The Cardiology Transcription Good Samaritan
Client Profile
The _____ Electrophysiology Clinic is a prominent landmark in the main square of this small border town in the South-Eastern State of Texas. (It was the only Specialty Cardiology Clinic for miles around and served the surrounding counties too.) The Rio Grande River is almost visible when standing on the topmost floor of the building; snaking its way through the Mexican Desert before disappearing from sight. The general population of this small town do love their nachos and burritos, like any Southern Texan town worth its salt; which in turn keeps the clinic busy; as the most common complaint (if you go by the clinic's record) is angina; although on most occasions it turned out to be just a gastrointestinal event induced by binging on enchiladas and tortillas.
Problem Statement
The Clinic is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and sees on average 50 patients a day. The panel of doctors consists of a couple of Internists along with 4 cardiologists. The medical records team which was staffed by mostly baby boomers, was stretching at its seams to keep up with the high inflow of reports which needed to be typed out, and although a couple of the cardiologists had taken to doing dictations via their latest iPhones and later correcting them; the results were less than satisfactory. Also, the clinic used a legacy-based database system; which was completely isolated from similar systems in nearby towns, and thus no useful information could be garnered from it for statistical surveys; but more important than that, just inputting and retrieving the patient records into it every day was a Herculean task and employed 2 personnel.
(In the words of the practice manager, “I was beginning to think things could not get worse; but it actually did. Thankfully we found a dependable ally in iSource later on.”)
Challenges Faced:
Aging Staff:
- One of these days the medical records department faced an unprecedented emergency, when a couple of its aging staff deceased one after another from natural causes.
- In a town, where most of the youth were training hard in developing culinary skills to become the next Gordon Ramsey, finding a suitable replacement in a jiffy was not possible.
- They later tried outsourcing some of their work to the cities of Houston and Dallas; but had issues with accuracy; commitment; and turnaround time; besides the high pricing prevalent there; and with the other two staff soon to be retired; the stakeholders of the clinic faced an unprecedented crisis on the medical records front.
Irate and Demanding Patients:
- Already the shortage was felt in the form of delayed reports; which in turn meant delayed medicine refill time for the patients; since the respective insurance companies had to approve the refilling, and they insisted on the latest summaries and reports.
- Some of the patients were already taking the pilgrimage to “pill-mills” across the border in Mexico, where prescriptionless medicine was to be found at 1/3rd the cost. This was earning a bad reputation for the clinic among its patrons.
Finding a Solution Provider
(Techie Transcription Company – EMR Savvy:) |
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One of the cardiologists later came to know that a Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Clinic further up north employed the services of a company named iSource Inc; based out of California; who were doing a remarkable job with their transcription needs. He later sought more information on the web and found the website medicaltranscriptionsservice.com (transcription in plural) to be very interesting. It clearly explained the history of the company and the doctor came to know that these people had back offices in India; which did the first level of transcription, and was later sent over here for quality checking and final proofing before being handed over to the clinics. The accuracy was outstanding; always 99.5% and above; as vouched by several of their clients. Also they specialized in all domains of transcription. Besides this, the technical acumen claimed by the company was really remarkable; since they had the experience of implementing more than 20 different kinds of EMRs (Electronic Medical Records Software) throughout the width and breath of the country; and what is more they offered a week of free trial and free Dictaphones. The cardiologist let the stakeholders have a look into this company’s profile; and they immediately had their practice manager call the toll-free number 877-272-1572.
How We Handled
A pleasant person, who introduced himself as the marketing manager Steve, answered the query about their transcription needs and clearly explained the finer points. They were given a rate quote of 9.5 cents per line; which also included EMR support besides the transcription support; and as mentioned in the website they offered 1 week of free trial.
A dedicated Client Service Manager, with a wealth of experience in this field, was assigned to them. (He hand-picked the crème de la crème of the Cardiology Transcription staff and debriefed them on their latest project, and also brushed up their cardiology words fund of knowledge, made them pore over the templates, and had them listen to some sample voice files).
A live-trial start date was finalized, and also probable site visit discussed. It was decided the clinic would use the toll-free dictation system to begin with; and on successful clearing of the trial period Dictaphones would be provided by iSource absolutely free of cost, and their configuration handled by the technical team remotely. Also a HIPAA agreement was mutually signed for sharing of confidential medical reports.
Instant Help
Backlog Gone in a Jiffy:
The clinic by this time also had developed a backlog of reports which needed to be typed out immediately; this was taken care of by iSource; who processed and cleared these in a week’s time at the rate of 8.5 cents per line. This really set the tone for the live-free trial; since the medical records team at the clinic saw that the accuracy was excellent even when iSource had the reports typed out expeditiously.
Cost Saving Demo
The trial progressed smoothly and in no time iSource was churning out accurate transcriptions for the _____ Clinic day in and day out with a remarkable turnaround time of 12 hours and accuracy of almost 100%. They initiated the clinic in the use of iSource’s proprietary software RV or Report Vault which made the reports accessible online any time for the clinic and also helped them keep tab of the flow of work.
(Mind Boggling 70% Cost Savings :)
One of the unexpected benefits was the cost savings, as demonstrated in a detailed report sent by the marketing manager at the end of one month; which clearly demonstrated a savings of 70% over what was incurred before. This was indeed a remarkable statistic. The clinic channelled this fund into a welfare program for the elderly; which focussed on healthier eating habits. This in turn brought accolades from the community and the local paper ran an article about it; citing them as a responsible, socially conscious healthcare organization.
(In the words of the practice manager, “we had been totally unaware thus far about the redundancies present in our department, and how that could have an impact on the clinic’s bottom line. iSource’s superior cost savings formula worked wonders for us; and helped us to manage our resources much more effectively.”) |
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Client Testimonial
(The Head of the Cardiology Department had this to say about iSource’s involvement and their help in turning things around, “Management was unfortunately not one of our strengths, and although we had seen the crisis coming we were unable to avert it. We were really lucky that a company like iSource was really so good at what it does, which is providing effective solutions to clinics like ours when things are really chaotic.”)
The CEO of iSource later met up with some of the stakeholders; and in an unexpected gesture one of them embraced him; it was then he understood the full measure of iSource’s contribution in keeping the wheels of economy churning for this small town clinic.
