Widespread physician burnout has been recognized for more than 2 decades and continues to worsen for a multitude of reasons. [1] Many have looked for resources to combat this growing epidemic. Medical scribes, a prime way to humanize healthcare again, has become popular in all specialties within healthcare — from primary care to specialty and even sub-specialties. Some healthcare leaders still consider this service a luxury instead of a necessity and that medical scribe services are “no better” than a dictation software. Is that a fair and honest answer or is this an assumption based on comfort and/or discomfort for change? To note: 40% of physicians already credit their burnout to a lack of tools and resources that are necessary to provide high-quality patient care. [2]
Medical scribes have consistently proved to “free” the physician’s time in their clinical work day so they focus on a number of different aspects of their work life.
Here are the top 4:
#1: Quality Patient Care Time
Adding a scribe to the physician care team enables the physician to spend more time directly speaking and diagnosing the patients. They do this by having the scribe pre-chart, document the encounter as it is happening, retrieve diagnostic results, and navigation throughout the EHR during the entire clinical shift which can account to 80 to 90 % of the administrative duties the physicians have currently. This “extra” time allows for quality time with the patients which can improve the physician to patient interactions and overall patient and physician satisfaction. Medical scribe services give a physician the ability to save a few extra minutes than if the physician had to capture the patient story post-encounter through dictation software each visit.
#2: Improved Clinical Engagement
The administrative burden and EHR usage has proven to be a disengagement factor so removing this burden will allow for increased clinical engagement and satisfaction. It is very difficult to input all of the patient data efficiently and accurately while simultaneously ensuring patients feel their concerns and pains are being addressed properly. Allowing the scribes to take over the administrative burden of data entry or dictation can help the physicians to focus on providing the highest quality positive experience for their patients.
#3: Improved Revenue
This is due to elevated productivity, better documentation accuracy and reduction in down-coded charts. Physician’s productivity can increase when 80-90 % of the administrative tasks are removed. In addition, scribes can generate additional revenue by ensuring the clinical notes had the proper and complete documentation for the work the provider completed. [3]
#4: Improved Real-Time Charting
This benefit translates to a better work-life balance. If the charts are done at the actual time of the visit then it would mean less or no entry at the end of the day or another day.
There are a plethora of other reasons why physicians and healthcare organizations utilize medical scribe services, beyond the ones we note above.
“My scribes improve my efficiency in the office. They are able to perform multiple functions and streamline my office flow.”
– Dr. Robert Feldman, OB-GYN physician that utilizes Scrivas scribes
The return on the investment shows from a physician’s and patient’s personal standpoint but also from the added revenue that comes with freeing up a physician’s schedule.
Now is the time to take steps to improve the patient experience.
Now is the time to take action against burnout.
Now is the time to humanize healthcare again.
Written by: Nicole Bramblett, MHA
[1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2653912 [2] https://www.athenahealth.com/knowledge-hub/practice-management/ready-go-physician-burnout-drives-intent-leave [3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26457055/