Speech recognition for transcription pros and cons

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www.medicaltranscriptionservicecompany.com

Speech Recognition for Transcription Pros and Cons


www.medicaltranscriptionservicecompany.com Speech Recognition for Transcription Pros and Cons Voice recognition software is an advanced application that recognizes human voice and converts it into Word document format within seconds. Whatever the user dictates in to microphone is converted to digital, Word processed format. This concept of automated transcription is not new. Whether speech recognition is a boon in healthcare practice or whether it complicates patient care is a question that is worth discussing.

Many physicians are happy with the use of voice recognition software as it helps improve work flow. When integrated to an office environment, it allows automatic queuing of dictations from several authors to predefined assistants, supports speech recognition, selective routing of dictation files to speech recognition software and much more. Speech recognition software can also help physicians save time. A study published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology reports that radiology transcription turnaround time improved 24-fold with the use of speech recognition software. However, according to another research study on the use of voice recognition software in radiology practices, using voice recognition increases the number of reports containing errors quite significantly, especially in noisy places with a high workload and when the reports are prepared by radiologists for whom English is not their first language. It was felt that dictation software was not good at recognizing voices with heavy accents. When using voice recognition for documentation, users must either continue to monitor the display for mistakes or depend heavily on proofreading after the speaking has ended. Moreover, speech recognition technology cannot deal with disorganized dictation, poor grammar, or missing or overused punctuation. In one study on the use of voice recognition software, participants said that they were more aware of errors that occurred during typing but not so confident of recognizing speech recognition errors. Speech recognition technology can also be costly to implement. Before making the investment decision, the healthcare practice will have to consider many alternatives.


www.medicaltranscriptionservicecompany.com To remain competitive, it would be necessary to look at future upgrades to the technology as well as maintenance costs. According to the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) speech recognition is not the ultimate solution to efficiency in clinical documentation. Whether the recognition takes place on a server in order to increase the productivity of transcriptionists or is used directly by the dictator to eliminate the delay and expense of medical transcription, speech recognition should be considered only as one aspect of clinical documentation. It is obvious that even as the use of speech recognition grows with the implementation electronic health records (EHR), medical transcriptionists will have an important role to play as editors, clinical data specialists, data quality managers, and decision support specialists.

About The Author MTS Transcription Services (MTS) is an established medical transcription outsourcing company in the US, offering comprehensive transcription solutions for a wide range of clientele. Our medical transcription services are secure and available 24/7.

Contact Us: Headquarters: 8596 E. 101st Street, Suite H Tulsa, OK 74133 Main: (800) 670 2809 Fax: (877) 835-5442


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