Key Points
Question
How accurate are dictated clinical documents created by speech recognition software, edited by professional medical transcriptionists, and reviewed and signed by physicians?
Findings
Among 217 clinical notes randomly selected from 2 health care organizations, the error rate was 7.4% in the version generated by speech recognition software, 0.4% after transcriptionist review, and 0.3% in the final version signed by physicians. Among the errors at each stage, 15.8%, 26.9%, and 25.9% involved clinical information, and 5.7%, 8.9%, and 6.4% were clinically significant, respectively.
Meaning
An observed error rate of more than 7% in speech recognition–generated clinical documents demonstrates the importance of manual editing and review.