|
Advantages
Productivity Increase We return providers to their pre-EHR levels of productivity by increasing patients seen per day while maintaining a high level of encounter documentation. Provider Satisfaction Providers are able to focus their attention on patient care as opposed to data-entry. Providers spend less after-hours time documenting the EHR. Patient Satisfaction It has been documented that patient satisfaction is improved when medical scribes are used. Patients feel that the provider is more engaged in the discussion when the computer is removed from the encounter. Improved Documentation Providers are free to be as detailed in their documentation as they like; we will enter it all. Dedicated EHR Experts Usability is no longer an issue. Our medical scribes become experts with your EHR software building efficiency into both the providers method of generating data as well as how we use it. |
Virtual Medical Scribe
Scribecorp is a pioneer in transcription services. The Joint Commission defines a medical scribe as an unlicensed individual hired to enter information into the electronic health record (EHR) or chart at the direction of a physician or licensed independent practitioner. A Scribe’s core responsibility is to capture accurate and detailed documentation (handwritten, electronic, or otherwise) of the encounter in a timely manner. Scribes are not permitted to make independent decisions or translations while capturing or entering information into the health record or EHR beyond what is directed by the provider. Examples of information entered:
3 Step Process We begin by analyzing the providers practice environment to fully understand the flow of information. We then work with each individual provider to create a dictation style that will facilitate efficient entry of information into the EHR. Step 1: Dictation and Audio transfer The provider dictates patient encounters into a digital voice recorder according to his/her EHR and typical workflow. Periodically the provider transfers the audio files from the digital voice recorder to our system or to their own internal system. The provider or his/her staff makes available to our team the patient schedule for the day that is used for cross reference. Step 2: Virtual Scribe Data Entry (overnight) Once the provider has uploaded the last audio file of the day our virtual scribes access the audio files and begin the process of entering the data into the EHR. Once complete our scribes notify the provider that all information has been entered and also send a discrepancy sheet outlining any section that needs additional information. Step 3: Provider authentication and sign-off The provider logs in one time to review and finalize the completed EHR records making any necessary adjustments. Background "Match the work to the worker" (Annals of Medicine) Driven largely by government incentives electronic health record (EHR) systems have been rapidly adopted by providers and institutions nationwide. Seen as a way to manage and leverage the information rich environment of medicine the benefits of a fully functional and exchangeable EHR (according to HealthIT.gov) are many:
While we agree with all of the benefits that EHR systems have to offer, the reality is that we are far from being fully functional and exchangeable. One key reason is the inherent increase in the amount of documentation generated per encounter; documentation that the provider is expected to enter. Not only are providers having to change their workflow to accommodate the volume and process of data entry, they also having to allocate extra time to performing this task. The consequence is a reduced patient throughput which equates to lower productivity and reduced profitability. For a documented example we can look no further than Kaiser Permanente which has committed or spent in excess of $2 billion on their new EHR yet according to Daniel Essin, "The technology has not enabled their providers to see more patients than before; the productivity standard in some areas has been lowered from four visits per hour to three. A number of the practitioners spend several uncompensated hours per day completing the charting that they didn't have time to do during normal clinic hours." A recent Rand report states that "for many physicians, the current state of EHR technology significantly worsened professional satisfaction in multiple ways. Poor EHR usability, time-consuming data entry, interference with face-to-face patient care, inefficient and less fulfilling work content, inability to exchange health information between EHR products, and degradation of clinical documentation...Some of these problems were more prominent among senior physicians and those lacking scribes, transcriptionists, and other staff to support data entry or manage information flow." |