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 In the May issue of ADVANCE, we featured the article "Keeping the Pace" that talked about how medical transcription service organizations (MTSOs) can make sure they don't fall behind when EHRs become more common. Below, we give you steps that MTSOs can take to stay current and expand services.
· Don't limit your MTSO. Approximately 300 to 400 EHR vendors exist, and if your MTSO has a restricted relationship with only a handful, you might be missing out. "Given the population of physician practices and hospitals, restricting a particular transcription service to only one or more EHR vendors doesn't make sense," explained Claudia Tessier, president, mHealth Initiative, and former CEO of the American Association for Medical Transcription.
· Stay in the loop. The Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) recently held its annual conference, and MTSOs networked, sharing ideas on staying relevant. George Catuogno, president of Sten-Tel, noted that MTIA is working to build new opportunities for MTSOs to drive new methods of documentation capture. "The key is just to be engaged in your industry association and pay attention," Catuogno said.
· Help with EHR adoption. That's right - even thought the EHR vendors often use the sales pitch of reducing transcription, MTSOs shouldn't fear the technology. At MD-IT, Robin Daigh's company, MTSO reps talk with clients about documentation needs and the entire document workflow, and then suggest an EHR that will fit those needs. "We're actually helping folks," noted Daigh, vice president of marketing and business development. "We play a role in being a documentation expert and understanding the full process of where the information's going."
· Offer discrete data tagging. Some MTSOs are already starting to do this. Transcription companies handle a ton of patient documentation, and they are in a prime position to help the provider utilize that information. Data in the narrative note can be tagged and provided to clients to add to patient care. Providers can see, for example, how many patients came in with pneumonia in the last 6 months. The technology's been developed on the MTSO side, but now it comes down to working with EHR vendors to have systems accept that discrete data, Daigh said. "It's kind of like a handshake," she noted. "We've got our hands out, and now some of the EHRs are beginning to shake the hand on the other side."
· Structure your reports. This is another one that some MTSOs have already latched on to. With structured reports, the data can be more readily pulled from the narrative, Tessier said. "It's very frustrating to pick up a narrative report or read it on screen and have to figure out, where the heck are the allergies? Is this person still on medication?" she explained.
· Work on interoperability. The favorite buzzword of HIT executives strikes again. At New England Medical Transcription (NEMT), a client is installing an EHR in a few months. Linda Sullivan, president, was excited about the news, because NEMT could do an HL7 interface and type on its own platform and send data directly over. "There's a real mystery about [interfaces], and companies charge tens of thousands of dollars to do an interface," Sullivan said. Her company is willing to do its end of the interface, and MTSOs should make sure they have the capability to set up interfaces and go halfway when a client installs an EHR.
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