The Impact of Medical Scribes on Patient Satisfaction in an Academic Otolaryngology Clinic

Abstract

Objectives: Evidence shows that scribes can improve provider efficiency and satisfaction in several settings, but is mixed on whether scribes improve patient satisfaction. We studied whether scribes improved patient satisfaction in an academic otolaryngology clinic. Methods: The authors performed a retrospective review of patient responses to the Press Ganey survey between 12/2016 and 12/2017. Their responses about satisfaction with the provider and wait times were examined. Three providers worked with scribes during this year; each spent six months with a scribe and six without. The authors compared survey responses from periods with and without scribes using the Fischer exact test. Average overall provider ratings were compared using the Student’s t-test. Results: A total of 87 patients filled out Press Ganey surveys for the 3 providers over the year: 54 for visits without scribes, and 33 for visits with scribes. Fischer exact analysis demonstrated no significant difference in satisfaction with providers and wait times for both individual providers and all providers combined (all P > .05). There was also no difference in patients’ likelihood of recommending the provider’s office ( P = .91). Overall provider rating (0-10 scale) was high without scribes (9.48 ± 1.06) and was unchanged by the presence of scribes (9.53 ± 0.8) ( P = .97). Conclusion: Patient satisfaction with wait times and providers was high overall and was not affected by the presence of a medical scribe.

Effect of Medical Scribes on Throughput, Revenue, and Patient and Provider Satisfaction: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…15,16,28,30,[32][33][34]39,50 Of these 9 studies, 7 of them 15,16,28,[32][33][34]50 reported higher provider satisfaction with a scribe, whereas 2 of 9 studies 30,39 reported no difference. Seven studies 18,20,23,36,45,49,51 reported provider satisfaction specifically with scribes without a comparator, and all results were supportive of scribes.…”

“…Thirty-nine studies were included, comprising greater than 562,682 patient encounters (Table E1, available online at http://www.annemergmed.com). Five studies were randomized controlled trials, [15][16][17][18][19] 23 studies were prospective nonrandomized studies, 10 studies were retrospective, [43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52] and 1 study had both prospective and retrospective components. 53 All studies were published between 2010 and 2020.…”

“…Most studies were conducted in the United States, [15][16][17][18]21,23,24,[26][27][28][29][30][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53] with 4 conducted in Australia 19,22,25,42 and 2 performed in Canada. 20,31 Nineteen studies were conducted in EDs, 17,19,20,[22][23][24][25][26][27]31,36,38,[42]<...>…”

“…annemergmed.com). Seven studies 28,30,32,41,46,48,50 reported favorable patient satisfaction with a scribe, and the remaining studies 15,18,29,33,36,39,40,42,49,53 indicated a scribe presence made no difference in patient satisfaction.…”

Prevalence of and Associations With Distress and Professional Burnout Among Otolaryngologists: Part II, Attending Physicians

“…[38][39][40] Although there is likely no easy single solution, previous studies found that employment of physician extenders, the use of scribe services, and the integration of similar support mechanisms can increase the number of patients seen while demonstrating a positive benefit toward patient satisfaction and physician well-being. 41,42 A thoughtful 2016 commentary by Shanafelt and Noseworthy identified 9 organizational strategies to promote physician engagement and reduce burnout. 12 In the current study, we identified a relatively low prevalence of depression (8%) and anxiety (11%) among academic otolaryngology attending physicians, which appears slightly elevated over US adult population estimates.…”