Accuracy is important when it comes to clinical transcription. Almost every interaction that a doctor or other health care professional haves with a patient is noted and transcribed. If the records are incorrectly transcribed, the patient's health could be at risk. To help your staff be on the lookout for mistakes, here are some of the most common errors and possible solutions.
What Are Common Errors?
Errors are generally considered to be either minor, major, or critical. Although it is preferable to avoid errors altogether, minor errors are not as serious as the critical mistakes.
Minor errors usually include grammatical mistakes or formatting errors. The errors usually do not have an impact on the treatment of the patient or the integrity of the overall report.
Major errors are a bit more serious. They can include spelling mistakes or a failure by the transcriptionist to flag any conflicting information that is included in the report. Spelling mistakes might not seem like a major concern, but there are many conditions and medications that have close spellings. The wrong spelling could result in a misdiagnosis or poor treatment.
A critical error is by far the worse to commit. For instance, if a patient is incorrectly identified in his or her medical records, this could result in the wrong treatment. Other critical errors include the omission of information that is important or an incorrectly dosage for a medication listed.
What Causes the Errors?
To avoid errors, you and your staff needs to know what causes them. There are several reasons that they occur, including poor audio equipment usage when transcribing verbal interactions. Poor audio quality makes it challenging for the transcriptionist to hear the differences in words.
The experience levels of the transcriptionist play a major role in how avoiding errors, too. A more experienced transcriptionist will know the proper procedures to verify the information that needs to be transcribed. An inexperienced transcriptionist could struggle in doing this.
Another possible problem is the lack of proofreading once the transcription reports are completed. A simple review of the reports could catch the errors, but some transcriptionists do not necessarily have the time or skills to catch those areas.
To prevent errors in your clinic's transcription, contracting with a transcription service can help. The service ensures the medical transcriptionists are properly trained and certified to perform the tasks needed. Consult with a service to learn what other benefits a transcription service can provide your clinic.
To learn more about transcription services, contact Emerald Transcription Inc.
My name is Shawna Banks and this is a blog that focuses on health issues that affect women. I became interested in women's health when my sister began having medical problems. After her condition worsened, she went to see a doctor. After her diagnosis and successful treatment, I helped her research the different kinds of health conditions that are common in women. By becoming knowledgeable about these types of problems, we can keep ourselves healthier. I hope that when you read this blog, it will help you to identify symptoms that shouldn't be ignored. If necessary, you can schedule an appointment with your physician as soon as possible.