Reducing TAT For Smoother Integration of EMR With Cardiology Transcription

The Turn around time or TAT, as it popularly known is the total time taken towards dictation of cardiac records of patient into the voice recorder, it’s conversion into electronic file and dispatch back the physician. There is no prevalent standard, which clearly defines the ideal turnaround time for the health providers and their business associates.The turn around time varies from one transcription service provider to the other.

The latest developments in the EMR and speech recognition software technology have increased the speed and ease, with which the patient health information can converted into electronic format. The Cardiology transcription consists of series of different processes,which increase the time taken to document the information. In EMR, during patient-doctor encounter, the point-and-click template method converts health information of the patient directly into electronic format. This is a quick and easy way to store huge amount of data in a cost effective way as it saves the organization money, which would have been spent towards creating and managing the records storage area.

The development of front end speech recognition software has made it easier for the physicians to directly speak into the computer and convert the voice into electronic text. The text is then edited by the doctor himself and there is no need of an editor or transcriptionist. The software is not completely accurate and there and are errors in the transcribed report.This drawback is overcome in the back-end speech recognition software because the voice file is sent along with draft to transcriptionist, who then edits it and sends back to the physician.

The emergence and acceptance of EMR has made it necessary for the transcription service providers needs to reduce the turnaround time so that the physicians can easily avail the patient information at a short notice because time is of an essence in treatment. Thus electronic medical record and speech recognition software offer better medical documentation options compared to a slow transcribed report.

This drawback in cardiology transcription can be overcome by reducing turn around time so that transcription can be smoothly integrated with electronic medical record. At same time the expertise of the transcriptionist will ensure that high level of accuracy is maintained, which is missing from speech recognition software.

A short TAT helps to integrate EMR with Cardiology transcription.

Jason Gaya

Read more on Cardiology transcription at, www.cardioscribes.com