Part I: Using Digital Dictation in Professional Situations

This is the first of a two-part series on how digital dictation can be used in a professional environment, such as a law firm, doctor's office or corporation. It addresses the various workflow scenarios that can be used with today's professional digital dictation recorders and software from firms such as Olympus and Philips.

While there are very expensive, enterprise-level solutions on the market, such as BigHand, this treatise focuses more on smaller practices - generally less than 50 employees - and whose digital dictation workflow can be handily managed by the software provided with the Olympus and Philips hardware. So, before those of you who sell the high-end, five and six-figure systems protest their exclusion, this entry is focused more on those firms who you are less likely to serve.

The End of Delivery Delays

In conventional offices, the dictator (or author) records their dictation into a tape recorder, then passes, ships or mails the physical tape to the transcriptionist. Understandably, this delay from transportation means that the turnaround of critical dictation is still dependent on delivery time and constraints.

With digital dictation, there is no physical dictation media to be manually distributed. We do know of some who use recorders with removable memory cards in much the same way as tapes - they remove the cards and physically deliver them to the transcriptionists - but this is not generally the best or safest use of digitally recorded files. Particularly when we have the instant speed of computers, networks and the Internet to eliminate the impact of transportation on dictation workflow.

Types of Digital Workflows

Dictation workflows for digital dictation start with the basic idea that the author will dictate, then pass on the digital voice files to a transcriptionist. If you think "tape," you're limited to the act of removing a cassette tape from the recorder and physically taking or sending it to the transcriptionist. With digital dictation, the act of moving the dictation is less physical and more electronic. However, it can involve some degree of physical action, as you will see.

We basically break down digital dictation delivery into three classes, or methods:

• Direct Download.
  Taking a digital voice recorder to the transcriptionist and downloading the files to his/her computer.
• Network Sharing.
  Downloading the digital files to a shared network server.
• Internet Delivery.
  Downloading the digital files to the author's computer (or a designated workstation), then sending the file via the Internet to the transcriptionist.

There are other, less common scenarios, but it is our experience at American Dictation that 99% of the installations we do fall within these three scenarios, with the second one being the most common, the third a close second, and the first one a distant third in number of installations. We present them in this order as it will be easier for those using tapes to follow along, as the first scenario is most analogous to the use of tapes for dictation.

Direct Download

In some cases where either the transcriptionist is in close proximity to the author, or the author and transcriptionist are not on a shared network, yet both are in the same office, the simplest delivery method is for the author to take their digital voice recorder to the transcriptionist, whereby the transcriptionist connects the recorder to their computer and quickly downloads the digital voice dictation files, erase the recorder, and returns the unit to the author. Then, the transcriptionist can transcribe the dictation using a USB-connected footswitch to control the playback of the voice files while they type the dictation into their preferred word processor or other application, such as an electronic medical records (EMR) or client management system.

This workflow has the advantage of technical convenience (no software to install or configure on the author's computer), but still requires that the author physically take their recorder to the transcriptionist. While in a close office, such as an attorney and their secretary, this may not be such a hassle, it does eliminate the opportunity for the author to instantly submit dictation when the author is not near the transcriptionist. It also requires that the author use a portable recording device instead of any type of desktop recording device, such as a SpeechMike or Direct Dictation Device.

For those recorders that use a docking cradle for recharging, as well as downloading, it means that the author must leave the recorder in the cradle at the transcriptionist's desk overnight for charging, or purchase an additional cradle and AC adaptor to use wherever they choose as a charging location.

Next: Part II - Network Sharing