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03 Jan 2004
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The MT Leadership Quandary: Management vs. Technology!

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Dear Friends,

There is a basic dilemma facing all managers of Medical
Transcription.... must technical skills and knowledge be
sacrificed for the sake of management obligations? The most
likely answer is yes.... but certainly not to exclusivity.

No one can do it all ... it is unlikely that any MT manager will
truly be successful if he or she focuses solely on technology,
forsaking the skills and responsibilities of management. But,
without a strong foundation in technology (hopefully derived from
substantial hands-on experience), no MT manager will be truly
effective either.

Once you assume the mantle of MT leadership, you will probably
have to lose your edge when it comes to technical skills.
Whether you like it or not, you will be expected to trade in
those skills for management responsibilities. This may very well
seem like a mistake after a long day of meetings, administrivia
and political intrigue, but that is a fact of the management
career.

But, this does not mean that you have to turn over the keys to
the technical store. To the contrary, in order to be an
effective MT manager, you will need to reach the ultimate
compromise.... blending technical skills and experience with
management expertise, making both work to your advantage. To do
this, consider these steps:

1. Stay on top of the basics. While you may never again have
the in depth knowledge of the individual who is transcribing or
analyzing quality on a daily basis, you can certainly stay
involved and informed in the latest technologies through reading
and research.

2. Show interest and respect for hands-on technical work,
including maintaining an active presence during production,
quality control and training.

3. Use your knowledge and experience to challenge staff with
relevant and probing questions with respect to their technical
decisions and activities. Not only will this help to maintain
the appropriate level of quality, it may also earn you some
additional respect. In addition, by making your technical staff
"talk it out", you will be forcing them to evaluate their own
decisions. In all likelihood, this will bring alternatives and
potential problems to the surface.

4. Accept your role as a manager, and concentrate on delegation
of authority and organizational needs and interests. Use your
technical knowledge as a foundation for both of these objectives.

The MT management role is a continual challenge .... calling for
the right mix of technical skills and management expertise. You
can never really sacrifice one for the other, and finding the
right balance between the two may be the biggest challenge of
them all.

We invite our members to discuss this issue at the forum:
http://mtindia.org/forum/default.cfm

Ciao!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) This wave is for doctors to surf

You could say it's the back-office clinic. We're not talking
billing and coding work here. This is about high-end services in
the medical transcription field. The kind that involves trained
doctors.

Compared to basic back-office functions such as customer care,
accounting, legal and human resources, outsourcing of healthcare
services is low profile, although widely prevalent among healthcare
organisations. All the same, it could spell big business for
domestic business process outsourcing (BPO) firms. The global
healthcare market is said to be in excess of a trillion dollars,
with medical transcription, coding and billing presenting an
opportunity in excess of $25bn. (Is concentrating on high-end
services the best way to survive the BPO competition?)

According to some estimates, providing ITES/BPO services in
healthcare would bring in revenues of Rs 23,000 crore to India by
'08. But there are a few caveats. "Indian firms are trying to
provide a complete suite of services although the capacity
enhancement issues are immense. Work is available in plenty but
there is a shortage of new entrants to the industry owing to the
lack of knowledge of the enormous potential of this industry," says
Suresh Nair, MD of Bangalore-based healthcare services provider Max
HealthScribe.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/396934.cms

2) Prohibited abbreviations from JCAHO

A "minimum list" of dangerous abbreviations, acronyms and symbols
has been approved by JCAHO. Beginning January 1, 2004, the
following items must be included on each accredited organization's
"Do not use" list:

Also, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has
published a list of dangerous abbreviations relating to medication
use that it recommends should be explicitly prohibited.

http://www.jcaho.org/accredited+organizations/patient+safety/04+nps
g/04_faqs.htm

3) MT firms form body to avoid scams

The medical transcription firms in Vadodra are taking precautions
by forming an association to avoid a scam similar on the lines of
data-entry which rocked the city about a year back. Established
medical transcription firms feel there is need for an association
as they say many new companies have cropped up in recent times and
their credentials cannot be confirmed.

"Many new companies are coming up without any past experience in
medical transcription. Suspicion arises on the method of their
operations. Salaries paid to their employees are unsustainable even
by the US standards. Nearly seven such companies have come up
recently," said KK Patel of Fortune Infotech, one of the larger BPO
firms in the city. We don't want the industry to loose out on the
lines similar to the data entry scam, he added.

"Drawing guidelines, providing a training centre and being in more
credibility in the industry will be our broad goals," says Ashish
Mehta of Zodiac Infotech.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/328673.cms

4) Nothing's sacred ... nor secret?

It turns out that for years, the hospital had farmed out medical
transcription work locally. But the local subcontractor had a lot
of work, so they subbed it out to more than 15 others, who in turn,
subbed again. Ultimately that work went offshore and that meant
trouble.

One woman claimed she hadn't been paid and put pressure where it
would get attention. It did. She got her money, but the problem
remains. Or at least the medical center hasn't announced that it
changed its ways.

Offshore work isn't unusual. Tech help for computers routinely is
done in India or Pakistan, or other countries. The key is an
educated, skilled, English-speaking and lower-wage work force.

It appears we're all guinea pigs in a worldwide privacy invasion.
While liberals and malcontent conservatives wail about the
so-called privacy invasions of the Patriot Act, we've already been
sold out by financial and medical institutions (and who knows what
others) we've trusted.

It will only get worse. Don't say you weren't warned.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36353

5) Indian exporters raring to go

Shrugging off the failure to capitalise on the anti-subsidy mood at
the Doha ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
to extract concessions from the US and the European Union,
exporters from India are stepping into 2004 with a new-found
confidence stemming from economic resurgence, stock market buoyancy
and bulging foreign exchange reserves.

With increasing business handled by call centres and medical
transcription facilities at home coupled with growing demand for
Indian teachers and nurses, the India brand is all set to soar in
the global service sector market. If this buzz is tapped properly
to promote the 'Made in India' brand too, then it will be just a
question of time before India wipes off its trade deficit (imports
minus exports) which now stands at around $6 billion. This will
insure India from oil shocks, help the elephant to give the dragon,
tigers a run for their money and build strong infrastructure on the
strength of its $100 billion forex reserves.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/398871.cms

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Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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