How A Medical Scribe Can Help Improve Your Efficency As A Physician

It can often feel like there simply are not enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done as a doctor working in a busy hospital or practice. What can feel the most frustrating is that a large chunk of your time is spent not actually diagnosing or working with patients, but on administrative work, documenting what you are doing, what the patient's conditions are, and what tests and medication you need or have put them on. That is where a medical scribe can help lower your workload by quite a significant margin.

What Does A Medical Scribe Do?

A medical scribe is someone who is present during consultations, but instead of doing any of the diagnoses, they simply take down the notes and do all of the writing that a physician would otherwise be expected to do. Once a physician and a medical scribe get a good enough rapport going, then the physician can even highlight what needs to be written down, any extra notes, and what to do with the information once you have it. Due to this additional support crew, the physician moves through patients far quicker while providing the same level of care, if not better.

After The Consultation

After a consultation is done, the job of the medical scribe is only ramping up. From there, they need to either compare or add in further notes (specified by the physician) and also make sure that all the correct documents are filed together in the electronic storage systems that your particular practice has. They also need to make sure the physician knows when any follow-up meetings will be, call any other medical practices and get the correct medical notes for your own records, and just generally do anything that can ease the pressure of time off of a doctor.

Who Are These Medical Scribes?

Most of the time, medical scribes are those interested in the medical field, if not already enrolled in pre-medicine at university. They are trained thoroughly and know what their place is and what to stay out of to make sure they do not become a burden. This makes them slide very easily into the dynamics of most workplaces, which is vitally important. Medical scribes help the doctor and the rest of the staff fill their own individual roles, so that the entire practice is run more efficiently and effectively.