Change often breeds confusion. With the booming expansion of data that is coming with the “technology revolution” and the improvements of social media, all industries have developed their share of legends, confusion, and myths. With all the shifts occurring in the healthcare field, particularly around healthcare documentation and EMRs, misconception and misinformation can happen just as readily. This leads to foundational misunderstandings regarding which career opportunities exist these days.
Anne Martinez wrote an article from Dummies.com entitled, Ten Myths About Medical Transcription, surrounding some of the ideas that have been germinating about the Medical Transcription profession. Chief among these myths Martinez focuses in on are a few that predict how the role of a medical transcriptionist is getting taken over by technology or foreign labor. Her article’s big takeaway is Transcriptionists are here to stay and are now more vital than ever.
3 Major Points:
• Electronic health records WON’T erase the demand for medical transcriptionists.
• Speech recognition developments WON’T mean medical transcriptionists are unneeded.
• Medical transcription jobs WON’T entirely be transferred overseas (off-shoring).
Developments in speech recognition will not replace transcriptionists as it can’t understand nuanced language or meanings. This constantly leads to mistakes. It’s an extremely simple comparison: software isn’t human, so the language used needs human interpretation to identify meaning and context. These flaws mean transcriptionists are more important than ever, as they’re needed to observe the technology for quality and errors.
Electronic Health Records weren’t ever intended as a substitute for people. They were made as a digital alternative to a patient’s health chart. The advantage of this is how the health data in the record is accessible (using safe systems) to every medical professional involved with a patient. All can view a holistic overview of a patient’s health past.
Making sure precise information is put in an electronic health record is crucial and will impart better diagnoses, smarter interactions among disciplines and enhanced patient care. This digitalized formatting gives instantaneous remote access by every physician who’s permitted to evaluate patient data.
Although off-shoring transcription services happened for a period in the nineties, overseas medical transcription work increases the risk of violating patient-physician confidentiality from unaccountable individuals. To guard patient confidentiality, recent changes in HIPAA regulations during 2010 makes transcription services be provided closer to home.
