While EMRs have increased documentation burden, with some physicians spending upwards of two hours on EMR tasks for every one hour of care they provide, medical scribes pose a potential solution, according to research published online Nov. 1 in the Journal of the American Medical Association Dermatology.
A team of researchers, led by Vinod Manbudiri, MD, evaluated physician and medical scribes' experiences at the dermatology department of their organization, Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital, which operates on the Epic EMR. The project was part of a quality improvement initiative, the study authors noted.
Of the 39 dermatologists across 11 distinct practice locations, 12 received scribe support in 19 weekly half-day sessions. Each scribe underwent dermatology-specific training and shadowed the physician to learn their specific workflow and documentation preferences.
Before physicians were provided scribes, most reported spending roughly 60 to 89 minutes per session on clinical documentation. Specifically, dermatologists averaged six minutes of clinical documentation per patient and 75 minutes of documentation per half-day session. When provided with scribes, physician documentation time decreased to an average of three minutes per patient and 36 minutes per session (more than three times fewer minutes per patient encounter).
The researchers note that scribes saved the organization money, too.
"Overall, there was a 7.7 percent increase in revenue comparing each physician's scribe-supported sessions to unsupported sessions in the last quarters of 2016 to 2015 respectively, which more than off-set the cost of the scribes," the authors write. "[R]oughly one additional patient per session covered the hospital’s scribe costs."
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