If you are a healthcare service provider, find your medical transcriptionist in Birmingham today. Why? Consider a scenario in which a patient suffering from a fatal disease undergoes an extra or a wrong treatment because of the inaccuracy of their medical records transcriptions. Who will be accountable for the same? The healthcare provider or the human error due to miscommunication? In both cases, the one who suffers the most loss is the patient, and no healthcare provider can escape accountability. Inaccurate medical transcription under HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) faces legal and compliance risks that can be heavy on the reputation of the healthcare service providers.
Moreover, repeated errors can lead to frequent risks to the patient’s life and, hence, to the healthcare service provider’s continuance. What is the solution? Human errors are, at some point, inevitable, and to replace them, there is a need to find a blend of human effort and snap digital solutions, which is embodied in medical transcription services. So the solution is outsourcing the transcription work to the service providers that are especially designed and dedicated to accurate transcription.
Many studies have been conducted on the rate of transcription errors in Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Unfortunately, the results are disappointing to a level that can cause disbelief in the healthcare centers and a fear, too, to some extent. According to one research conducted on 100 patients of the ICU, 8.8% of inaccuracy in the transcription of laboratory tests was recorded.
Furthermore, according to another study based on the critical care rounding practices, a whopping 38.9% laboratory data were inaccurately recorded. Several such studies have been conducted to show the alarming issue and to alert the patients and the healthcare providers. The risks of inaccurate medical transcription affect not just the patients but the healthcare providers, too. It is the basic right of a patient to demand proper and accurate healthcare. Therefore, the responsibility falls on the healthcare service providers to deal with the issue and come up with a solution to avoid risking patients’ lives and the cost of legal and compliance issues.
Does AI Work? Usually, healthcare providers have a human transcriptionist or rely on AI tools for medical transcription services. Studies show that AI tools are only 60-68% accurate when it comes to medical transcription, which is a very low accuracy rate and can pose a high risk. The major reasons behind common transcription errors are misspelled or misunderstood medical jargon, a lack of knowledge of the human transcriptionist, technical issues or glitches, lack of time and resources, and even human tiredness.
Use of AI further deepens the problem because AI might make the human task easier, but it cannot be trusted for services as serious as healthcare, amidst several instances of AI being wrong and dangerous for humans. The healthcare sector is known for its human intelligence, which, if replaced by AI in any way, will lose the trust of the patients. This is neither affordable to the healthcare providers nor the patient’s safety.
best-solution-is-outsourcing-of-the-medical-transcription To broaden the understanding of the issues that inaccurate transcription can create, here are some major risks of inaccurate medical transcriptions.
Major Risks of Inaccurate Medical Transcriptions Misdiagnosis Inaccurate medical transcription can lead to misdiagnosis of the patients’ illness. This could further lead to wrong, delayed, or extra treatment, which could be risky for the patient.
Medication Inaccuracy The impact of documentation errors on patient safety stretches to medication inaccuracy, too. Wrong treatment will lead to wrong dosage of medicines, or the medicines themselves could be wrong. This will affect the health of the patient and the reputation of the healthcare provider.
Inaccurate Medical History Due to errors in the transcription of the medical records of the patient, their entire medical history is affected. An erroneous medical history can not only affect the further treatment of the patient, but also deprive them of availing health insurance or winning legal disputes due to discrepancies in medical records and history.
Reputation of the Healthcare Service With patients getting the wrong treatment, no healthcare can survive public criticism. Healthcare services are related to the life and death of patients. Therefore, they must be cautious. No matter how experienced and good the doctors are, there is no chance for them to falter. Inaccurate medical transcription can smear the reputation of the healthcare provider, the doctors and nurses specifically, and deprive the public and the service provider of good treatment.
Compliance Issues Healthcare service providers who commit inaccuracies in transcription can face legal and compliance risk, which is not only costly but also bad for their reputation. HIPAA strictly regulates the secrecy of patients’ details and other records. If healthcare providers commit mistakes in recording that data, they certainly come under the penalising eyes of the regulatory body. Moreover, the patients who have been wronged due to the fault of the healthcare service providers can also sue them and impose serious legal or criminal charges. All this can be difficult for healthcare service providers to deal with.
Major-Risks-of-Inaccurate-Medical-Transcriptions It is commonly said that doctors are equivalent to God. This shows the trust, in other words, blind trust that patients have in doctors. But this trust will break if hospitals and other such service providers falter in providing the right treatment. It is not just about the financial and reputational risk, but also about the lives of the patients. Even if a doctor is well-equipped with experience and degrees to provide a good treatment, an inaccurate transcription will push the doctor to the edge. They might be banned, and the public will be deprived of their skilled treatments.
Benefits of Outsourcing Medical Transcription Therefore, there is an urgent need to solve this problem. The best solution is outsourcing of the medical transcription to a third party who excels in or is an expert in medical transcription. This will not only improve the accuracy of the transcriptions but also ensure 100% accuracy and compliance with all regulatory bodies, including HIPAA. Medical transcription services have both human and digital solutions with expert transcriptionists with optimum knowledge of all the medical jargon and more.
Such services also have transcriptionists who are experts in various medical fields, so as to understand the audio records through contextualising them in the field of treatment. Outsourcing medical transcription will save the time of the healthcare providers and also their resources, which go into hiring transcriptionists. Not always do hospitals have a rush of patients. Seasonal fluctuations in the patient visits of the hospitals can be heavy on their pockets if they hire a transcriptionist. Moreover, knowing the fact that such errors are happening at a higher pace, doctors have to spend time personally training the transcriptionists and double-checking the data themselves.
Medical transcription services charge only for the transcriptions, even during seasonal fluctuations. At the same cost, they provide experts and software that are efficient in decoding medical terms, transcripting, and recording in the digital boxes in an organised manner. Many of these service providers are certified and compliant with HIPAA, and hence ensure that the transcriptions are accurate and verified.
How-Inaccurate-Medical-Transcription-Can-Lead-to-Costly-Compliance-Issues For the betterment of the patients and to avoid legal and compliance risks, healthcare providers must outsource medical transcriptions to medical transcription service providers. It is not only a smart choice to save money and time but also a requirement for the welfare of the patients. Choose your medical transcriptionists in Birmingham today and put an end to transcription errors. Both the doctors and the patients deserve better platforms.