Date: November 5, 2013
Time: 12 p.m. PT/3 p.m. ET
CE Credits: 1 TW

Description: Partial narrative dictation can be the bridge between EHR and transcription services to enhance the documentation of unique patient information that cannot be templated. The purpose is to complement the EHR and work with providers to document detail needed for complete, comprehensive patient care specifically in the areas of history of present illness and medical decision-making, as well as complicated clinical plans.

Speaker Biography: Melissa Harper is the Manager of Corporate Transcription Services for UC Health, an integrated delivery system, in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Melissa has been a transcriptionist for more than 26 years, and employed by UC Health for more than 20 years. Formerly, UC Health was part of a larger organization (Health Alliance) and as transcription supervisor, Melissa was managing up to 80 MTs for a seven-facility healthcare delivery system.  Currently she manages 20 staff including 12 MTs, 6 EHR Support Specialists and 2 Admin Support.  Melissa also serves her organization as technical liaison for IT project management and analyst for documentation systems.  UC Health recently implemented Epic within the entire organization where she has had the opportunity to lead an initiative to transition MTs into EHR/IT support analyst positions as well as piloting a clinical documentation integrity program for EHR-created provider notes for process improvement. Melissa has also been an adjunct instructor at Antonelli College for medical terminology/documentation.

Date: June 4, 2013
Time: 12 p.m. PT/3 p.m. ET
Title: Patient Portals and Advocacy
CECs: 1 TW
Description: Patient portals are online applications that allow patients access to designated websites or to an organization’s EHR to view personal health information.  The following demonstrate the myriad advantages there are to having patient portals: Patient-health care provider interaction for review of lab results, to access medical records, to request of prescription refills, to schedule appointments, to pay bills, and to ask questions. Portals are not only for individual use but also can be utilized for proxy access by authorized dependent children and adult care providers.
A support role is utilized to ensure proper followup and distribution of communication between patients, providers, and ancillary departments to provide excellent customer service for patient satisfaction.

Bios:
Melissa Harper is the manager of Corporate Transcription Services for UC Health, an integrated delivery system, in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Melissa has been a transcriptionist for more than 26 years, and employed by UC Health for more than 20 years. Formerly, UC Health was part of a larger organization (Health Alliance) and as transcription supervisor, Melissa was managing up to 80 MTs for a seven-facility healthcare delivery system.  Currently she manages 20 staff including 12 MTs, 6 EHR Support Specialists and 2 Admin Support.  Melissa also serves her organization as technical liaison for IT project management and analyst for documentation systems.  UC Health recently implemented Epic within the entire organization where she has had the opportunity to lead an initiative to transition MTs into EHR/IT support analyst positions as well as piloting a clinical documentation integrity program for EHR-created provider notes for process improvement. Melissa has also been an adjunct instructor at Antonelli College for medical terminology/documentation.

Debbie Krapfl, RHIT, AHDI-F, began her career in medical transcription almost 19 years ago, completed her education in Health Information Management, and obtained her RHIT credential.  She found a position in a local hospital working 2nd shift as a transcriptionist for the radiology group. She transitioned to HIM work 2 years later with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and then transitioned to a county long-term care/rehabilitation facility.  After 5 years in HIM, she transitioned back to transcription full-time when provided with the opportunity to work from home.  She quickly transitioned from MT to lead MT, and eventually was offered a client management position where she has remained for the last 9 years.  This position allows her a unique insight into various facilities and their dictation, transcription and EMR practices. 

She has held various positions with her local AHDI chapter and was President of the Wisconsin/Minnesota Regional AHDI, now known as Mighty Rivers Regional AHDI, where she has recently been elected Vice President.  She is eager to continue her education and truly enjoys counseling MTs as to their own potential within the ever-changing healthcare documentation field.

Date: October 10, 2013
Time: 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET
CE Credits: 1 PD

Description: EHRs were projected to reduce the need for transcription. That, plus improvements in the quality of speech recognition, coupled with the ever increasing need for healthcare providers to cut costs has placed tremendous pressure on the medical transcription industry to decrease MT compensation. However, with slower-than-anticipated adoption of EHRs by providers coupled with concerns about quality and fear of inaccurate documentation and over-billing due to inappropriate copy/paste and template use, a skilled medical transcriptionist can be the economical choice when faced with passing time-consuming tasks on to the most expensive person in the documentation workflow – the physician – and can serve as the extra pair of eyes to validate structured and encoded data intended for consumption by the EHR.

That being said, it is imperative that transcriptionists and transcription providers be “lean and economical” if the industry is to continue to play a part in the creation of high-quality clinical documentation. Understanding various methods of compensation and the real economics of transcription can help.

Attendees will learn about:

• Where the intersection between transcription and EHR rests
• The real cost of eliminating transcription
• Measuring the real impact of transcription and how this affects compensation

Speaker Biography: Lynn Kosegi is the Director of Solutions Realization at M*Modal, a leading provider of speech understanding technology and hosted clinical documentation services. She has worked in the health information field for 30 years. Lynn has worked for physician practices, hospital HIM departments, medical transcription service organizations, and health information technology companies. Her experience has encompassed multiple areas of the health information domain including coding and other HIM tasks, medical transcription operations and account management, project and product management, and management of professional services.