Emerson Hospital Reduces Transcription TAT from Days to Hours, Lowers Costs by 50%
Company profile
Established in 1911, Emerson Hospital is a full-service medical center situated in Concord, MA. A 179-bed facility staffed by 300 physicians, Emerson combines a human touch with state-ofthe-art technology—including top-flight medical transcription.
Download success story (pdf. Open a new window) Explore CDE One
Nancy Earnley
Director of Medical Records
Emerson Hospital
Challenge
- Inefficient and expensive transcription and documentation process
- Pressure to speed turnaround time
- Enable 24/7 transcription coverage
- Meet the transcription needs of all stakeholders
Solution
- Nuance Transcription Services, full-lifecycle outsourced transcription
Results
- TAT reduced from days to hours
- Emergency department TAT down to 90 minutes
- 50% reduction in costs
- No change to physician dictation style
Background
In 2009, Emerson was using expensive in-house medical transcriptionists (MTs) on weekdays and an outsourced transcription company to meet workflow fluctuations. The dictation system in use was outdated, inefficient, and costly, requiring continual maintenance. Furthermore, turnaround time (TAT) was slow, especially on weekends when transcription resources were unavailable—a critical issue when emergency department dictations needed to be addressed immediately. Both clinicians and HIM staff found the transcription process frustrating and unacceptable.
Something needed to be done. The hospital chose Nuance Transcription Services, a full lifecycle outsourced transcription service provided by Nuance Healthcare. Combined with Dragon Medical 360 | eScription, this solution enabled complete speech editing and transcription workflow management with single-vendor accountability