Maria French jokingly says she still has the “startup bruises” from the early years of trying to gain traction with her medical transcription business, Terra Nova Transcription of St. John’s.

In 2000, French got the idea of providing a service to transcribe the notes that doctors dictate for each patient who visits a hospital. Most hospitals have in-house transcribers, but these services are expensive and can take weeks to transcribe a report (too long if a patient’s condition is deteriorating rapidly).

“In 2001, our entry point was the U.S. market,” French said in an interview from her office in Newfoundland. “We got into it in the U.S. market and have been hammering away ever since.”

In print, her words imply a touch of weariness, but none of that came across as she proudly chronicled all that Terra Nova accomplished in 13 years. The company now offers transcription services in 22 hospitals and has a staff of 160 people, most working at transcribing.

Eighty per cent of its business is now in Canada, where hospitals are facing severe budget constraints. The past few years, the business has been growing at a rate of 15 per cent annually and Terra Nova has 100 per cent retention among the clients it has signed, French said.

She has never taken any venture capital or angel backing, and French noted that Terra Nova competes against bigger companies, many of which have been backed by outside capital.

Terra Nova overcomes this obstacle with a personalized focus on quality and customer service.

French guarantees that all briefs will be transcribed within 24 hours of being dictated, and her transcribers must show a 98 per cent accuracy rate in what they transcribe.

The company does use speech recognition devices to help with the transcription, but given the complexity and importance of the material, it is always necessary to have humans editing the text.

“We’ve had tremendous advances in speech rec in the past three or four years, in particular,” said French. “It’s a really good tool, but it’s just a tool. You really need that set of eyes going over it.”

She expects Terra Nova will continue its growth because hospitals are now so strapped for cash that an in-house solution for transcription is no longer an option for them. What’s more, it is getting more and more difficult to find transcribers.

French and her staff are working on a strategy to generate more growth and will likely focus on the Canadian market. Although she has been reluctant to take venture capital, she said growth by acquiring competitors is an option that has its attractions.

In December, Terra Nova almost completed a deal to buy a competitor, but it fell apart in the late stages of negotiation. French won’t rule out looking at other deals, but she is also content with organic growth.

“We still do multiple millions of dollars of business each year and we’re happy with that.”