MedQuist integrates DEP with new features of Epic Systems' Hyperspace Client

MedQuist Inc. (Nasdaq: MEDQ), a leading provider of technology-enabled clinical documentation services, is integrating with Epic Systems Corporation within its Hyperspace environment to offer a solution that integrates "partial dictations" with the template-based clinical documentation process, enabling physicians to complete the Electronic Health Record (EHR) without changing their documentation workflow.  

Partial dictation combines structured and narrative input, resulting in more comprehensive and complete documentation of a patient encounter.  Structured input supplemented with narrative dictation:

• Meets physician workflow demands, increasing physician adoption and satisfaction;
• Can reduce the overall cost of documentation by more than 50 percent; and
• In certain instances, can completely eliminate dictation.  

Explains MedQuist Chief Operating Officer Michael Clark, "By integrating MedQuist's DocQment Enterprise Platform® (DEP) with the new features of Epic's Hyperspace Client, the richness of template-driven text can be combined with the otherwise freestyle nature of dictation in DEP.  Physicians can now easily create a more comprehensive clinical note that automatically incorporates both voice input and structured text through a single application.  For example, a physician may dictate multiple, separate voice 'snippets' of dictation for a single patient encounter.  MedQuist's DEP technology places those converted text snippets back within the structured encounter document, in the appropriate sequence and section.  This documentation then feeds directly into the EHR."

Through the MedQuist-Epic hybrid model, partial dictations are associated with the template-based report creation process in the Epic system.  "Once the voice snippet is out of Epic and into DEP, it moves through each stage of our typical workflow like any other dictation.  Each dictated snippet will be processed through speech recognition, be made available for quality assurance, and be tracked for turnaround time.  Moreover, as MedQuist advances its technology, those snippets and all of our transcribed documents can be delivered in a Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) format, allowing further integration and usefulness to Epic and our combined customers," says Clark.  

Healthcare facilities such as Gundersen Lutheran Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and University of Kansas Cancer Center in Kansas City, Kansas, are currently using this technology to encourage physician adoption of the EHR while reducing overall costs and time spent on documentation.

Comments Deb Rislow, RN, MBA, Chief Information Officer at Gundersen Lutheran, "The adoption of partial dictation allows the physician to quickly integrate structured template entries as well as free-form narrative in one step.  Not having to move to different areas of the documentation system while preparing their notes has not only improved efficiency, completeness and accuracy, but has also increased physician satisfaction." According to Rislow, implementing MedQuist's partial dictation with Epic resulted in a 70 percent decrease in total minutes dictated on inpatient reports.

Clark concludes, "More healthcare providers will be considering the partial dictation option as they seek new ways to improve documentation quality and drive down costs."