New Entrants, Improving Players Shake Up the Market for Outsourced Transcription

    OREM, UT, December 09, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The status quo simply isn't good enough for vendors contending in the fiercely competitive market for medical transcription services, according to a new report from KLAS.

"Transcription Services: Steady Demand in a Volatile Market" includes KLAS performance ratings for 15 medical transcription services organizations (MTSOs), and the field looks decidedly different than KLAS' June 2008 MTSO report. The top-rated vendor a year ago, Transcend, has now dropped to fifth place, despite keeping its performance score steady year over year. Newly rated Webmedx and Precyse Solutions take the top two spots in the 2009 report, followed by Encompass and TransTech, both of which saw significant improvement in their performance scores.

"The shakeup in vendor rankings this year illustrates how competitive the MTSO market is and that vendors have to always be looking to improve the service they offer providers," said Graham Triggs, KLAS director of financial and services research and author of the MTSO report. "Sixty-two percent of respondents in this study have switched MTSOs at least once - suggesting that every vendor is vulnerable if performance starts to wane."

The KLAS report also compares provider experiences using onshore versus offshore transcription services. An increasing number of providers are sending transcription work offshore, with 43 percent of respondents having done so in 2009, up from 35 percent in 2008. Offshoring is attractive for those charged with reducing costs, but is less popular with those who have to deal with the issues of offshoring, such as reduced quality.

Despite the increase in offshore transcription work, however, onshore services continue to get higher marks for overall quality and turnaround time. In fact, the top-five MTSOs in the KLAS report are all doing their work predominantly onshore.

The 15 MTSOs rated in "Transcription Services: Steady Demand in a Volatile Market" are Acusis, CBay, DTS America, Encompass, Focus, Heartland, MedQuist, Precyse Solutions, Spheris, SPi, Sten-Tel, Superior Global, Transcend, TransTech and Webmedx.

To learn more about the MTSO market, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of participating vendors, the report Transcription Services: Steady Demand in a Volatile Market is available to healthcare providers online for a significant discount off the standard retail price. To purchase the full report, healthcare providers and vendors can visit www.KLASresearch.com/reports.

About KLAS

KLAS is a research firm specializing in monitoring and reporting the performance of healthcare vendors. KLAS' mission is to improve delivery, by independently measuring vendor performance for the benefit of our healthcare provider partners, consultants, investors and vendors. Working together with executives from more than 4,500 hospitals and over 2,500 clinics, KLAS delivers timely reports, trends and statistics, which provide a solid overview of vendor performance in the industry. KLAS measures the performance of software, professional services and medical equipment vendors.

For more information, go to www.KLASresearch.com, email [email protected] or call 1-800-920-4109 to speak with a KLAS representative.

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