A new type of scribe service combines the best of dictation software and a live scribe in the room for physicians struggling with the documentation demands of Meaningful Use. Skywriter MD, which was formed in May, 2015, provides assistants to physicians who record notes in real time, in whatever electronic medical records system required. The assistants serve as scribes, and can also look things up, or locate relevant records allowing the physician to focus on the patient.
Dr. Al Villarin, Skywriter MD’s Chief Clinical Strategy Officer, described the service as an “e-virtual scribe.” The service hires clinically knowledgeable people, often pre-med students, or others heading into the healthcare field. They all pass an exam to become certified scribes, and are trained to work with all of the different EMRs.
When a clinician is with a patient, the scribe listens from their location in a “Sky Center” in Denver, Colorado, and transcribes everything directly into the EMR. The patient is aware of the scribe, but there isn’t another person physically in the room. The microphone can be muted as well.
Each scribe works with about four doctors. Villarin says that an unexpected benefit of the service is the way that the scribes and writers get to know one another after just a couple of weeks. “There’s such a synergy between the Skywriter and the doctors,” he says. As the scribes learn the style and flow of the doctors, they begin to anticipate what they will need and vice versa.
The scribes can ping the doctors to ask questions, if necessary, and the doctors can request that the scribes look things up, or set up prescription orders. Villarin says there is no clinicial decision support, but that the scribes can help get orders set up and ready for the physician to sign.
Villarin quipped, “We are taking the ‘doc’ out of documentation,” saying that the physicians who are using Skywriter are finding that they can see 1-2 more patients per day, as well as leaving the clinic earlier. “They see more patients, and the documentation is more exact and accurate,” he said.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Getty Images/Michael Smith
