Fletcher Allen Health Care announced today that it will purchase medical transcription services in the future rather than continue to do this work internally. The decision will affect 40 staff members, most of whom are medical transcriptionists and work in the Health Information Management Department (medical records). Five staff in the Radiology Health Care Service will also be affected.
All thirty-five transcriptionists will be offered positions immediately at Nuance Communications, Inc, of Burlington, MA, with whom FAHC contracted for this service. The transcriptionists, all of whom currently work from home, will continue to service Fletcher Allen physicians as part of the account at Nuance. The transcriptionists will continue this practice with Nuance.
Three of the remaining five employees, none of whom are transcriptionists, are being retained in their respective departments for other positions and Fletcher Allen is working closely with the other two to find positions within the organization or elsewhere.
The change will be effective June 9th and the transcriptionists will be employed by Nuance effective June 10th with no delay in Nuance employee benefit eligibility or tenure. Additionally, all will receive a Fletcher Allen severance package based on length of service and will be paid accrued vacation time.
Since 2010, the organization has seen a trend of decreasing work volume in transcription, due, in part, to advancements in technology such as voice-recognition software and electronic health records (EHR). In turn, this has reduced the need for transcriptionist support.
Increased use of voice recognition systems for medical dictation coupled with documentation features within the EHR have resulted in declining volumes of work for Fletcher Allens transcriptionists. At Nuance, these staff will be provided additional transcription work to fill in the gaps, keeping them employed at a similar status, full- or part-time, to that which they were classified at Fletcher Allen.
Nationwide, the declining transcription volumes has resulted in purchased transcription services that increase efficiency for hospitals while providing greater employment stability for the medical transcriptionists themselves. A recent survey with members of the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) - an alliance of 119 leading academic medical centers and affiliated hospitals showed that approximately 90% of respondents have transitioned to a purchased services model for transcription for similar reasons. Two of our Fletcher Allen Partners organizations CVPH and CVMC already utilize vendor services to support their transcription needs.
Some transcription service will remain at Fletcher Allen, particularly in the Pathology Health Care Service, because of the systems and processes specific to this field.
Fletcher Allen and Nuance have planned to make this transition as seamless as possible. Fletcher Allen will work with any of the affected employees who do not wish to accept positions with Nuance by exploring other potential career opportunities within the organization.