Sleepless Over Speech Rec
Let me warn you - I did not get much sleep last night! Or for a few nights. Or maybe it has been a few weeks. Hard to tell in my sleep-deprived brain. I do know that I am edgy and a bit stressed. Sometimes that is a good thing as it gives me lots of energy and keeps me vigilant that I am paying the right amount of attention to those things that are important and looking the other way at the very-annoying-but-not-so-important things. However, my mood meter was further riled this morning when I happened to pick up a professional magazine and on page 3 read the following advertisement: "My goal is to save a million dollars in transcription costs."
Why does this bother me? Isn't saving a million dollars a good thing in these difficult economic times? Of course it is and I understand the appeal of that to the facility wanting, or probably needing, to save money. Speech recognition in some way, shape, or form is likely a necessity for many healthcare organizations needing to save costs. As I read those headlines I was not wishing it would just go away, finding fault with the technology, or even frustrated with the advertising (all of which I have felt at various times in the past). What saddened me this morning was the reality of the number of American citizens who will lose their job because of this because that sizeable savings with this technology translates into a loss for many medical transcriptionists, healthcare documentation specialists, editors, etc.
Maybe with more sleep this will not bother me so much. But I hope not. People are what's written between the lines.