Mediscribes, A Segment Of The Mega Job-Market Determined To Quash All Errors

The recent HIPAA laws in the USA seeking to attend to the consumer (patient in this case) have made for improved healthcare and the present global scenario of competitive healthcare has been made much more cost conscious with its affect on the employment market with the increased conce on access to healthcare and patient privacy.

Mediscribes, a solution provider for this sector, has completely engrossed the concepts coined by Six Sigma with the two most important facets of medical transcription business viz. turnaround time and accuracy to come up with a unique solution applicable across the entire business spectrum.

From describing Medical Transcription services and building its business model it goes on to process mapping in the area of operations, production etc. It simplifies the implementation of Six Sigma and opines that operational efficiency may be seen in terms of turnaround time (TAT) and Accuracy of files. After using the six sigma approach the benchmarked improvements are to be sustained through continual improvements shades of ISO.

The Six Sigma approach has been found applicable to all Medical Transcription operations and critical to its success are the managerial & team support as well as software support given that no significant investments are necessary for these improvements which exist in the operations. This approach may be constrained due to the lack of domain experts. Since this process is usually funded internally, by the management, it is but appropriate that their representative (usually the CEO) gets a ringside view of this team effort along the identified milestones. The roles of the team members are clearly identified for the core processes under the SIPOC method in the fields of implementation, Sales, IT, HR etc.

The critical-to-quality (CTQ) parameters of the core processes are set out with the specifications identifying the various parameters and the risk factors along with their mitigation are set out. The typical modes of the core processes are also spelt out. The TAT and Accuracy are sampled and measured as per the AAMT guidelines. A graphical analysis of TAT and Accuracy levels has been carried out and error marking has been done using the Kappa method, t-test etc.

The common errors in TAT and Accuracy have been identified and a learning curve has been delineated in the C&E diagram for TAT and Accuracy levels and a control chart developed as well as the Pareto analysis carried out too.

All these learning have been condensed into action plans with a solution priority matrix for ease of application of Six Sigma into the Medical Transcription business. Standard Operating Procedures, responsibilities etc. have been cod ified in a manual and scorecards too have been developed for monitoring the key process parameters. The correlation of the results showing the ‘before’ and ‘after’ SIX Sigma levels too have shown the positive effects of the Six Sigma approach.

Mediscribes has shown how the medical transcription business in India may prove itself a cost conscious one by synergizing the various processes through the six sigma way!