Using speech recognition software to dictate your chart notes is a good alternative or supplement to creating notes using templates. If your chart notes are very detailed and templates are too "canned" for your specialty, then speech recognition is worth considering as part of your electronic health records system. Â
Perhaps you have tried speech recognition software in the past and found it wanting.
That was certainly my experience. About ten or twelve years ago, I jumped on the speech recognition software bandwagon because I thought it would save my clients time and eliminate their dictation costs.
In preparation for software demonstrations, I spent hours creating my voice profile by dictating most of the novel, "Treasure Island." I dictated cardiology chart notes over and over in order to achieve 90% accuracy. At that point, I realized that speech recognition software was not the magic bullet I had hoped for. Some physicians tried it and a few were successful but only after many hours of training.Â
During the past couple of years, I've heard over and over from colleagues that the technology had improved dramatically, so I decided to take another look. I purchased the latest standard edition of Dragon Naturally Speaking. And I was not disappointed. With only five minutes ofvoice training,I dictated with at least 95% accuracy. Naturally, physician training would take a little longer because of the medical terminology and the more expensive version of Dragon Medical is required.
The dictation itself is actually the easy part. What takes time is learning the commands and making corrections with your voice. It is important to use commands like "select that," "choose that", "go back", etc. in order to select the text that needs correction, then, use your voice to make the changes. This updates your voice profile and helps the system familiarize itself with the way you speak.
Another thing to get used to is inserting your punctuation in words. Here is a verbatim example: "The patient has a cough [comma] , a headache [comma] , and a fever [period] . To move forward in the document, you use commands like new paragraph, new line, or go to end. You can also use one word macros that will create an entire paragraph for standard verbage you use over and over.
For physicians that already dictate, it should be easy. I have found it more difficult to transition my writing from typing to dictation as I am attempting to do right now with this article. It is my goal to dictate all my articles.
For more insights about electronic health records, and information about our medical billing services and other tips and advice for your practice, visit the Medical-Billing-Guide.
Perhaps you have tried speech recognition software in the past and found it wanting.
That was certainly my experience. About ten or twelve years ago, I jumped on the speech recognition software bandwagon because I thought it would save my clients time and eliminate their dictation costs.
In preparation for software demonstrations, I spent hours creating my voice profile by dictating most of the novel, "Treasure Island." I dictated cardiology chart notes over and over in order to achieve 90% accuracy. At that point, I realized that speech recognition software was not the magic bullet I had hoped for. Some physicians tried it and a few were successful but only after many hours of training.Â
During the past couple of years, I've heard over and over from colleagues that the technology had improved dramatically, so I decided to take another look. I purchased the latest standard edition of Dragon Naturally Speaking. And I was not disappointed. With only five minutes ofvoice training,I dictated with at least 95% accuracy. Naturally, physician training would take a little longer because of the medical terminology and the more expensive version of Dragon Medical is required.
The dictation itself is actually the easy part. What takes time is learning the commands and making corrections with your voice. It is important to use commands like "select that," "choose that", "go back", etc. in order to select the text that needs correction, then, use your voice to make the changes. This updates your voice profile and helps the system familiarize itself with the way you speak.
Another thing to get used to is inserting your punctuation in words. Here is a verbatim example: "The patient has a cough [comma] , a headache [comma] , and a fever [period] . To move forward in the document, you use commands like new paragraph, new line, or go to end. You can also use one word macros that will create an entire paragraph for standard verbage you use over and over.
For physicians that already dictate, it should be easy. I have found it more difficult to transition my writing from typing to dictation as I am attempting to do right now with this article. It is my goal to dictate all my articles.
For more insights about electronic health records, and information about our medical billing services and other tips and advice for your practice, visit the Medical-Billing-Guide.
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