When COVID hit, having a scribe in the room was problematic for both patient and doctor, but for different reasons. For Jersey Community Health, turning to remote scribes from ScribeEMR was a fortuitous development that is still paying off in many ways.
Jersey Community Health (JCH), in Jerseyville, IL, is a hospital network with 15 clinics that provide a wide range of integrated health and wellness services. JCH Medical Group physicians specialize in family practice, general surgery, internal medicine, orthopedics, pain, psychiatry, and wound care.
Practice Challenges
- Labor shortages caused by COVID-19 affected practitioner productivity
- Training in-person scribes, from a local college talent pool with high turnover, was a significant time investment
- Having a scribe in the room during medical exams created social distancing issues
Solution
- JCH started using ScribeEMR’s highly trained virtual scribes to document visits remotely
- Keeping up with charting in real time keeps physicians super-efficient and prevents burnout
- Additional ScribeEMR virtual assistant solutions help with phone calls, patient check-in, insurance verifications, and other administrative workflow issues
Solution
- Remote scribe availability eliminated the 15% drop in practitioner productivity that occurred every time an in-person scribe called in sick
- Utilizing remote scribe services addressed social distancing issues and allowed physicians to have mask less visits with asymptomatic patients
- Using remote scribes revealed how intrusive a third party could be during an exam and paved the way for more comfortable discussions about mental health and other intimate issues
- Physician burnout decreased
Revenue/ROI increased
ScribeEMR’s virtual assistants sped up appointment check-in
- Practitioners now see more patients per day without adding hours
“I can’t think of a better solution than outsourcing scribe services to your firm. It keeps our physicians super-efficient.” ScribeEMR people are strong, professional and have taken scribe services to a whole different level.”
─ John Giertz CMPE
V.P. Physician Service, JCH