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Speech Recognition Speeds Data Entry

Douglas Golding, MD

December 2007
Technology

For many physicians, electronic medical record (EMR) systems offer the potential to improve the quality of health care they deliver and reduce costs as well. However, many factors inhibit widespread adoption of EMRs, and one of the most significant roadblocks for physicians is the high installation and operating costs of these systems. EMR systems also can be inflexible and have other limitations that often prevent physicians from using them. Many physicians find that EMR systems are more effective with the help of enabling technologies.

For the physicians at the Lifetime Health Medical Group, an example of enabling technology is speech recognition software to assist with transcription. We installed speech recognition technology shortly before implementing EMR systems in our offices in Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y., and experienced a smooth integration of the two technologies. The Rochester offices began EMR implementation in late 2006, while Buffalo began implementation early this year. In both places, speech recognition technology was implemented prior to EMR, and then integrated into the system. In both cases, the results were pleasantly surprising.

Save Time and Money
Recognizing that transcribing dictated notes can be costly and time consuming, our physicians embraced speech recognition technology to describe patient encounters in their own words through free-form dictation. The use of speech recognition at Lifetime Health complemented data entry via the keyboard, and led to increased report accuracy and substantial cost savings.

Prior to implementing speech recognition technology and our EMR, the providers engaged in a variety of documentation methods, ranging from hand writing notes to dictating into cassette tapes which were then sent to transcriptionists. Annual transcription costs at six Buffalo health centers ranged from $750,000 to $800,000, or about $15,000 per provider per year. In addition, getting notes and tapes transcribed ....

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