According to a study published by a well-respected healthcare consortium, Kaiser Permanente, medical scribes are valuable assets, reducing the burden of medical documentation and improving work efficiency in practices so that providers have more time to spend with their patients. Take a look at how this translates into three very specific medical scribe benefits for providers:
Improved Patient-Provider Interactions
The primary job of a medical scribe is to transcribe notes into patient records. Thus, one of the main ways a medical scribe benefits providers is by removing the need for doctors to be tied to a computer during patient encounters. Instead of typing notes themselves, doctors can rely on their scribes to do it for them. Doctors are then able to actively listen to and look at their patients during visits. According to the Kaiser Permanente study, having their physicians fully engaged during a visit significantly improves patients’ perception of the care they receive.
Enhanced Physician Satisfaction
In a similar way, the use of a medical scribe benefits individual doctors by improving their own perception of the work they perform. Instead of being bogged down with paperwork, physicians are able to return to actual patient care, often the reason they became a doctor in the first place! Research shows that doctors who have removed “low-value work” (such as EHR documentation) from their daily responsibilities and who have been given “more flexibility and autonomy to adjust …[the] patient experience” are happier and, thus, less likely to burn out and leave the profession.
Increased Revenue
Perhaps surprisingly, medical scribe benefits include increased savings and greater revenues, as well. Despite the fact that hiring scribes involves an initial expenditure of funds, organizations actually make money in the long run when committing to scribe use. Check out this online calculator on the American Medical Association’s website that details the monetary benefits of medical scribes. With it, organizations can tabulate the precise value of hiring a scribe based on the increased efficiency and productivity the position brings to practice. Put plainly, scribes allow doctors to see more patients, which generates more revenue. Scribes also improve the quality of EHR documentation, as well as reduce errors in medical coding and billing practices (since they have more time to spend making sure records are comprehensive and accurate), both of which make it much more likely that bills are paid on time and in full.
Want to Learn More?
The advantages medical scribes offer providers make using them a no-brainer! To learn more about hiring scribes and incorporating these types of medical scribe benefits into your own organization or practice, please contact Provider’s Choice Scribe Services.
