1.1 This guide covers the establishment of a quality assurance program for dictation, medical transcription, and related processes. Quality assurance (QA) is necessary to ensure the accuracy of healthcare documentation. It also assists in protecting healthcare providers, facilitates reimbursement, and improves communication among healthcare providers, thus improving the overall quality of patient care. This guide establishes essential and desirable elements for quality healthcare documentation, but it is not purported to be an exhaustive list.

1.2 The QA personnel for medical transcription should have an understanding of the processes and variables or alternatives involved in the creation of medicolegal documents and an understanding of quality assurance issues as they pertain to medical transcription. Qualified personnel include certified medical transcriptionists (CMTs), quality assurance professionals, or individuals who hold other appropriately related credentials or degrees.

1.3 The medical transcriptionist (MT) and QA reviewer should establish a cooperative partnership so that the review outcomes are objective and educational. Policies should be developed to minimize subjective review, which can lead to forceful implementation of one style at the expense of other reasonable choices. Objective review, including an appeals process, should follow departmental standards that have been agreed upon by the full team of QA personnel, MTs, and management staff.