Choosing The Right Service For You – Medical Transcription vs Live Scribing vs Offline Scribing

Overview

Medical Transcription, Live Medical Scribing, and Offline Medical Scribing all provide significant benefits to the healthcare community. In the EHR era, many healthcare professionals are opting for these services to reduce their clinical documentation workload.

If you are wondering which service best suits your requirements and practice, let us weigh the pros and cons of these three services to help you make an informed decision.

Pros of Medical Transcription Services

1. Accuracy: Medical Transcriptionists are experienced in the medical field with extensive medical terminology knowledge. What’s more, each medical report prepared is subject to stringent quality checks to ensure high-quality and accuracy.
2. Increased productivity: By opting for Medical Transcription services, physicians can save countless hours creating reports. Saving time maximizes their productivity and allows them to focus on quality care.
3. Cost saving: Medical Transcription services are definitely cheaper than investing in costly resources such as manpower and technology to get the job done in-house.
4. Effective time management: The physicians only need to dictate the notes. There is no need for them to sit at their desk for hours typing. This helps them manage their time effectively.
5. Data safety: Using reputable Medical Transcription services that are HIPAA compliant gives physicians the peace of mind that their notes are handled in a way that protects patients’ sensitive data.
6. Improves patient care: Physicians need not be tied to computers for hours to catch up on reports. Rather, they can focus on what they are meant to do – treating patients.

Cons of Medical Transcription Services

On the flip side, the challenge lies in the turnaround times, especially in the case of rush jobs, which causes delays. This may negatively impact completing patients’ charts. In case of any inaccuracies, revisions might take time due to delays in communicating and resolving issues.

Pros of Live Medical Scribing Services

1. Real-time charting: In case of Live Medical Scribing the scribe accesses the EMR and documents the physician-patient encounters in real-time.
2. Pays for itself: As the Virtual Scribes take the documentation burden off the physicians’ shoulders, they have additional time to take on more patients. Seeing an extra two patients in a day pays for the scribe.
3. Better patient interactions: Physicians are not tied to computers anymore with burdensome paperwork. They get to spend more time than usual with patients. More face time leads to better patient relationships.
4. Improved physician satisfaction: Live Medical Scribing enables physicians to achieve real-time documentation, thereby improving physician efficiency and freeing time for family and friends.
5. Alleviates physician burnout: Virtual Scribes can help ease the EMR documentation burden and alleviate physician burnout.
6. Expedite claims: Same day chart closure helps to speed up the insurance claims faster.

Cons of Live Medical Scribing Services

Though the physicians review and sign off the chart, they are held liable if the documentation is questioned in the future. Moreover, as physicians become overly dependent on Virtual Scribes it may limit their ability to use the system, particularly as EHR technology evolves.

Pros of Offline Medical Scribing Services

1. Accuracy: Offline Medical Scribing ensures that the quality of notes in terms of completeness and accuracy is 99%.
2. EHR posting: Offline Medical Scribes not only convert patient encounters, but also enters it into the EHR. The physician has to just review it and sign off.
3. Effective charting: As Offline Medical Scribes undertake to post within the EHR physicians will have an organized, accurate, and complete chart note ready for billing.
4. Eliminates after-hours charting: Physicians need not spend extra hours in the evenings or weekends catching up on charting. This creates a positive impact on work-life balance.
5. Transcripts in hours: Offline Scribing services typically provide a 12 to 24 hour turnaround time to complete the charts and post them in the EHR.

Cons of Offline Medical Scribing Services

On the downside, the turnaround time for completing the charts and posting them onto the EHR is 12 to 24 hours. In the case of rush jobs, this may not be a good option.

Verdict

To sum up, all these three are invaluable services that help in saving the time that medical professionals have to invest in the preparation of patient reports. Hope comparing the pros of cons of each service helps you choose the one that best suits your requirement and practice.