The healthcare business today is faced with many challenges. Being in the service industry it is required that healthcare facilities keep themselves in top form by coping with varying demands of its customers. The healthcare sector is faced with the need to cope with increasing standards of services, new developments in the field of healthcare, the need to constantly update infrastructure while still dealing with the same level of reimbursements leading to shrinking budgets. The need of the moment for healthcare facilities is to prioritize the core tasks they need to focus on and outsource all the rest.

Medical transcription has always played a vital role in the process of healthcare by creating patient records. Creation of patient records helps the healthcare facility in many ways:

· Provides the basis of continued care

· Provides information on the progress of treatment

· Acts as evidence in case of litigation

· Forms the basis of coding and billing leading to reimbursement

· Basis for referrals to other healthcare professionals

Outsourcing the entire process ensures that records of the patient- healthcare professional encounter are created in a timely, accurate, secure and cost-effective manner. However while outsourcing it is important to source a service provider who can provide a total solution to the documentation needs of the healthcare facility.

What is meant by total solutions?

Total solutions would consist of the following-

· Medical transcription solutions for varying volumes-In the healthcare business it is impossible to predict the inflow of patients and thereby it is not possible to predict the volume documentation services required. While outsourcing it is important to evaluate the service provider on the basis of their ability to cope with varying volumes of work. To provide total solutions, the transcription vendor needs to be able to meet the holiday and weekend requirements

· Quality medical transcription-Along with the ability to cope with varying volumes the service provider also needs to ensure that the quality of services is maintained to minimize errors. While looking for total solutions for their requirements it is important to evaluate the transcription vendor on basis of methods used to ensure quality

· HIPAA and HITECH compliant-It is also important to ensure that the service provider has adequate measures in place for protection of confidential patient information. These service providers come under the purview of HIPAA and HITECH as business associates, as they have access to patient health information and are involved in the process of transmitting this data back and forth during the entire process

· Medical transcription for all specialties-While looking for total solutions it is important to evaluate the ability of the vendor to cope with documentation needs of different specialties without compromising accuracy and turnaround time

· No additional investment required-It is also important to ensure that minimal or no investment is required to avail the services

· No overheads-One of the major advantages of availing specialist services is the cost factor. This not only ensures enormous cost savings to the healthcare facility, but also ensures that the healthcare facility incurs no indirect expenses like overheads. While looking for total solutions it is important to ascertain that cost is restricted to the cost per line of transcription

· Software and tools-Technology plays a vital role in the entire process, both for ease of use and for security purposes. While sourcing these services it is important to evaluate the technological capabilities of the service provider