Remote medical scribes are becoming more and more commonplace. Also called documentation assistants, remote medical scribes work under the supervision of a licensed practitioner to transcribe the details of clinical visits in real time, entering data into electronic health records so that the doctor/medical professional doesn’t have to do it him/herself. In addition to the obvious reduction of documentation burden for physicians, there are several benefits to using a remote medical scribe. Take a look:
Remote Medical Scribes Improve Patient Interactions
Research indicates that physicians who use a remote medical scribe have better patient interactions. Freed from having to take notes, clinicians spend more time with their patients; they listen to and talk more with them, leading patients to believe a much deeper relationship has been forged.
Remote Medical Scribes Improve Physician Satisfaction
Physician burnout is a critical concern in the medical community. Estimates as high as 50% of physicians indicate that many doctors experience long-term stress resulting in mental and physical exhaustion. It’s concerning since physician burnout can lead to an overall career dissatisfaction that precipitates increasing medical errors, which then negatively impacts patient care. It has even been shown to play a part in physical addiction and illness among doctors themselves. Adding remote medical scribes to an office or practice to take care of note-taking duties reduces the workload for physicians and improves their job satisfaction by enabling them to return to what they love best: taking care of patients!
Remote Medical Scribes Improve EHR Documentation
Electronic health records have been legally mandated since 2015, with the goal of enhancing the quality of and access to patient health information. With the mandate, however, clinicians experienced a sharp rise in the amount of time they needed to spend on documentation in order to ensure proper compliance with the law. It was hard to include all the necessary details and still spend enough time with patients to establish a viable plan for their care. Choosing to use a remote medical scribe splits the two responsibilities between two separate people, meaning each task receives more attention. Because a remote medical scribe’s only job is to take notes, those notes are often more comprehensive than those transcribed by a doctor.
The Provider’s Choice Advantage
There are many benefits to hiring a remote medical scribe. To learn more about using medical scribes to improve clinical care, reduce physician burnout and add value to your practice’s bottom line, please contact Provider’s Choice Scribe Services. Our remote medical scribes are highly (and continuously) trained; they pay attention to details and safeguard patient data so that your practice remains productive, efficient and always focused on superior patient care.
