Post by Admin on Mar 29, 2005 12:43:28 GMT -5
Domo-kun welcomes all medical documentation professionals (MDPs) back to Tripichik's MT Productivity Forum. Feel free to ask any questions about increasing your productivity as a medical transcriptionist or QA (quality assurance)/the voice recognition system (the voice recognition system editor). If enough MTSOs seem interested, a board may be started for them, as equipping new MTs with preloaded expander glossaries as well as zip files of premade templates allows them to produce a greater quantity of more accurate work more quickly.
Smart MTSOs realize an excellent strategy in competing against offshore companies is to offer hand-crafted, American-written transcription at a fraction of the price by using templates. By working closely with the physician's office, medical group, or hospital facility, MTSOs can help physicians and other dictators reduce their dictation time by 2/3s while still producing the high-quality medical record their clients have come to expect.
Dictation is the most inefficient method imaginable for conveying important medical information from one person's mind to the electronic health record (EHR). Most MDPs know only too well how many errors would be incorporated in each report if it were not for the careful editing of dictation provided by human MTs and MEs. President Bush is calling for every American to have an EHR in 10 years; does he know the average citizen's medical record contains more errors than her/his credit record? As inconvenient as identity theft is, it pales in comparison to the work required to correct an error in one's medical record if it has been picked up and replicated in each subsequent consultation report and progress note.
Some time ago AAMT had the opportunity to educate MTs and MTSOs about the value of accepting responsibility for their work. AAMT offered Errors and Omissions insurance. If I recall this correctly, the general response was that the physicians and other dictators were ultimately responsible for the accuracy of the medical record. MTSOs feared being targets of lawsuits seeking deep-pocketed insurance policy holders. An excellent chance was lost to associate medical transcription and fact-checking. If MTSOs had worked closely with risk management departments at that time, they could have formed agreements about what sort of errors MTs should be expected to identify (incorrect medications for the conditions diagnosed; incorrect dosages or forms of medication; errors in internal consistency of the report, i.e., a man with a past history of hysterectomy or left/right errors, etc.).
Instead, transcription has become the medical documentation profession's scapegoat, the target of cost-cutting purges on the part of hospital and medical group administration. Unlike medical coding, which when done correctly increases a facility's income (and when done incorrectly costs the facility money in penalties), dictation and medical documentation are viewed as loathsome, time-consuming, "clerical work" chores.
The issue will soon become moot. The next generation of medical students has grown up interacting with computers all its life. They keyboard at least as fast as the average MT, and they don't care about keeping their fingers on the home keys! Once this generation has worked its way up the ranks in America's hospitals, phone-in or other verbal dictation will become obsolete.
MTs can prepare now by training for other medical documentation careers: coding is expected to become a "hot" at-home business within the next 3 years. I am already seeing ads for at-home coders; several companies I have called have asked for my resume, even though I have just begun my coding training. This forum will soon offer a board devoted to the topic of cross-training as a coder. Smart MTSOs can hire these MT/coders and provide hybrid services to physician's offices and medical groups. Why have 2 people reviewing the file for accuracy when 1 MT/coder could review scanned copies of pertinent patient records along with scanned copies of patient-prepared initial or interim history and complaint forms in order to create both a comprehensive report or progress note and complete coding for the patient encounter.
These are just some ideas I've had as I transition away from my 18-year history as a medical transcriptionist (CMT earned June 1998) toward a new career as a medical coder. I'm also returning to school in the fall to complete an additional bachelor's degree, this time in biology; I plan to follow that with a master's degree in library science as I'd like to spend the next 20 years of my work life as a medical librarian. Stanford's Lane Library would suit me just fine <g>!
Welcome back. For best results, post your questions on the new questions board so I can find them easily. Do bookmark tripichik.com so that you will be the first to know when the newest websites in the suite open. So far two are planned:
- www.productivemt.org ~~ for working MTs who want to negotiate better working conditions and status for their profession
- and www.21centurymt.org ~~ for working MTs who are interested in advanced productivity techniques
The latter site will be the home of lph -- a cyberjournal for at-home medical documentation professionals[/size]. If you are interested in subscribing to this new digital professional journal for MTs, editors, MTSOs, coders, and students of those professions, or if you would like to contribute an article or regular column, please write to me at info@tripichik.com. Write "just curious" in the subject field for subscription information and "author's guidelines" if you are interested in helping to write for or edit the cyberjournal.
~~ Happy Spring! ~~
Cora Harvey Armstrong-