Medical Dictation and Transcription Blog

See you at MTIA in 2009

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:56:02 -0600

Emdat is planning on attending the upcoming MTIA (Medical Transcription Industry Association) in Louisville, KY. The meeting will be held from April 22-25, 2009. Emdat will sponsor a booth with plans to meet with any current MTSOs as well as any new prospects who might be interested in improving their dictation and transcription process flow via Emdat's web based platform. The TASP model is easy to implement and one of the best methods to populate EMRs via HL7 interfaces. Software as a service is growing in popularity because their is no upfront costs or maintenance required.

Marketing

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:59:18 -0600

We are very excited to have Laura Lowe join Emdat's marketing team. Laura comes to Emdat from CINN where she was responsible for marketing communications and graphic design. Laura's phone number is 608-270-6400 Ext. 373. Laura being a UW-Madison grad is excited about coming to Madtown for some of the upcoming Big Ten football games.

Corporate Headquarters Emdat

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:52:10 -0600

Emdat has a new corporate headquarters at :

2940 Chapel Valley Rd.

Fitchburg, WI 53711

NEW PHONE: 608-270-6400

Medical Transcription Service Organizations

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:06:40 -0600

If you are a medical transcription service organization looking to improve your work flow process you might want to take a look at the following flash presentation. Emdat has tried to address the needs of MTSO's by offering our software as a service. By supplying a totally integrated suite of web based applications Emdat has helped many transcription organizations grow their businesses. If you want to sell your services as well as the software to complete your offering to the clinics and hospitals you might want to watch the flash demo above.

Upcoming Medical Conferences

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:19:53 -0600

Emdat is planning on attending the Annual Clinical Assembly of Osteopathic Specialists in Boca Raton, FL from Sept. 11-13th. We will be working in the OTTC booth. We also will attend the upcoming Arkansas MGMA meeting in Eureka Springs, AR from Sept. 17-19th working in the eMedDox booth. In October Emdat will be attending the Illinois Primary Health Care Association Leadership Conference in Galena, IL from Oct. 8-10 working with Mayfield Transcription.

Visually impaired transcribing using Emdat's TASP

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:54:07 -0600

It was brought to my attention that Emdat's InScribe transcription application can be useful in assisting visually impaired medical transcriptionist when using an application called Jaws. I wanted to pass the following information along to anyone who might be interested.

We received this message from a physician in Australia who stated "My patient is Visually Impaired only and has perfect hearing. I would very much like to speak to you regarding the mechanics of using Jaws with the InScribe application. There are quite a number of people who have a significant visual handicap who are excellent typists (medical transcriptionists) and desperate to find gainful employment, not only from the financial point of view but also the social one."

Web based dictation and transcription flash demo

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:14:24 -0600

Many times a picture is worth a 1000 words so we figured that a video must be worth a lot more. To that end, we wanted to provide an on line demonstration of Emdat's web based platform. Enjoy!

Medical Transcription Industry Association

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:49:33 -0600

Emdat is planning on attending the upcoming MTIA (Medical Transcription Industry Association) meeting in Long Beach, CA. The meeting will be held from April 23-26th. Emdat will sponsor a booth with plans to meet with any current MTSOs as well as any new prospects who might be interested in improving their dictation and transcription process flow via Emdat's web based platform. The TASP model has become a simple model to implement which improves work flow process for many MTSOs.

Upcoming Conference

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:33:58 -0600

Emdat will be attending the upcoming Bones meeting which will be held in Charlotte, NC. Bones is the National Society of Orthopaedic Administrators. Our feelings are that we will be able to meet many key administrators in a discipline which utilizes dictation and transcription services quite frequently. Additionally we are hoping to expand our relationships, in terms of interfacing, with the many Electronic Medical Record software companies. Currently we have interfaces completed with Allscripts, NextGen, Misys, ECW, MediTech, Cerner, McKesson, Epic and many more.

Faxing Transcriptions is Legal

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:51:59 -0600

When using auto fax or fax on demand keep the following items in mind. Security should be kept in mind such as restricting access to fax machines and verifying that fax numbers are actually appropriate for the doctors offices. The following link will be helpful as a reference.

Transcription Company in the News

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:48:01 -0600

We found this article about one of the large transcription companies very interesting and thought it might be news worthy. It is our intent to keep our blog readers as informed as possible about possible industry activity.

Dictation Not Going Away Soon

ksaliga@emdat.com (Kevin Saliga) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:31:31 -0600

Being in the medical transcription field for so long, I'm always fascinated by the different processes that clinics use to document visits, and I almost always bring up dictation to them. Maybe I'll talk to the right person and get a sale out of it, but that's not my primary goal. My goal is to understand real-world examples of how people are doing medical documentation, so that we can improve our product.

I recently had a doctor's appointment, and noticed that there was a computer in the exam room with me. The nurse came in, took my vitals, entered them in on the computer, and left. When the doctor came in, he worked with me for quite some time, and entered his findings into the computer.

Instinctively, I asked the doctor if he ever dictated any of his notes. He said that the policy at their clinic was to not do this, and that more and more facilities are moving to EMRs. I told him what I our company did, and we talked about the pros and cons of their methods. He was definitely spending more time in the room with me, which as a patient I felt was great, but his attention was focused on the computer for half of the time, and it took him forever to enter his notes. Most of his notes were standardized - templated - so he was able to do that quickly, but when it came time to enter a unique comment about the visit, he had to type it all in by hand.

Of course EMRs are not going away, I told him, and templates are a great method of input for some EMR's, but what some clients have discovered is that you can do your templated entry on a computer and then dictate just the portion that would normally take you three-to-four times as long to type. EMR vendors are calling this a Dictation Marker or Placeholder. Transcription companies can now type these smaller pieces of dictation and send them back to the EMR with the Placeholder (usually a numeric code), which the EMR uses to place that transcribed text into the previously started note.

As medical documentation evolves and EMRs become more popular, there will always be a push for reducing costs. But if you examine the costs of dictation and transcription to the costs of the loss of time a doctor experiences between patients, you rapidly see that his time is better used dictating and seeing patients than typing reports. Several methods of cost reductions are already available - templating, voice recognition, dictation markers - but there are still times where good old fashioned dictation-transcription is the best method to use.

Fortunately, by talking to physicians like this, we're keeping that focus, and also improving our application to work with any other cost savings methods that come out. Emdat supports templating, voice recognition, and dictation marker integration with EMRs. And we're always keeping our eyes open for the next industry trend.

Is your MTSO's data stored securely enough?

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:26:36 -0600

If you have doubts about the security of where and how your data is stored you will be able to sleep better at night once you review this site. Emdat has invested our money and time with Equinix, the best partner for securing your mission critical operations. I had the opportunity to tour the Equinix facility in Chicago recently with Jeff Olver (CTO Emdat) as well as one of our prospective Medical Transcription Service Organizations. Obviously MTSOs should be concerned about the security and reliability of the center where their data is stored as nothing is more important or critical to their day to day operations. Equinix offers five levels of security which is designed much like the Federal Reserve. Additionally Equinix offers five nines of up-time which is the best in the business. I know many of you have not had a chance to tour this facility so I encourage you to take the virtual tour by clicking on the link above. Believe me you will sleep better knowing Emdat has chosen the very best partner as we view your data security as seriously as you do. When medical facilities ask you about the security of their dictation and transcription data please use this site to show what steps we are willing to take to protect their data and your business.

2nd Annual Emdat User Group Meeting

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:24:40 -0600

Emdat will be having its second annual Users Group Meeting in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. The dates will be December 9-11 at the Golden Nugget. We encourage you to register early as there is a cost saving. The theme for this years conference will be "Staying The Course". Emdat promises to offer as much excitement as last years meeting in New Orleans. We hope you all can join us.

Web-based Transcription Application Saves Time, Reduces Costs

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 08:44:42 -0600

When the Cincinnati Eye Institute (CEI), the largest ophthalmology practice in the United States, wanted to reduce medical transcription costs, they turned to Emdat.

Emdat is a suite of web-based applications that completely automates the preparation, routing and delivery of the entire dictation, transcription and documentation process. Emdat begins with the proven foundation of traditional dictation and adds web-based cost-saving features to give clients a fully integrated solution that improves workflow, reduces cost, and saves time.

Previously, CEI transcriptionists -- all of whom worked off-site because of space constraints -- made frequent trips into the office to pick up dictations and drop off completed transcriptions. Along with being inconvenient, it was an administrative nightmare for CEI Project Manager Marsha Wylie. In addition, the company paid transcriptionists for each hour of drive time, making for a costly and inefficient combination.

Using Emdat, CEI's simplified its transcription process. A straightforward and user-friendly system, Emdat is easy to learn. CEI’s transcriptionists easily transitioned to the new online system. Administrators effortlessly managed each step in the transcription process. Dictating clinicians quickly adopted Emdat because there's very little change to the dictation process.

CEI began reaping the benefits of the Emdat software right away. Almost immediately, CEI reduced its transcription turnaround time from three weeks to 24 hours. During the first three years alone, CEI reduced transcription costs by $250,000. The company estimates that 80% of their savings resulted from Emdat’s line counting methods and built-in print template feature that automatically generates redundant fields, reducing the number of lines per transcription. CEI also reduced its letterhead and postage costs because Emdat can send and store transcriptions electronically.

By switching to an electronic transcription system, CEI saved money and increased productivity without significantly disrupting the status quo clinical workflow.

Executive Healthcare Management Article

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 10:35:59 -0600

Executive Healthcare Management Magazine's June edition mentions first steps to an EMR and lists Emdat's online web application which is used in the dictation/transcription process. Emdat has the ability to populate all historical transcriptions directly into a facilities electronic medical record thus making the EMR more valuable from the start. Since the interface is provided at no charge by Emdat, the solution is designed to improve the physician's operations as well as productivity.

The issues with FTP or emailing transcriptions

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 10:59:53 -0600

Email and FTP sites are poor solutions for a transcription process. Email and FTP were designed as transport and storage mechanisms but increase administration of the transcription process flow. The headaches occur due to accountability. The dictations (voice files) and documents generally must be manually associated and managed with the finished transcription. Additionally emails and FTP sites require special encryption and decryption software in order to be HIPAA compliant which is very difficult to manage.

Emdat gives a receipt code and assigns a TID (transcription identification number) with every dictation (voice file), which continues to associate throughout the transcription workflow even after completion. This process is automated and creates a verifiable audit trail to track receipts, uploads, downloads, edits, autofaxes (successful/unsuccessful), views, electronic signatures, printing, exports and more. The key is to make this process seamless to all involved in the transcription process and provide accountability for quality, timeliness and security. Since autofaxing is a popular and acceptable feature within Emdat there are sites that are availble to make sure you understand HIPAA's stance on this technology.

Charging transcription by the line or by the page?

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Tue, 29 May 2007 11:44:24 -0600

Recently it was brought to my attention that some facilities like to be charged by the page. Although this sounds very attractive at times I truly believe medical transcription companies open themselves up to potential losses by charging in this manner. I have talked to facilities that get charged anywhere from $2 per page to up words of $10 per page. My feelings are that by being too liberal with the definition of a page (not knowing how many lines are transcribed on that page) you potentially set yourself up for unprofitable business. My conversations with a transcription company owner revealed that they were charging $2 per page and that is what the market would bear. Immediately I went into the Emdat reports menu to see how many reports were produced in the past month for that account and then ran a report on how many lines were generated within that month. By dividing the number of reports by the total of number of lines (65 character line with spaces) I figured this company was charging 5.5 cents per line to the facility. Don't let this happen!! Get paid what is a fair wage and give quality work back to the medical facility. Emdat provides many excellent reports within our system to insure that in fact, transcription companies make money so they can stay in business and service medical facilities. Additionally Emdat also provides reports to the medical facilities so that they can substantiate every line with accuracy. In our opinion everyone wins in this situation.

Emdat's ASP commercialized

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Tue, 08 May 2007 12:20:16 -0600

Emdat is going to be airing 800+ TV commercials in the Fort Wayne, IN area from May 7th until July 2nd. This will be our first attempt to use Television as a medium for marketing Emdat's ASP to medical facilities as well as transcription companies. Spot Runner has made this affordable to at least try TV and see what type of response we get. This commercial will be aired on CNBC, CNN, Discovery, Fox News, The Golf Channel, The History Channel, MSNBC, and the Travel Channel. This could be our first and last TV commercial but at least we can play it on this blog and possibly on You Tube. Tell us what you think? Are we all wet?

EMR interfacing costs too high? Don't panic.

bhaugen@emdat.com (Bob Haugen) — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 11:47:26 -0600

As a service to the medical facilities, Emdat, with very few exceptions, provides interfacing at no charge. That is not always the case for EMR companies. At times, the costs charged for the EMR side of the interface can be prohibitive to moving forward. This is frustrating not only to transcription companies trying to win the business by providing better service, but also to the medical facilities which would realize more value with their EMR. HL7 is the most common interface, but generally requires involvement for either the scheduling/demographic interface or textual/discrete interface back into the EMR.

If costs are prohibitive or cooperation is not forthcoming by the EMR software provider, we do have some options which are pretty straightforward and will save on cost. Don't panic - you can still interface to the scheduler to improve accuracy for the transcriptionist, and Emdat will store all transcriptions on our servers for as long as you are a client. Additionally we can bring past historical transcriptions over to the EMR if/when you so desire and are ready.

We continue to strive to provide additional features such as interfacing at little or no costs because or philosophy has always been to treat clients the way you want to be treated. Generally speaking this feature is of big value. If you are moving forward with EMR software in the near future, I would ask them about their ability, willingness and costs to interface with their transcription platform provider.