Why dictation services are important to healthcare professionals

Dictation service is a practice that many professionals in varying industries are dabbling in. From the healthcare sector to the legal industry, they need online dictation services to format digitally recorded files into readable sources.

Also known as transcription, this practice is important to healthcare professionals as this is one of the more efficient ways to organize medical paperwork, files, reports, and analysis. 

Rather than pouring hours of administrative work, doctors and nurses can record themselves and let others transcribe their audio files.

Medical transcription

Medical transcription is a well-known branch of transcription and dictation services.

Companies train transcriptionists that handle medical cases and paperwork to work efficiently and produce error-free outputs. At any rate, minor errors that can be quickly corrected are not flagged but mistakes that can cause damage to the parties involved are not taken lightly.

This line of work values employees with a keen eye for detail and who are productive, intuitive, and adaptive.

Defining online dictation services

Experts define online dictation services as a business service that focuses on transforming and reformatting audio and video files into a readable format. The final medium can either be digital or written.

Mostly used in the legal, healthcare, and education sectors, dictation services had penetrated digital media as well.

From podcasts to online courses, transcriptions of different formats of media can be found alongside readable text.

Can I get dictation services for free?

Yes, you can get dictation services.

Along with paid online dictation services, free apps and tools are available for the public.

However, the use of free services is limited. They can use these for personal projects and small-scale work. Extensive note-taking and reformatting must be done with at least one paid service to ensure its quality.

Free online dictation services

Google doc’s built-in voice typing

The world’s leading cloud-based document processing service has its own built-in voice recognition software.

Google’s voice typing AI works and recognizes over 20 languages in its database. Most of its users are students, professors, and those who are in the education sector. With the AI’s capacity to quickly pick up words, phrases, and sentences, it’s becoming a favorite amongst its user base.

Otter

With Otter’s support for the famous video conferencing platform Zoom, its name is uttered amongst working professionals and webinar enthusiasts.

Along with its powerful voice recognition AI, Otter can transcribe meetings with the highest accuracy. There’s no need for the organizer to hire a transcriber when Otter’s software can do the hard work itself.

Speechnotes

Take notes with ease with Speechnotes. One of their promising speech-to-text aspects is the promise of “[moving] from voice-typing (dictation) to key-typing seamlessly​.” Their website is straightforward and simple to use, with instructions on how to properly punctuate your notes.

Speechnotes has a paid transcription service that starts at $0.1 per minute. Their sophisticated AI will transcribe audio and video files for your convenience.

Apple Dictation

One of the lesser-known features of Apple products is its ability to convert speech into text. While this can be used on quick note-taking, users can’t upload a file and let the AI transcribe it.

They built the feature into the product’s keyboard or into the system. It’s useful when you’re running a live or pre-recorded audio or video file and want to dictate the speech quickly.

Outsourcing dictation services

Large batches of paperwork, especially in the healthcare industry, can’t be avoided.

So instead of processing files and documentation in-house and risking the quality of the output, most healthcare institutions opt for outsourcing.

It’s cost-efficient and quality controlled—as they dub most transcribers as professionals in their field. Not to mention that these transcribers have their niche and skill set developed for this line of work.

The human touch in dictation

While many professional recording systems have built-in AI transcribers, the machine may pick up the wrong jargon, phrase, or word that may be important within context. It’s better to let another human decipher and encode these files in a readable format.

To freelancers and independent contractors

Outsourcing medical transcripts to freelancers and independent contractors is a cost-effective way to reduce workload in the department. Most of them have adequate experience and some even have degrees related to healthcare.

It’s a well-known fact that freelancers work with their own equipment at home. They also file their own taxes and insurance, making the company not liable for their benefits. Above all, they can work on a per-hour basis or per project.

To outsourcing companies

Partnering up with outsourcing companies is substantial if the institute is dedicated to gaining an entire department to reformat and transcribe findings, processes, and files. 

Outsourcing companies dedicate a workforce to each of their clients, ensuring the quality of each output that they produce.