
What are the benefits of virtual medical scribes over in-person medical scribes? Hiring a medical scribe can solve these bottlenecks. Nonetheless, if the doctor waits until the patient exits the examination room to complete their progress note, it would mean that other patients would have to wait longer to receive medical attention. This is because the doctor is more focused on recording the data than paying attention to what they are saying. Having a medical scribe will ensure that the doctor’s time is spent solely on providing medical care rather than recording patient examination information.Īlso, remember that if the doctor fills the EMR in front of a patient, some patients may perceive them as inattentive. That said, it would make no economic sense to pay a doctor up to $240 every hour to fill data into the EMR system. Even so, regardless of how good an EMR is, you will still need a lot of time to key data into it.Īccording to a Harvard Business Review article titled “The Strategy That Will Fix Healthcare,” a doctor’s cost of service per minute may be up to $4 per minute. In this day and age, most healthcare facilities and physicians use EMR sometimes tailored to their practice to undertake most documentation tasks. Why would physicians need a medical scribe? Virtual medical scribes can work in various capacities, including in the emergency department or in the outpatient setting during regular patient’s office visits. These professionals remotely accompany physicians during patient visits, take critical notes pertinent to the patient’s condition, and document these notes. They specialize in charting patient-physician interactions as they happen. Unlike the physically on-site medical scribes, virtual scribes provide real-time medical assistance without being present in the healthcare facility.

In such a scenario, a virtual medical scribe may just be what you need. While bringing a medical scribe into your practice can both raise the level of patient care and lift the burden of EHRs, there are instances when having a medical scribe physically on-site isn’t feasible. A medical scribe essentially acts as an extension of the physician’s arm. This is where medical scribing comes in.Ī medical scribe inputs information from a patient’s visit into the EHR under the physician’s direction to assist in delivering the best possible healthcare. Needless to say, physicians prefer to treat their patients instead of being bogged down with paperwork.

Massive volumes of documentation must be created and maintained to help healthcare providers track patient progress and receive payment from insurance companies.
