MedQuist and AAMT Team Up to Help Improve Dictation

Clinical documentation and health records play a vital role in every aspect of healthcare delivery and decision making, no matter what the setting. Incomplete or inaccurate documentation can lead to patient care errors and the potential for sentinel events. On the other hand, high quality dictation can decrease report turnaround time, helping to ensure timely delivery of care as well as accelerating reimbursement. Not only is patient care affected, but prolonged problematic dictation can consume significantly more time and labor, thereby increasing overall documentation costs.

To help address these issues, MedQuist Inc. (Pink Sheets: MEDQ) has teamed up with the American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT) to create the Dictation Best Practices Toolkit. The kit is designed to assist facilities with the adoption and implementation of policies and training practices that will promote high quality dictation and ensure the best documentation outcomes.

"MedQuist is pleased to sponsor such a critical initiative in the marketplace. Working together to improve the dictation process helps all of us – the physician dictator, the transcribers, HIM professionals, other healthcare professionals, and most importantly, the patient," says Scott Bennett, MedQuist senior vice president of Sales and Marketing. "Each party depends on the accuracy and timeliness of the clinical record to ensure high quality patient care."

"Addressing the integrity of health data capture must begin with a commitment to improving the documentation process from start to finish, including the impact that poor dictation has on documentation outcomes," states Peter Preziosi, PhD, CAE, executive director of AAMT. "Our association is proud to partner with MedQuist on improving dictation practices that will help to drive data integrity standards in the industry."

Poor dictation can be caused by issues such as medical word misuse and incorrect language, as well as the effects of speed, accent, articulation, style, volume, background noise, and poor equipment.