CINE reduces documentation costs with Dragon Medical One
Cardiovascular Institute of New England reduces costs and improves clinician satisfaction with Dragon Medical One.
Saving time, reducing costs
Learn how CINE streamlined its documentation workflows, reduced the workload for its clinicians, sped up note creation times, and improved documentation accuracy—all while cutting costs across the practice.
Challenge
Cardiovascular Institute of New England (CINE) wanted to help its clinicians speed up the documentation creation process and reduce their reliance on costly in‑house transcription.
Solution
—Dragon Medical One
—Nuance PowerMic Mobile
Results
CINE has saved approximately $200,000 a year that was previously spent on transcription.
Costly transcription services that slowed documentation workflows
The Cardiovascular Institute of New England (CINE) is a group practice that’s been operating for more than 25 years. The practice offers a range of cardiology and sub‑specialty services to patients, including cardiac electrophysiology, interventional cardiology, and peripheral vascular medicine treatments.
Previously, CINE relied heavily on in‑house transcription services to create its clinical documentation. Clinicians would dictate their notes, send them to the transcription team, wait for the draft, and then have to review, edit, and finalize the transcribed information. It was an expensive, time‑consuming process—and it often meant documentation accuracy suffered.
“Once a clinician finishes dictating their notes after a patient consultation, they’ll often see dozens more patients before they come to review and finalize their transcribed notes,” says Joseph Mazza, MD, FACC, Non‑Invasive Cardiologist at CINE. “If there’s information missing or anything is incorrect during the review stage, it can be difficult to remember the details from the initial consultation.”
CINE wanted to streamline its documentation workflows, reduce the workload for its clinicians, speed up note creation times, and improve documentation accuracy—all while cutting costs across the practice. And crucially, the solution needed to integrate with the practice’s browser‑based EHR, Harris CareTracker.
Effortless dictation that frees up clinicians’ time
CINE, with the help of their value‑added reseller Datel Solutions, equipped its clinicians with Dragon Medical One—Nuance’s cloud‑based speech recognition solution—to help them address their documentation challenges. Some clinicians at CINE had used previous versions of Dragon Medical and recommended the rest of the practice explore what’s possible with the cloud‑based solution. With comprehensive implementation and training led by Datel, the clinicians were ready to take their documentation to the next level.
Now, using Dragon Medical One, clinicians at CINE can effortlessly dictate notes before, during, or after patient consultations directly into the EHR. Dragon Medical One accurately and immediately recognizes and transcribes even the most complex medical terms, helping CINE’s clinicians create accurate and detailed documentation.
“Our clinicians enjoy the flexibility of Dragon Medical One being hosted in the cloud,” explains Dr. Mazza. “With the PowerMic mobile application, they can dictate their notes wherever they’re working—whether it’s with a patient, at the practice, or home.”
CINE’s clinicians have also been taking advantage of useful features such as AutoTexts. Using AutoTexts, clinicians can insert large sections of repeatable text by saying just a few words. Also, additional voice templates ensure clinicians document difficult cardiology procedures without missing any of the key data points required in the documentation.
Lower costs, greater clinician and patient satisfaction
Since implementing Dragon Medical One, CINE has saved approximately $200,000 yearly by eliminating transcription. And the space in the practice once reserved for transcriptionists is now used for additional exam rooms—so the practice comfortably fits more patients.
On top of cost savings, the 16 clinicians now using Dragon Medical One report significantly lower levels of burnout, fatigue and greater efficiency when creating documentation. Also, since the practice implemented Dragon Medical One, its patients have reported greater satisfaction from their consultations.
"It quickly became clear how much Dragon Medical One helped our clinicians with documentation. It fits easily in their workflows, helps them create notes much faster, and frees up time to spend with patients,” says Dr. Mazza. “Our clinicians also found it effortless to start using. One of our physicians—who has a strong accent—told me it understood everything he says without any voice training.”
“Dragon Medical One has been a true game changer and is indispensable,” adds Richard Regnante, MD, FACC at CINE. “It’s consistently improved my efficiency and allowed me more time with patients day‑to‑day in my busy cardiology practice.”