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The Outsourcing of Private Medical Information Offshore Essay

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The Outsourcing of Private Medical Information Offshore

The estimated $20 billion medical transcription industry[1] turns a doctor’s audio notes into an electronic record. These notes could contain diagnosis, x-ray analysis or a myriad of information essential for communication between healthcare providers[2]. It could also contain sensitive information such as whether a patient has cancer, a sexually transmitted disease, or some other information that the patient would like to keep private.

Transcription can be a costly, timely process; so much so that a great deal of this work is outsourced outside of the hospital to be processed. Of the work that is outsourced, an estimated 10%-20% of that is sent offshore according to the …show more content…

This process can take between two to four days depending on the backlog. Aside from the obvious expense and demands on the doctor's time, transcription traditionally inserts real delays into the patient care process. Time is often of the essence in medical care.

Cue the outsourcing opportunity. Outsourcing the process speeds up the results. The physician phones a toll-free number, anytime, to record his or her transcription. Doctors can do this at home, since they don't have to deposit the recording at the hospital. If the service provider has an offshore office, say, in India, it's morning. Staff members retrieve the recording and type the transcript. On-site staff physicians review the transcription, so the American doctor doesn't need to review the record for accuracy, saving him or her valuable time that could be spent with patients. The service provider emails the transcript to the hospital's server. Voila! The outsourcer completed the process overnight.[4]

Some incidents with regards to patient records being used for extortion by offshore companies have arisen. Heartland Information Services, a medical transcription service based in Toledo, Ohio, was the victim of one such instance when employees from the company’s Bangalore, India office “threatened to release confidential patient information to the public if certain demands weren’t met in a specified time frame.”[5] Heartland

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