A “life-changer.” That’s how one physician described the use of virtual scribes during a recent pilot program involving clinicians from Yale Medicine (YM) and Northeast Medical Group (NEMG).
“I am a huge fan of the virtual scribe,” writes another physician. “It has enhanced patient satisfaction, and especially efficiency.” Yet another doctor writes “The best aspects are that I have no more evening or weekend charting, which gives me more time out of the office with my family and without Epic.”
Virtual scribe technology allows physicians to focus on their patients while a certified medical scribe documents the visit from a remote location. Virtual scribes provide synchronous, off-site scribing services including note creation and documentation, chart navigation, and pending of non-medication orders.
Over the past year, 49 YM and NEMG providers across multiple specialties took part in the virtual scribe pilot, and the results were extremely promising. For example, after-hours Epic use by participating physicians went from 11 days per month to five days per month. The number of days to close encounters decreased from approximately four days to 1.5 days.
A physician survey and a review of key metrics also found increased physician satisfaction and well-being; the ability to see more patients, if desired; and an increase in relative value units (RVU) per visit and RVU per day. In addition, the use of virtual scribes significantly improved patient satisfaction, allowing doctors to focus exclusively on their patients without being distracted by typing notes and navigating within Epic.
The virtual scribe project is being led by Chief Information Officer Lisa Stump; Chief Clinical Transformation Officer Babar Khokhar, MD; Chief Operating Officer Maryam Saeri; and Chief Medical Information Officer Allen Hsiao, MD; along with a committee that includes physicians and representatives from IT and Project Management.
The next step will be the phased deployment of virtual scribe technology across the practice. While virtual scribes are not right for everyone, they will be an option for all YM providers who choose to use them—helping those physicians achieve our goal of “less time typing, more time caring.”