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Ardent Health Services Standardizes on Computer Aided Medical Transcription with Nuance’s eScription Platform to Save Costs and Improve Physician Satisfaction
Multi-facility Healthcare Organization Improves Quality of Care, Reduces Turnaround Time and Increases Collaboration with Speech-Enabled, On-demand Solution
BURLINGTON, MA, February 18, 2009 — Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN), a leading supplier of speech solutions, today announced that its eScription on-demand platform for computer aided medical transcription (CAMT) has been implemented across Ardent Health Services' nine facilities and one multi-specialty physician group as a standard solution to consolidate costs and improve clinical documentation workflow. Designed to work across an entire healthcare enterprise and enhance the efficiencies of a multi-facility organization, the eScription platform has saved Ardent more than $2 million since its go-live date in May 2006.
Current economic conditions have placed increased pressure on healthcare facilities to cut costs without jeopardizing patient care. According to the American Hospital Association, 59 percent of hospitals are cutting administration costs and 53 percent are reducing staff. Healthcare organizations are exploring ways to combat these challenges. Ardent’s move from multiple, incompatible transcription solutions to a single, standardized on-demand platform helped the organization reduce costs associated with outsourced labor, capital equipment expenses and varied cost structures. In addition, Ardent has realized benefits to physician satisfaction and collaboration, as well as improvements to the quality and turnaround time of medical records.
“Our primary goal was standardization of transcription platforms. Variation in our transcription process was leading to inconsistent service and excessive costs, and we wanted all providers across our nine acute care hospitals and one provider group to use the same solution so it would be easier to manage,” said Julia Kendrick, corporate director of health information management, Ardent Health Services. “Some of our doctors who work across many of our facilities have especially benefited from the change. They now enjoy consistent workflow processes from facility to facility, and can rely on a simple understanding of a single dictation and transcription solution for all their documentation.”
By standardizing on the eScription CAMT platform, Ardent’s success is demonstrated by the following:
- Decreased Turnaround Time — Reports are returned within an average of four hours, down from previous turnaround times of eight to 48 hours
- Physician Satisfaction — With little impact to physician workflow reports are returned quickly, increasing physician satisfaction with the reporting process
- More Efficient HIM Departments — HIM departments across multiple facilities are able to work collaboratively and pool resources and ideas on best practices, troubleshooting and workflow
- Improved Quality of Medical Records — Standardization allows facilities to enforce consistent documentation so providers know what to look for when reviewing medical records and minimizing errors of omission
The eScription platform enables healthcare organizations to realize significant cost savings by increasing the productivity of medical transcriptionists (MTs). The platform allows clinicians to efficiently create documents by speaking into a phone, dictation device or electronic health record (EHR) while background speech recognition technology creates a high-quality draft that MTs quickly review and edit, typically doubling productivity compared to the traditional transcription process. To maximize the speech recognition processing power, eScription is based on an ASP model, which requires little capital investment for healthcare providers and is often paid back within months of implementation.
Nuance’s eScription platform recently received a 2008 Best in KLAS award for the fifth consecutive year. With a score of 90.67, it was ranked the highest in the speech recognition category, and exceeded its score from the previous year even as the platform’s usage has grown by nearly 40 percent in the past 12 months, with both new and existing customers. eScription processes more than 1.4 billion lines of medical transcription per year, and members of its Million Dollar Club have documented more than $49 million in total transcription cost savings to date.
In conjunction with the eScription CAMT platform, Ardent Health Services works with Nuance’s Medical Transcription Service Organization, Focus Infomatics, to streamline its clinical documentation process, reduce traditional transcription costs, improve medical report quality and speed turnaround time.
The eScription platform is designed specifically for large healthcare organizations that process more than five million lines of transcription per year. For more information, please visit http://www.nuance.com/healthcare/products/escription.asp.
Nuance’s Healthcare Business
Nuance’s Healthcare Business provides a comprehensive family of speech-driven clinical documentation and communication solutions that enable healthcare provider organizations to reduce operating costs, increase reimbursement, and enhance patient care and safety. No matter the specific requirements of a healthcare provider organization, Nuance has solutions to meet its needs. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com/healthcare.
About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications and professional services. For more information, please visit: www.nuance.com.
Nuance, the Nuance logo and eScription are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
The statements in this press release, relating to future plans or future events or services, are forward-looking statements which are subject to specific risks and uncertainties. These could involve particular market trends, competition factors and other risks described in the documents submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual results, events and services may vary significantly from the forecasts. The reader is warned not to rely on these forward-looking statements without reservation, since these are simply reflections of the current situation.