ATTENTION OFFICE VISION USERS

Over the past several years, many hospitals have utilized Office Vision, the word-processing product available for IBM’s AS/400 Midrange computing system to produce transcriptions for both Medical Records and Radiology departments.  Using Office Vision provided a solution to the “problem” of transcription and offered limited facility benefits.  The most notable of these benefits is the ability to view completed transcriptions on networked AS/400 terminals hospital-wide.  In addition, the transcription staff could download patient demographics from their AS/400 based HIS system into report headers and footers.  These two advantages of Office Vision make it appear like a pretty good solution.  But, as we all know, there is a lot more involved in the process of medical transcription. Consider, the fact that IBM support for Office Vision is ending May 2001, and it makes sense to research other transcription alternatives. 

AAI suggests taking a look at the Transcript Advantage product line as a replacement for Office Vision.  Transcript Advantage offers all the benefits of Office Vision since it is also an AS/400 based product.  The big plus with TA is the multitude of features written into the software product specifically for the transcription industry.  For example, a transcriptionist with Office Vision is without a medical and pharmaceutical spellchecker.  TA Document Creation incorporates widely used spellcheckers such as Spellex or Stedmans (customer’s choice) into our solution.  Office Vision does not provide any type of abbreviation expander (a.k.a. speed typing product) which is essential for acceptable MT productivity.  TA includes T.A.Speed, our proprietary product allowing the replacement of words, paragraphs or normals in a single keystroke.  Conservative estimates are that T.A.Speed improves a transcriptionist’s productivity by 25% or more.  Functional features such as word wrap, cut and paste, and the ability to save locally are advances for the transcriptionist, while supervisors will appreciate the use of graphical management reports.  As Liz Watson, MID Director of West GA Health System, explains:

“To us, Office Vision was a good transcription system and we were reluctant to give it up. However, our main priority was to improve our turnaround time and the Office Vision product lacked functional features to increase our productivity. From the time we installed TA in November of 1999, following a brief learning curve, our total inventory decreased and turnaround time increased for all report types.  We have been able to add more work types to our inventory with no additional employees.  In fact, for the first time in the history of this department, we were able to assume the additional workload after an employee resigned and did not need to rehire in the vacated position.”

Additionally, TA Distribution provides functionality, including pre-sorted batch printing and faxing, not available with Office Vision, that improves productivity for your clerical staff and report turnaround time for enhanced patient care.  TA Access Utilities adds to the viewing of transcriptions (multiple search criteria, configurable preliminary viewing) utilizing existing equipment such as AS/400 terminals.  AAI has compiled a detailed comparison of Office Vision and Transcript Advantage with over 50 entries.  Call Kozie at 888 619-9834 (or e-mail koziep@aaita.com ) for your copy.  See how TA automation can pay for itself by improving productivity throughout your transcription and clerical areas.

Feb 2001 TA News