by
Keith Loria, Reporter | February 19, 2011
From the January/February 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
A continual challenge is whether dictation—the physician’s voice, which documents the patient’s story—is an essential component of meaningful use with EHRs.
“Because dictation remains the preferred method of documentation for physicians, there is an ongoing struggle between balancing the need for EHRs and the effect EHRs have on the physician’s time,” says Kolinoski. “Personal experience shows that provider frustration levels are rising over EHRs and the time it takes to use them — typically three to four times longer than dictating. Soon, the issue will come to a head. We must find a way that makes this technology work for providers and encourages them to continue to use the EHR.”
Speech recognition technology is a great option for medical practices for many different reasons. Whether it’s being used alone, as a stepping stone to full EMR, or in conjunction with an EMR system, practices will be pleased with the cost savings, ease of transition and workflow improvements.
“The future is very much focused on how to best support the entire clinical documentation lifecycle from voice capture to final document and well beyond,” Spring says. “Ensuring patient information is structured to support EHRs, coding, billing, revenue cycle integrity, analytics, regulatory reporting and all of the processes that follow the creation of clinical documentation is the key.”
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