Are you looking to save time in the exam room? Do you have to stay late after every shift just so that you can finish your patients’ charts?
If you said yes to either of these questions, you need to consider hiring a medical scribe. The job of a medical scribe was created to help medical providers. In turn, they help patients as well.
There are many benefits to investing in a medical scribe. Keep reading to learn about what medical scribes do and how they can help you.
Medical Scribes Save Time
If you were to hire a medical scribe, you’d be saving yourself a ton of time. Your medical scribe would take care of writing and organizing all of your patient charts for you so that you don’t have to.
No more staying at the office past your assigned shift. You can go home hours earlier if you invest in a medical scribe.
Medical scribes also organize patient charts in the exam room. Therefore, they know exactly what the patient is saying as they’re typing it. They don’t have to remember and try to fill in the chart later like some physicians.
They are getting down the patient complaint in real-time.
Medical Scribes Save Money
Believe it or not, hiring on a medical scribe will save you money (while also making you more money).
First off, medical scribes are – on average – paid $10-$13 an hour. As we all know, physicians and other medical providers are paid much more than this.
If you have your physicians on an hourly wage basis or a shift-by-shift basis, you’ll be paying someone $10-$12 an hour to complete charts rather than paying someone else $100 or more an hour to do the same thing.
It’s crazy to think about how much money you’d save by investing in a medical scribe.
Second, medical scribes will make it easier for physicians to see more patients. That means that your organization will be taking in more patients overall and making a bigger profit because of the increase in appointments/visits.
By saving the money you already have and increasing your overall income, you’re going to see returns like never before.
Medical Scribes Are More Accurate
Most physicians write their patient charts much later than the time that they actually saw the patient. This means that they may not be remembering all of the details about the patient. This leads to inaccurate charts that may cause faulty patient care.
If a physician is going to properly diagnose, treat, and care for a patient, he/she needs to know all of the patient’s complaints and symptoms. Without all of the necessary information, you could have a misdiagnosis or mistreatment.
This opens up a slew of legal battles that you don’t even want to think about dealing with.
Therefore, if you’re looking to have the most updated and accurate charts, you need to think about hiring a medical scribe. They could save you from a lawsuit.
Medical Scribes Collect Information
Do you know all of those questions that physicians hate asking at the beginning of medical exams? They ask about allergies, current conditions, medications, and more.
It’s exhausting and – honestly – it’s a waste of time.
To avoid wasting time with these questions, you can have your medical scribe obtain and organize this information for you. When it comes to efficient medical documentation, scribes are the best.
Just have your scribe update the patient’s chart with current medical conditions, medications, allergies, primary care provider, and other information that you’d like to gather.
You’ll save yourself time and heartache by getting all of that out of the way before you enter the room. Then, you’ll have more time to spend with your patient.
By focusing on the patient’s needs and concerns in the exam room, you’ll come off as a better physician overall. Your patient won’t feel like they’re playing 20 questions every time they visit.
Sit back and let your medical scribe handle the questioning. That way, you can focus on patient care.
Medical Scribes Update Charts
Physicians always forget to update patient charts. In most cases, it’s just one button to press but it’s so difficult to remember. When you’re in the office at 10PM doing charts, the last thing you’ll think about is the refresh button.
Luckily, medical scribes are trained to keep everything updated at all times.
From vitals to medications to results, your medical scribe will be able to keep the chart updated with all of the information you need to take care of the patient now and during future visits.
If you’re not sure whether or not the nurse gave the patient his/her medication, your scribe will know. If you’re not sure if the patient’s blood pressure has been rechecked, your scribe will know.
Plus, your scribe can help you interact with other healthcare workers to ensure that these important things are being done.
Urine is notorious for being forgotten and missed. Your scribe can remind your healthcare team to provide the patient with water and ask for a urine sample thirty minutes later.
You may have a patient with a history of diabetes that needs a glucose test. Your scribe can help remind your healthcare team that that patient needs his/her glucose checked every thirty minutes for the next two hours.
Whatever you need doing, your scribe can handle it. All you have to do is focus on your patients.
Hiring a Medical Scribe
Now that we’ve told you everything about what medical scribes do and how they can help you, it’s time for you to start the hiring process. There are too many medical scribe benefits for you to not hire one.
So, we suggest that you start by looking into hiring medical scribes independently or looking to scribe management companies like ScribeAmerica.
Whatever you decide, we hope that you take full advantage of your medical scribe and all of the great things that they can do for you. You’ll feel so much better having them by your side.
