What is the single biggest thing that points to how good you are your work? Timing? Well, it is extremely important but it does not necessarily indicate how good or bad your work is. So, what am I referring to? I am talking about the quality of your work. It is your work’s quality that defines whether you are a good medical transcriptionist or not.

So, what is quality in medical transcription? The fewer the errors in the medical record you create, the higher the quality. The medical transcription industry expects a certain quality from you. And that is 98 percent accuracy. That’s a big figure, right? Well, let me surprise you a little more. The profession has zero tolerance with respect to something defined as critical errors.

The reason the quality standard is so high in the profession is because of the criticality of information in the medical records. Let’s look at the types of medical transcription errors as defined by the Association of Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI).

Critical Errors: They are called so because they can impact the safety of a patient. The industry has zero tolerance for these errors. Incorrect patient information, incorrect names and doses of medicines, incorrect values in test results, incorrect test names, and missing a part of the recorded information amount to critical errors.

Major Errors: These errors are the ones that impact the integrity of the medical document. One has to achieve 98 percent accuracy with respect to major errors. Incorrect spelling of English words and medical terms, incorrect inferences owing to incorrect verbiage, failure to comply with protocols and policies, failure to highlight any missing information, and intentional highlighting of information cause major errors.

Minor Errors: Minor errors are not factual errors, marked by the areas of improvement in the medical document. The industry requires that you achieve 98 percent accuracy with respect to minor errors. Minor errors include errors in punctuation and grammar, inconsistency of format, and typing errors not amounting to any change in the meaning of content.

So, do you think you are doing a good job?

The deadlines in the medical transcription profession wouldn’t have been deadly had it not been for the quality goals in the profession. The quality expectations in medical transcription are high because they ought to be so. After all, people’s lives depend on their medical record. A lapse on your part can impact a person’s life gravely.

The expected accuracy rate in medical transcription is above 98%. The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) has classified medical transcription errors into three categories. It has set quality goals for each type of error. Let’s look at these error types and understand the quality goals associated with them.

The first type of error is referred to as critical error. Critical errors can impact the safety of a patient. Obviously, you are not allowed to commit even a single critical error. Examples of critical errors include incorrect patient information, incorrect names and doses of medicines, incorrect values in test results, incorrect test names and missing a part of the recorded information.

The second type of error is the major error. Major errors do not impact the safety of the patient but impact the integrity of the medical document. These errors include misspelling regular words and medical terms, incorrect inferences owing to incorrect verbiage, failure to comply with protocols and policies, failure to highlight any missing information and intentional highlighting of information. The quality goal with respect to these errors is 98 percent.

The third type is the minor error. Minor errors do not impact patient safety or document integrity. Minor errors are not factual errors. They are marked by the areas of improvement in the medical document. Minor errors include errors in punctuation and grammar and inconsistency of format, and typing errors do not amount to any change in the meaning of content. With respect to these errors, the quality goal is 98 percent.