Do Pediatric Medical Scribes Contribute to Physician Well-being?

Do Pediatric Medical Scribes Contribute to Physician Well-being?

The use of pediatric medical scribes to assist pediatricians in clinical documentation is becoming increasingly popular for a variety of reasons, including increased pressure on physicians, the need to improve patient flow and the challenges of EHRs which in most cases reduced physician productivity. Pediatric medical scribes are trained specifically for pediatric practices, including pediatric terminology and can provide high-quality clinical documentation that not only facilitates accurate reimbursements but also improves the quality of care.

The need for pediatric medical scribes

Pediatric EHRs facilitate quick access and organization of data but edge out face-to face time with pediatric patients. Communicating with pediatric patient is quite challenging as they don't clearly speak up their medical issues. The physician has to infer the problem by communicating with both the patient and the parent. This necessitates a lot of focus on the part of the physician during pediatric visits. They must pay full attention and closely communicate with these little ones, observing their body language and identifying non-verbal cues, while also listening to the parents' reports on symptom clarification. In the middle of all this, trying to look at their laptops and inputting data could hinder their focus on these little ones. Hence, hiring the services of a pediatric medical scribe is the best thing they can do to avoid this problem.

The impact of medical scribes in a pediatric setting

• A retrospective comparative study was conducted in an academic pediatric primary practice to assess the impact of medical scribes on average wRVUs per patient encounter. During two different time periods in 2017 and 2018, six pediatricians performed 2277 clinical visits. Medical scribes were not used during the first period, while they were used during the second. It was observed that the wRVUs increased by 7.68% with medical scribes than without them. This study concluded that use of scribes considerably improved wRVU per visit in a primary pediatric practice.
• In another study medical scribes were used in a randomised fashion in an outpatient Pediatric Gastroenterology clinic to assess the quality of documentation, clinic efficiency, and patient and physician satisfaction. Clinic efficiency was measured by patient flow, tracked using an electronic medical record system. This study included 1970 clinical visits, 35% of which were in the presence of a scribe. It was inferred that using medical scribes was linked to markedly improved clinic traffic while maintaining patient and physician satisfaction.

Let us see what leading pediatricians have to say about the use of medical scribes

Dr. Katrina Skinner has been using medical scribes in her practice for over a decade now. She says that using scribes in a pediatric practice is considered to be superior to anything else as the pediatrician does only the work a physician does while delegating the onerous documentation tasks to the scribes. She says that the practice of using scribes is not specific to pediatrics, but in terms of the high volume of patients and the impediments to success, scribes can assist physicians with documentation, improve clinic efficiency, and increase profitability. Dr. Katrina Skinner is such a big fan of medical scribes that she's written an online guide for physicians who want to learn more about it.

Dr. Jeanne Marconi, Vice President of Clinical Integration for PM Pediatrics shares some of the good reasons to use a medical scribe.

• The pediatrician is overburdened with documentation tasks and spends too much time documenting the encounter rather than actually spending time with the patients
• The documentation is not thorough, accurate and up-to-date
• The accounts receivables days are below the optimal level or not good as it should be
• There is a revenue loss due to incomplete documentation or inaccurate coding

The benefits of hiring a pediatric scribe

The benefits of hiring a pediatric medical scribe include improved quality documentation as scribes get to learn the physicians' documentation style and preferences, over time. This is due to the fact that scribes are highly trained personnel who capture accurate and detailed documentation of clinical encounters. Improved documentation quality not only maximizes their claim reimbursements and increases their revenue, but also improves quality of care.

If you are a pediatrician looking to be more efficient and provide higher quality care, take help from pediatric scribes. Scribe4Me has a team of medical scribes specifically trained for pediatric practices with extensive knowledge of medical terminology, procedures, treatments, and pediatric ailments to ensure complete and accurate charts. Why wait? Call us today at (908)736-4180 to learn more.