Blog

Transparency matters in healthcare. Above all, transparency between doctors and patients is essential for establishing the foundation of trust needed for an effective doctor-patient relationship and improving the overall quality of the healthcare system.

Australia already has one of the best healthcare systems globally. In 2014, Australia ranked sixth in the world in terms of healthcare efficiency, according to PwC, up from seventh in 2013, and was rated seventh in life expectancy. KPMG's global health system's transparency index also ranks highly, in the top six. How can Australian medical practice improve on this, and what role can technology play?

What makes a transparent healthcare system?

Understanding the core concepts behind a transparent healthcare system can help lift the overall quality of the system, according to KPMG's 2017 report on healthcare transparency "Through the Looking Glass". The report identified six matrices that formed the basis of a transparent system:

1. Quality of healthcare, in relation to transparency of provider-level performance measures in terms of quality of healthcare outcomes and processes.
2. Patient experience, including patient perception of their own healthcare experiences and outcomes.
3. Financial transparency around price and payments, and the public nature of accounts for healthcare organisations.
4. Governance around open decision making rights and responsibilities, resource allocation, assurance processes and accountability mechanisms.
5. Personal healthcare data, including the access, ownership, and security of patients individual health data.
6. Communication of healthcare data and the extent at which the above is presented in an accessible, reliable and useful way to all relevant parties.

As a top six ranked country, Australia is already doing a lot of things right. However, according the to KPMG index, what prevents us from reaching a higher global ranking the first two criteria targets: Quality of healthcare and patient experience, need to be improved. Thankfully technological advancements such as speech recognition software might be the answer.

Why voice recognition technology can help improve transparency

Speech to text transcription software acts to create transparency for General Practitioners and other medical professionals in two key ways: Improving the quality of healthcare and improving the patient experience.

Dragon medical speech transcription software works to dramatically reduce the time practitioners spend transcribing medical records. Medical specialists can now devote more time to improving their patients' relationships and healthcare outcomes, without sacrificing the quality of care they receive.

Effectively, two birds are killed with one stone: Medical professionals improve both the transparency of their practice and the overall quality of the healthcare system.

To find out more, reach out to the team at Voice Recognition today.