| ext">Electronic Medical Records is not something | | | | medical transcription business; we charged 10 |
| that will be in our future someday, it is very much | | | | cents a line. Now, 28 years later, we charge 10.75 |
| present now. It’s all around us. Is it a good | | | | cents a line. How does that rate of inflation |
| idea? To the home-based medical transcription | | | | compare with the other products, services and |
| industry, that is like asking horse and buggy | | | | salaries that you pay for today? It is truly a deal! |
| makers what they think of that new gadget the | | | | 6) And remember this: MS Word documents are |
| automobile. You’re not likely to get a | | | | Electronic Medical Records. They can be imported |
| helpful answer. But emotion aside, for the | | | | into most any EMR program you are currently |
| physician there are several things need to be | | | | using. |
| considered. | | | | 7) Then there is the editing role of the medical |
| 1) How imperative is it to experiment with these | | | | transcriptionists. This is especially useful for those |
| new technologies right now? Let’s face it; | | | | doing ERM’s which often fail at this point. |
| they will get better and cheaper over time. Not a | | | | Now, having said all this, what is the future of |
| few medical practices have put small fortunes into | | | | medical transcription? Will EMR’s replace it? |
| EMR’s only to get rid of them later. They | | | | Or will EMS’s open a new arena of |
| simply were not happy with the results. | | | | cooperation between the physician and traditional |
| 2) Are you satisfied with traditional methods right | | | | medical transcription? One other point of |
| now? Generally this means you dictate into a | | | | importance is compliance. Is the US government |
| phone or a digital recorder and forget about it. | | | | requiring physicians to provide an electronic |
| That’s not bad. Many physicians are very | | | | product that will make it easier to move the |
| happy with this method. | | | | record between various medical offices? |
| 3) How valuable is your time? For instance, getting | | | | Here is an important question for the medical |
| Voice Recognition programs to work can be like | | | | transcription companies: what has been your |
| wrestling with a pig, you just get dirty and the pig | | | | experience in recent years? Do you keep clients |
| loves it! (Now that didn’t make perfect | | | | that have moved to EMR’s, or are they |
| sense but I’ve been looking for some | | | | letting you go? Has your work increased in |
| place to use that illustration which I think is really | | | | recent months, or is it decreasing in the face of |
| cool.) But you get this idea; it can be frustrating | | | | this type of competition? |
| and even incite the spilling forth of bad language. | | | | Our own experience is that our clients that have |
| 4) Point and Click database software gives you | | | | adopted EMR’s eventually stop using our |
| limited options with canned paragraphs that | | | | service. We have not been successful in |
| aren’t always helpfully descriptive. | | | | convincing them to use us in some type of |
| 5) The cost of traditional medical transcription is | | | | auxiliary role. |
| an economic bargain. In 1982 we started our first | | | | |