Enhancing EHR Adoption by Continuing Medical Transcription
Email ArticleMany physicians think there is no middle ground between transcription and EHRs; they must choose one or the other. In real practice, however, most health care professionals are realizing that combining the two methods proves the most efficient methodology to adopt EHRs and achieve Meaningful Use.
With medical transcription, the physician can use their own language and style when making notes about patient care, or outlining a treatment plan. The narrative process, which is important to proper diagnosis, may be lost in the highly structured template system inherent to EHRs. By incorporating transcription, doctors are able to use their own words, instead of being limited to the structured terms in the EHR.
While EHRs provide many benefits, their concrete clinical content does not always take every aspect of a patient’s unique condition into account. A transcribed description taken from dictation tells the whole story more comprehensively than the EHR’s structured content alone. Combining transcription with EHRs makes both clinical documentation methods more effective.
Many physicians find there has been unintentional productivity loss during the transition to EHRs. While perhaps led to believe that EHRs would streamline the record-keeping process, learning the new system and fighting its limitations has oftentimes had the opposite effect. Doctors may find themselves taking documentation shortcuts to try and alleviate this crunch, which completely undermines the goal of increased accuracy in healthcare records.
In fact, physician resistance to the documentation aspect of EHRs has been one of the largest obstacles to successful adoption of this technology. The rigid structure fails to capture the complexity of each case’s unique story, and caregivers struggle with this limitation. Dictated notes are more comprehensive and personal than the structured nature of EHRs.
Transcription and EHRs also have very different learning curves. EHRs can make providers feel a bit like data entry clerks; continuing the use of medical transcription will lead to a more comfortable transition into the new technology.
User data is currently showing that in offices where an EHR has already been implemented, doctors are continuing to supplement it with transcription. Using both transcription and EHRs allows caregivers to focus their valuable time on caring for the patient, rather than a computer screen.
Transcription and EHRs have different strengths; each has its more appropriate application. By combining medical transcription and EHRs, both methods benefit. EHR templates can be effectively used for orders, prescriptions, and coding. Templates can be used where they work best, while still leaving the option available for dictation and transcription. This increased efficiency positively impacts both office operations and patient care while preserving the productivity of the physicians, who are the most costly human resource in the entire healthcare delivery system.