Electronic Health Reporter

Jessica Kane, professional blogger who writes about technology and other gadgets and gizmos aplenty, currently writing for Total Voice Tech.

Voice recognition has come a long way since its early days when you had to train a computer to recognize your voice and speak in a very flat and monotone voice. As voice recognition increases in popularity and use, it’s going to increasingly find its way into the medical field. Voice recognition software is used in an increasingly large number of hospitals since it provides an easy to access transcript of past medical history.

The Role of Voice Recognition in Healthcare

Voice dictation software is slowly replacing the role that a medical transcriber used to play. By moving away from a transcriber, the doctor is placed in a position where they have greater control over their patient records. When documentation is more in control of the physician in charge, there is less processing involved and the documents are ready for distribution at a much faster rate. This can be a significant advantage for patients who need to have medical records quickly shared between various doctors. Voice recognition’s main role in medicine is to provide better and more efficient documentation.

The Merits of Voice Recognition in Healthcare

In terms of employment for medical transcribers, the practice of using voice recognition software to quickly transcribe records could be problematic. However, trusting medical transcriptions to a voice recognition program might not be the most responsible solution either. A human being should still review the records before submission to make the records are accurate and suitable for distribution. By incorporating a human component in the document creation process, it helps to reduce the chance for errors in the documentation process while still saving time.

The Reduction of Handwriting Mistakes

The issue of illegible handwriting is a serious issue in medical documentation. When documentation can’t be deciphered, valuable information may get lost or distorted. Speech-to-text methods of creating documentation may create fewer issues, especially if a medical transcriber listens to a recorded version of the transcript to check the medical documentation.

Failure to Document Procedures

It seems like insurance companies are always looking for ways to deny claims. If doctors don’t provide sufficient documentation then patients will suffer by not getting their procedures covered in a timely manner. As the decrease in medical transcribers becomes a greater issue, the need for supplementary forms of documentation become increasingly important. Doctors can use medical voice recognition technology to keep more complete and accurate records.

Significant Error Reduction

As voice recognition software continues to improve there is going to be less need for human transcribers. Currently, a voice recognition program already does a better job at creating documents without errors. Doctors will still need to have documents edited, but there will be fewer errors with voice recognition software. This means that voice recognition software will not only save time but money as well.

Improves the Electronic Health Record

Voice recognition software can significantly improve the reliability of electronic health records. This can save the physician large amounts of time and result in more accurate records.

Using Cloud-Based Systems

Cloud-based systems are a great way to improve the accuracy of voice recognition software. However the benefits quickly dissolve the moment there is a network issue. If there reaches a point where cloud-based servers are reliable enough to work in a medical environment, a cloud-based approach could greatly speed up the process involved in voice recognition.

Making Better Decisions

Voice recognition software reduces the amount of time it takes to get information readily available for use. Because of this, using voice recognition software can be a crucial method of helping doctors to make split-second decisions. This could help to save lives, and make it possible to get information between departments quickly.