Headquartered in Boston, Spryance provides transcription service to more than 175 hospitals and clinics across the country, utilizing 1,200 MTs in India. Heartland’s corporate headquarters is located in Toledo, Ohio, with work centers in Bangalore and Delhi, India. By combining companies, the new Heartland will have over 2,500 medical transcriptionists providing service to over 200 hospital and clinical customers.
Dennis Paulik, General Manager of Heartland, will become the President and CEO of the new combined company. Raj Malhotra, CEO of Spryance, will become Chairman of the Board of the combined companies. Joining Mr. Malhotra on the board will be Gene Barduson, Chairman and CEO, Alteer, Inc., Dennis Byerly, former CEO Third Millennium Healthcare Systems, Inc., Mahendra Patel, formerly with DEC, David Beecken, Partner, Beecken Petty O’Keefe & Company, and Thomas Schleisinger, Partner, Beecken Petty O’Keefe & Company.
“Combining the two companies creates synergies that will add value for customers,” says Dennis Paulik, President and CEO of the new Heartland Information Services. “For example, Heartland provides industry-leading quality and customer support and Spryance provides capacity and scalability.”
“The Spryance investors, led by Beecken Petty O’Keefe & Company and International Finance Corporation, provide the financial strength and resources for the new Heartland to grow rapidly,” adds Mr. Malhotra, Heartland Information Services Chairman of the Board.
Poor Medical Dictation Can Put Patients' Lives In Danger
Doctors are putting their patients in danger with medical dictation so bad that professionals can't even understand them, according to a Problem Solvers investigation.
Medical transcriptionists said they have been dealing with sloppy physician records for years. A transcriptionist transcribes the doctor's diagnosis and treatment for the patient's medical record. Holfeld reported that sometimes, transcribing becomes an impossible task. "We should be held accountable for quality, but it's difficult to be held accountable for quality when the challenges on the dictation are pretty overwhelming," medical transcriptionist Brenda Hurley said.
Hurley is a former president of the Florida Association of Medical Transcriptionists. She and her colleagues are joining a national campaign to expose the potential side effects of bad dictations. "If it takes multiple levels of quality assurance review, it's going to take longer to get back to the patient's chart," Hurley said. Joyce Peck was just days away from kidney surgery when she met with us two weeks ago. She caught a mistake before her surgery. "Potentially they could have taken out the wrong kidney and then I would have been left with no kidneys," Peck said. "I caught it," Peck said.
"One place it's left kidney and the next place it's right kidney," Peck said. The diagnosis of a renal malignancy -- cancer -- was caught in a radiologist's apparent flubbed dictation. "Whew," Holfeld said. "What did you think at that point?" "I didn't know what to think -- who was right?" Peck said. In fact, MRI scan confirmed it was the right kidney and not the left. Peck is recovering from kidney surgery. She shared her story as a personal public warning.
Caught up in net
THE cost-saving initiative of out-sourcing medical notes to India for typing is facing major problems. An internet link used to transfer patient information from Lister Hospital to India has failed to meet the needs of East and North Herts NHS Trust, both in terms of speed and capacity. The Trust had hoped to save as much as £1million by axing 15 medical secretary posts and outsourcing their work. However, a medical secretary from Lister said: "After the medical secretaries were made redundant it was discovered that the NHS server for the typing to be sent over the internet to India could not cope with this system. Medical secretaries are being told that the typing will be kept at the Trust for us to type, as done in the past."
Danny Mortimer, the Trust's director of human resources, said: "Like any project of its size, there will always be initial teething problems."
"Nationally the NHS is experiencing problems with this link, both in terms of its speed and capacity of transfer of information across the internet. Contingency plans are being considered locally by the Trust, including using a separate, secure link to the internet for the medical transcription service until the problems affecting it are resolved nationally. The Trust has introduced the medical transcription service because it knows that it will save money, while at the same time providing a consistent, high-quality service. This is proving to be the case already, although more work remains to be done."
AAMT and Prometric announce the launch of the ‘Registered Medical Transcriptionist’ Credential
New International Credential to enhance training & career prospects for young Indian medical transcriptionists
American Association for Medical Transcription, in association with Prometric, announced the Registered Medical Transcriptionist (RMT) credentialing exam – a newly developed global ‘level-1’ credential in the arena of Medical Transcription. This program is aimed at helping the existing talent pool to scale up and meet the global standards and quality benchmarks. The two organizations also announced a special ‘India price’ for AAMT’s existing Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) exam.
Medical Transcription is a booming industry with exponential growth prospects and opportunities for committed players. While globally the industry potential is around USD 30-33 billion, in India it is around USD 300 million. Currently, there are around 18,000 medical practitioners in the country and this is expected to almost double within the next 2-3 years.
Career Path in Medical Transcription
Previously, the lack of globally recognized programs in this domain hampered the evolution of proper talent and career prospects in the industry. With the introduction of RMT, a level 1 exam, on top of the existing CMT exam offered by AAMT, both of which are globally accepted credentials, it will now encourage students as well as existing MT professionals to acquire knowledge and brace up their skills in the field. This will not only help them to perform better while on job, but will also open a whole new world of opportunities and offer long-term career prospects for them.
