By Haley Holmes
May 11, 2023
ENT and Allergy is a complex medical practice with multiple service lines. Generally, the Allergy specialist collaborates with the ENT specialists to help treat minor seasonal allergies or a troubling year-round problem. In some cases, the otolaryngic allergist is trained in both arenas – meaning they have the medical expertise to identify and treat allergies as well as ENT conditions that may be driving the symptoms. Whatever the case may be ENT and allergy practices are seen busy throughout the year with high patient volume. Seeing more patients means more paperwork to do. The result? They end up spending nearly twice as much time on administrative paperwork as they actually see patients. But, paperwork doesn't have to stand in the way of providing patient care, though. You have a medical scribe to your rescue. Read on to learn more.
EHRs slowing otolaryngic allergists and scribes to the rescue
EHRs are literally slowing physicians down, making them less productive and impacting the patient experience. Being cumbersome and redundant in nature it results in significant increases in documentation time and frustration. Fortunately or rather unfortunately EHRs is here to stay. So, what can ENT allergists do to reduce their administrative workload, balance their time spent caring for patients and get back to practicing at the top of their license? This is where scribes come to their rescue. Scribes are an indispensable tool that helps ENT and allergy specialists navigate through the EHRs and aid clinic workflow and efficiency. Across the board, scribes have been shown to reduce documentation time, improve patient face-to face time, increase patient counts, and ultimately boost revenue. No wonder, scribes are increasingly being used across the country and the results are breathing new life into many practices, including busy ENT and allergy practices.
Burnout in ENT and allergy specialists - A real problem
According to the Medscape Physician Burnout & Depression Report 2023 nearly half of otolaryngology/allergy/immunology specialists reported having at least one symptom of burnout. Too many bureaucratic tasks were cited as the number one contributor to burnout. Yet with so much data on burnout, its exponential growth rate, and its effects on healthcare professionals, it appears that the solutions are mere band-aids. Everyone talks about striking a balance between work and personal life. Well, how is it ever possible to achieve this in today’s health system? Tait Shanafelt, Chief Wellness Officer for Stanford Medicine, Director of the Stanford WellMD Center and Associate Dean for Stanford School of Medicine suggests that physicians need to get more sleep, grab a granular bar, practice yoga and take good care of themselves. She further insisted that it’s time to start treating physician burnout as a system issue, not an individual one. If it impacts half of the otolaryngology/allergy/immunology specialists, then it impacts half of the patients as well. A study has reported that medical scribes can help reduce burnout because they reduce the time spent on documentation. Hence, scribe support can alleviate documentation and decrease physician burnout.
Scribe experience of Kristin Seiberling, MD, AAOA Board of Directors
Kristin Seiberling an otolaryngologist in Redlands, California, says that in her experience scribes not only allowed her to significantly cut down on the amount of time spent documenting care but also allowed to improve her productivity, more importantly, spend more time directly interacting with patients which improved her job satisfaction. Using a scribe, she was able to fully focus on patient care activities while the scribe simultaneously recorded all information into the EHRs. During the patient visit, scribes may also help procure lab tests, retrieve diagnostic results, pend orders, and generate referral letters. She said focusing on patient needs without having to document care made her work more enjoyable and less stressful. She also added that scribes allowed her to become more efficient and add more patients to her calendar but for the same numbers of hours she worked in the past. She even said that she didn’t have to stay back after clinic hours to finish her charting or carry home unfinished charts. Her charts were complete before she left the clinic and all she did was review and sign off.
Are you an otolaryngic allergist who feels that paperwork has gotten out of control and is getting in the way of providing quality care? Not to worry. Scribe4Me is here for you. We will take care of your documentation requirements while you stay focused on patient care. We have a pool of certified medical scribes who can do real-time EHR documentation without the need for you to spend hours documenting the same. Additionally, they also make sure to enter the right codes, which is crucial for billing. What's more? Our scribes are committed to compliance, privacy, and exceptional customer service. If you would like to know more on how our scribe services work, give us a call at (908)736-4180 or email us at [email protected]. We also provide a 15-day trial offer to decide if it's a perfect fit for your workflow and practice. Why wait get started on a free trial, today.
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Haley Holmes
Haley Holmes
Documentation is an important daily clinical responsibility. In order to optimize patient care, physicians are always on the lookout for new ways to effectively and efficiently document patient visits.
The use of virtual medical scribes has become increasingly popular in the recent years, as medical practices across the country are on the constant lookout for ways to reduce clinical documentation overload, thereby improving overall productivity.
The clerical burden associated with EHR usage is attributed as the number one cause of physician burnout. We also know that physicians spend twice as much time on EHRs and other clerical tasks compared to the time providing patient care.
