the survey and they were also given the opportunity to add comments or additional factors that are relevant. Out of 11 factors that were included in the survey, factors like “audio quality” with 54%, “ability to understand dictation” with 51% and “unpredictable work volume” with 35.9% had the greatest impact followed by “unrealistic turnaround time requirements” (29.7%) and “high work volume” (27.6%).

Some additional factors were also observed by the respondents that affect transcription turnaround time, and they are:

* Healthcare providers’ dictation habits
* Unrealistic quality assurance expectations
* Poor workflow planning by managers
* More time spent searching patient’s name,  account number,  dates of service etc
* Job dissatisfaction and lack of incentive  due to low pay
* Dictation not received from client in a timely manner
* Inferior speech  recognition drafts requiring heavy editing

Poor physician’s dictation habits or environmental conditions caused by dictating providers itself are the major obstacles that cause poor healthcare documentation. The major disturbances were:

* Dictating while riding the elevator, driving etc
* Sitting away from the speakerphone and shuffling papers
* Long pause and dictators talking to others while recording
* Poorly organized dictation
* Physicians failing to provide necessary patient demographics and other important details
* Incomplete sentences
* The physician’s lack of proficiency in spoken English
* The dictator keying in the wrong work type code with a lower priority

The result of the survey gives brief and passably accurate points that required for quick transcription turnaround time.
 
Analysis of the Results

Medical transcriptionists are under massive pressure to meet the rigid deadlines and also provide error-free medical records. Every individual irrespective of their job designation or role are aware about the factors that impact turnaround time requirements but there is a tendency for everyone to blame others for the problems caused. This can be seen in the responses to the survey questions about how much workplace and personal distraction affect the turnaround time requirements. About 69% of the respondents rated this factor a five or lower.

There are a number of factors that affect the way transcriptionist work and meet turnaround time requirements. Sometimes they fail to complete the transcripts, which may lead to further problems. The best remedy to this issue is to provide a better work place and environment that can ensure better productivity. Another more effective and practical solution is hiring a reliable medical transcription company that can provide 99.9% accuracy in medical documentation. They assure complete privacy and confidentiality of patient information with secure exchange and storage of audio files. Moreover, you also benefit from customized services at affordable rates.