How Medical Scribes Are Helping Physicians

The medical scribe, sometimes referred to as a physician scribe or documentation assistant, is a relatively new role in the clinical setting. Many physicians may have initially seen their introduction as an unneeded added expense. However, a growing body of research shows that medical scribe services not only pay for themselves but also increase practice profit margins and provide other value-added benefits to the business, caregiver, and patient. And, with the advent of medical scribe companies, these advantages have only been amplified.

The Purpose of Medical Scribes

In the simplest terms, a medical scribe assumes many of the clerical tasks that customarily burden practitioners. They handle charting duties and entering orders and referrals. Scribes allow the physician to focus more on the patient without the distraction of a computer.
A 2018 study, “Association of Medical Scribes in Primary Care With Physician Workflow and Patient Experience,” was published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Kaiser Permanente conducted it, and it tracked the workflow dynamics and overall efficiency of 18 primary care physicians within their organization for over a year. The study determined that medical scribes produced “significant reductions in electronic health record documentation time and significant improvements in productivity and job satisfaction.” These results closely echoed earlier studies published in JAMA Dermatology from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and ClinicoEconomics and Outcomes Research findings, which focused on documentation assistants used in cardiology practices.

The consensus from these studies is that there are five primary benefits that physicians can gain from using a medical scribe:

1. Medical Scribes Improve Patient-Doctor Relations

The studies followed 735 patients. Of them, almost 50% reported that the doctor spent more time than usual speaking with them and that their physician-patient relationship was enhanced by the added attention a medical scribe facilitated.

2. Scribes Improve Physician Life Satisfaction

The Brigham dermatologists study found that on a 1-4 scale, 4 being “strongly agree,” the average response was 3.6 when doctors were asked if “using a scribe has increased my job satisfaction.” The AMA STEPS Forward module cited reports from 60 physicians, working in a Vancouver, WA clinic, with feedback including, “I feel like I have my life back” and “I feel like I’m a real doctor again.”

3. A Physician Scribe Pays for Itself Plus

The JAMA Dermatology study found that 79% of physicians could increase the number of patients they cared for with the support of a medical scribe. The ClinicoEconomics report cited reports of a 7.7% rise in profits related to the use of medical scribes.

4. Scribes Help Alleviate Physician Burnout

Burnout has become such an issue that the AMA has dedicated over 50 modules to improving office efficiency and relieving the administrative burden placed on physicians. The use of medical scribes is one of the solutions they recommend. As the Kaiser report cited, “Although scribes do not obviate the need for improving suboptimal EHR designs, they may help alleviate some of the inefficiencies.”

5. Virtual Medical Scribes Excide Need for On-Site Scribes

The benefits of using medical scribes are well established, and virtual medical scribes offer many advantages over in-house scribes. Plus, healthcare centers can avoid hiring, employment taxes, healthcare benefits, scheduling issues, and more when they leverage the services of medical scribe companies. Remote medical scribes enable doctors to engage with their patients naturally without the distraction of data entry in the electronic health record. Plus, not having a medical scribe present in the exam room can put patients more at ease.

For more information on how Athreon’s virtual medical scribe service, AxiScribe, can provide secure, accurate charting solutions for your business and lighten your administrative burden, contact us to learn more.