The main goals of a healthcare facility can be defined as providing quality care, education, innovation, research and customer service. The underlying objective is to attain these goals profitably. Many inputs are required by the healthcare facility to achieve their goals, like the qualification, skill level and experience of the healthcare professionals, the right equipments, adequate support staff and accurate timely information. To provide quality care the healthcare facility has to strive to improve the efficiency of the healthcare professionals and support staff and reduce expenses on non-healthcare related activities.Outsourcing medical transcription is an easy fix to improve the efficiency of the healthcare facility’s operations in the following ways:Providing information to the healthcare professionals by creating patient records: Medical transcription is the process of creating records of the patient-healthcare professional encounter by converting audio records to text format.Outsourced improves the efficiency of patient record creation in the following ways:Accuracy: A professional service provider would ensure that information of the patient-healthcare professional encounter would be captured accurately by using skillful transcriptionists, multi level quality checks and a stringent quality policy. The information in the patient records helps the healthcare professionals make informed decisions on patient care, rather than rely on memory, hand written notes or inputs from the patients
Timely: It would ensure that patient records are created in a timely manner. This improves quality of care as well as quickens the reimbursement process
Secure: A transcription vendor would ensure that the confidentiality of the patient records is maintained throughout the process of transcription including the transmission, thus removing any concerns for HIPAA violation during the transcription process
Flexible modes of dictation: By allowing the healthcare professionals to retain familiar modes of dictation, a transcription vendor would ensure that the healthcare professionals are able to make optimum use of their limited time Restrict the cost of medical transcription to the cost per line of transcription: Outsourcing ensures that the cost pf transcription is restricted to price quoted by the service provider. Additional charges like overheads and cost of coordination can be avoided
Improve the productivity of support staff by streamlining transcription flow: Outsourcing would ensure that the process of transcription starting with the upload of dictation files, transmission to the service provider and download of finished transcripts would take place in a systematic manner. This lessens the burden of the support staff. Additional features like powerful archival system would also ensure that locating files and tracking work-in-progress would be easy
Better utilization of resources: Outsourcing ensures that resources like real estate, Information technology staff, working capital, management staff etc. would be utilized efficiently instead of concentrating on the process of creating patient medical records.It can be concluded that outsourcing to the right service provider can improve the efficiency of the healthcare facility enormously. Care has to be taken to source the right transcription vendor and evaluate them on the basis of the various factors like accuracy, guaranteed turnaround time, security measures, cost per line of transcription and the technology used by the medical transcription service provider. These factors can be evaluated based on training methods used, quality policy, billing methods and the software & tools used by the service provider.

Have you ever wondered how hospitals staff their facilities? Of course you haven’t. Hospitals have a human resource department that screens, qualifies and hires healthcare professionals that fit the facilities needs right? Well sort of. In reality most healthcare facilities are staffed using nursing registries or healthcare staffing companies. You’ve probably never heard of a healthcare staffing agency (also called a medical staffing company) but these companies provide a great service to hospitals and other acute care facilities. Staffing companies help save hospitals time and money by screening, qualifying, and paying healthcare professionals.Often when people learn about what a healthcare staffing company does, they react by saying “wow I’ve never heard of that before. What a great niche.” However, recent events beg the question, is this really a niche business or could medical staffing be the quiet gorilla in the room of the growing healthcare industry? Obama’s healthcare reform and the aging population will drive up demand for healthcare in the United States. A core realization of an increase in demand for healthcare is the need for more healthcare professionals. However, while we are seeing the potential for large demand for nurses, nursing assistants, and allied healthcare workers, we are not seeing enough growth in these employment sectors to keep up with demand. This point bring us back to the question; is healthcare staffing a niche business or a business on the verge of breaking out into something bigger than its 8.8 billion dollar size already entails?The answer to this question is yes. Healthcare staffing represents a great business opportunity in the growing healthcare industry. Hospitals and other care facilities will turn to staffing companies and nursing agencies as the hospitals become swamped with people taking advantage of the healthcare reform and our older population who will require more hospital visits. The demand for medical staffing will only increase as the demand for healthcare increases. Medical Staffing represents a business that is poised to become huge.You may be wondering, “How can I take advantage of the potential in the medical staffing industry?” Healthcare staffing offers many job opportunities to people without a healthcare background. You could become a recruiter and enjoy your day recruiting and finding qualified nurses to work as your agency’s healthcare work force or you could enjoy the fast paced work of a staffer who quickly matches a hospitals needs with a qualified healthcare professional. However the great thing about this business is that with the proper training and support, most people can run their own healthcare staffing office.A great way to get the proper training and to have the support for all the questions and concerns you may have from running your own business is to buy a healthcare staffing franchise. There are many healthcare franchises out there but only a few medical staffing franchises offer the proper training and support you need. Find a franchise opportunity whose training staff is approachable and has experience in the medical staffing industry. These veterans have experienced it all and will be able to guide you through owning your own franchise.Healthcare Staffing is already a big industry. However, the room to grow is enormous. This business is no longer a small niche. It really is a breakout business teaming with opportunity. If you do your research you will find that healthcare staffing is the fast paced, interesting business with amazing potential that you may never even have heard of.