Dr. Andrew Green Allergy Docs of Western NY West Seneca, NY

Although the quality of medical transcription that allergists Dr. Andrew Green and Dr. Rita Sloan received from their transcription service was excellent, the thousands of dollars spent per year and the hour or two Dr. Andrew Green or his partner had to spend reviewing notes on the weekend were reason enough to explore alternatives like speech recognition. Now, six weeks after being trained in the use of Dragon Naturally Speaking, Andrew couldn't be more satisfied with the improved workflow, increased office efficiency, reduced cost, and additional free time at week's end. The biggest reason Andrew and his partner began exploring speech recognition software was the time delay between dictating notes and receiving the typed reports back. "Some came back the same day," he says, "and others took until the next day." Once received in the office, the doctor or two physician's assistants (P.A.'s) would review what had been typed and approve it; the doctors also review and approve the P.A.'s work. With the lag time, whichever doctor was responsible for checking the P.A.'s reports that week (they take turns) had at least two hours worth of backlogged letters to review at weeks end. Add to that the annual cost of using a transcriptionist and the practice had a major incentive to give speech recognition a try. Andrew and his partner were initially concerned that speaking their notes would be slower than dictation, but a conversation with another practice that is successfully using the software allayed their fears. Andrew agreed to be the office guinea pig, volunteering to be the first to be trained. One of the P.A.'s was next, followed by his partner and the second P.A., who is scheduled to receive training next month. The biggest difference Andrew noticed immediately after being trained was the lack of unfinished business on Friday. After he talks through a report, "I'm done. I don't have to review my reports the next day, so by the end of the week there is no backlog of unfinished reports to look at," he says. And given the value of their professional time, the doctors receive the equivalent of hundreds of dollars of savings each week. Using Dragon "has changed the dynamics of the practice in terms of work flow," says Andrew. In addition to being able to finally incorporate speech recognition into the electronic medical records (EMR) system the practice bought four years ago, speech recognition has improved the practice's efficiency. Despite such significant changes in the practice's internal operations, adopting speech recognition was much faster and easier than Andrew anticipated. "Dana came out at 10:00 am on a busy Wednesday to train me and by the end of the day I was fully functional," he says. While Andrew says he found it very easy to learn, he cautions others against trying to save some money by buying it online without training. "Don't even consider buying it yourself," he says. "I couldn't have mastered this program without Achieve Results. The training is absolutely phenomenal – second to none."  Adopting speech recognition was much faster and easier than Andrew anticipated.