MedQuist Launches BenchMark KB(R) Knowledge Base

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. and MT. LAUREL, N.J., April 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 2010 MTIA Conference -- As part of its "First Time Right" quality service initiative, MedQuist Inc. (Nasdaq: MEDQ), a leading provider of technology-enabled clinical documentation services, will begin offering BenchMark KB to its U.S. and global employees and partners, comprising 8,000+ users, during Q210.  BenchMark KB, created by InterFix LLC, is a patent-pending HIM knowledge base and comprehensive information portal that incorporates real-time access to best-of-breed tools and databases to expand Medical Transcriptionists' (MTs) knowledge of medical terminology and documentation standards.  

BenchMark KB will initially be offered to MedQuist and its partners' MTs as a Web-based application, and shortly, through integration with MedQuist's DocQment Enterprise Platform® (DEP), within the DocQscribe™ transcription/speech editing text application.  Integration of the KB within DEP extends the benefits of this tool to MedQuist's Transcription Outsource Services customers, as well as 25 Medical Transcription Service Organizations and more than 175 hospital HIM departments nationwide that use the DEP platform to perform their clinical documentation capture and editing.  Full deployment across that entire MT population increases the user base to above 10,000 U.S. and global MTs, making MedQuist the largest and most comprehensive user of BenchMark KB, and further helping to raise the standard of quality across the industry.  

MedQuist Chief Operating Officer Michael Clark observes, "This technology tool is intended to assist all DEP/DocQscribe users' professional development, and will increase the MTs' value to our customers who count on them to deliver accurate, complete, and timely health records.  Having a single source for reference information saves time and gives it back to the MTs.  They are able to complete more lines per hour, which means additional income for them and faster service for our customers.  BenchMark KB brings new data standards to the medical documentation process, and that translates to improved health data quality and patient care."  

Comments Scott Faulkner, CEO of InterFix, "In partnership with the experts at the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), InterFix has created the first application that sets universal health data quality standards and deploys them to the workstation level, integrating them into the document creation process.  We are pleased to have MedQuist, the industry leader, adopt BenchMark KB as a tool for its global transcriptionist workforce.  It is indicative of MedQuist's commitment to quality that the company is integrating the knowledge base into its core platform, maximizing the KB's usefulness to the MTs, and including it as part of their compensation plan."  

Features of BenchMark KB include access to a complete medical reference library, with monthly updates from AHDI's Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) research team; a continuously updated national clinician database; a quality alerts library to highlight common transcription style errors, including Joint Commission dangerous abbreviations; and a fully searchable laboratory values database.

According to Peter Preziosi, CEO of AHDI, "We are proud of our best-in-class research tools found in BenchMark KB, and recognize MedQuist's leadership in implementing this valuable resource for its employees.  MedQuist's documentation professionals will also be encouraged to contribute to BenchMark KB by submitting new terminology, diagnostic terms, and pharmaceuticals to our researchers as they are discovered in the workplace, ensuring that this resource is constantly kept up to date."

Medical Transcriptionists who have already used BenchMark KB have been impressed with its benefits.  Comments Terri Wakefield, CMT, MedQuist Quality Coach, "BenchMark KB has improved my productivity, because it lessens the time needed to search through a printed book.  This is a wonderful starting point for almost all research issues.  In a quality-based environment where the need for productivity is also important, it is so nice to have one place where most transcription research questions can be resolved."

About InterFix

InterFix LLC is an international consulting, engineering, and technology solutions provider specializing in global solutions for the health information management and medical transcription industries. We provide innovative solutions that improve medical data accuracy and patient safety, and dramatically lower IT costs by consolidating and simplifying complex technical processes. 

About AHDI

The Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), formerly the American Association for Medical Transcription, is the world's largest professional society representing the clinical documentation sector whose purpose is to set and uphold standards for education and practice in the field of health data capture and documentation that ensure the highest level of accuracy, privacy, and security for the U.S. healthcare system in order to protect public health, increase patient safety, and improve quality of care for healthcare consumers. AHDI works to advocate for workforce development and credentialing in allied health and the critical role of the technology-enabled documentation knowledge worker in the electronic health record (EHR).

About MedQuist

MedQuist is a leading provider of medical transcription services, and a leader in technology-enabled clinical documentation workflow. MedQuist's enterprise solutions – including mobile voice capture devices, speech recognition, Web-based workflow platforms, and global network of medical editors – help healthcare facilities improve patient care, increase physician satisfaction, and lower operational costs. For more information, please visit www.medquist.com.

MedQuist offers an industry-leading healthcare information management platform (DocQment Enterprise Platform®), which serves as the foundation for its transcription service offerings and includes workflow management, core measures reporting, structured documentation, data analytics, and key customer reporting.  In addition, MedQuist solutions include SpeechQ™ real-time interactive speech recognition for radiology and general medicine, DocQvoice™ for capturing dictation, and computer-assisted coding and abstracting.  This blend of solutions drives document quality and accuracy and advances the adoption of electronic health records -- resulting in improved patient care and higher levels of efficiency.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding MedQuist's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in forward-looking statements. As a result, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they were made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE MedQuist Inc.