Metro Plus
Chennai
Hyderabad
Every line is lucrative
|
With many U.S. companies outsourcing work from India, medical transcription is a fast growing industry. PRINCE FREDERICK surveys the scene.
|
COMPANIES IN the United States are learning that an effective way of tightening their purse strings is by outsourcing IT-related work from India. Few other developing countries can match India's recherché status as a back-office destination. The World Bank, relocating its back-office operations in Chennai, is a good augury for the city. Medical transcription (MT) is among the well-known IT-enabled services. And many a U.S. major practises the virtue of outsourcing medical transcription work from India. It is estimated that these companies cut down 40 to 50 per cent costs using this strategy. And what's more, they get quality output at half the expenditure. Jayashree has an M.Sc degree in plant biology, and Saravanan, an M.Sc in information technology. Adhiyaman has an M.A. in political science and Srinivas, a post-graduate diploma in hotel management. All of them are taking home similar pay packets and face the same challenges as medical transcriptionists at Insignia Infotech Private Limited, one of the many MT companies thriving in Chennai. Post-graduates are indeed a far cry from high school dropouts. But that's the difference between Indian and American transcriptionists, most of whom are high school dropouts.
The prerequisites for an entrant include proficiency in English, excellent comprehension and typing skills and a functional knowledge of computers. Training, usually for six months, is arduous. Completion of formal training does not mean resting on the oars. The candidate has to keep abreast of the latest `Americanisms' and medical terms. He will be required to shuttle between online dictionaries on specialities such as oncology, radiology, neurology and pathology. For a mis-spelt word can cause more damage than offending the professional sensibilities of a grammarian - it could cost somebody his life. "A good transcriptionist will have a vocabulary of one lakh and 50,000 medical terms," says Raman, chairman, Insignia Infotech Private Limited. "We employed an American transcriptionist for a year to teach our first batch of students. She can transcribe 1,500 lines a day, which is phenomenal." Insignia Infotech trains students through a six-month course, and the cream is absorbed into its in-house team.
A Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) can get a job in the U.S. To qualify as a CMT, one has to pass a Medical Transcriptionist Certification Program (MTCP), offered by the American Association for Medical Transcription.
MT work is not easy. "At times it can be extremely strenuous," says Raman. Clients in the U.S. are fastidious about quality. Nothing less than an accuracy rate of 98 per cent is required to stay in the reckoning.
The mantra in the industry is "turnaround time" which is the time taken between the data leaving and returning as processed data, to the client's hands. A company would be out of business if its turnaround time exceeds 24 hours.
"Turnaround time is client-specific. Sometimes, clients want their work accomplished in as many as seven hours or even lesser. Such work is called `stat' or urgent. We entrust such work to the best of our transcriptionists," says Venkataraman, managing director, Insignia Infotech Private Limited.
"The 12-hour time difference is a boon for us. When the Americans are asleep, our transcriptionists convert voice files into documents and our clients find the work on their table when a new day dawns," says Harikrishnan, Acusis Software India Pvt. Ltd., which provides home-based medical transcription services.
Acusis, which, incidentally, is a Greek word for hearing, provides its home-based transcriptionists the infrastructure and proprietary software to set up shop at home. At Acusis, the work done by the home-based transcriptionists is monitored by a team of in-house transcriptionists, to weed out the errors. Transcriptionists, who work from home, are paid on the basis of speed and accuracy.
Somebody with an accuracy rate of 98 per cent and an output of 800 lines per day can earn Rs. 24,960, if he works for 26 days a month. And someone who turns out 450 lines per day with a 98 per cent accuracy rate can earn Rs.12,285 if he works for the same number of days.
But there are sceptics who are quick to point out that there may not be enough work to engage home-based transcriptionists right through a month.
That may be the case with Indian companies which run the show through contracts with American MT companies. However, Accusis India is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Accusis, a global MT company, headquartered at Pittsburgh.
"We can find more work than our transcriptionists can handle, all through the year," says Harikrishnan. For more information on home-based transcription, visit accusis.com.
Would intelligent Voice Recognition Software (VRS) throw medical transcriptionists out of their jobs?
"No," says Rajesh, director, Operations, Rachna Transcriptionists Private Limited. "VRS can take the place of a keyboard, but is no substitute for a medical transcriptionist. A VRS cannot distinguish between homonyms and it will not ignore a doctor's `asides'. VRS is no threat to medical transcriptionists."
The MT industry in India is about eight years old. But it has been in the glare of publicity only in the last three or four years.
If industry sources are to be believed, the Indian MT industry is poised for exponential growth.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Chennai
Hyderabad
|
