How Veterinarians Use Speech Recognition
Speech recognition has a tremendous impact on healthcare efficiency – and it’s not limited to just human patients. Veterinary speech recognition can speed up patient encounter documentation, automate PIMS navigation, and offer more flexibility in dictation.
In this article, we’ll explore the main reasons veterinarians use speech recognition, and how it can improve the veterinary workflow.
Why Veterinarians Use Speech Recognition
1. Speed up patient encounter documentation
With medical records almost exclusively online, the most efficient route to documentation is no longer manually writing or dictating for transcription. Both methods require a separate party and add steps to the documentation process; and in the worst case can lead to bottlenecking and extra work at the end of each day.
Veterinarians can more quickly complete documentation with speech recognition. Patient encounters and other findings can be vocally recorded and immediately inserted into a PIMS for review. No handwriting to decipher; no voice recording to transcribe. This all leads to less documentation piling up and fewer days spent after-hours.
2. Automate PIMS navigation
Some speech recognition platforms come packaged with voice commands. These voice commands can be especially useful when designed for a specific PIMS. When voice commands are this specific, users can get a lot out of the speech recognition system right away.
Custom shortcuts can be another way to get users excited about speech recognition, because anything repetitive can be automated and made into a voice command. Once you start thinking ‘can this be automated?’, you’re actively improving your own efficiency. Custom voice commands let you do that. Depending on the platform, you might also be able to share these custom shortcuts to other users in your organization and improve efficiency on a larger scale.
Any repetitive step that ties a veterinarian to a keyboard and mouse is an opportunity to save time with voice shortcuts.
3. Flexibility in dictation
Speech recognition can apply to nearly any workflow, meaning veterinary professionals can continue to work the way they want to, but with the added efficiency of speech recognition.
One method of dictation that has offered flexibility to veterinarians is mobile dictation. Recording a dictation directly to a phone means recording when it’s most convenient. This is the modern evolution of a voice recorder – but can be made even more efficient with speech recognition. Imagine being able to dictate wherever you are, whenever you need to and get an immediate transcript for that dictation. With speech recognition and mobile dictation, that’s possible.
Whether dictations are made on a mobile or desktop device, there are even more options that can impact the workflow. Once the dictations been transcribed by speech recognition software, they can be self-edited by the veterinary professional or passed along to the transcription team for review.
Having an option for both front-end and back-end speech recognition (or a hybrid of the two) can add even more flexibility in dictation and means every practice might approach speech recognition differently.
Best Veterinary Speech Recognition Software
Fusion Narrate
Fusion Narrate, a leading speech recognition solution for healthcare, has a veterinary vocabulary mode that recognizes veterinary-specific specialized terms, abbreviations, punctuation, and vocabulary. With Fusion Narrate, veterinary professionals can dictate directly into any textbox, including within a PIMS, with no specialized integration or interfacing required. Users can also create voice shortcuts to automate repetitive tasks or actions on their devices. A free trial for Fusion Narrate is available here.
SayIt Vet
SayIt Vet is another dictation solution for veterinarians. One component that makes SayIt Vet an enticing option is its Mac and PC compatibility. A veterinary vocabulary also comes preloaded with SayIt Vet at no extra cost. SayIt Vet also offers a free trial, available here.
TalkingVet
Talkingvet is a cloud based dictation solution powered by SayIt designed for veterinary dictation. Talkingvet has a powerful set of features, including built-in mobile dictation and customizable navigation commands to reduce documentation time and provide better patient care. Talkingvet offers a test drive to test the software for yourself.
