With HiMSS 2011 underway, those in the healthcare industry have begun their networking. The conference held from Feb. 20 – 24 provides a platform to link people, potential and progress. Healthcare professionals will be discussing healthcare transformation through IT, including the role of such technologies as speech recognition and the benefits it provides to the healthcare industry in such solutions as auto attendants and EMRs.
Healthcare providers say speech recognition technology, such as that used in auto attendants, can produce staff reductions, improve report turnaround times, and increase physician satisfaction, according to a new report from KLAS titled, “Speech Recognition 2010: Vocalizing Benefits,” The report includes feedback from 355 providers.
As reported last week, it isn’t just about having an auto attendant in place directing a call, page, etc. to the intended party. Providers would like speech systems to learn more quickly, be less initially disruptive to workflow, and better recognize speech patterns of non-native English speakers.
Dolbey, a speech recognition provider for the healthcare industry, has released this week at HiMSS a speech recognition solution that is sure to provide healthcare providers with ROI, Fusion SpeechEMR. Fusion SpeechEMR offers physicians the ability to utilize speech recognition within any EMR or third party application. Physicians will now have the ability to dictate into not only reports, but also medical reporting applications of any vendor or type.
Parlance, a provider of speech-enabled call-routing solutions, also offers the sought after ROI on speech recognition technology for numerous industries such as healthcare. For instance, the increasing number of patients and services offered at Arnot Ogden Medical Center had once resulted in higher call volumes to the already busy switchboard. The Medical Center discovered a large percentage of calls to the switchboard to be internal, or employees calling operators requesting transfers to co-workers and departments. Employees and medical staff dialing the main number from outside the hospital also needed a way to quickly connect.
Today, Parlance’s auto attendant service, nameConnector, offloads 13,000 calls per month from Arnot Ogden's switchboard, enabling operators to provide better and faster service to external callers. Employees are provided with immediate access to co-workers and departments from both inside and outside the hospital, dialing one number and speaking the name of their desired destination. Callers are connected in less than 12 seconds with a connection rate of more than 97 percent.
“The speech recognition market is ripe for healthy growth,” said Ben Brown, KLAS report author, in a statement. “Currently, less than one in four hospitals use the technology, however, in light of meaningful use and the benefits providers point out in this study, we expect it will assume a more prominent place….”
Jaclyn Allard is a TMCnet Web Editor. She most recently worked on the production team at Juran Institute, a quality consulting firm producing its own training and marketing materials. Previously, she interned at Curbstone Press, a nonprofit publishing press in Willimantic, CT, and fulfilled the role of Editor-in-Chief for the literature and arts journal published by the University of Connecticut. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Jaclyn Allard