The senior doctor at St John’s Hospital has written to your Medical Transcription Service Organisation, reporting issues of concern that he would like resolved, regarding the transcription of audio files from their hospital.

QUESTION 6:

SCENARIO:

The senior doctor at St John’s Hospital has written to your Medical Transcription Service Organisation, reporting issues of concern that he would like resolved, regarding the transcription of audio files from their hospital. Your Medical Transcription Service Organisation has requested that you address these issues with your team of Medical Transcriptionists. 

LETTER FROM ST JOHN’S HOSPITAL:

Dear Transcription Australia PTY LTD,

As previously discussed, we are very pleased with the standard of work produced by your transcriptionists.  Thank you for your ongoing compliance with our ongoing requirements.

At a recent Management Meeting, a couple of minor issues were raised that we would like to bring to your attention.  It would be appreciated if you could review the issues with your team, implement acceptable solutions in the process and therefore ensure ongoing consistency. 

The first thing we would like modified, is the formatting of the transcription reports.  I understand that as a company, you have standard formatting rules, but we would like you to tailor them a little, to meet our requirements.  Going forward can you please expand all general abbreviations, with the exception of radiological [e.g. MRI, X-RAY, ECG, etc]. We feel that this will assist with clarity, and, in turn facilitate understanding when delivering patient care across a range of specialties. 

The second thing that has been brought to my attention concerns turn-around-times. We understand that all Transcription Australia reports have a turnaround time of 24 hours, but we hope that you might be able to accommodate a more efficient turnaround time in the case of urgent reports. If we mark a file as urgent, we would appreciate a turn-around-time of 12 hours.  Despite the increased pressure that this may cause, we rely on the same professional standards and accurate reports that we have come to expect from Transcription Australia. 

Please do not hesitate to contact myself or the Manager of Healthcare Records at St John’s Hospital if you have any questions. 

Many thanks for your assistance. 

John Graham

6a. Summarise the issues identified by Mr John Graham above?

PROBLEMS

6b. Now that you have identified the main issues, suggest some strategies to overcome these?

PROBLEM SOLUTION/STRATEGIES

6c. Compose a letter to Mr John Graham clarifying his concerns and providing your suggested solutions, confirming they are adequate for implementation. 

It is essential that you provide a professional letter, formatted to acceptable standards of the Healthcare Documentation Industry.  Your greeting and closure should be professional, with correct formatting of paragraphs, grammar and punctuation, followed by final proofreading for accuracy.

6d. Now that approval for your suggestions has been given by St John’s Hospital, compose a letter to your team of junior and senior medical transcriptionists advising them of the changes and improvement strategies. 

It is essential that you provide a professional letter, formatted to acceptable standards of the Healthcare Documentation Industry.  Your greeting and closure should be professional, with correct formatting of paragraphs, grammar and punctuation, followed by final proofreading for accuracy.