What Is A Medical Scribe?

In the modern age, proper documentation of one’s health and history is a critical area of practicing care. While previously physicians were expected to handle patient information, the introduction of the medical scribe has revolutionized the practice of healthcare. A medical scribe is an essential job to allow physicians and doctors to spend more time focused on their patients rather than recording data. If you are considering a job as a medical scribe, read ahead for all the relevant information you may need to inform your decision.

What Exactly Does A Medical Scribe Do?

Following the creation of the Electronic Health Record (EHR), an overwhelming amount of data needed to be recorded, which took valuable time away from professionals in the healthcare sector, slowing down their ability to treat and care for more people. A medical scribe relieves this burden to ensure as many people as possible can receive high-quality and efficient care. A medical scribe is essentially an assistant who gathers and records information, ensuring proper documentation is maintained and works with the physician to deliver a high standard of attention. While duties may vary under each medical scribe and practice, usually the work includes generating referral letters, making appointments, charting patient encounters in the EHR or alternative template.

What Is Valued In A Medical Scribe?

It is strongly suggested that those with a passion or interest in the medical field apply to be a medical scribe. The exposure to fascinating principles of medicine and close relationship to the physician themselves can be a really attractive quality in the job. Attention to detail and efficiency are great qualities to have as a medical scribe but an overarching requirement is a devotion to providing a high standard of care to patients themselves. Medical scribes are usually proficient in using technology and have an understanding of medical terminology.

Why Become A Medical Scribe?

A medical scribe provides an incredibly valuable service. By handling the data responsibilities and clerical management duties, the physician is able to spend more time with the patients themselves –not only this but the informational input of a medical scribe allows complex cases to be resolved more easily, increases the productivity of the physician themselves and the efficiency of the whole practice in regard to contact time and the flow of patients.

Medical scribes therefore save time and costs in their service and are highly respected roles in the field of medicine. The benefits of being a medical scribe on a personal level allow the individual to have a really rewarding and fascinating job, as well as the fact medical scribes can work both on and off-site (off-site medical scribes are known as virtual medical scribes). The flexibility of this job coupled with its importance is a combination that makes it a very attractive prospect for many.

If you are considering a career as a medical scribe, or are simply curious about what the job entails, we hope this article has been a help in providing relevant and helpful information.