Question for contract negotiators/business office personnel:

jktsummers · Joined: 12 Feb 2009 Posts: 4

I have a question for any contract negotiators or pertinent business office personnel that are willing to weigh in. I work for a company which provides a web-based EMR as well as transcription. Our transcriptionists work in most areas of specialty, but our main focus recently has been radiology.

We currently offer a 2-hour turnaround for dictation at a rate of $0.10-$0.14/wrapped 65-character count line depending on volume and services needed. We do offer 12, 24, and even 48-hour turnaround services (priced accordingly as well). All services are performed by subcontracted transcriptionists, thus keeping our overhead low as we have no building costs or in-house employees.

My question is this: Is this competitive with what you're seeing in the marketplace right now for transcription services? I've done extensive research online and it appears as though we are, but I do know that the bottom line as well as actual turnaround time can often be different than originally posted when it comes right down to negotiation. We'd like to take on more contracts, but want to assess our services and costs against those of others in the marketplace and I'm hoping the best way to do this is to run the above information by a few of you that may have experience with this from the clinic/facilty end of things before aggressively attempting to do so.

If anyone has any experience with this and is willing to offer thoughts, advice, etc, it would be appreciated. Thanks!

wvaio · Joined: 22 Sep 2007 Posts: 82

I can't quantify the experience of the entire country, but in the hospital system that I work for, transcription no longer exists. Voice recognition software has come a long way in recent years and has eliminated the position. Here radiologists can dictate directly into the PACS system and the report is transcribed by the voice recognition and faxed to the ordering physician.

I by no means want to discourage, but this is a consideration that should be examined as the technology gap narrows at the smaller facilities.

Wvaio

jktsummers · Joined: 12 Feb 2009 Posts: 4

Thanks for your post. We do recognize that the times are changing and that technology is moving us to such great bigger and better things making our lives much easier and eliminating the middle man.

Do you find that voice recognition is accurate all of the time? Do you still need transcriptionists to proof the reports and fix errors? I personally have worked with voice recognition and we still needed transcriptionists to fix the mistakes that the voice recognition system made. We found that it was very testy and liked some doctor's voices much better than others. Many times, it was much easier to wipe out the report and just type it from the beginning again.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

hjhogle · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 5:14 pm Post subject:

I work in Imaging IT for a 1000-bed multi site academic facility in the north east.

We use SR for all imaging studies. We do not use transcriptionists. Attending rads (63) and residents (65) are self editors.

Our SR has been much improved as we've been able to convince our folks that good dictation practices are a must. I have little sympathy with a Rad who complains of poor dictation - when I come in to the ED to evaluate the system, he's set up his IPOD right next to the workstation.

We've seen those who use SR hold the (directional) microphone away from their face, others who slouch back in the chair/feet on the desk/microphone in their lap.

That's not to say that VR is perfect. It isn't, by any stretch. But our recognition is decent. MANY of our folks are foreign-born and if they're attentive to the training process, they dictate without much editing.

Is it slower than working with a trained, practiced transcription staff? Sure. Ever notice what happens to your productivity when you lose transcriptionists and hire new ones who are not used to you?

The technology will mature and folks will focus on learning to make it work well rather than trying to get rid of it.

Just my 0.02
hjh, RT

kutty · Joined: 26 May 2009 Posts: 1

Whether you plan to start your own business or you are working at a long established agency, doing your chosen commerce activity requires you to interact with others. Oft times this activity requires you to interact in contract negotiations. The savvy businessperson will know the ins and outs of the negotiation process, not only to assure that your interests are preserved, but also to assure that the business relationship the contract creates is preserved. Whether these are simple memorandums or formal contracts, knowing the key parts of a contract is the key to understanding the negotiation process. These parts can be classified as the who, what, when, for how long, for how much, and for what reason portions of the contract.

Who: This section not only outlines who is entering into the contract, but also may delineate personnel involved in the activity. This is also an essential component of identifying responsibilities. For instance you may be asking the other party to build you a new product such as widgets, but you are responsible for approving all designs and marketing the product. This moves us to the next part.

==================================================
Natural Acne Cures Remedies
growth hormone