Medical transcription sector taps academe for human resource

The newly formed Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines Inc. (MTIAPI) is going to link with the academe sector to encourage the inclusion of Medical Transcription subjects as elective for college especially for the medical related courses.

MTIAPI president Evelyn S. Abat said the Medical Transcription (MT) industry is also suffering from lack of qualified manpower to aid the growth potential of MT in the Philippines.

Out of US$20 billion to US$25 billion market for MT in the United States, Philippines has only utilized .9 percent of the total potential.

According to Abat, Philippines is considered as one of the top destinations for MT demand especially in the US, because of its strategic location and ideal 12-hour time difference, it is the second largest American English speaking country in the world, with 94 percent literacy rate.

MT which is considered as one of the top 4 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) priorities of the government, is still a very small industry, Abat said there are only two largest MT companies in the Philippines, which employs thousands of medical transcriptionists namely SPI Technologies, and eData Services Philippines Inc.,-wherein Abat sits as the managing director.

"We are still lacking for manpower availability, that is why MTIAPI will closely coordinate with the universities and colleges, to open up elective subject for medical transcription," Abat said in her recent visit in Cebu to speak on the Employment Opportunities in Medical Transcription.

Medical Transcription (MT) outsourcing service is the process of converting voice dictation (typically either cassette or digital forms) into a permanent written record utilizing word processing equipment and software.

This service developed after the United States government amended the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) under the administration of US President (then) Bill Clinton in 1996.

This law ensures the continuity of healthcare coverage for individuals changing jobs and includes a provision that impacts on the management of health information, seeks to simplify the administration of health care insurance, and also aims to combat waste, fraud and abuse in health insurance and healthcare.

In the US, Medical Transcriptionists (MT) would at least generate a monthly income of at least (US) 2,000 dollars this can be done through sideline or part-time jobs for nurses, PT parishioners and doctors there.

According to Abat, potential MT companies largely needs manpower that have good grasp in physiology and anatomy, aside from expertise in good medical (word) spelling and grammar skills.

In the Philippines, there are already 4,500 medical transcriptionists, in the next five years it is expected to increase to 65,000.

One of the threats identified in the Philippine MT industry is the Filipinos' poor working habit (or the mañana habit), and holidays which is detrimental to the MTs productivity.

SPI Technologies is one of the largest MT companies operating in Cebu.

Cebu has also the International School for Medical Transcription (ISMT) offering specialized short-courses for MTs. The availability of this school in Cebu has also encouraged other smaller MT companies to set up operations in here. Cebu needs to project an upscale image Ni Ehda Dago-oc

Maximizing Cebu's world class potential as tourism destination, an international hotelier said the province should project itself as an upscale destination to lure high-spender market in the world.

"Cebu should sell an image, [an upscale image] to the rest of the world. You should not let go of any opportunity there is," said Hilton International Asia Pacific Pte Ltd president for Middle East and Asia Pacific Koos Klein.

He said Cebu is in the same situation as Hong Kong, wherein it is spending millions of dollars to project an image as a destination to the world traveling market.

"There is no reason why Cebu could not join the bandwagon as [high-end] vacation destination in the world," Klein said noting that Cebu has the right tourism infrastructure, with the presence of international resort and hotel names in the world.

Klein added that the leadership of Philippine tourism secretary Ace Durano is in the right tract, being very dynamic in pushing the Philippines to the international market.

But for Cebu, he said double effort should be done by the stakeholders, together with the government to attract high-end traveling market.

"Never underestimate the effect of negative publicity of the Philippines to the international market. It is extremely important to profile yourself [Cebu] as a safer and premier destination," he said in an interview.

Joining high profile travel marts in other countries is also very important to make Cebu known as a destination in the international market, he said.

"You are positioning Cebu as a brand. Don't position it as a 'cheap' destination," Klein said adding that as of the moment there is so much interest in Cebu, therefore, it should immediately grab the opportunity.

Five-star resorts in Cebu are offering from US$100 to US$200 (plus) per (standard) room, while city hotels pegging US$50 to US$60 a room.

With the room (hotel and resort) shortage problem in the Cebu, tourism stakeholders were called to lure the high-end travelers or the quality tourists such as Europeans, Japanese, and Americans to maximize the per room generation, including the Food and Beverage, and retail businesses.

Klein said the threat of political instability, peace and order problems are already common for the international travelers, what is important is for Cebu to showcase to the prime vacationers what it has to offer as a destination.

Klein was here in Cebu recently to grace the opening of Cebu Hilton Resort and Spa which offers 246 five-star resort room accommodations.

Although the Philippine government has limited budget for international tourism promotions, he added that private sector stakeholders can aid and help the government to aggressively market Cebu as the destination, especially to the key markets, like Europeans, Americans, among others.

Also, he emphasized that the entry of Hilton to Cebu can help in developing and putting real muscle behind Cebu's quest of getting more tourists, especially the high spender market