Hiring a medical scribe or a transcription service for EHR data entry can be confusing. It’s important to weigh the pros and cons of each option.
You need help with your EHR. All the pointing and clicking and data entry is becoming too much. You’re not seeing as many patients as you’d like. You take charting work home on evenings and weekends, and work bleeds too much into your personal life. What’s more, because of limited time, you’re not capturing as much detail as you’d like, and this could be hurting your bottom line. You know there are options. You could hire a medical scribe or a medical transcriptionist. Which is best? We’ll explore both options in this blog.
Medical scribes play an increasingly visible role in hospitals and physician practices. A scribe follows you from one patient encounter to the next. They learn your charting preferences, and they unobtrusively listen to your conversation with patients and enter the pertinent details into the EHR. You’re freed from time-consuming data entry, and you can prompt your scribe to answer questions for you on-demand. You can also direct your medical scribe to queue up an order or add something to the EHR as you need. At the end of the visit, the patient’s chart is complete and ready for your review and signature in the EHR.
If your scribe gets sick, their car breaks down, or they quit, you’re in a lurch. Without your medical scribe, you’re back to documenting in the EHR by yourself. Likewise, there can be a bit of a learning curve while your scribe adapts to your charting preferences. Especially in the beginning, you’ll need to give regular feedback to your scribe. Not all medical scribes necessarily have the experience you’d prefer. From a cost perspective, if you hire a full-time scribe to be on your payroll, there are employment taxes, health benefits, and vacation pay to consider. And, turnover can be high, so a revolving door of new medical scribes can be time-consuming.
For decades, medical transcriptionists have worked, mostly unseen, listening to recordings of physician audio files to create transcribed reports. Like medical scribes, medical transcriptionists can enter patient visit data directly in an EHR. The doctor only needs to create a recording of what they want to see in the EHR. Professional medical transcriptionists train extensively, pre-hire, which make them highly skilled at documenting in the EHR from day one. They can assist physicians in all medical specialties and settings. Medical transcriptionists are routinely hired on an as-needed basis, and they are paid only for the work they produce. This arrangement avoids employment expenses, benefits, and it mitigates hiring headaches.
Unlike a medical scribe, a medical transcriptionist works asynchronously. This means a medical transcriptionist isn’t present in the room while the physician is treating the patient. The doctor doesn’t talk with their transcriptionist in real-time or prompt them for on-demand admin support. While the provider can give their medical transcriptionist feedback to guide them on charting preferences, since this doesn’t happen in real-time, it extends the feedback loop for implementing changes. Additionally, caregivers need to create an audio recording with a mobile device so the transcriptionist knows what data to put in the EHR.
Ultimately, whether you hire a medical scribe or a medical transcriptionist depends on your preferences and your budget. Scribes and transcriptionists serve the same purpose–they help physicians chart in the EHR, and they help them avoid administrative burdens so they can treat patients, lower their stress, and increase their earnings. Review the table below to help inform your decision when choosing between an on-site medical scribe or a medical transcriptionist hired through a transcription service.
| Medical Scribe | Medical Transcriptionist | |
| Charts Entered in the EHR | Y | Y |
| HIPAA Compliant | Y | Y |
| Reduces Physician Stress and Burnout | Y | Y |
| Physician Can Treat More Patients | Y | Y |
| Real-Time Admin Support | Y | N |
| May Contribute to Exam Room Crowding | Y | N |
| Patients May Have Privacy Concerns | Y | N |
| Extensively Trained | N | Y |
| Multiple Quality Review Levels | N | Y |
| Misinterpretation Can Impact Charting | Y | Y |
| Employment Costs | Y | N |
| Production-Based Pay | N | Y |
| Physician Must Dictate | N | Y |
| Provider Involved in Ongoing Training | Y | N |
| Scheduling Conflicts Impact Provider | Y | N |
If you’d like more guidance on which option may be best for you, contact Athreon for a free consultation. Athreon offers the best transcription service and medical scribe solutions for healthcare professionals. With its highly skilled workforce, Athreon consistently delivers highly-accurate EHR charting services quickly and affordably.