©Thomas Lammeyer/Dreamstime.com
Five years ago I worked for a physician who used Dragon to dictate his office notes. He put in the time to teach Dragon his voice and successfully dictated, edited, and printed his own notes. He eliminated all transcription costs, and was a favorite of the staff as no one ever had to scramble to find his notes. Not surprisingly, he was my physician IT Champion.
For every physician who was able to make it with Dragon five years ago, there were probably ten who didn’t tough it out. Today there are 70,000 healthcare providers using Dragon, which is an estimated 10% of the total healthcare provider population. What’s the big motivator? One, saving money, which becomes more important every year as there become fewer places to cut costs. Two, direct input into the EMR, which saves time and closes the loop on electronic management of physician assessment and recommendations.
