AHDI Uses MT Week to Connect to Next Generation Workforce

The Association for Healthcare Documenation Integrity (AHDI) is proactively reaching out to NextGen medical transcriptionists to combat a pending medical transcription workforce and recruitment challenge.  AHDI believes the healthcare documentation industry "will soon reach a critical point of disconnect with the demands of an evolving healthcare delivery system – a system that will continue to seek other documentation solutions to meet the high-volume documentation needs that are anticipated in health care as Baby Boomers enter the long-term care continuum" and Baby Boomer medical transcription workforce enters retirement.

AHDI feels so strongly about attracting next-generation documentation specialists into the profession that they have developed an entire campaign around it, Next Gen Campaign for 2008.  Partering with the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA), the two medical transcription trade associations are encouraging its medical transcription business owners to help them raise awareness and recruit Next Gen medical transcriptionists. 

For your convenience, we've included a bullet-point list of AHDI's ideas to help promote MT awareness:

• Host an open informational event for the general public to educate them about the profession and the career.
• Participate in a local high school or community college career fair to recruit interested candidates into the profession and guide them to the right career information and selection of an approved-school program.
• Host a military spouse informational meeting at a local military institution or military base.
• Host a reception, preferably during National Medical Transcriptionist Week (May 18-24, 2008), for all local students, recent graduates, and new MTs to encourage their membership and involvement in AHDI.

In addition, healthcare documentation specialists and MTSOs are encouraged to enter the I Love My Career contest, and wear AHDI's eye-catching recruitment button "I Love My Career…Ask Me Why?" to educate the general public about a career in healthcare documentation and to point interested individuals to the career information found at the AHDI website.

Click here to learn more about AHDI's Next Gen Campaign and MTWeek.

Posted on 5/6/2008

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AHDI presents I love My Career Contest via YouTube

As part of AHDI's 2008 Next Gen Campaign, the organization dedicated to serving healthcare documentation professionals is holding an "I Love My Career" contest on YouTube.

According to AHDI's Web site, AHDI members are encouraged to come view these videos and vote on their favorite, most creative video. The winner will receive a copy of The Book of Style for Medical Transcription, 3rd Edition and have their video highlighted at the AHDI Annual Convention and Expo in Orlando, Florida, in August of 2008.

All other videos will be shown throughout the convention in attendee areas and will be compiled into a "testimonial" video that can be used by AHDI components to promote the profession during Next Gen events in 2008.

Click here to learn more and tell the world Why I Love My Career.

Posted on 5/6/2008

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AHDI-MTIA presents 3rd Annual Advocacy Summit during National Medical Transcription Week

AHDI-MTIA is putting on the third annual advocacy summit in Washington D.C. during National Medical Transcription Week this year (May 15-17).  This major event has a history of attracting over 100 of the top leaders and movers and shakers of the medical transcription industry.  So registering for the event is a surefire way to show your support of the rapidly changing role of the healthcare documentation specialist.  

Click here to learn more about the third annual Advocacy Summit.

Click here to register for the Advocacy Summit.

Posted on 4/17/2008

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MTStars moves to new domain, GoMDT.com

PRN Funding has been a strong supporter of MTStars.com, and we've followed them all the way to their brand new web site, www.GoMDT.com.

We encourage our readers to check out the new and improved site.  Surf the forums, post an open position, browse some of the products available at the online store, or read up on the latest medical transcription industry news.  You can even enter goMDT's Spring Fling Giveaway and have a chance to win prizes, including a PRN Funding stadium blanket.

Posted on 4/7/2008

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AHDI Promotes New Membership Contest

From March 1-April 30, AHDI, formerly AAMT, is sponsoring a kickoff contest to promote membership growth.  The goal of the contest is to gain 540 new members to generate new energy and momentum at all levels of the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity.

As an active supporter of AHDI, PRN Funding encourages medical transcription service owners to join the association.  Not to mention, there are some great prizes being given away to the winners.

Click here for more information on the 2008 AHDI Membership Contest or click here to complete the AHDI application form.

Posted on 3/18/2008

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Updates from AHDI and MTIA Partnership

We received a briefing the other day from the AHDI-MTIA partnership, and it looks like they have been hard at work since they partnered in May 2007.  Here's a glimpse of some of the current initiatives:

• TROTTS, also known as Transcribed Report Optimum Turnaround Time, revolves around a study of both HIM directors/supervisors and MTSO managers/supervisors to measure their experiences with turnaround times (TAT), whether or not that time meets their needs and to help understand medical transcription industry challenges, financial impacts, as well as the impact of offshore medical transcription and Electronic Health Records (EHR).  This group will publish a White Paper that will establish defininitions and standards for TAT and will demonstrate how both the use of specific standards and turnaround time affect clinical decision-making.
  
• ASRT (Automated Speech Recognition Technology Workgroup) is currently working on a type of "buyer's guide to speech recognition technology," which is scheduled to be completed in August 2008.
  
• CDA4CDT, or the Clinical Document Architecture for Common Document Types) brought together a large group of medical transcription industry stakeholders to help establish a common document architecture to preserve the narrative report component of histories, consultations, etc.  Within a year, the CDA4CDT group plans to make five mayor reports available: H&P, Consultations, Discharge Summary, Op Note and Imaging.
  
• QA Best Practices is putting together a QA Best Practices document which includes official verification of methods and sampling and still offers a methose to define errors in documentation in a numerical point system and also looks at the impact of time and cost involved with achieving quality assurance.  In addition, CEO Preziosi will eventually seek endorsement from The Joint Commission with a fully endorsed paper to follow in the fall.

Again, PRN Funding is excited about the partnership between MTIA and AHDI and the progress that it has made for the medical transcription industry during its first year is amazing.  We look forward to hearing more good news from them in the future.

Posted on 3/5/2008

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AHDI Releases Third Addition of The Book of Style for Medical Transcription

As early as March, the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) will release the 3rd edition of The Book of Style for Medical Transcription.

The most recent edition of this widely acclaimed medical transcription industry standards manual comes with a boatload of new features.  Among the many changes, the AHDI web site highlights a reorganized layout for easier reference lookup, enhanced explanation of standards and practical application, robust examples taken from clinical medicine settings, and so much more.

Orders for the latest edition of the medical transcription stylus book are being taken now, with delivery dates occuring in March 2008.  AHDI also anticipates a subscription-based electronic release of the edition by the end of the year.

Click here to learn more about The Book of Style for Medical Transcription and how to pre-order it.

Posted on 2/18/2008

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KLAS Study Reveals MTSO Ratings

Advance for Health Information Professionals gave some details about the recent KLAS study last week.  The study reported on the current trends in the world of medical transcription outsourcing.  I've listed a few of the study's findings in bullet points below:

• For providers using MTSO, the overall satisfaction scores rose 4.5 points in 2007 from 77.2 to 81.7 out of a possible 100 points.
• Although many are still not comfortable with the idea of sending medical transcription offshore, the overall perception is improving.
• Some of the benefits of using medical transcription service organizations were faster turnaround times (TAT), reduced costs and improved quality.
• Even though the idea of offshore medical transcription is slowly increasing in popularity, the number of provider organizations who reported using them has decreased from 55 percent in 2006 to 38 percent in 2007.
• The need for medical transcription is increasing due to a) Electronic medical records and the need to populate them quickly, and b) speech recognition services needing editing on the back end, so many MTSOs are increasing their capacity.
• Pricing is also changing.  The most popular method continues to be charging per line (67 percent of respondents use this method), down from 81 percent in 2006.  Those charging by the Visual Black Character (VBC) has grown from 12 percent in 2006 to 23 percent in 2007.  Overall, the average medical transcription price ranges from 11.9 cents to 13.2 cents per line.

Study respondents also listed multiple tips for their fellow providers who are considering outsourced medical transcription, so I condensed those answers as well into a bullet point list:

• Look into the whole medical transcription package when choosing a vendor.  For example, some MTSOs may charge less to transcribe, but they might require you to do more quality checks upfront.
• If you are thinking of sending work offshore, be sure to look closely at where the work is being performed and the employment policies and practices that mitigate your risk.
• Find out out MTs are assigned.
• Ask the vendor about their support structure and customer service practices.
• Do some investigative work and see how an medical transcription service communicated with providers in the past to get an idea of how communication with your company will be.
• Look closely at the types of tools that are available to distribute, track and capture inbounc dictation, work in progress and outbound reports.
• Understand how charges will be handled.
• Know how quality standards will be measured and ensured.

Click here to read the entire article, Study Reveals Medical Transcription Services Organization Ratings, by Michael K. Smith

 

Posted on 1/9/2008

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Thoughts on the merge between AHDI and MTIA

As long time members of both MTIA and AHDI, PRN Funding is excited about all the new opportunities that are now available to the medical transcription industry because of the partership between MTIA and AHDI.

The president of PRN Funding, Phil Cohen, has already taken advantage of some of the technological opportunities provided by the AHDI/MTIA alliance when he gave a webinar presentation to medical transcriptionists and MTSOs across America.  We're equally excited to exhibit at ACE08 and MTIA's 19th Annual Conference as well.

Overall, the new partnership seems to be running smoothly from our vendor point-of-view.

Q: How do you feel about the partnership between the two organizations?

Posted on 12/14/2007

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Speech Recognition Technology - Embrace it or Fight it?

Bob Gerzel, Executive VP of Transcription, Technology, & Support, LLC wrote an article in the October 2007 edition of Health Data Matrix entitled: A 360-degree Look at SRT in which he talked about how technological advances in the medical transcription industry affects customers, prospective customers, MTSOs and MTs.

In the article, Gerzel writes:

"To many MTSOs, speech recognition is nothing more than a productivity tool enabling them to accomplosh more with the same or fewer resources.  Some MTSOs have embraced speech recognition technology and have enjoyed much success in this environment.  They continue to find a growing number of opportunities on a variety of platforms, while others have chosen a model whereby they operate on the client/vendor speech recognition platforms.

Since healthcare organizations continue to look to reduce costs and increase performance, those MTSOs who have chosen to embrace speech recognition technology have positioned themselves well for future opportunities."

Q: Do you agree with Gerzel's analysis?  Should MTSOs continue to embrace new technologies in the medical transcription industry?  Should they continue to partner with vendor management systems?

Posted on 12/3/2007

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Evolving Medical Transcription Model

Gartner Industry Research released a new report on the future of medical transcription.  The report outlines the much talked about "Editor" Model of medical transcription, in which  medical transcriptionists spend the majority of their time correcting, reformatting and augmenting the material already created by speech recognition programs. 

The report also discusses another dictation approach that have left some industry experts worried.  The "Once-and-Done" Model (OAD), which appears to be rapidly gaining acceptance in the ambulatory, single-physician and small physician's practice marketplace.

The report goes on to explain the model: "In the OAD model, a physician performs dictattion while seated at a computer terminal.  Speech recognition is used to convert the physician's voice directly into text, and this same physician is responsible to correct errors in speech recognition, as well as to format the document appropriately...A clinical decision support systemmay then examing this content to determine wherhter any alerts or warnings are warrented based on the information that has judt been generated."

Although Gartner hails the OAD model as the next big thing in medical transcription with little disadvantages, not all industry experts agree.  (Click here to read the October Cover Story of For the Record Magazine - Once & Done Transcription: A Bold Spin or Off Target?) Whether you agree or disagree with the emergence of this new medical transcription model, it's certainly something that MTSOs should be watching closely.

Posted on 11/13/2007

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2007 AHDI Reno, NV Conference

We're back from the AHDI 29th Annual Conference that was held at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, NV!  Held from August 15-17, the trade show proved to be a busy one for PRN Funding.  We were able to connect with many medical transcription service owners (MTSOs) who were interested in learning more about PRN Funding's accounts receivable factoring services. 

Q: Did you attend the AHDI conference?  What did you learn?  Will you be attending next year in Orlando, FL?

Posted on 8/20/2007

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New transcribing options available for medical transcriptionists

With all of the changes going on in the medical transcription industry, medical transcription service owners (MTSOs) and medical transcriptionists have a lot on their plate.  Still there are a lot of transcriptionists who remain optimistic and have good reasons to back up their viewpoints.  In her blog, thrivingandtranscribing.com, Diane Fusco (an 18-year medical transcriptionist veteran) often talks about triumphs in the medical transcription industry.  Below is a passage from her blog, which talks about a new transcribing outlet that has recently become available to medical transcribers out of necessity:

"I am saving the best news for last: with the popularity of teleseminars, Webinars and podcasts, it seems like just about everyone has some audio that needs to be transcribed. In the last six months I’ve had more requests to type general than medical audio. These clients just find me. But do you want to know where to get clients who are in a field that uses a lot of transcription? Coaching! That’s right—personal and business coaches do their fair share of teleseminars and each of these needs a transcript. And with coaching deemed one of the hottest professions of the next ten years, that’s indeed good news for transcriptionists."

To read more of Fusco's blog, visit thrivingandtranscribing.com.

Posted on 7/24/2007

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MT recognized as apprenticeable occupation

As of March 2007, graduates of selected medical transcription training programs now have access to registered apprenticeship programs, as the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has now declared medical transcription to be an apprenticeable profession – the first step in establishing a national apprenticeship program.  The Office of Apprenticeship Training, Employer and Labor Services approved the application for apprenticeability determination submitted by the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) along with the Association of Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), formerly American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT). 

The Registered Apprenticeship Program, sponsored by the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA), will offer structured on-the-job learning and related technical instruction for qualified medical transcriptionists entering the profession.  The two associations, along with the Office of Apprenticeship Training, Employer and Labor Services, are finalizing program details.

Click here to read the entire press release Medical Transcription Recognized as an apprenticeable occupation by the U.S. Department of Labor or visit MTIA's workforce development page for more information.

Posted on 7/16/2007

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MTSOs & Platform Providers Battle for Clients

For years now, small and mid-sized medical transcription services owners (MTSOs) have worried about how new speech recognition technology and off-shoring will or won't affect the MT marketplace. Now a new issue has arisen, and it has the potential to be the most threatening to the current livelihood of small and mid-sized MTSOs who are already battling for business in a competitive industry.

In an article that appeared in May's edition of For the Record Magazine, writer Elizabeth S. Roop describes a "high-priced tug-of-war" match with MTSOs pulling on one side of the rope and larger technology companies yanking on the other. Click here to read the article: MTSOs & Platform Providers Battle for Clients, Control.

Posted on 6/14/2007

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Joint Task Force Recommends MT Industry adopt visual black characters

There's no question that the need for a standard unit of measure within the medical transcription industry is long overdue.  With that said, earlier this year, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) Joint Task Force on Standards Development gave its formal recommendation that the MT industry should adopt visual black character (VBC) as the standard unit of measure for the medical transcription of medical records.

 

Originally a discussion topic within MTIA's Billing, Methods and Principles (BMP) Committee, a statement outlining five billing method principles (Verifiability, Definability, Measurability, Consistency and Integrity) was developed to help identify key business practices.  The BMP Committee's principles later helped define the VBC.  

 

As detailed in A Standard Unit of Measure for Transcribed Reports, the Joint Task Force defines VBC as “a character that can be seen with the naked eye.”  Spaces, bolding, underlining and spell checking are among the configurations that would not be counted using this new measurement.  In order to help MTSOs, transcribers and other industry professionals better understand the VBC, AHIMA/MTIA released a FAQs.

 

The medical transcription industry has developed a reputation of questionable integrity based on the unethical actions of a few rogue firms that have taken advantage of the fact that a line was virtually immeasurable.  This should serve to level the playing field and let the best companies thrive.  Needless to say, PRN Funding supports this standardizing venture.  

Posted on 6/1/2007

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Happy National Medical Transcriptionist Week!

Established in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan, National Medical Transcriptionist Week, National Medical Transcriptionist Week is celebrated annually in the third week of May to bring public and industry-wide attention to the role and contribution of medical transcriptionists in healthcare delivery and clinical documentation.  

The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), formally American Association for Medical Transcription is celebrating the week with the AAMT Walk for Red Day: Walk for Red Day is a day set aside during National Medical Transcriptionist Week for AAMT members and component groups to participate in a walk-a-thon with the goal of raising awareness about women’s heart health and raising funds to support both The Heart Truth and sponsorship of fitness celebrity Richard Simmons to the AAMT Annual Convention and Expo in Reno, Nevada, in August of 2007.1.

 

Posted on 5/28/2007

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2007 MTIA Conference; AHDI and MTIA join forces

Two weeks ago, we had the opportunity to exhibit at MTIA’s 18th Annual Conference, and once again, we were pleased with the show.  We had the chance to meet up with old colleagues and friends, while simultaneously meeting new faces and discussing PRN Funding’s factoring niche within the medical transcription industry. 

 

We were also very intrigued and excited to learn about the new relationship between the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI)—formerly the American Association of Medical Transcription (AAMT)—and the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA).  Seeing a trade association growing and adapting to serve the needs of medical transcription services owners (MTSOs) is a good thing, and PRN Funding supports the merge wholeheartedly.  Although MTIA is an excellent association for the medical transcribing world, the organization was too small to effectively reach all of its members.  We feel that this collaboration is a good thing for MTSOs worldwide.  We look forward to the continued growth of this strategic legal partnership.

 

Q: How do you feel about the merge between AHDI (formally AAMT) and MTIA?

A: Jay Cannon (President of MTIA and COO of Webmedx, Inc.) commented about the new AHDI/MTIA relationship in the June 2007 issue of Journal of the American Association for Medical Transcription (JAAMT).  Like PRN Funding, Cannon is extremely thrilled about it.  In his column, he wrote "I do believe this relationship to be one of strategic importance as we mutually strive toward advancing the relevance of medical transcription in teh ever-changing clinical documentation landscape."

Posted on 5/7/2007

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