Case Studies: Transcription Services
Baptist Health System (BHS) of Alabama, a seven- hospital system located in the greater Birmingham area, struggled to get its completed transcription documents transferred electronically for physician access. The outsourcing vendor servicing three of the facilities couldn’t accomplish it and the other hospitals were staffed with their own in-house transcriptionists. BHS faced a number of challenges including disparate systems and solutions, inconsistent service levels and escalating costs resulting from a fragmented workflow process. These challenges required BHS to make a change.
In late 2004 BHS contracted with Precyse Solutions to outsource all of its medical transcription functions onto PrecyseNet™, Precyse Solutions’ proprietary ASP platform offering integrated scanning, coding, transcription and document storage. BHS’ long-term plans for implementation of an Electronic Medical Record meant they needed to move to a centralized, electronic transcription platform now. By early February 2005, all seven facilities were dictating via PrecyseNet. All transcripts were being delivered via one channel and one process to the sites required by each physician. A significant improvement for BHS!
Previously, BHS had been unable to gather performance measurements from its disparate transcription teams. The management reporting and tracking tools available with PrecyseNet have enabled BHS to report these results:
- Standardized service levels/outcomes across all facilities with improved turnaround times and accuracy rates of 98.5% or higher
- Improved physician and client satisfaction ratings of 85–95%
- Centralized dictation and transcription processes for all facilities, reducing management cost and challenges
- Elimination of all costs associated with on-site dictation/transcription, including hardware and software expenses
- Direct cost savings of over $100,000 per year
Doug Davenport, CFO for BHS comments on the impact the Precyse Solutions partnership has made on the organization, “Previously, our organization struggled to assess the productivity and accuracy rates of our medical transcription functions. Without knowing these key metrics, we were unable to make changes to processes that could ultimately help us to accelerate bill production and cash flow. With Precyse, we now employ monthly benchmarking and are refining workflows to reduce our DNFB. The partnership with Precyse has made a notable difference.”
At the outset of the agreement with Precyse, BHS wanted to employ the latest technology and experience as painless a transition process as possible. With Precyse, BHS has achieved its goals and in the process has established a positive business partner relationship. BHS has extended its agreement with Precyse and has opted to outsource all of its Radiology dictation and transcription needs to Precyse as well.