Leading medical transcription firm feathers its NEST

The explosive growth of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines – the medical transcription (MT) business, in particular – has caused a recent proliferation of MT start-ups. Parallel to the growth of the number of MT companies is the significant increase in the number of MT schools that fill in the need of the MT firms for competent MT personnel.

Interestingly, the country’s largest MT company – Multi-Scribe Global Outsourcing Inc. (MSGO) – has MT operations and MT training facilities, coupled with an MT franchising-cum-incubation system imbued with a strong bayanihan spirit.

 “The health information management (HIM) industry, which includes MT and electronic medical records (EMR), is a multi-billion dollar industry,” explains MSGO CEO Malu Simeon-Florendo at her company headquarters in Quezon City. “India dominates the market. The Philippines serves less than three percent of the US market,” she adds.

Which explains why Simeon-Florendo is so excited: “The business’s local growth potential is so huge it would boggle the minds of most Filipino entrepreneurs. She cites a study done by a private firm in India, which reveals that the majority of MT companies in India maintain a critical volume of at least 50 workstations; in the Philippines, majority of the MT companies have merely between five to 15 workstations.

There are less than 10 companies in the Philippines with more than 150 workstations and manpower capacity solely dedicated to MT processing.

In 2006, in the context of this manpower deficit scenario, Simeon-Florendo sought a solution to a two-faceted problem: How to train more MT specialists and how to create more competitive MT companies in the Philippines. Her answer: the NEST or New Expert Satellite Team concept.

“A NEST is an IT/HIM outsourcing business-in-a-box. It is a turn-key business solution that allows entrepreneurs to start an MT business supported by the MSGO system in its marketing and operations functions,” says Simeon-Florendo.

At present, there are 10 NESTs housed at the MSGO headquarters, owned by seven IT entrepreneurs: IDSG, Scribenet Transcription Services Inc.; Cranium Inc.; TG4 Outsourcing Inc.; Scribsters Inc.; Version One Inc.; and R & N Ventures Inc. Each of the companies employs at least 30 medical transcriptionists and editors.

MS Global employs 10 senior editors and 30 medical proofreaders whose responsibility is to assure the quality of the NEST jobs before they are sent out to the clients. Aside from the corporate QA team, MS Global maintains a staff of 36 to support the growing needs of the NEST.

All in all, the NEST program employs a total of 300 skilled Filipinos. With a third shift in the pipeline, the number of NEST employees will be a total of 450.

The efficiency benefit is realized because NEST entrepreneurs learn the ropes of the business while earning from their team’s productive work.

Control span is better and more efficient under one roof. “And, of course, cost savings is achieved with many companies cooperating and sharing costs,” says Simeon-Florendo.