WORK@HOME
With several transcription companies setting up their base in India, medical transcription has become a lucrative and feasible option for those looking for home-based careers.
Until recently home-based medical transcription was popular only among US based home transcriptionists. Now it's slowly gaining a foothold in India. That's good news for people who are compelled to work from home, either for health or for family reasons, and also for people who are looking at a second job to supplement their income.
According to Nasscom , medical transcription is projected as the India's fourth largest foreign exchange earners in about five years. Very good news for people looking out for flexible home-based careers.
OUTSOURCING MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION
Advancement in technology is rapidly changing the global economy and work place. The field of medical transcription has undergone tremendous progress because of constant advances in communication and Internet technology. Outsourcing medical transcription has proved to be an extremely popular and profitable option for the medical industry.
Why is outsourcing medical transcription profitable?
The concept and benefits of outsourcing medical transcription is well known to the medical industry.The direct and immediate advantage of outsourcing medical transcription is cost reduction, reliability in turnaround time and total security.
In the last few years India has shown amazing success in this field. The large pool of IT professionals, the internet revolution and the encouraging policy changes have catapulted India to a top position as a quality source of medical transcription services.
Advantages of outsourcing medical transcription
There are several advantages in outsourcing medical transcription
to India:
- Language - India has a vast pool of English speaking resources. Medical transcriptionists are graduates and most of them are science majors. Their qualification teamed with fluency in the language makes Medical Transcription Training easier and the quality of results delivered is high.
- Cost Savings- The wage levels of medical transcriptionists in India are considerably lower than those in the US or other developed countries. Indian companies can offer comparable services and streamlined Medical Transcription Processes at highly competitive rates. This translates into big savings for hospitals. Global medical transcription companies can bolster their bottom-lines by sub-contracting to Indian medical transcription companies.
- Turnaround time - Turnaround time is critical in this industry. Since India is several hours ahead of America and Europe, Indian medical transcription industries can offer the natural advantage of quicker turnaround time.
OFFSHORE MT
In the past, the offshore vs. onshore debate has been a strongly contested issue. This year, while many are still uncomfortable with sending work offshore, overall perception is improving. Of those not currently having work sent offshore, positive perception has increased by eight percentage points, from 13 percent in 2006 research to 21 percent in this report.
When comparing the average overall performance scores of transcription work performed onshore vs. offshore, not surprisingly, onshore has a slight edge with an average score of 7.6 compared to offshore's 7.1 (based on a nine-point scale, where one is poor and nine is strong). Clearly, though, offshore services are more than satisfactory to those who actually use them.
Faster turnaround reduced costs and improved quality were significant overall benefits cited by providers using MTSOs. When breaking out benefits by offshore vs. onshore, there are notable differences seen in the area of reduced cost and improved quality. Offshore respondents mentioned cost reduction more than twice as often as other respondents.
Despite a slow increase in positive attitudes, the number of provider organizations reporting the use of offshore transcription services has decreased from 55 percent in 2006 to 38 percent in 2007. However, KLAS believes transcription work being sent offshore will continue to increase in the U.S. based on provider feedback, domestic labor shortages and increasing pressure on health care organizations to reduce expenses.