Not all medical transcription services are equal. When choosing a medical transcription service, the cost is usually the primary concern -- but that isn't necessarily the best way to decide between providers. Though there may be very cost-effective providers available, these providers could ultimately end up costing a company more money in work that is delayed and needs to be redone. Apart from cost, the following factors should strongly be considered: accuracy, turnaround, and proximity.
Accuracy: Getting a Sample Job
When negotiating a contract, a medical transcription service should be willing to complete a sample job. Through this sample, you'll be able to tell exactly how accurate their services are. Services that are poorly formatted or that are not tailored to medical transcription may need to have their work redone. Even if they are the lowest bidder, that means that costs could potentially increase exponentially.
Turnaround: The Speed of Service
Medical transcription often needs to be prepared quickly. These are documents that your organization is going to need to be able to reference -- and all of these documents are going to have to be sorted in a timely fashion. If your medical transcription company falls behind, you could easily find yourself with data that you desperately need but don't have. Medical transcription services usually have a turnaround of approximately 24 hours; a company that requires more than this may not be suitable.
Proximity: The Location of the Service
Both domestic and off-shore medical transcription services can be superb, but domestic services can be better for two reasons: language proficiency and timezone. As long as your transcription service can provide fluent transcriptionists who are very well-versed in the medical field, then you shouldn't have to worry about it... otherwise, however, you'll find it difficult to receive accurate documents. Timing is also important, as you'll need to be able to communicate with your transcription service in your timezone. You may want to make sure that their working hours mirror your own early on.
Outsourcing to a medical transcription service is an excellent way to save money -- but only if it doesn't end up producing more work for yourself. By looking at these three important factors, you'll be able to find a medical transcription service that produces reliable documents and that is able to produce them both quickly and at a low cost. Take some time to compare multiple transcription services for the best deals.
