Professional Transcription Services And Solutions

By Maryanne Goff


Professional transcription services are at a premium today, mainly because this is a service that is hard to automate, and needs a skilled transcriptionist equipped with the right tools. The key to it is in the details, since many professions need 100 percent accuracy in transcribed output. One single mistake in the data can be catastrophic for these clients.

Perhaps it might be easier to start with a simple explanation of the process, and then proceed to real-world needs and solutions. At its root, the transcription business consists of converting speech (audio or video) into text stored in a digital format. The transcriptionist is supposed to listen to the audio and type it up accurately.

It's not wrong to think that anyone with half a brain should be able to do this, but speed and accuracy are critical to this field. This is why only professionals can do this job, and even they need the help of hi-tech hardware and software tools to maintain accuracy while providing huge volume transcriptions. As a general rule, a 15-minute audio track must be transcribed within an hour.

There's also a fair bit of training and a learning curve involved. For instance, a medical transcription company needs to have transcriptionists with a sound knowledge about the field of medicine and the terminology. In fact, many transcription firms require candidates to have working experience as a nursing or pharmacy assistant.

Way it works is that doctors record the case details and other information they want to see in case files, and send over the audio to be transcribed. The job has to be done perfectly, because even a small error or omission can be fatal for patients and would inevitably end up as a medical malpractice claim. Such errors have been known to end the careers of the medical professionals involved.

Data security as it is shared with third-party providers and sent to and fro across the Internet is another major concern. Health care records in the U. S. Are subject to HIPAA compliance, and their providers with access to the data need to be complaint too. Similarly, compatibility with the hospital's electronic medical record system is needed, and this calls for the transcriptionist to follow specific naming protocols and standards.

The same high degree of accuracy is required for legal transcriptions. Lawyers record hours of depositions and then need to have it all transcribed word for word. Again, a single error can make the difference between winning and losing a court case. If it happens because of a clerical error, that's again grounds for a malpractice lawsuit against the lawyer.

Recorded speech transcriptions aside, there are many value-added professional transcription services that are in heavy demand. For instance, audio may be transcribed into text in several languages. Live video streams need closed captioning, and this is yet another area where no error will be tolerated since there is no verification process and it cannot be corrected. The bottom line here is that trying to get transcriptions done on the cheap often leads to be very expensive.




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