The Medical Transcription industry, recently rechristened as the Clinical Documentation industry, is gearing up to counter the challenges posed by technology and outsourcing. In order to reinvent itself, the industry has resolved to move beyond conventional medical transcription services to encompass every touch point in the clinical documentation continuum, according to the newly-formed Clinical Documentation Industry Association.
Hitherto, a medical transcription company’s sole job was to convert voice files into text format, edit them, and send them back for the physician’s review. But CDIA is now looking at a broader role for medical transcription companies. It now wants transcription services to include not just transcribing and editing but also producing meticulously documented clinical reports which could also be used for coding and billing to ultimately make a practice’s workflow faster and more efficient.
The industry which is already facing an existential threat from medical transcription outsourcing firms in developing countries is also seeing some competition from sophisticated transcription software.
A case in point is the front-end and back-end speech recognition (SR) transcription software. While the front-end SR software captures physician voice files directly into the computer and converts them to electronic text format, the back-end SR software additionally sends the transcribed files to a professional transcriptionist for correction and editing. The latter is more popular among physicians as it is screened both by a transcriptionist and physician, and makes the reports more reliable and error-proof.
But technological advances and the threat from outsourcing notwithstanding, the role of medical transcription companies continues to remain important. With more and more patients to tend to each day, providers have little time for medical transcription functions even with the aid of software. So they would continue to use the services of medical transcription companies who in turn would have to raise the bar and add more value to their services.
Ultimately the future of medical transcription industry will depend on its willingness and ability to modify transcription services in line with the changing physician requirements and technological advances.
