India's BPO woes never seem to end. The latest salvo comes from the Association of Medical Secretaries in Britain.
Because of the shortage of medical secretaries, eight hospitals in London are taking the services of Indian BPO industry for the typing of consultants' letters.
However, of late some glaring errors in letters have been brought to the notice of the Association of Medical Secretaries following which the association has warned that outsourcing work to India could be putting patients' lives in danger, BBC.com reports.
Medical transcription is a major component of the Indian BPO industry and a number of UK hospitals use cheaply available staff in India to transcribe consultants' letters and case history of UK-based patients.
BBC.com quotes Michael Fiennes of the Association of Medical Secretaries as saying that he has heard of a number of mistakes creeping into letters, some serious enough to result in patients being administered wrong medication.
Quoting some examples, Fiennes says, "below knee amputation" was transcribed as "baloney amputation" and the drug "Lansoprazole" as the holiday resort "Lanzarote".
St George's hospital in Tooting and some other hospitals in the south-west London send more than 7,000 letters a month to India.
UK-based consultants record instructions and letters on digital voice recorders. The files are than forwarded to a company named Omnimedical that removes patients' personal details to protect their identities and gives codes to the data, says BBC.com.
Omnimedical, then sends the records to India-based transcribers, who listen to the voice-commands and convert them into typed documents.
Though the hospital authorities say proper guidelines are in place to maintain accuracy, Association of Medical Secretaries warns the use of staff in India can prove risky as the chances of mistakes increase manifold.
Because of the shortage of medical secretaries, eight hospitals in London are taking the services of Indian BPO industry for the typing of consultants' letters.
However, of late some glaring errors in letters have been brought to the notice of the Association of Medical Secretaries following which the association has warned that outsourcing work to India could be putting patients' lives in danger, BBC.com reports.
Medical transcription is a major component of the Indian BPO industry and a number of UK hospitals use cheaply available staff in India to transcribe consultants' letters and case history of UK-based patients.
BBC.com quotes Michael Fiennes of the Association of Medical Secretaries as saying that he has heard of a number of mistakes creeping into letters, some serious enough to result in patients being administered wrong medication.
Quoting some examples, Fiennes says, "below knee amputation" was transcribed as "baloney amputation" and the drug "Lansoprazole" as the holiday resort "Lanzarote".
St George's hospital in Tooting and some other hospitals in the south-west London send more than 7,000 letters a month to India.
UK-based consultants record instructions and letters on digital voice recorders. The files are than forwarded to a company named Omnimedical that removes patients' personal details to protect their identities and gives codes to the data, says BBC.com.
Omnimedical, then sends the records to India-based transcribers, who listen to the voice-commands and convert them into typed documents.
Though the hospital authorities say proper guidelines are in place to maintain accuracy, Association of Medical Secretaries warns the use of staff in India can prove risky as the chances of mistakes increase manifold.
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