Scribes are of vital importance at a time when improving patient satisfaction and provider care are critical for the success of every healthcare facility.
Much like anything else in today’s world, the realm of healthcare is fast paced, constantly changing, and in dire need of adaptability. Consumers are better equipped with health-related knowledge and rightfully demand a tailored approach to their care. As the gap between consumers’ health-related knowledge and their providers’ expertise closes in, the gap between level of care and patient satisfaction widens. Given this current climate, healthcare administrators and providers alike are scrambling to find the right innovative paths to ensure high-quality care meets high customer expectations.
Improving Patient Satisfaction While Maintaining High-Quality Care with Scribes
The path to improving patient satisfaction and providing high-quality care is not necessarily another costly integrated technological solution or redundant change in process design but rather a single mediator who allows for an open and transparent conversation between patient and provider. These mediators serve as medical scribes and play an imperative role in improving communication between patients and healthcare providers. In fact, “evidence suggests medical scribes may improve clinician satisfaction, productivity, time-related efficiencies, revenue, and patient-clinician interactions.” [1] Medical scribes precisely document patient encounters, ensuring comprehensive documentation is met, and allow for healthcare providers to have a clear understanding of the patient’s medical history and previous discussions, enabling personalized and informed conversations. [2] Furthermore, “Patients appreciate the continuity of care and feel more engaged in their treatment plan, leading to higher satisfaction levels.” [3]
A medical scribe’s purpose is to ensure a free-flowing conversation occurs between the patient and provider, and in order for that to take place, the provider has to be patient-facing — not screen-facing. Medical scribes alleviate numerous challenges to improving patient satisfaction that providers face when providing quality care and often provide a simpler approach for healthcare administrators, who often over-operationalize efforts and inevitably drive up costs. [4]
[1] Shultz CG, Holmstrom HL. The use of medical scribes in health care settings: a systematic review and future directions. J Am Board Fam Med. 2015 May-Jun;28(3):371-81. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2015.03.140224. PMID: 25957370.
[2] Miksanek TJ, Skandari MR, Ham SA, Lee WW, Press VG, Brown MT, Laiteerapong N. The Productivity Requirements of Implementing a Medical Scribe Program. Ann Intern Med. 2021 Jan;174(1):1-7. doi: 10.7326/M20-0428. Epub 2020 Oct 6. PMID: 33017564.
[3] Sudhakar-Krishnan V, Rudolf MC. How important is continuity of care? Arch Dis Child. 2007 May;92(5):381-3. doi: 10.1136/adc.2006.099853. PMID: 17449521; PMCID: PMC2083711.
[4] Hess JJ, Wallenstein J, Ackerman JD, Akhter M, Ander D, Keadey MT, Capes JP. Scribe Impacts on Provider Experience, Operations, and Teaching in an Academic Emergency Medicine Practice. West J Emerg Med. 2015 Sep;16(5):602-10. doi: 10.5811/westjem.2015.6.25432. Epub 2015 Oct 20. PMID: 26587079; PMCID: PMC4644023.