Abstract
A scoping review was conducted to investigate the effects of medical scribes on physician and patient satisfaction, physician burnout, the educational experience of medical students and residents, risk, and safety. The databases PubMed, EMBASE, and CINAHL were searched for the years 2000-2020. Relevant studies were analyzed qualitatively. Literature analysis found that medical scribes increase physician satisfaction and decrease physician burnout, while having minimal impact on patient satisfaction. Patient impressions of scribes tend to be neutral to positive. The effects of scribes on medical student and resident education appear positive in preliminary results. Scribe-generated notes seem to be of equal or greater quality compared to physician-generated notes, though few studies have examined this issue. The impact of scribes on risk and safety has not been fully studied. Few studies of medical scribes have been conducted in Canada, and only one has been published in a peer-reviewed journal. Medical scribes are a promising solution to the growing challenge of physician documentation-related burden fueled by electronic health records and electronic medical records. Studies on the impact of scribes in countries other than the United States are needed. Administrative hurdles to the implementation of scribes in Canadian hospitals could be a barrier to pilot studies in Canada.
Highlights
With the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) and electronic medical records (EMRs) in the past few decades, healthcare has become more “data driven”, with increased clerical workload for physicians (Bossen et al, 2019)
This review aims to determine what is currently known about medical scribe effects on patients and physicians, and what barriers might be preventing Canadian physicians from obtaining the documentation assistance of scribes
As health care documentation has digitized, the documentation workload of many physicians has become unmanageable and contributes to burnout. Possible solutions to this documentation-related burden include the use of scribes, EHR/EMR optimization to improve usability, and clinician education on improving EHR/EMR workflow (Gesner et al, 2019, p. 1196)
Summary
With the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) and electronic medical records (EMRs) in the past few decades, healthcare has become more “data driven”, with increased clerical workload for physicians (Bossen et al, 2019). The medical scribe industry developed in response to this new data-centric workload in healthcare, in an effort to off-load some of the clerical tasks from physicians. Medical scribes document the words of the practitioner who is assessing the patient, and do not have any patient care responsibilities. Medical scribes have been in existence since the 1970s, but their numbers did not increase dramatically until after the implementation of EHRs and EMRs (Bossen et al, 2019). As EHR and EMR implementations increased, so too did the number of medical scribes (Bossen et al, 2019). As medical scribes are not a regulated profession, it is difficult to quantify their current numbers in the healthcare workforce
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