2012
and Beyond: Divining the future of Medical Transcription and
Clinical Documentation
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By Christopher Dunn
The dawn of a new year - 2012 -
seems an appropriate time to take a fresh look at the future
of the medical transcription and healthcare documentation
industry. To be sure, the past several years have seen a steady
if not accelerating encroachment of both technology and outsourcing
on the traditional medical transcription model. In fact, if
we are to be completely honest, the traditional medical transcription
paradigm is fast becoming a relic of a bygone era.
The speech recognition movement
has swept in with a vengeance and is gaining traction in the
traditionally slow-to-adopt US healthcare industry. The factors
that have delayed the penetration of speech recognition technology
are numerous - with cost, entrenchment, bureaucracy, uncertainty,
and a lack of standardization all contributing. However, one
by one these issues have been resolved or mitigated and the
industry now seems poised to accelerate the pace of SR adoption
as the path to profitability and efficiency becomes more clear.
At the same time, the propensity
toward overseas outsourcing of transcription has become commonplace,
bringing its own set of benefits, and headaches to an increasingly
fragile industry. However, the pace of outsourcing may decelerate
slightly in the future as speech recognition technology continues
to establish itself as the dominant production model. The
cost efficiencies of SR will make it more palatable for healthcare
operators to maintain a domestic production resource in the
future.
MTSO's have scrambled to redefine
their role in the wake of a rapidly morphing space. Consolidation
and scale have been the bywords of an industry badly shaken
by these rapid global transformations. Most recently, MTSO's,
along with their armies of skilled medical transcriptionists
have worked hard to adapt to the changing technological landscape.
The conversion from a traditional medical transcription skill
set to the more in-demand medical record editing role has
been arduous and inefficient. Companies and transcriptionists
alike have been forced to wear two hats as their healthcare
partners lurched in fits and starts - transitioning away from
a traditional medical transcription model in favor of speech
recognition technology.
The MTSO survivors have done an
admirable job of transitioning to the document editing role
with a healthy dose of guidance, support, and cheerleading
from AHDI (Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity),
the industry organization that astutely responded to the writing
on the wall several years in advance of the sea change. Formerly
known as the American Association for Medical Transcription,
AHDI abruptly changed its name and its mission a number of
years ago in a move calculated to ensure its own survival
as well as the survival of the industry it served.
Looking to the future, many MTSO's
now appear well positioned to take advantage of the future
demographic trends that will shape the future of the healthcare
industry for several decades to come. Specifically, the volume
of patient documentation will accelerate markedly in coming
years due to a rapidly aging and long-lived US population.
These trends have been on the radar screen threatening to
overwhelm medical transcription budgets and capacity for a
number of years now. However, 2011 marked the first official
year of actual baby-boom retirements - setting the stage for
far greater healthcare demand and patient documentation in
the near future.
As a consequence, a healthier and
newly retooled cadre of MTSO's are now settling into the driver's
seat in what portends to be a remarkable future opportunity
of profitable growth in healthcare documentation. Medical
transcriptionists who have been successful in transitioning
themselves to become competent and efficient medical record
editors will also benefit from robust industry growth as they
assume an increasingly important and visible role in the clinical
documentation production process.
Looking in the rearview mirror,
the first decade of the new millennium can best be characterized
as a decade of disruption, transition, consolidation, and
adaptation in the healthcare documentation industry - all
of which have been extremely stressful and costly. The next
decade should offer hope for smoother sailing and an opportunity
to stabilize around a new model that will facilitate future
growth, efficiency, and prosperity.
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