Definitive Quality Best Practices for Medical Transcription to be Unveiled During QA Summit at MTIA Conference.

WASHINGTON -- Answering the industry's demand for a credible, measurable quality assurance program standard for medical transcription will be the primary focus of service business owners and transcription team managers attending the 20th annual Medical Transcription Industry Association's (MTIA) Conference in Louisville, KY, April 22 to April 25, 2009. The Quality Assurance Summit, scheduled for Saturday, April 25th, will bring leaders from both MTIA and the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI) together, along with other QA practitioner experts, to evaluate the process for measuring and managing accuracy and quality in health data documentation. The summit will take a facilitated look at the associations' current draft paper, Metrics for Measuring Quality in Medical Transcription; address the proposed metrics, definitions, and recommendations; and seek input from attendees on suggested inclusions/revisions to the standard, with anticipated final release of the white paper shortly thereafter.

"The need to define quality for all stakeholders in this sector has never been more critical," states AHDI President Susan Lucci, CMT, RHIT, AHDI-F. "With the recent stimulus bill shining a spotlight on the need for widespread EHR adoption, there is a risk that healthcare will rush headlong toward technology solutions without establishing clear quality standards that will ensure, no matter the scope of the technologies deployed, that patient care encounters have been accurately captured in a way that creates efficiency and promotes coordinated care."

"We are looking to engage anyone in this sector that has experience and a vested interest in making sure that healthcare understands the important connection between quality documentation and improved patient outcomes," added MTIA President Linda Yaniszewski. "Being able to point to a definitive quality standard will assist both associations in making the argument to healthcare that enabling technologies cannot be deployed at the expense of accuracy and that a quality standard can facilitate migration to the EHR in a responsible way."

Individuals and organizations interested in participating in the summit and contributing to the development of this standard are invited to participate. For more about the conference and the QA summit, visit the MTIA website at (www.mtia.com).

About MTIA

The not-for-profit Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA) is the world's largest trade association serving medical transcription service operators. For more information, visit www.mtia.com. The two associations formed a strategic legal partnership in 2007 to pool critical resources and collaborate on key initiatives focused on optimizing healthcare delivery by providing timely, accurate and relevant clinical information.