An Internal Medicine Practice Trial On The Impact Of Scribes

An Internal Medicine Practice Trial On The Impact Of Scribes

Documentation, once a small part of the patient visit, has now taken a big chunk of physician time. With the rise of EHRs and their role in billing, the medical note may sometimes seem just as important as the patient care itself. This shift has negatively impacted patient-centered care and physician work-life balance. For every hour spent with patients, physicians, including internists spend an additional two hours on EHR tasks, with another 1 to 2 hours of personal time often consumed by additional computer and clerical work. To tackle this growing issue, adding scribes to your internal medicine practice can help. In this blog post, we will explore a recent trial in an internal medicine practice that examined the impact of scribes.

Study Overview, Participants and Design

This study examines the effects of scribes on the experiences of both patients and providers, as well as on patient flow, within an academic general internal medicine practice.

The research took place at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's Healthcare Associates, with four attending physicians working with scribes and nine control physicians without them.

The study used a quasi-experimental approach to compare changes between the two groups over time. Four attending physicians teamed up with two scribes, while nine control physicians kept working without scribes. After a three-week transition period, visit times for physicians with scribes were shortened to accommodate more patients. The main outcomes measured included provider and patient satisfaction using 5-point Likert scale surveys, as well as the number of visits and work RVUs (wRVUs) per hour.

Key Findings

The study focused on three areas - Provider experience, patient experience and provider productivity.

Provider Experience: Physicians working with scribes were more likely to complete their documentation during the patient visit, which improved their perception of the documentation burden. However, overall provider satisfaction scores didn’t significantly vary between the two groups.

Patient experience: Patient satisfaction stayed high for both groups, with no noticeable differences between those with scribes and those without.

Productivity: Physicians who worked with scribes saw more patients each hour and generated more work RVUs per hour compared to those who didn’t have scribes.

The study concluded that scribes can help boost patient flow and improve providers' perceptions of their documentation workload without negatively impacting patient satisfaction. Having said this, it is clear that adding scribes to internal medicine practices can greatly improve productivity and reduce the documentation burden, which is a major source of physician stress.

Financial Impact

The study demonstrated a positive financial return, with increased revenue from higher patient throughput covering the costs of scribes. Even though the initial cost is high, having scribes on staff helps practices see more patients and generate more revenue. In the long run, this boost in productivity often makes the investment in scribes financially worthwhile.

Conclusion

Adding scribes to your internal medicine practice can make a big difference. The trial at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center shows that incorporating scribes into internal medicine practices can significantly enhance efficiency. By cutting down on documentation time, scribes help internists see more patients and increase revenue. Despite the initial costs, the boost in productivity often makes the investment pay off. Overall, adding scribes can improve workflow and ease the documentation burden, letting physicians focus more on patient care.

If you’re ready to bring a scribe on board, get in touch with Scribe4Me now. Our team of highly skilled internal medicine scribes is here to help streamline your practice and improve your efficiency.