Turning physicians' handwritten notes into usable electronic documents is a challenge for every type of medical practice, from the smallest independent office to the largest hospitals.

There are several options to address this enduring need. The traditional approach is to hire full-time transcriptionists, but the additional employees dramatically increase your overhead costs. Plus, it can be hard to keep the right number of transcriptionists on staff as patient volumes fluctuate. Some practices give transcription duties to other clerical staff, but medical transcription is a very specific skill: asking office generalists to handle transcription can result in less-than-acceptable accuracy.

You can also purchase voice recognition software. The accuracy of voice recognition programs has improved dramatically in recent years, but it's far from perfect. Transcripts still have to be carefully edited to avoid potentially dangerous mistakes, and it takes time to "train" the software to work with each user's voice.

For these reasons, many practices find that medical transcription services provide the best combination of cost and accuracy. These services allow physicians to dictate notes either over the phone or using a handheld digital recorder. Qualified medical transcriptionists (MTs), who are trained in medical terminology and procedures, then listen to the recordings and accurately type out the notes.

This BuyerZone Medical Transcription Services Buyer's Guide will explain how to set up a medical transcription service, outline the typical costs, and give you the information you need to choose the right medical transcription services for your practice. You can also perform a side-by-side comparison of medical transcription services that different companies provide.

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