Neurology Medical Scribes
Gain Administrative Efficiency With Outsourced Neurology Scribe Services
The impact of administrative tasks is increasing in all types of medical clinics and departments, making physicians, nurses, and admin teams less efficient.
One of the most time-consuming tasks for neurologists involves many hours of work spent on documenting patient notes and maintaining accurate medical history.
That’s why we have spent many years developing specialized teams of medical scribes for all different medical fields.
Through this experience dealing with busy neurology departments, we have gained significant insights into how our services directly impact the overall efficiency and effectiveness of medical teams.
Benefits Of Hiring A Neurology Scribe
Neurology is one of the most highly specialized medical fields where doctors and nurses have to pay close attention to patient record accuracy.
To provide you with better insights into what benefits a neurology medical scribe can provide, we have analyzed research data from a Stanford University study.
1. Benefits For A Neurologist
There were three key areas where Stanford researchers saw major improvements reported by doctors who had access to a scribe.
The reality for the majority of doctors is that the more patients they see, the more time they have to dedicate to writing up patient notes. Whether a neurologist decides to type during or after a patient consultation, the result is less attention and time for the patient.
It’s not uncommon for the time spent on medical records to require over 30% of a physician’s time.
In the Stanford study, researchers showed that 70% of doctors strongly agreed that they had more face time with patients when they had the support of a medical scribe.
Having significantly more time available allows neurologists to focus more attention directly on the patient, which can help with improved analysis of symptoms and better patient care.
Another key point from the research study is the improvement in overall time spent on medical records. While doctors who have the support of a scribe still need to proofread medical notes, this takes a fraction of the time of typing them in the first place.
Researchers found that 50% of doctors strongly agreed that they spent less time updating EHR systems.
In our experience here at DataMatrix, that percentage is much higher.
One reason for this is that when doctors rely on in-house scribes, they sometimes have to resort to writing their own notes when scribes aren’t available due to high demand. It is not cost effective to hire back-up scribe coverage.
The third data point from the study was around how physicians felt about medical record accuracy.
What researchers found is that 65% of physicians strongly agreed that medical scribes helped them keep more accurate and complete medical records.
Medical record accuracy is an important factor taught in medical school and nursing school. Busy and stressful working days can lead to incomplete documentation which results in inaccuracy.
Being able to reverse that negative accuracy trend in stressful neurology departments is a major vote of confidence in the use of medical scribes.
2. Benefits For Patients
Where things got very interesting in the Stanford study is in the benefits for patients. Here are the three most impactful benefits that patients themselves highlighted.
Over 90% of patients who responded strongly agreed that they had enough time with their physician when support from a scribe was involved.
That is a very large percentage of patients who didn’t feel like they were rushed or had difficulty getting an appointment in the first place.
Because doctors are not as tied up in administrative tasks to maintain medical records, they’re in a position to allocate more time to each patient consultation and book more appointments during clinic hours.
Similarly to having more time with doctors, 90% of patients also agreed that their doctors encouraged them to talk more about their symptoms and experiences with treatments when there was a scribe involved.
The key underlying factor for this is that physicians who use scribing services don’t have the constant distraction of adding information to the medical records during consultations.
Being encouraged to talk more gives patients the confidence that they are being better served, and neurologists can gain more insights into patients to better tailor and fine-tune the treatments.
Researchers also asked patients to indicate how caring and attentive they felt physicians were during consultations.
Again, over 90% strongly agreed that their doctor was caring and attentive, giving them more confidence in the service and an overall better appreciation.
It also helps to build trust and reduce stress and anxiety at times when people need reassurance as much as a treatment plan.
3. Documentation Efficiency
The Stanford study also looked at overall efficiency in handling medical records. Medicare guidelines suggest that medical notes should be reviewed and closed within 48 hours of patient consultation.
In most cases, that’s not possible for neurologists as they are constantly dealing with the demands of other administrative tasks, patient appointments, and potential urgent care and surgery.
However, doctors who had the support of a scribe were able to significantly improve how many patient records they were able to process and close within the 48-hour guideline.
In-House Vs. Outsourced Scribes
One important thing that neurologists need to consider is how in-house versus outsourced medical scribing affects overall efficiency.
Pros and Cons Of In-House Neurology Scribes
One reason some medical departments decide to hire in-house scribes directly is that it gives them more control over the hiring process. By setting certain educational and experience standards, they can aim to satisfy more specific and unique needs.
It also allows them to introduce specialized training for neurological terminology and treatment processes commonly used in the clinic.
However, these advantages can be easily achieved with the right outsourcing provider, and you also have to consider the downsides.
All types of medical areas will see fluctuating demand for services throughout the year. Adapting and scaling to changes in demand is not an easy solution with an in-house team of scribes.
It’s simply not possible to add more scribing staff at short notice.
You also need to account for the added costs, including hiring, training, payroll taxes, vacation time, sick leave, and office space.
Pros:
- Retain control over the hiring process
- Introduce specialized training for scribes based on your needs
- Ability to work directly with scribes to deal with errors
- Build consistency from a dedicated team of scribes
Cons:
- It’s not a scalable option to deal with fluctuating demand
- Added costs of hiring, payroll taxes, sick leave, and vacations
- Requires a large enough team to provide backup for training, vacation, and sick leave
- Increased costs for office space and equipment
Pros and Cons Of Outsourced Neurology Scribes
The major advantage of outsourced scribing for neurological clinics and departments is the fact that it’s easy to scale and adapt to changes in demand.
Whether it’s an abnormally busy time of year or an expansion plan for more neurologists offering clinic hours, with the right third-party provider, you have fast access to more highly trained and experienced scribes.
You also won’t have to deal with shortages when scribes are on vacation or sick leave, making it much easier to avoid a backlog of scribing work.
Another important factor is that the overall costs can be significantly lower as you don’t have to account for hiring, training, office space, sick leave, payroll taxes, and vacation time.
With a cost-effective and highly scalable service, neurology clinics have a much easier-to-manage solution that adapts to the level of demand from patients.
Pros:
- Fully scalable solution to adapt to changes in demand
- Sick leave and vacation time don’t impact scribing services.
- Back-up scribe is always available and included in the standard cost
- Lower costs by only paying for services needed
- No management, hiring, and training overheads
- No need for additional office space and equipment
Cons:
- Offline scribing has limited communication with the scribing team
- Offline scribing service could lead to potential delays in the requests to fix errors
Call Us For More Information On Outsourced Neurology Scribing
If you’d like to find out more about how a neurology medical scribe can streamline administrative work and free up many hours every week, then call us for a free consultation.
At DataMatrix, we have specialized in creating the best solution for outsourced scribing, making it extremely easy for physicians to offload a significant amount of admin work.
With both offline and online scribing options available, you can tailor the service you need to the preferences of neurologists.
This will be one phone call that could transform the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire neurology department.
