Are Medical Scribes Worth The Investment?

Are Medical Scribes Worth The Investment? A study was produced on whether or not scribes are worth the investment.  Two different hospital emergency departments were studied.

Some benefits of scribes:

• Can assist higher acuity emergency departments who struggle with long patient stays.
• Assist in decreasing the amount of patients leaving without being seen (LWBS)
• Assist with challenging EMRs (electronic medical record systems)

What does a scribe do?

• A scribe enters information into an EMR or chart directed by a physician or practitioner.

The study weighed the cost of the scribes' salaries against the return value as well as observed the following factors to see if a scribe was worth the investment:

• Patients per hour
• Relative value unit capture
• Number of billable patients
• Reduction in hours of coverage
• Number of down-coded charts
• Pulse oximetry and rhythm strip capture
• Length of stay for patients
• Door-to-doctor times

• The above factors were observed at two different hospitals. One hospital had an annual volume of 65,000 patients and the other hospital had an annual volume of 68,000 patients. 
• Overall, measuring the two hospitals against the parameters listed above, the hospitals showed improvements with the additional of a scribe.
• The cost for a scribe was about $20 an hour or they can also be measured at 20% productivity of the physician.

To view the full article as well as the percentages of improvements for the parameters, please click the following link: Are Medical Scribes Worth the Investment?

For additional billing and coding resources, please click the following link: Medical Reimbursement, Inc. Resources Page.