UK Based medical transcription
At the core of the DICT8 offering is the fact that we only use UK based experienced transcribers…
All of our transcribers have significant experience of working as full time medical secretaries in either NHS Trusts or PCTs. All work done by them is specialty matched: only neurology transcribers do neurology work etc.
On average our transcribers will have 11 years of full time experience within a Trust as medical typists, and it is for this reason that we believe that the quality of typing provided by the DICT8 service is higher than that of any other.
The principal benefits of UK based typing include:
Higher quality work, especially where medical terms are concerned. This is due primarily to the fact that experienced medical secretaries will understand the context of text within the dictation.
Less checking required at the Trust end: checking through poor quality work is the hidden cost of medical transcription. If Trust staff have to check through and correct poor quality offshore transcription then it will result in a significant addition to the overall cost to the Trust.
Reduction in clinical risk: medical secretaries will often act as a safety net for their clinician checking their letters for clinical errors in dictation, hence reducing clinical risk. This can only be replicated by transcribers that understand the context of the letter through extensive experience within that specialty.
Data security: CfH has gone on record to declare that medical data should not go outside of the EU until such time as the regulatory framework has been improved. No medical data leaves the UK in the DICT8 system and is therefore subject to UK data regulations and safeguards- these would be hard to enforce in, say, Asia. There have been many newspaper reports regarding offshore data security such as this expose reported by the Mail on Sunday, this article in the Sunday Times and this one in the Telegraph.
Lower real costs: whilst the headline rate for offshore transcription may be lower than that of having it done by proper UK medical secretaries, the actual cost is higher. This is due to the fact that if work is being done offshore by inexperienced ‘call centre’ type staff then there will be a significant cost involved in your staff having to check through the work and correct the mistakes made.
Political issues: outsourcing is always a politically contentious issue. We have found, however, that the greatest fear is that of secretaries jobs going offshore. Due to the fact that DICT8 utilises the skills of transcribers very similar to that of existing staff, and does so within the UK, use of the DICT8 system is often far more acceptable to existing staff.