In a decoded brief, an article published in the Harvard Business Review titled “The Strategy That Will Fix Healthcare” depicted doctors going to a medical college to become a doctor, not to make entries in the EHR. That article revealed that a doctor’s cost per minute is $4 a minute, or $240 for a full hour. It does not make economic sense to pay a doctor $240 an hour to fill out data into an EMR. That’s where the role of the virtual medical scribe comes into play.
Whereas an average on-site medical scribe can charge you anywhere from $15-35 per hour, a virtual medical scribe can offer services starting from $7 per hour.
In this post, we will learn what a virtual medical scribe is, what services a virtual medical scribe provides, and why choose a virtual medical scribe.
What is a virtual medical scribe?
A virtual medical scribe is a healthcare professional who is a virtual assistant to the physician or doctor. The role of a virtual medical scribe is to document all the interactions between a doctor and patient, perform documentation in the EHR, and manage other clerical tasks on the behalf of a physician.
Why choose a virtual medical scribe?
A virtual medical scribe can help a doctor provide the pinnacle of efficient patient care. Here is why every doctor needs a virtual medical scribe:
Save time
A virtual medical scribe can save a lot of precious time for a doctor. In a study, it is revealed that doctors need to work extra 2 hours a day to update the records in the EHR. By hiring a virtual medical scribe, doctors can get rid of the clerical tasks and use this time on learning new things and doing other important tasks.
Increase revenue
Doctors can increase their revenue by hiring a virtual medical scribe. It takes on average 4 minutes for a doctor to enter records in a good EHR, 12 minutes for charting, and sometimes 20 minutes for complex documentation. Doctors can save this time on clerical tasks by hiring a virtual medical scribe and use that saved time to see more patients in a day.
Improve patient experience
It is a common unsatisfying experience for many patients when a doctor spends more time on the computer screen than on the patient. Making entries in the EHR, pulling records from the system, and updating notes of the visit all of this take time. This may put some patients off. Hiring a virtual medical scribe helps a primary care physician focus more on patients to improve the patient experience. Patients feel satisfied when their concerns are heard.
Prevent burnout
Performing documentation to the EHR is a tiring task. Over time, this additional responsibility can cause a physician to burn out, which is detrimental to their mental health and operational efficiency. Hiring a medical scribe can take the burden of documentation, making notes, and keeping records of patients. This will allow doctors to spend more time on self-care, with family, and things they love to do, which will prevent them from burnout.
Increase efficiency
Hiring a virtual medical scribe helps a doctor improve efficiency and productivity. A virtual medical scribe adds a few more hours to productivity in a day by managing clerical tasks. Also, a virtual medical scribe is trained for efficient charting operations, whereas a doctor is trained to provide medical services to the patients. This also allows doctors to improve their operational efficiency as they are not wasting time and energy on charting and other clerical tasks.
What services can a virtual medical scribe provide?
The purpose of hiring a medical scribe is to ensure a doctor can provide effective patient care. A virtual medical scribe can provide the following services to a doctor:
Medical transcription
A virtual medical scribe can make real-time notes of a patient’s interaction with the doctor. A virtual medical scribe uses software that allows them to listen to all the conversations happening between a doctor and a patient. This provides a huge benefit to the doctor as they do not need to make arrangements to accommodate another person in the room, and also enhances the privacy and comfort of the patients who do not feel comfortable in presence of a medical scribe.
Recording patient information in EHR
A virtual medical scribe is highly skilled in charting. A medical scribe can efficiently document all the information of the patient’s visit in the EHR. A virtual is trained in using all types of EHR and highly skilled in effectively performing the documentation operations in the EHR. It is the responsibility of the doctor to maintain the EHR/EMR. A virtual medical scribe can help a doctor do that right and efficiently.
Other clerical tasks
A virtual medical scribe can help a primary care physician in other clerical tasks, such as gathering information for the patient's visit and partnering with the physician to deliver the pinnacle of efficient patient care. A virtual medical scribe can connect and work with doctors using various online tools and software to manage tasks like scheduling appointments, making phone calls, preparing patients for visits, and managing back office tasks.
Need a virtual medical scribe for your hospital or clinic?
If you are looking for a trained virtual medical scribe for your hospital, you can hire a HIPAA-trained virtual medical scribe from VA.care. It is a leading virtual medical scribe provider for dentists, surgeons, primary care physicians, doctors, and other healthcare providers.
VA.care was founded by a pioneer in the virtual assistant sector. After countless hours of advice from many doctors, VA.care was founded to deal with the daily tasks of healthcare professionals.
Explore VA.care plans:
● VA Lite
● VA Essential
● VA Scribe
VA Scribe
● $350 Per Week
● White glove setup
● Virtual scribing
● Zoom or Microsoft Teams Video integrated
● Available for overtime
● Instant Messaging and Internal Phone systems integrated
● NO W2 wages, NO need to deal with hiring and firing, NO space issues at the office, and much more.