Nuance Presents eScription Million Dollar Awards for Significant Cost Savings in Medical Transcription

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE [1])--At its annual eScription user meeting (May 18-19 in Boston), Nuance Communications, Inc. [2] (NASDAQ: NUAN), a leading supplier of speech solutions, gave special recognition to its 2009 eScription customer Million Dollar Award recipients. Twenty healthcare organizations from across the U.S. were acknowledged for saving one million dollars or more in transcription costs as a result of implementing the eScription platform for computer aided medical transcription (CAMT). Also at the event, two organizations received the annual productivity award, which is presented to eScription customers with in-house medical transcriptionists (MTs) that achieved an average productivity gain over the past year of more than 125 percent.

The eScription platform uses background speech recognition to create high-quality draft documents that MTs (whether in-house or employed by an outsourced service) quickly review and edit, typically doubling productivity. Organizations achieve these results with little to no impact on physician workflow, as eScription lets clinicians create documents in the most efficient way possible-by speaking into a phone, dictation device, or electronic health record (EHR).

The 2009 Million Dollar Award recipients are:

Exempla Healthcare (Denver, CO) and Tufts Medical Center (Boston, MA) for their first $1 million saved;
Baystate Health (Springfield, MA), Health First (Melbourne, FL), Poudre Valley Health System (Fort Collins, CO), and Tampa General Hospital (Tampa, FL) for $2 million saved;
Atrius Health (Boston, MA), Aurora Health Care - Kettle Moraine Region (Hartford, WI), Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City, UT), and Maine Medical Center (Portland, ME) for $3 million saved;
Carle Clinic (Urbana, IL), PeaceHealth (Eugene and Cottage Grove, OR & Bellingham, WA), and UMass Memorial Health Care (Worcester, MA) for $4 million saved;
Gwinnett Hospital System (Lawrenceville, GA), UNC Health Care (Chapel Hill, NC), and Health Alliance (Cincinnati, OH) for $5 million saved;
Aurora Health Care - Metro Region (Milwaukee, WI) and Mount Carmel Health System (Columbus, OH) for $6 million saved;
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston, MA) for $7 million saved; and
Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston, MA) for $10 million saved.

The eScription Million Dollar Club currently includes 32 healthcare organizations that have documented their savings, and have together yielded more than $93 million in transcription cost savings for the healthcare industry. Of the customers who have been live on the eScription platform for two years or more, 43 percent are now members of the Million Dollar Club.

"eScription has improved our organization's capabilities in terms of managing cost, workflow process and turnaround times," said Judi Ploszek, Sr. VP Finance, Tampa General Hospital. "It is a good example of technology incented change."

This year, Washington County Health System (Hagerstown, MD) and Vista Health System (Waukegan, IL) received the Productivity Award award, joining seven other eScription customers that have realized or exceeded the 125 percent productivity success metric in previous years. The productivity gain indicates how much faster MTs edit draft documents created with background speech recognition versus typing them from scratch in a traditional transcription workflow.

"The healthcare industry, along with the entire country is focused on the current economic climate and today, more than ever, is working to identify areas where cost savings goals can be applied, executed, and measured," said John Shagoury, president, Nuance Healthcare. "This year, our customers reached remarkable new levels of productivity gains and cost savings, bringing the eScription Million Dollar Club to surpass $93 million in total savings for the healthcare industry. We are proud of our customers' achievements, and with more than 100 organizations across the U.S. that have now replaced traditional transcription with eScription CAMT, we are thrilled at the prospect of delivering even greater efficiencies and savings in the years to come."

eScription Growth

The eScription platform is continuing its rapid customer growth. Since January 2009, eight healthcare organizations went ‘live' on the platform, including Inova Health System (Alexandria, VA) and Citrus Valley (Covina, CA). Also, since January 2009, 12 organizations signed contracts for eScription, including Fletcher Allen Health Care (Burlington, VT), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA), University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation (Madison, WI) and HCA Far West (Las Vegas, NV). As a result of its market adoption, the eScription platform is processing more than 1.7 billion lines of medical transcription per year, up approximately 40 percent in volume from one year ago.

For the fifth year in a row, Nuance's eScription platform received a Best in KLAS [3] award, a distinction that only five other products have achieved. With a score of 90.67, the eScription platform was ranked the highest in the speech recognition category, and exceeded its score from the previous year. The eScription on-demand platform is designed for healthcare organizations that are looking for a hosted ASP solution to shorten turnaround time, improve processes, and achieve substantial cost savings in medical transcription. For more information on eScription, please call 781-565-5000 or visit: http://www.nuance.com/healthcare/products/escription.asp [4]

Nuance's Healthcare Business

Nuance's healthcare portfolio [5] of proven, speech-enabled clinical documentation and communication solutions enable healthcare provider organizations to improve financial performance, enhance patient care, and increase patient safety. With more than 3,000 healthcare customers worldwide, Nuance has the experience and solutions that meet the individual needs of any size healthcare provider organization.

Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications and professional services. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com [6].

Nuance, the Nuance logo, and Dragon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.