Today’s healthcare providers are taking extra steps to offer better services to their patients, which is why doctors and nurses are no longer the only ones in the room during an examination. The extra personnel who are in the room taking notes and documenting everything are the medical scribes. Medical scribes are quickly becoming an essential part of the industry.
In fact, medical scribes are considered valuable to healthcare service providers. There are a number of reasons why this profession is becoming very popular – and very important – and we are going to review some of them in this article.
Better Healthcare Services
The role of medical scribes is both simple and complicated. Their main duty is to help doctors and physicians document everything from patient examinations to medical imaging and other parts of the healthcare service workflow. Everything is documented using a standardized format, which means doctors can have the information they need more effectively.
Since doctors and nurses no longer have to worry about documenting their procedures, they can focus more on providing patients with the right treatment. A recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that healthcare services who employ medical scribes have more productive doctors. The boost in productivity and effectiveness is as high as 15%.
Patients are the ones benefiting the most from the presence of a medical scribe. They are now able to have much more comprehensive electronic health records with a professional and experienced staff member documenting everything.
Faster Turnaround
The healthcare industry has expanded rapidly these past few years. Due to the introduction of the Affordable Care Act and other supporting regulations, more people now have access to healthcare services than ever before. While the growth is highly welcomed, not all service providers can keep up with it.
The presence of medical scribes is one of the answers to this new challenge. Doctors and physicians can perform better and more efficiently when they have medical scribes helping them every step of the way. The same study by the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that doctors only need a shorter amount of time to provide the same level of care.
A standard 15-minute follow up visit is made possible with the help of scribes. It usually takes more than 20 minutes to perform the same set of tasks when doctors are operating on their own.
Lower Healthcare Costs
Contrary to popular belief, the presence of medical scribes is not increasing the costs of healthcare. In fact, they are helping healthcare service providers earn more revenue while lowering their costs at the same time. The lower visit times we talked about earlier allow hospitals to save up to $2,500 per patient; the saving is then translated to lower medical bills, which again benefits the patient.
By understanding these important points, it is easy to understand the true value of medical scribes. This is a profession that currently attracts a lot of candidates too, which is why it is safe to assume that the industry will also grow alongside the healthcare industry in general.