Is EHR a potent threat for medical transcription industry?

EHR is one of the upcoming trends in digitized healthcare services. Its full form is Electronic Health Records which entails the recording of the patient data in a real-time scenario. It involves documenting the patient medical history and their diagnosis as well as their current treatment and their allergic tendencies. Thus it is beneficial to a doctor as well as patient to use the EHR whole keeping the information safe and secured. 

Accuracy and speed

The main threat that EHR poses to the medical transcription is that EHR is accurate and can be operated both by the patient and the physician. It is also a very speedy process due to its real-time attribute. In contrast, medical transcription does not provide the real-time data input and data sharing option. 

Cost

In this aspect medical transcription gets leverage as compared to EHR. EHR is a costly process that involves the use of software for documentation and real-time data sharing and processing. 

With the application of EHR, the patient data entry has been modified to specialized formats changing the role of a transcriptionist. However there has been long term argument on the fact that "Can EHR be a better option than medical transcription?..some believe that due to its better technological upgradation and real-time approach it is far more preferable. On the contrary, some healthcare professionals feel that EHR usage consumes a lot of time of the physicians. Apart from this EHR requires effective patient data maintenance which is not done by most of the healthcare organizations. Thus EHR can never be a replaceable option to medical transcription. In addition, EHR might not have all the provisions to record patient diagnosis. This, on the contrary, is available in case of ICD 10 based medical transcription. 

Thus it can be finally summed up and inferred that EHR although being perceived as a threat to medical transcription can be taken as an upgradation to the whole process. With the advent of speech recognition, voice recordings are converted to textual formats. These textual formats are then fed into the EHR system. This can be achieved by training of the transcriptionists in their updated job role. This will thus ensure effective patient data documentation and holistic patient care with digitized approaches. 

10 must know facts about ICD 10 documentation for medical transcription

The term documentation plays a significant role in the healthcare sector. This can be attributed to the need for properly arranged patient history and the diagnosis data. This  in turn helps in the insurance claims for the patients as well as gaining insight into the patient medical history for pharmacological interventions. The ICD 10 plays a significant role in this aspect in the US healthcare sector. The medical codes that are present can be termed as the “bible” for a medical coder or a transcriber as they form the guidelines for medical coding and transcribing. However the codes that are present are not clear enough and most of the codes does not clearly describe the diagnosis of the patient. This vagueness is thought to be resolved by the shift from ICD 9 to ICD 10. Now for maintaining this ICD 10 codes and working based these coding guidelines it is necessary to keep in mind some important facts-  

1. Laterality forms the core of ICD 10 coding. It is essential that a physician mentions the letrality while coding. The mentioning of the right or left or bilateral clearly helps in easier patient care. 
2. Upgradeable technology is another important aspect of ICD 10  as it enables the patients to have access and use the latest upgraded technology
3. Documenting the period of care is also an essential aspect of the ICD 10 medical coding guidelines
4. ICD 10 involves 50 codes that enables the documentation of disease due to foreign body faster. This helps in better reviewing of the coded medical records and effective holistic care of the patient. 
5. ICD 10 helps a physician in documenting the stage of the disease as well as their seriousness and their chronic nature
6. The medical codes specified by the ICD 10 guidelines enables the transcriber to properly document the anatomical details of the patient for better patient care and diagnosis. 
7.  The coding system being fully digitised enables the users to have full access of the medical facilities and helps the physician's to get the patient data at a go. Thus this helps in providing quality care to the patient. 
8.  In addition to these the ICD 10 documentation guidelines involves the usage of the glasgow coma scale. This scale enables the physician to document the verbal as well as the motor and visual response of the patient. 
9.  The aim of ICD 10 being the resolution of vagueness in coding involves the Gustilo-Anderson scale for describing the types of open fractures and enabling better holistic care for patient.  
10.  Lastly the main essence of ICD 10 medical documentation guidelines lies in the specific definition of the patient condition. Thus it includes the detailed description of Myocardial infarction and its acuteness. 

Thus as a conclusionary remark it can be stated that ICD 10 has well developed features so as to make sure that the patients get quality care along with digitised services. Maintenance of these 10 must known facts will enable the patients as well as the physicians communicate well and resolve critical conditions with easy therapeutic options.