Would your practice's providers like an extra $24,000?

by: Julia Kyles, CPC Jun 8, 2017

How about a 10% increase in productivity?

If the answer to one or both questions is yes, consider adding a scribe to your staff. Increased productivity and revenue are two benefits of employing scribes that Maxine Lewis outlines in the handout for her June 15 webinar on how to add scribes to the practice:

A study published last year by the National Center for Biotechnology Information found physician productivity in a cardiology clinic was 10% higher when scribes were used. The study compared the productivity during routine clinic visits of 10 cardiologists using scribes versus 15 cardiologists without scribes. According to the study, physicians with scribes saw 9.6 percent more patients per hour than physicians without scribes.

This same study showed physicians with scribes generated an additional revenue of $24,257 by producing clinical notes that were coded at a higher level. Total additional revenue generated was $1.4 million at a cost of roughly $99,000 for the employed scribes.

Providers who are reluctant to adopt an EHR, or find using the one they have more of a burden than they expected, get another benefit from employing scribes, Lewis notes in her presentation: They don't need to bother with the EHR at all.

EHRs are becoming more commonplace in today’s practice. The patient may perceive their visit negatively if the provider spends the majority of their time looking at a computer monitor instead of the patient. A scribe can enter information into the EHR without intrusion or interruption, allowing the provider to focus more on the patient diagnosis and treatment plans.

Employing scribes to capture and enter health information into the EHR during a patient encounter may improve the overall quality of documentation-not only in the level of granularity, but also in the level of specificity. Improved documentation in turn can be used to support achieving “meaningful use”, EHR Incentive Program criteria, as well as improving compliance with quality monitors and billing and reimbursement.

Learn all about the best practices for adding a scribe to your organization during this 60-minute program, Scribes: boost practice and provider efficiency, avoid compliance traps, June 15, 1-2 p.m., E.T. The presentation includes on-demand access to the recording and handouts, which makes it the perfect training tool for everyone in the practice, including your new scribe. To register by phone: 1-855-CALL-DH1.

Blog Tags: compliance, provider compensation

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