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Impact of medical scribes in two different reconstructive plastic surgery practices: Evaluating patient perspective and clinical productivity
Joseph Meyerson, MD
Maelee Yang, BS
Ian Valerio, MD
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
2016-01-21
Presenter: Joseph Meyerson
Affidavit:
The project concept, development and execution was that completely of the resident.
Director Name: Gregory Pearson
Author Category: Resident Plastic Surgery
Presentation Category: Clinical
Abstract Category: General Reconstruction
The physician-patient interaction has dramatically changed since the introduction of the electronic medical record (EMR) leading to decreased physician productivity, increased physician burnout and decreased patient satisfaction. With the increasing demands on physician time and productivity some clinics have implemented the use of medical scribes to improve productivity. No study has investigated the use of medical scribes in plastic surgery with a review of patient satisfaction as well as productivity.
A prospective controlled trial was designed for two reconstructive plastic surgeons. Both surgeons had times recorded during clinic visits with and without a medical scribe (MS) provided. Outcomes measured included waitroom time, time-to-room, wait-to-surgeon, checkout time, patient interaction time, charting completion. Following each patient encounter patients were given an anonymous survey assessing satisfaction and estimated time of interaction.
Surgeon A encounters were significantly shorter by 6.9 mins with a scribe (MS 12.9mins vs. no Ms 19.8mins, p<0.05). There was no difference in perceived interaction time, attentiveness or satisfaction. Charts closed 12.7 days sooner. (MS 12.1days vs. no MS 24.8days, p<0.001)
Surgeon B's patients perceived interactions 8.6mins longer with a scribe present (MS 14.8mins vs. no MS 6.2mins, p<0.01). Attentiveness scores dropped from 10.0 to 7.8 with no scribe present (p>0.05). Charts closed 15.0 days sooner (scribe 8 hours vs. no scribe 15.3 days, p<0.0001).
Evaluating two different reconstructive surgeon practices use of medical scribes demonstrates their value by decreasing patient interaction time, maintaining or improving patient perceptions of attentiveness and satisfaction and decreases time to chart closure.
