Mental health transcription services for psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals provide an important medical service to patients, however their needs differ greatly from other medical professions. Because they deal with a patient’s mental health history and status, their clinical notes are often more varied than other professions, and commonly include longer narratives instead of standard medical terms or phrases.
Their notes often include American slang or words that non-native English speakers might not understand. Whereas specialties like surgery or cardiology often use standard or canned phrases for their notes, because underlying conditions, techniques, surgeries, etc. often are similar if not identical, mental health professional’s notes run the gamut of everything they discussed with the patient, which varies widely with each case.
It is important then for mental health professionals to choose a mental health transcription services company wisely to avoid poor quality or inaccurate patient notes. For starters, it is our recommendation to choose an American transcription company as opposed to an off-shore or “BPO” company.
In our experience, mistakes occur with a foreign company especially often in behavioral health transcription, because providers often use slang words or phrases that aren’t as common or well known in other countries. This makes it hard for the foreign transcription company, even one with a QA supervisor, to get the transcription for mental health evaluations accurate.
In addition, most of the time it is not enough just to choose a U.S. based transcription company – it is also important to choose a company that has experience specifically with mental health accounts. Because these narratives vary greatly from other kinds of medical transcription, yet still include medical terms, medication notes and other items only a trained medical transcriptionist would know, the best accuracy comes from a company that has experience transcribing these more unique medical notes.
It is also important to make sure the mental health transcription services company has appropriate safeguards to ensure the confidentially and safety of these sensitive reports. All medical reports or notes contain sensitive personally identifiable information about patients. However mental health reports are particularly sensitive and could lead to patient embarrassment or worse if released, either intentionally or unintentionally. Make sure any company you are considering for mental health transcription services is HIPAA secure and has additional safeguards to further protect your reports.
Ditto Transcripts is a Denver, Colorado-based mental health transcription services company that provides fast, accurate and reliable transcription services for hospitals, clinics, facilities and individual practices of all sizes. Call 720.287.3710 today for a free quote, and ask about our free five-day trial. Visit our website for more information about our medical transcription services.
