The pandemic has demanded more time and effort from already taxed physicians, and administrative demands continue to be among the most significant factors that lead to physician burnout. Charting takes up a sizable portion of a physician’s day, but scribes can be a part of the solution to lessen this burden.
Now more than ever, all clinical personnel, including residents and MAs, must be focused on patient care. If you’re thinking of outsourcing, here is how to hire a medical scribe service.
Needs Evaluation
The first step in determining how to hire a medical scribe service is to assess your needs. This is the time to reflect on your pain points. Before you meet with a medical scribe company, it helps to have a good idea of what your practice or hospital requires and how you want to improve. Here are a few questions you might consider:
- Are you frustrated with your current workflow?
- Do you wish your physicians had more face-to-face time with patients?
- Do your physicians complain about too much time spent charting?
- Are your physicians staying late or working on weekends to complete documentation?
- Are physicians concerned about not spending enough time with their families?
- Has patient satisfaction declined with increased caseloads?
- Are appointment wait times longer than you would like?
- Are you missing your patient per hour metrics?
- Have there been issues with insurance reimbursements or compliance?
Did you answer any of these questions with a resounding yes? If so, then it may be time to hire a medical scribe service.
Discovery Stage
Your medical scribe partner should take an on-site and in-person assessment into your needs, diving deep into your scheduling requirements, your EMR system, your language needs, and the sites you need to staff.
Additionally, your partner should present you with a detailed plan to assess each of your worksites. They may plan to survey your sites, check your examination rooms, and discuss your ideal workflow. Your partner should also meet with your practice managers and physicians to describe the roles that the medical scribes will play. Once they present you with their proposed implementation plan, you should be able to customize it until it fully meets your needs.
Contract Initiation
Once you have selected your medical scribe service partner and signed a Business Associate Agreement, then it’s time to begin the implementation process.
Worksite Analysis
Your partner should then deploy a combination of their current scribe employees, as well as hiring additional scribes with the qualifications required for your hospital or practice and training them. A senior implementation specialist should shadow your physicians for several days, depending on the specialty and the number of physicians for which scribes are required. The implementation specialist will be responsible for training the scribes to your specific processes.
In the hiring and interview process, the right medical scribe partner will be experienced at selecting individuals who are highly motivated, responsible, and dedicated to the field of medicine. Often these are medical students, RNAs, and others for whom working alongside your talented physicians will be viewed as a key motivating factor for the position.
Medical Scribe Training
The most effective medical scribes will complete a comprehensive physician-led training program on general medical terminology, medical documentation skills, HIPAA compliance training, medical documentation and workflow, EMR education and skills development, complemented by client-specific detailed didactic programs, including hours of patient simulations. A qualified medical scribe should pass the required certification exams that your partner’s University administers.
Supervised Onsite Training
Medical scribes should receive extended in-person onsite training and undergo an evaluation program. With such a vast array of EMRs on the market, it is critical to a scribe’s effectiveness to complete comprehensive training on your specific EMR so that the scribes can familiarize themselves with any client-specific workflows or guidelines. Scribes should also shadow lead implementers to learn about your physicians’ processes and preferences.
Once your scribe program is live, your scribes should become a seamless part of your workflow and undergo continuous assessment.
Ongoing Assessment and Refinement
To continuously improve your medical scribe service, your partner should have a team dedicated to Quality Assurance. Their role is to monitor your scribes’ charting and proficiency. Scribes should receive live, in-person audits and regular performance evaluations. At the start, they should be assessed weekly, then monthly, followed by random scribe evaluations to ensure high-quality work.
The Quality Assurance team should also request feedback from your physicians and staff.
When evaluating how to hire a medical scribe, if your partner’s process doesn’t sound this thorough, then it may be time to call Scrivas. Our dedication to quality is unmatched.
With highly trained scribes, you can lessen each physician’s administrative burden, allowing them to focus on patient care and relationships, improving your patient satisfaction metrics, insurance reimbursements and compliance.
We take pride in our quality assurance and ensure that each scribe we bring you is of the highest caliber. That is why we go through an extensive process to make sure each scribe is physician-trained and understands your specific procedures.
Ready to implement the Scrivas solution into your hospital or practice? Reach us at 786-554-0807.