Is Speech to Text Right for My Medical Practice?
Speech to text software is a technology any size practice can use and it offers amazing benefits for the physician and the patient alike. Even using this software for simple tasks, like dictation, can streamline the process in your practice. This saves the physician from endless chart notes which can be necessary to fully fill out the patient picture and stay within regulatory guidelines.
A voice to text option, when the software solution has access to the right medical vocabulary, can save your practice countless hours and streamline staff needs. There may be a number of reasons that your practice has put off looking into speech recognition or speech to text software. Many physicians were familiar with the older models of this software which had a reputation for being very fallible. Today's models are far improved, even catching nuances of voice recognition such as heavy accents. Software developed specifically for the medical community contains the vast vocabulary necessary for competent charting and advanced notation.
How Can Speech to Text Improve My Practice?
Every size organization can make great use of this technology. For Doctors, there are limited hours in a day. Seeing a patient often consists of the consultation, exam, and the physician adds notes to charts as he goes so that important information is not missed in providing therapy options, diagnosis, and to compile a complete patient history. This process is time-consuming and can be fallible.
For many practices, regulations are also in place to ensure that note taking is done within a certain time frame of the patient's consultation. This is an excellent practice to make certain nuances aren't missed but it can be difficult for the physician who needs to take time out of his schedule between appointments to complete these administrative tasks. You can imagine how inconvenient that can be if one of his patients presents with an emergency situation.
Using a speech to text option allows the physician to capture notes during the visit, which means that you'll also have access to the patient's own words. This can be an excellent practice because it eliminates the barrier of the patient's experience being relayed through the physician or a staff member. Physicians can also use speech to text to produce notes after consultations or about isolated issues which can help many professionals suss out important ideas and facts they may not notice when handwriting or keying in information.
Speech to text has come a long way technologically. The software can be trained to understand accents, so you never have to worry over speech patterns that might throw off generic voice recognition software in the past. New vocabulary can also be added to enhance the experience for your specialty.