As health information managers and professionals across the country celebrate the health information & technology industry this week, the Association for Health Care DocumentationIntegrity (AHDI) and the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) announced their support for a healthcare reform package that improves electronic health records (EHRs) as well as patient safety.
"Medical transcriptionists represent a workforce that is critical to the accurate and safe transition to the EHR that will improve patient safety,ensure the accuracy of health records, and free up doctors to do what they do best - attend to their patients' needs," said Susan Lucci, President of AHDI.
"We look forward to continuing to work with Congress, the Administration, and with healthcare professionals to implement reforms that will lead to a smooth transition to the EHR with a focus on patient safety first."
Today, MTIA, in conjunction with ICSA labs, an independent division of Verizon Business, announced the formation of the Medical Transcription Service Consortium (MTSC) to drive improved coordination of care and digital record exchange among hospitals, physician offices, and healthcare clinics through an effective framework, and secure and private IT platform.
According to MTIA, currently 8% of physician-patient encounters are documented via electronic medical records; by comparison, more than 80% employ the dictation-transcription process for this purpose. MTIA estimates that over 1.2 billion patient notes are dictated and transcribed annually, and currently the majority of those records cannot be imported into electronic medical records in digitally useful formats.
Working with Verizon Business, the consortium plans to offer an industry solution for medical transcription service providers to exchange medical records in digitally useful form. Verizon Business expects the platform to be available later this year.
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