3 Burning Issues For Hospitals Today

This recession has had quite an impact on hospitals, causing 45% of hospitals to postpone capital projects and 13% to cease any expansion in process, as an American Hospital Association report revealed. But despite the new challenges posed by financial crisis for the medical industry, hospitals have their own health care delivery issues to tackle.

1. Hospital Deaths due to Medical Errors

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Preventable medical errors caused an average of 195,000 individuals to lose their lives in the USA. This was the finding of a HealthGrades study that assessed 37 million patient records for the years 2000, 2001 and 2002. The associated health care cost of these medical errors is estimated to be over billion per year. Following the study, analysts suggested that just by improving upon four key areas, namely, failure to rescue, bed sores, postoperative sepsis, and postoperative pulmonary embolism. And if their occurrence could be reduced by just 20 percent, 39,000 lives can be saved each year. Whether medical error rates have dropped since the study remains to be seen.

2. Hospitals' Efficiency

The hospitals in the US can significantly improve patient care and also save a minimum of about billion annually, only if they became more efficient. These conclusions follow from an analysis by Thomson Reuters. Key suggestions from the company to save costs include reducing hospital-acquired infections and slashing hospital readmissions. While the minimum savings are to the tune of billion, with some really effective measures in place hospitals could save up to billion over a span of three years. That's about billion a year in savings.

3. Electronic Health Records

The present state of affairs seems pretty dismal as only 1.5 percent of U.S. hospitals have implemented facility-wide comprehensive health care information technology systems. Further, just about 8 - 11 percent hospitals have at least a single unit with installed with basic health care IT systems. (New England Journal of Medicine, Mar 2009).

While smaller budgets, maintenance costs, hesitation among health care professional are said to be the primary reasons preventing the widespread use of IT systems, the long-term effects of installing them need to be taken into account. At the same time, it's hardly any use having IT systems in place when their power isn't leveraged via effective use.

3 Burning Issues For Hospitals Today

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Affordable Medical Transcription Services For Hospitals

Medical transcription is one of the highly acclaimed jobs in the business outsourcing sector and is aimed at reducing the workload of staffs in various health care facilities, including hospitals in developed countries. Most medical transcription firms offer their services in a highly professional and affordable manner suited to the changing requirements of their clients. The entire procedure aims at easing the day-to-day processing of patient records and insurance claims so that health care firms can concentrate more on improving their key services. These affordable medical transcription services are now proving to be highly beneficial for hospitals, outpatient clinics, rehabilitation facilities, long term care facilities and more.

Now with the increasing requirement of hospitals to substantially reduce their operating costs, most medical transcription firms are offering their services at highly affordable rates and also in a reliable and efficient manner. With most of these offshore facilities working in accordance with the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations, all electronic transactions involving sensitive patient records remain secure.

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With offshore medical transcription centers having all the necessary infrastructure including dictation equipments, dedicated servers and high-end computers with uninterrupted high speed internet, everything required for immediate patient record processing is being done in a time-bound manner. The availability of qualified graduates, well versed in the English language, in offshore facilities is also proving beneficial.

With leading hospitals requesting for more services, all leading medical transcription providers are continuously expanding their services with more employees and equipments. To have patient records processed with high accuracy, almost all medical transcription service providers have employed highly skilled and experienced proofreaders and trainers. With the help of these support staffs, almost all processed records maintain high accuracy levels up to 99%. These firms often update the knowledge level of employees so that they stay informed about the latest technologies and developments in the medical field. These outsourcing firms also have their in-house doctors and language experts whose services are always available for employees.

To help hospitals further in their daily health care job requirements, most medical transcription outsourcing firms also undertake a number of related services such as medical coding and medical billing. Thus with minimum turnaround time in medical records documentation and much reduced costs involved, having these medical transcription services outsourced will enable health care facilities including hospitals to stay competitive and profitable in their business.

Affordable Medical Transcription Services For Hospitals

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