Senator Bill Frist Speech Acknowledges ELTS, Comer, and 2005 SBA Award
Benjamin Franklin once said, "He that would fish, must venture his bait." In America, we have millions of creative women and men, and even teens, who cast their reels everyday in the hopes of catching the American dream. And fortunately, we have the most vibrant economy in the world and the Small Business Administration to help them.
This week, the Small Business Administration is hosting its annual celebration of America's entrepreneurs at the Washington Hilton. President Bush spoke to the group yesterday in recognition of their tremendous contributions.
Just how important are small business owners? These innovators create 60 to 80 percent of new jobs nationwide. They generate more than 50 percent of the gross domestic product. Small business owners are the heart of the American market place, and their contributions to jobs and productivity are its life blood. In my home state of Tennessee, over 97% of all businesses are small businesses.
Women owned businesses generate billions of dollars in revenue and employ tens of thousands of workers. Minority owned firms, the fastest growing small business sector in America, account for nearly 33,000 small businesses in Tennessee.
Elisa Comer, CEO of Eagle's Landing Transcription Service of Johnson City, TN, has been chosen this year as one of the Small Business Administration's 50 Small Business People of the Year.
Transcription's Role in the Brave New World of Electronic Health Information Exchange
by Liesa Jo Jenkins, Executive Director, CareSpark and Elisa Comer, CPHIT, CPEHR, CQA, CEO, Eagle's Landing Transcription Service
Medical transcriptionists, like other health care professionals, invest lots of time and money for training and technology to stay abreast of the advancements in the field, even as a growing percentage of transcriptionists choose to work from home-based settings for personal reasons. While no one contests the importance of accurate transcription that meets quality standards, pressure to reduce costs within healthcare organizations has resulted in competition from outsourcing of transcription services to overseas companies and a rise in use of alternative documentation methods. Add to these considerations the recent movement to encourage physician adoption of electronic medical records, and you may be asking yourself what the future of medical transcription might be, or even if such a future exists.
For those who have not been following the move towards electronic health information exchange, it is hard to imagine how quickly change is evolving in this area. We offer here a quick overview and perspective from one regional organization that is working to define roles for all, including transcription professionals, in the transition from paper-based to digital records systems and processes.
Fueled by the concern over rising health care costs and poor health outcomes, the push for electronic health records for patients and providers is rapidly gaining momentum across the nation. Early efforts by pioneers at the Bureau of Veteran's Affairs and in communities such as Santa Barbara, Indianapolis and Boston were reinforced by President Bush's call in 2004 for an electronic health record for every American within ten years. This call was coupled with the appointment of Dr. David Brailer to lead the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, charged with development of a national framework for health information infrastructure.
Since that time, more than 100 initiatives large and small have been identified across the country, all actively pursuing efforts to establish regional health information organizations (RHIO's) to enable the electronic sharing of patient records and other health information and to address the barriers that exist: legal, technical, financial and psychological among patients and providers who are concerned about the security, confidentiality and use of personal health information.
To help identify promising solutions to these barriers and to build consensus among the many public and private interests, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded contracts in fall of 2005 for work to define technical standards for interoperability, certification of electronic health records, harmonization of privacy and security policies and practices, and demonstration of four prototypes for a national health information network. Recognized leaders representing organizations and industries have been appointed to the American Health Information Community and charged with oversight of the process for building consensus and implementing solutions.
National organizations such as HIMSS (Health Information Management Systems Society), AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association), AHA (American Hospital Association), AQA (Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance), along with private foundations such Markle Foundation and the Foundation for eHealth Initiatives and many others, have joined forces to address issues, leverage resources and expertise, and offer solutions for the challenges to be overcome.
It is important to note that this movement towards electronic health information is happening not only in America, but in other industrialized countries such as Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, France and Singapore. Concerns about bio-terrorism and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina have demonstrated the very real benefits to be realized through an effective system that can transfer information from one location to another quickly and inexpensively, for the health and safety of patients.
Many now feel that the movement towards electronic health information exchange has reached a critical mass or "tipping point," even though many important issues remain to be resolved. If change is inevitable, then one question of concern for medical transcription professionals is obvious: how will this change impact our profession and how must we prepare for that change?
In the Tri-Cities region of northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia, we have been working hard to stay abreast of the emerging direction and to consider how our regional partners (including transcription professionals) can collaborate to effective solutions for our community. CareSpark, the regional health information organization in our central Appalachian region, has spent nearly two years discussing our needs and considering the options for a cost-effective way to deliver better care to patients. Noting that physicians and other health care providers are central to our improvement efforts, our plans have been predicated on the assumption that anyone who wishes to participate in information-sharing should be able to do so, regardless of their electronic capability. We have recognized that there must be multiple ways to enter health information into the electronic system, including direct data entry, scanning, and voice to digital format. Although a growing number of physicians are comfortable using the technology during the patient encounter, even more will prefer that their staff enter relevant data before and after the patient encounter. During the estimated decade that will pass before widespread electronic capabilities can be achieved, transcription services will continue to play an important role in the interim. Even after we have reached widespread adoption and implementation of electronic health information systems, there will be some physicians who prefer not to utilize electronic systems in their practices but instead will continue their use of transcription as the method for converting their records into digital format.
Therefore, transcription professionals who deliver high-quality, accurate, timely and cost-effective services will continue to play an important role in the management of health information. There will be little space or funding for transcription that does not meet these quality criteria, so it is imperative that transcription professionals meet the higher standards as those are defined. These demands are the same for all healthcare service providers, be they physicians, nurses, pharmacists, technicians or other professionals.
Therefore, we urge all medical transcription professionals to get involved, to help with the planning and implementation of health information exchange infrastructure at local and national levels, and to articulate the benefits and needs for inclusion of medical transcription services as a part of the infrastructure. We also urge you to commit to the investment and training needed to stay current with the emerging technologies and standards, to assure that you meet the higher qualifications that will be the norm in the future. Your leadership and commitment will help all of us reach our shared vision and goal: a more effective system of health care delivery that results in improved health and safety for all citizens.
For more information, please visit these websites:
2109 W. Market Street, Suite 144, Johnson City, TN 37604 • 423-928-3587
