In today's situation healthcare facilities have to maintain a delicate balance between providing quality healthcare and still maintaining profits.
The demands made on the limited resources available to them are numerous.
In such a situation it is important for them to have maximum flexibility so that they can adapt themselves quickly to the changing demands placed on them.
Outsourcing medical transcription can help these entities remain flexible! How does outsourcing medical transcription help the healthcare facilities remain flexible? Though information from patient medical records is an important contributor to the healthcare process the creation of these records is not part of the core competencies of the healthcare facilities.
The key to maintaining flexibility is to concentrate on the core competencies and outsource all the other activities.
Outsourcing this process helps the healthcare facility remain flexible by the following means:

• By offering a price structure based on fee for services rendered: Service providers normally quote prices that are based on the services used by the healthcare facilities, that is based on variables like number of lines, number of reports, number of pages etc.
  , instead of a flat rate.
  This ensures thatexpenses incurred are limited to the usage of services.
  
• By helping transform fixed costs to variable costs: By outsourcing the entire process of creating patient medical records, thefixed cost incurred for in-house transcription can be convertedto variable costs.
  Fixed costs like real estate, salaries etc can be avoided.
  
• Enabling increased flexibility in resource management: It frees up several valuable resources.
  Theseresources can be utilizedfor other purposes.
  
• Helping reduce response time to outside changes: In a changing atmosphere it is important for entities providing health services to be able to respond to changes in a speedy manner.
  This ensures that valuable resources are free to be used while responding to outside changes.
  
• Increase focus on core activities: It enables increasedcan focus on the core activity of providing quality care rather than on other associated activities like medical transcription
• Freeing up key employees: Benefits the healthcare professionals but also key employees of the like the support staff, the management staff and the information technology staff to focus on the core business.
  
• Increasing speed: Ensures that the patient medical records are available to the healthcare professionals and support staff on time.
  This ensures that the speed of service is also more efficient.
  
• By helping avoid bottlenecks to quicker reimbursements: Outsourcing medical transcription not only reduces direct and indirect costs but also removes bottlenecks that hinder the cash flow.
  Creation of patient medical records is the first step in the receivables cycle; timely creation of transcripts ensures that the process of reimbursement can start on time.
  

However the process of outsourcing medical transcription needs to be approached with caution.
Apart from evaluating the vendor on the basis of criteria like accuracy, turnaround time and technology used, the service provider needs to be evaluated on the following additional points:

1. Billing methodology
2. Ability to deliver quality by checking on training methods and levels of quality checks used.
   
3. HIPAA/HITECH compliance
4. Experience of the vendor by checking on references
5. Actual capability of the service provider by availing a free trial
6. Availability of open channels of communication.
   

Once the vendor has been evaluated on all these criteria the healthcare facility can enjoy immaculate services, which lets them enjoy the benefit of being flexible in an ever-changing competitive environment.