BOT 2523: What Is The Future Of Medical Transcription?
BOT 2523 – Medical Transcription
June 6, 2014
What is the Future of Medical Transcription? We never know what the future may hold; that can be a very unsettling fact no matter what topic is being discussed. Not knowing what the future holds for one’s chosen profession is even more unsettling. Although some healthcare professionals believe that medical transcriptionists will soon be obsolete, the outlook for the medical transcription industry is not altogether bleak. Technology is constantly evolving, allowing for more efficient flow of data in the vast world of healthcare. The implementation of the Electronic Health Record is a prime example. By storing records electronically on a secure server, information will be more easily accessed than they would be on paper files. One theory is that the EHR (or EMR) will replace the need for medical transcriptionists. This theory does not carry much weight due to the fact that medical …show more content…
It is easy to see how the technology (such as that used in “talk-to-text”) would be very convenient in the transcription world. However, even this technology has some drawbacks. Voice recognition cannot be solely relied upon to produce accurate reports. Some healthcare professionals have made the change to voice recognition software, using the medical transcriptionist to edit or proofread the report. In numerous cases, the physician realized the amount of errors made by the voice recognition software was decreasing efficiency and thus reverted to using the traditional medical transcriptionist. Until this software is proven to be 100% accurate, it should not have a major effect on the need for transcriptionists. After all, errors in medical reports can lead not only to lost time, lost profits, and an increase in litigation, but more importantly to poor decision making in patient
June 6, 2014
What is the Future of Medical Transcription? We never know what the future may hold; that can be a very unsettling fact no matter what topic is being discussed. Not knowing what the future holds for one’s chosen profession is even more unsettling. Although some healthcare professionals believe that medical transcriptionists will soon be obsolete, the outlook for the medical transcription industry is not altogether bleak. Technology is constantly evolving, allowing for more efficient flow of data in the vast world of healthcare. The implementation of the Electronic Health Record is a prime example. By storing records electronically on a secure server, information will be more easily accessed than they would be on paper files. One theory is that the EHR (or EMR) will replace the need for medical transcriptionists. This theory does not carry much weight due to the fact that medical …show more content…
It is easy to see how the technology (such as that used in “talk-to-text”) would be very convenient in the transcription world. However, even this technology has some drawbacks. Voice recognition cannot be solely relied upon to produce accurate reports. Some healthcare professionals have made the change to voice recognition software, using the medical transcriptionist to edit or proofread the report. In numerous cases, the physician realized the amount of errors made by the voice recognition software was decreasing efficiency and thus reverted to using the traditional medical transcriptionist. Until this software is proven to be 100% accurate, it should not have a major effect on the need for transcriptionists. After all, errors in medical reports can lead not only to lost time, lost profits, and an increase in litigation, but more importantly to poor decision making in patient