| MTIA (Medical Transcription Industry Association) | | | | Whenever a transcription document is reviewed |
| along with AHIMA (American Health Information | | | | for quality what are the principles that establish |
| Management Association) recommends a standard | | | | the quality of the documents? |
| unit of measure for medical transcription of | | | | The transcribed report should be reviewed against |
| patient medical records. It recommends the visible | | | | the actual dictation. Reading the report without |
| black character (VBC) measurement standard to | | | | listening to the dictation does not provide an |
| be the best document counting method. What | | | | accurate comparison of the transcription to the |
| was the purpose of having such a standard? | | | | dictation. |
| The final goal was to implement a standard for | | | | The review should apply industry-specific |
| content measurement that the health information | | | | standards as provided by current resources and |
| management (HIM) practitioners can use to | | | | references. When evaluating style, punctuation, or |
| evaluate in-house transcription staff and external | | | | grammar, The AAMT Book of Style is the |
| transcription service suppliers. The earlier | | | | industry standard. |
| 65-character line standard (also called as the | | | | The review should encompass attention to risk |
| AAMT line) had previously been a standard | | | | management issues and the documentation |
| industry wide unit of measure for content | | | | standards of accreditation and healthcare |
| measurement that includes space bar, shift key, | | | | compliance agencies. |
| bold, underscore, and other keystrokes. With this | | | | Accuracy scores (ratings) should be quantified |
| system the cost for the line/character goes | | | | with the use of a numeric calculation that weights |
| beyond just labor as the cost of the technology is | | | | varying degrees of error against the length of the |
| bundled along with domain knowledge and human | | | | report. AAMT recommends the following quality |
| resources. Thus it became mandatory to develop | | | | goals: 100% accuracy with respect to critical |
| choose the best possible Industry standard. The | | | | errors; 98% accuracy with respect to major |
| benefits of having such a standard include ease in | | | | errors; and 98% accuracy with respect to all |
| maintaining service level agreements, better | | | | errors in the report, including minor errors (see |
| business relationships and having a better tool for | | | | below for definitions of "critical," "major," and |
| evaluation. | | | | "minor" errors). |
| According to The MTIA /AHIMA task force | | | | The reviewer (or the review process) should |
| among all the different counting methods like | | | | provide timely and consistent feedback to the |
| ASCII line, the 65-character line, gross line, gross | | | | medical transcriptionist in order to eliminate |
| page, per minute pricing, and visible black | | | | repetition of errors. |
| character (VBC) measurement standards, VBC is | | | | All measurements, standards, and benchmarks |
| the only counting method that can be easily | | | | should be disclosed to the medical transcriptionist |
| understood, verified, and replicated by all parties in | | | | and should be set forth in written guidelines by |
| the medical transcription business processes. | | | | the healthcare provider or transcription service. |