by
Keith Loria, Reporter | February 19, 2011
From the January/February 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Front-end speech recognition employs static or handheld recording devices where physicians see their words on a screen as they speak. So instead of using transcriptionists to proof or edit the physician note, the physician can immediately see errors and correct mistakes using speech-activated commands.
Backend speech recognition software utilizes transcriptionists to oversee physicians’ notes. Using a backend speech system, a physician dictates notes into a static microphone or headset.
“The biggest impact speech recognition has made is improving the productivity of the clinician who is using it,” Spring says. “It has given the end user the ability to document faster and more accurately. Documents that are completed and signed more quickly can go to the billing department faster. This is a huge benefit for a hospital’s revenue cycle.”
You say tomato, I say tomahto
Doctors come from all over the world and the number of accents that can be heard in hospitals is extensive. Speech recognition software has to be up to the task.
“There are 46 sounds in the English language and what speech recognition does is understand and keep examples of all of the sounds that you make,” says Jason Kolinoski, senior vice president of Medquist. “Let’s say you say the word ‘cardiomegaly.’ This is a combination of sounds number 1, number 4, number 12, and so on. The computer keeps a scientific imprint on what they think that word is for you. It also keeps what we call a language model for every user because you might say it a different way and the combination of sounds may be different.”
So the trick isn’t to ditch the accent, it’s to say something the same way every time.
Nuance software comes with about 80 different medical sub-special categories and it doesn’t matter what sort of accent someone has.
“About 400,000 to 450,000 physicians today use some sort of speech recognition, with roughly half the physicians in our country having adopted this in the last four to five years,” Belton says. “If you are not using speech recognition, you’re sort of behind the curve in completion of records and time savings and reimbursement.”
Experts say that over time, speech recognition software can help create a dramatic return on investment if the systems are used correctly.
“There’s also a patient care aspect to it because from a production perspective, when you use a manual process, regardless of how good the process is, there is time involved,” Fallati says. “Speech can literally bring those reports to chart-ready in minutes.”
