Saturday, January 30, 2010

Cardiology Transcription- Using Six Sigma to Improve the Quality and Productivity

Whenever a heart patient visits his or her cardiologist, all the medical observations are dictated, stored and sent to a cardiology transcription services provider. Here a transcriptionist listens to the voice file and converts into a computer text file. This electronic file is sent back to the cardiologist for future reference.

But this system is prone to errors in spite of quality norms followed by the transcription services provider. The voice quality of the file may not be proper and it requires the transcriptionist to spend more time to grasp it or there might be errors while converting the voice into electronic text. This all reduces the overall efficiency of transcription process and puts the lives of the patient at risks due to errors in the medical documentation process.

This is where the Six Sigma can play a pivotal role in enhancing the efficiency of the cardiology transcription process by eliminating the recurrent errors that inhibit the productivity of the process. The Six Sigma is basically a quality control program that consists of the management and technical strategies. The management aspect of the strategy sees to fact that all the set goals are realized successfully and that the success is sustained over a period of time. The technical part of the program ensures that process is analyzed sharply and all the bumps or shortcomings are effectively removed by adopting a strategy that measures, analyzes, improves and controls the quality of the cardiology transcription process.

As cardiology transcription involves daily conversion of data on a voluminous scale, it very difficult to keep track on each and every mistake committed in spite of well trained transcriptionist and a quality control department, which oversees the overall quality of the process. Looking minutely into each and every mistake is not possible as it slows down the whole process and hinders the timely dispatch of the transcribed reports back to the cardiologist.

The Six Sigma provides great solution to this problem by creating an inbuilt safety mechanism in the process. This automatically removes the errors from transcription process, like voice quality, conversion of voice into text or any other errors, which slows down the process and same time reduces the quality of final output. Thus Six Sigma is a boon for cardiologist, heart patients and transcription services provider as it lowers turn around time and increases the accuracy of the transcribed report. The transcription services provider, benefits from increase in productivity due to better quality and at same time, cardiologist is able to provide better and timely treatment to his or her patients.

Six Sigma governs the productivity and quality of transcription process.

Jason Gaya

For more information on Cardiology transcription, visit, www.cardioscribes.com

Monday, January 4, 2010

Cardiology Transcription- Ensures Good Vascular Health

Cardiology transcription is specialized branch of medical transcription that deals with creation, transfer and storage of vascular health records of the patients. When a patient visits hospital or healthcare facility, the doctor, after proper diagnosis, dictates all observations and records them in a recording device. This recorded voice is sent to a transcriptionist, who converts this voice into a computer text file. This text file is sent back to the doctor, who can now easily store it in his or her computer and retrieve it easily, whenever needed during the course of treatment.
The transcriptionist should be well versed in cardiac terminology and have good knowledge about the cardiovascular system of the body so that he or she can easily understand the dictation and convert it into an error free, electronic text. When it comes to cardiology transcription following types of medical reports are generally, transcribed:
  • MUGA scan- It is known as Multi Gated Acquisition Scan and uses a radioactive marker to study the cardiac cycle of the patient in form of images taken from a gamma camera.

  • Echocardiogram- Sonar technology is used to create real time three or two dimensional images of the heart to study cardiovascular diseases.

  • Ultrasound Imaging- Ultrasound waves are used to create the images of heart and blood vessels to study cardiovascular diseases.

  • Cardiac Stress test- The cardiac pumping capacity and flow of arterial blood to the heart is noted during a treadmill test.

  • Holter Monitoring- The electrical signals from the heart are continuously noted through series of electrodes placed on the chest. This is used to observe the heart condition, when round-the-clock monitoring is necessary.

  • Carotid Duplex- Ultrasound waves are used to study blood flow through Carotid arteries and check for blood clots, blockages or built up plaque, inside the artery.

  • Pacemaker Evaluations- The pacemaker evaluation is done to know about the effect of the pacemaker to correct slow or fast heartbeat and as an aid to the heart after cardiac operation.
Cardiology transcription helps the cardiologist to maintain detailed medical records of their patient’s heart condition. This information is protected by the HIPAA regulations. The transcription service provider follows the stringent HIPAA laws when the confidential vascular health information of the patient is either stored or exchanged between doctor and transcriptionist. The transcribed report offers the doctor a valuable feedback during the course of cardiac treatment and makes it easy for them to prescribe the right medication or procedure so that patient recovers completely from the heart disease.

Cardiology Transcription Helps the cardiologist to precisely document the vascular health records of the patient.

Jason Gaya

Read more at, www.cardioscribes.com