Why You Need to Delegate Your Medical Transcription
Medical records are highly important sources of data and ensure that your patients’ most crucial data is readily available to help assess their health when it is required. Naturally, for such a delicate and ever-changing commodity as health, accuracy is paramount to safeguard their health and allow them to receive the best care possible. Medical transcription of this information, however, is not always entirely straightforward and it is certainly not a swift task.
Due to the need for accuracy – coupled with the complex medical terminology involved – doctors can find themselves investing too much of their attention into charting notes onto a computer rather than engaging directly with their patients. And, whilst this helps to keep patient information up to date and correct, it is at the expense of a connection with the patient at a time when they may need close attention to counter any worries they may be harboring over their visit.
Thanks to the rapid development of computers and their storage capabilities, we have come a long way from the days of handwritten notes by medical professionals being jammed into overstuffed filing cabinets. Surely, though, in this day and age of technology, there is an even simpler solution to the time-heavy expense of medical transcription. After all, no one wants to suffer burnout, least of all doctors who already work long hours. Thankfully, a solution already exists and VA.care can provide this by helping you to delegate your medical transcription workload.
How Can VA.care Help?
With a huge pool of virtual healthcare assistants based in the Philippines and VA.care can provide your practice with virtual scribes who have been fully vetted and in the majority of cases are already working in the healthcare field and looking to gain experience in the front line e.g. college students who are studying medicine. You may be wondering, though how exactly can these individuals in the Philippines possibly contribute to the day-to-day running of a medical practice thousands of miles away. Medical transcription requires a physical presence, right? And access to the patient’s EHR, right?
Well, thanks to the internet making the world a much smaller place VA.care is able to connect these virtual scribes with your practice through simple video conferencing software (which is HIPAA-compliant) coupled to an iPad. With this setup in place, there is no need for a doctor to have a physical presence alongside them as they treat their patients – a digital assistant has exactly the same set of capabilities. With the virtual medical scribe now on hand, they are the ones tasked with taking notes and updating the electronic health record (EHR) in real-time; the doctor is then freed up to fully focus their attention and energies on the patient in the exam room.
Alternatively of course the doctor does not even need the virtual assistant to be present during the examination – something that patients may request – and instead of that, the doctor can dictate his notes in real-time onto a recording device. This audio recording can then be uploaded to external storage spaces – such as Google Drive or Dropbox – for the virtual scribe to access and then transcribe to the EHR at a later date. This approach allows doctors to not only respect the privacy of their patients but also allows to reap the benefits of an enhanced consultation with their patients. And there are no set working hours for virtual assistants from VA.care, our employees are available 24/7 to allow your practice constant access to medical transcription services.
What are the Benefits of Delegating Medical Transcription?
So we now know how a virtual scribe can assist in medical transcription and the immediate impact this has on a doctor’s workload but what else can it provide in terms of benefits?
Delegating Saves Time – The day-to-day activities of a doctor are immense and this can lead to long hours at the office to catch up on everything that is necessary for the practice and its patients. Medical transcription, of course, is essential and detail is key so this is not something that can be completed quickly. Naturally, this is highly time-consuming – just consider that doctors can easily see 25 patients per day – and ensuring this is completed accurately takes up a huge amount of time. By delegating this task though doctors will find that this frees up time to concentrate on running their practice delivering the best service possible and seeing more patients.
Virtual Scribes are Dedicated – Securing a position as a virtual scribe for VA.care is an exciting prospect for those operating in the Philippines thanks to the highly favorable wages on offer. As a result, the scribes tasked with completing medical transcription jobs know that it is in their best interests to deliver their very best. And this ensures an attention to detail and a high level of accuracy which will provide the EHR with all the essential information and guarantee that it can be quickly retrieved in the future.
Cost Savings – Virtual assistants come with virtually no overheads compared to a team member with a physical presence in your practice. All a virtual scribe needs is an iPad and an internet connection, both of which they will provide. Therefore even before they have started medical transcription tasks and they are saving your organization money. And, in an age where all business is highly competitive, this is a real bonus particularly when it is aligned with favorable wages which do not include costly add-one such as pension contributions and healthcare insurance.
Enhanced Doctor/Patient Relationships – Patients go to see doctors with a whole range of queries and worries so there is a real need for the doctor to be able to provide both a level of medical and personal support. However, if a doctor’s head is buried in a computer screen as he furiously types to keep up with the pace of conversation and it is not going to engender much faith on the patient’s behalf. The presence of a virtual assistant to take care of the medical transcription allows the doctor to focus fully on listening and dispensing advice to help reassure the patient.
There’s No Security Risk – An individual’s medical records contain some of the most sensitive data available regarding themselves so the need for tight data security is of the utmost importance. And for a doctor to share this information with ascribing requires a lot of trusts. According to many doctors feel as though the best option is to retain sole control in these situations. Unfortunately, this approach does not provide long-term benefits as we have already covered but help is at hand from VA.care; all of our virtual assistants are fully vetted to be HIPAA compliant and we believe this guarantees peace of mind when it comes to data security.
Boosts Morale Through the Practice – It is not just doctors who benefit from delegating their medical transcription the entire practice staff can feel the positive results. Previously there may have been a need to pass medical transcription onto internal admin staff who were more than likely already working to their maximum capacity. The addition of an external scribe though means that internal admin staff is able to fully focus on their primary objectives and achieve these with the minimum amount of stress and risk of burnout; the workplace becomes happier and the resultant morale boost will only improve your service.
It’s Time to Start Delegating
Doctors are industrious and hardworking but they are not magicians and they cannot conjure up an extra six hours every day to complete their daily tasks. And medical transcription is clearly a crucial task that cannot be ignored so the clearest solution is to delegate this time heavy process. The addition of a new member of staff of course comes with a whole host of costs such as equipment and high wages, but this is where VA.care is able to step in with a simple and affordable solution to help your practice achieve more than ever before.
Our fully vetted and trained staff guarantee data security which in an era of data breaches and mistrust, is highly important and ensures that the benefits of delegating do not come with any risk attached. Most of all though, delegating medical transcription allows the entire practice to benefit be to the doctor, internal staff, or even the patients. It is the accessibility of the scribes on hand at VA.care which is perhaps most attractive as the scribes can slot seamlessly into your practice and are available to work during any time period you require.
If you want your practice to remain competitive and deliver a level of service that cannot be matched then perhaps it is time you started to delegate your medical transcription.