Medical Scribe Impact on Patient and Provider Experience

INTRODUCTION: The electronic health record (EHR) has created additional administrative burdens on providers to perform data entry while trying to engage with the patient during the health care visit. Providers have become frustrated and distracted with the documentation requirements which further hindered connectivity, and communication with the patient. The utilization of medical scribes in the outpatient clinical setting was a strategy shown to enhance patient and provider interaction, decrease clinician's administrative tasks, and promote satisfaction among providers and patients. This was an innovative quality improvement pilot project to improve the patient and provider experience using scribes in an outpatient setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two providers, to include one Family Medicine doctor and one Internal Medicine physician, and four hospital corpsmen participated in this pilot project. The four hospital corpsmen received a 2-week training of the fundamentals of the EHR and their role as scribes prior to the start of the project. Two corpsmen were designated for each provider and worked with their provider throughout the 12-week project period. The two primary aspects evaluated during the implementation of the scribes were the patient experience, and provider experience. Navy Medicine and the University of South Carolina Institutional Review Boards (IRB) considered this project exempt from full IRB review. RESULTS: The experience questionnaire results indicated a slight mean decrease, but did not negatively impact patient satisfaction or overall patient experience. The local Medical Treatment Facility patient satisfaction, obtained through the Interactive Customer Evaluation, and the Joint Outpatient Experience Survey, indicated that there was no decrease in patient satisfaction or overall experience during the project period. The providers' experience improved with an average 50% decrease in time spent after hours documenting in the EHR, enhanced engagement with patient, staff, and ancillary team members, and improved work life balance. Additional findings of improved clinic efficiencies, completion of notes for both providers and positive qualitative comments from the scribes were identified. CONCLUSION: In multiple settings, documentation requirements burden providers. The consideration of scribes could foster work life balance, retention, and wellness. The patient and provider experience was strengthened through the utilization of medical scribes, so future research centered on the provider and patient experience could be beneficial to organizations. Further study of the scribe's experience, especially considering the positive comments from the hospital corpsmen that participated as scribes during the project, could provide beneficial outcomes. Navy Medicine is advancing every opportunity to strengthen clinical and operational readiness, health and partnerships to provide the highest quality care and promote wellness for our patients. This type of quality improvement initiative could positively support readiness, quality and wellness for our organization, providers, and patients.