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Any one use something like this in there ED? Looks like it could def increase the # of patients seen.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070609/news_1b9scribes.html
Aiding ER doctors
Hospital's 'scribes' help them focus more on patients, less on paperwork
By Keith Darcé
STAFF WRITER
June 9, 2007
Doctors struggling to keep pace with the growing volume of patients who pass through Tri-City Medical Center's emergency room are getting help from an unlikely source: college students.
SCOTT LINNETT / Union-Tribune
Emergency room scribe Jackie McDonald (right) took notes and recorded orders for Dr. Neil Joebchen as he examined Christine Greathouse at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside. The hospital employs 28 scribes.
The Oceanside hospital has hired undergraduate pre-med students and recent graduates as "scribes" to document physician notes and orders in the emergency room – work that doctors usually do themselves.
That change gives doctors at one of the busiest emergency rooms in San Diego County more time to spend with their patients and provides the students with real-world medical experience they normally wouldn't get until later in medical school.
"It helps doctors stay on task and on track," said Dr. Cary Mells, chairman of Tri-City's emergency medicine department.
Lauren Davie, a University of California San Diego graduate who plans to start medical school in the fall, jumped at the chance to work as a scribe at Tri-City. The 23-year-old Oceanside native had previously worked as a volunteer in emergency rooms, but most of her time was spent helping nurses shuffle papers.
As a scribe, Davie works side by side with doctors as they examine patients, review laboratory results and decide on a course of treatment.
"This is so much hands-on," she said. "You get to know the doctors on a personal level. You get a feel for what it's like being a physician. It's a great way to figure out if this is really what you want to do."
Advertisement Some hospitals have been using scribes in emergency rooms for years, but Tri-City became the first to employ them in San Diego County when the North County hospital launched the program in late February.
While figures weren't available on how many of the nation's 4,000 emergency rooms currently use scribes, Dr. Brian Keaton, who heads the American College of Emergency Physicians, said the number is small. "I know of only a handful of people using scribes across the country," he said.
Keaton likes the idea of using pre-med students to do the work.
"It's something that contributes to patient care and . . . to (the scribe's) education. Anything we can do that allows me to be more effective as a clinician, those are good things," he said.
Scribing, an ancient profession, dates back at least 4,000 years to the age of Egyptian pharaohs, hieroglyphics and papyrus scrolls. Scribes have been used by kings, merchants, churches and cities to record historic events, business transactions and judicial decisions.
Over time, scribes morphed into accountants, historians, journalists and lawyers. But the vocation also has endured in its more basic form in jobs such as court reporting.
The 28 scribes who work at Tri-City are employed through ScribeAmerica, a medical labor service based in Lancaster. Before they start work, each scribe completes a two-week training course to learn medical terminology, become familiar with emergency room computers and practice taking physician notes, said Sarah Esquibel, chief operating officer of ScribeAmerica.
The scribes work shifts of eight to nine hours – about the same as doctors – and their pay starts at $10 an hour, Esquibel said.
That's in line with the $9 to $13 average hourly wage that inexperienced nursing aides, orderlies and attendants earn in the county, according to the San Diego Workforce Partnership's 2007 Occupational Outlook Report.
Scribes shadow doctors wherever they go in the emergency room, using wireless tablet computers to record information spoken by the physicians. The tablets are part of the hospital's electronic medical records system that lets doctors and nurses access many patient records on computers anywhere in the hospital at the click of a mouse.
Scribes can record information by tapping the tablet's touch-sensitive screen, by writing longhand with a light pen or by plugging the pad into a portable keyboard.
The scribes also help doctors keep track of patients as they move through the hospital, letting them know when laboratory tests have been completed or X-rays arrive.
It helps for scribes to have aggressive personalities and thick skin, especially when it comes to dealing with doctors with big egos and demanding personalities, Esquibel said.
"Part of the job is to direct the physicians and keep them organized. You have to be able to multi-task," she said.
Scribes are changing the way physicians work at Tri-City's emergency room, said Mells, the department's chairman.
"What we used to do was wait until the end of a patient's visit and try to dictate our notes from memory," he said. A clerk would then transcribe the notes, and the records wouldn't become available until a day or two later.
That system is still in place at most other hospitals.
At Tri-City, emergency room doctors are now able to treat more patients – and take more time with them – because they spend less time writing or dictating patient notes and orders. Since the information is documented by scribes immediately, errors due to faulty memory are less likely.
Scribes also can help make hospitals and doctors more profitable by recording billable procedures that might otherwise be forgotten, said Keaton of the American College of Emergency Physicians, based in Irving, Texas. "Most emergency departments do a lot more work than what they bill for."
Mells said the scribe program will save Tri-City about $2.3 million over the next five years, largely because it replaces the more costly transcription services previously used.
Dr. Richard Burruss, one of the first Tri-City physicians assigned to work with the scribes, said it's been gratifying to play the role of mentor to the students.
"They are highly motivated and very interested in learning about how medicine really works and what physicians really do for patients," he said. "You can really see them learning and growing as the program progresses."
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070609/news_1b9scribes.html
Aiding ER doctors
Hospital's 'scribes' help them focus more on patients, less on paperwork
By Keith Darcé
STAFF WRITER
June 9, 2007
Doctors struggling to keep pace with the growing volume of patients who pass through Tri-City Medical Center's emergency room are getting help from an unlikely source: college students.
SCOTT LINNETT / Union-Tribune
Emergency room scribe Jackie McDonald (right) took notes and recorded orders for Dr. Neil Joebchen as he examined Christine Greathouse at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside. The hospital employs 28 scribes.
The Oceanside hospital has hired undergraduate pre-med students and recent graduates as "scribes" to document physician notes and orders in the emergency room – work that doctors usually do themselves.
That change gives doctors at one of the busiest emergency rooms in San Diego County more time to spend with their patients and provides the students with real-world medical experience they normally wouldn't get until later in medical school.
"It helps doctors stay on task and on track," said Dr. Cary Mells, chairman of Tri-City's emergency medicine department.
Lauren Davie, a University of California San Diego graduate who plans to start medical school in the fall, jumped at the chance to work as a scribe at Tri-City. The 23-year-old Oceanside native had previously worked as a volunteer in emergency rooms, but most of her time was spent helping nurses shuffle papers.
As a scribe, Davie works side by side with doctors as they examine patients, review laboratory results and decide on a course of treatment.
"This is so much hands-on," she said. "You get to know the doctors on a personal level. You get a feel for what it's like being a physician. It's a great way to figure out if this is really what you want to do."
Advertisement Some hospitals have been using scribes in emergency rooms for years, but Tri-City became the first to employ them in San Diego County when the North County hospital launched the program in late February.
While figures weren't available on how many of the nation's 4,000 emergency rooms currently use scribes, Dr. Brian Keaton, who heads the American College of Emergency Physicians, said the number is small. "I know of only a handful of people using scribes across the country," he said.
Keaton likes the idea of using pre-med students to do the work.
"It's something that contributes to patient care and . . . to (the scribe's) education. Anything we can do that allows me to be more effective as a clinician, those are good things," he said.
Scribing, an ancient profession, dates back at least 4,000 years to the age of Egyptian pharaohs, hieroglyphics and papyrus scrolls. Scribes have been used by kings, merchants, churches and cities to record historic events, business transactions and judicial decisions.
Over time, scribes morphed into accountants, historians, journalists and lawyers. But the vocation also has endured in its more basic form in jobs such as court reporting.
The 28 scribes who work at Tri-City are employed through ScribeAmerica, a medical labor service based in Lancaster. Before they start work, each scribe completes a two-week training course to learn medical terminology, become familiar with emergency room computers and practice taking physician notes, said Sarah Esquibel, chief operating officer of ScribeAmerica.
The scribes work shifts of eight to nine hours – about the same as doctors – and their pay starts at $10 an hour, Esquibel said.
That's in line with the $9 to $13 average hourly wage that inexperienced nursing aides, orderlies and attendants earn in the county, according to the San Diego Workforce Partnership's 2007 Occupational Outlook Report.
Scribes shadow doctors wherever they go in the emergency room, using wireless tablet computers to record information spoken by the physicians. The tablets are part of the hospital's electronic medical records system that lets doctors and nurses access many patient records on computers anywhere in the hospital at the click of a mouse.
Scribes can record information by tapping the tablet's touch-sensitive screen, by writing longhand with a light pen or by plugging the pad into a portable keyboard.
The scribes also help doctors keep track of patients as they move through the hospital, letting them know when laboratory tests have been completed or X-rays arrive.
It helps for scribes to have aggressive personalities and thick skin, especially when it comes to dealing with doctors with big egos and demanding personalities, Esquibel said.
"Part of the job is to direct the physicians and keep them organized. You have to be able to multi-task," she said.
Scribes are changing the way physicians work at Tri-City's emergency room, said Mells, the department's chairman.
"What we used to do was wait until the end of a patient's visit and try to dictate our notes from memory," he said. A clerk would then transcribe the notes, and the records wouldn't become available until a day or two later.
That system is still in place at most other hospitals.
At Tri-City, emergency room doctors are now able to treat more patients – and take more time with them – because they spend less time writing or dictating patient notes and orders. Since the information is documented by scribes immediately, errors due to faulty memory are less likely.
Scribes also can help make hospitals and doctors more profitable by recording billable procedures that might otherwise be forgotten, said Keaton of the American College of Emergency Physicians, based in Irving, Texas. "Most emergency departments do a lot more work than what they bill for."
Mells said the scribe program will save Tri-City about $2.3 million over the next five years, largely because it replaces the more costly transcription services previously used.
Dr. Richard Burruss, one of the first Tri-City physicians assigned to work with the scribes, said it's been gratifying to play the role of mentor to the students.
"They are highly motivated and very interested in learning about how medicine really works and what physicians really do for patients," he said. "You can really see them learning and growing as the program progresses."
