Virtual Medical Scribes: Everything Clinicians Should Know

Imagine actually spending more time with patients than paperwork. 

For most medical practitioners, that probably sounds like a fantasy. Sixty-one percent cite administrative overload as the biggest source of burnout. 

This might mean staring at the the electronic medical record (EMR), or missing your kid's soccer game to finish billing codes.

Virtual medical scribes are changing this equation to help clinicians reclaim their lives—inside and outside the exam room.

Let’s look at what virtual medical scribes are and how they can help.

What is a virtual medical scribe?

A virtual medical scribe is the same as a traditional scribe except for one critical difference—hint, it's in the name.

Virtual scribes work remotely from anywhere in the world. This means they might support a live session, or one that's prerecorded.

These professionals are support staff that document all interactions between clinicians and patients.

In short? They fill that growing administrative gap caused by all this documentation.

But they do more than type. Virtual scribes interpret, analyze, extract relevant information, and record it on file.

While they perform other tasks (more on that later), their primary goal is to reduce physicians' time on administrative and operational duties. 

How does a medical scribe differ from a transcriptionist?

Both transcriptionists and scribes record interactions between clinicians and patients.

However, transcriptionists do it verbatim. That means, they type out the exact words in a patient-physician interaction.

Meanwhile, scribes interpret these discussions to extract crucial medical information and document it on an electronic health record (EHR). 

They’re also responsible for regularly updating patients’ medical records. Additionally, they look into patient billing, organizing a clinic’s workflow, or composing provider referrals.

Put simply, a medical scribe has a wider set of responsibilities than a transcriptionist. 

You also need extensive training to become a qualified medical scribe and understand medical terminology. Scribes are trained in different courses depending on the organization they work with.

That said, most scribes have some medical practice through roles in nursing, biology, or pre-med.

What are the responsibilities of a virtual medical scribe?

As trained support personnel, online scribes perform multiple tasks. Let’s break down five of the most common ones:

Accurate medical documentation

Remote medical scribes meticulously document all interactions between healthcare providers and patients, either in real time or through pre-recorded sessions.

They note details such as:

• A patient's medical history
• Symptoms
• Lab test results
• Doctor's diagnosis 
• Treatment plan

A scribe also acts as a virtual assistant, entering this information into an EHR according to the clinic's guidelines.

Regularly updating patient records

Besides medical documentation, online scribes also consistently update a patient's clinical records. This is major, as it tells the story of the patients health throughout their life.

This involves updating the results from a recent lab test or an imaging report into the patient’s file. They also add information about any newly discovered medical conditions (allergies, etc.) or document the patient’s response to ongoing treatment/medication.

Transcribing additional notes

Doctors often dictate additional notes to record in the EHR after the patient encounter.

These notes might include a detailed breakdown of a diagnosis, patient-specific instructions, or the reasoning behind the administered treatment. 

Remote medical scribes transcribe these notes, while accurately conveying the clinician's message, and what they found.

Assisting with patient billing

One of virtual scribe's core responsibilities is to assist in the billing process. 

In practice, this means being extensively familiar with diagnostic, procedural, and treatment codes (as per CPT & ICD-10 guidelines) and accurately entering them on a patient’s record.

This requires precision: errors here can result in insurance claim rejections, delayed payment, and a number of headaches.

That's why they use pre-approved templates and checklists to maintain accuracy in the billing process.

Scribes also cross-verify all entries and data against the clinician's notes before submitting the records.

Streamlining administrative and operational workflow

Apart from direct patient care, a remote medical scribe also performs some operational tasks of an administrative assistant. Some examples include initiating follow-ups on test results, post-visit charting, and, in some cases, even scheduling appointments.

Virtual scribes take on these responsibilities and, as a result, improve overall workflow efficiency in a clinic.

What advantages do virtual medical scribe services offer?

It's no surprise that on-site and remote medical scribes can improve in-clinic and healthcare efficiency. 

While traditional medical scribes are expensive, virtual scribes offer multiple benefits at a better cost. Here are a few:

Healthcare efficiency, meet clinician happiness 

Data from 2023 suggests that healthcare providers spend roughly 1.84 hours daily on administrative tasks, such as EHR documentation, patient charting, etc.

Put together, that's 9.2 hours every week. 

Over a month, that adds up to roughly 36.8 hours spent on paperwork alone. 

Put another way: If paperwork were an Olympic sport, clinicians would definitely be gold medalists.

But, this documentation burden often means completing a chunk of these tasks after-hours.

Partnering with a virtual scribe can ease some of this pressure and make documentation more efficient. You can focus fully on your patients while a virtual scribe documents your conversations, prepares notes, and handles the admin tasks. 

The result? No more after-hour charting and more time for life beyond the clinic.

Patient documentation gets a faster turnaround

Depending on the training and experience of a traditional medical scribe, clinical documentation can take anywhere from 24-48 hours on average.

Virtual medical scribing can eliminate this issue entirely. 

Based on the quality of pre-recorded or live sessions, asynchronous scribing can reduce your post-visit charting time to 2-4 hours. 

To go a step further, AI-powered virtual medical scribe tools can capture every patient-physician interaction in real time. Then, these secure online platforms transcribe the conversation into SOAP notes.

Customize and transfer these notes to your EHR with a few clicks. 

Prioritizes patient privacy 

On-site scribes must be present in the room with the patient and the doctor to record the interaction accurately. This can often feel invasive and prevent your clients from openly talking about their conditions.

An online scribe solves this problem. 

Online scribes can create real-time documentation by listening to your conversations through videoconferencing. Or they refer to recorded sessions for post-visit documentation.

As a result, patients naturally feel more at ease when discussing their health concerns.

As a result, doctors can get highly specific details about patients' symptoms, medical history, etc. This leads to a more accurate diagnosis and, ultimately, higher patient satisfaction with better outcomes.

Reduces the risk of malpractice by mitigating functional creep 

Most clinicians, especially independent healthcare providers, perform tasks beyond the scope of the main responsibility of patient care. 

Coupled with the extensive work and hours they already put in, this can cause EHR documentation errors, a misdiagnosis, or, worse, improperly administered treatment. 

With a dedicated virtual medical scribe for documentation, you don’t have to worry about manual errors. That’s because these scribes are trained to handle all types of administrative tasks and customer service.

More importantly, virtual medical scribing agencies often restrict employee access to data absolutely necessary for documentation. This adds an extra layer of security and protects sensitive patient information.

Better flexibility and reduced training time

Onboarding new on-site scribes can be time-consuming. They must be trained to take notes in your specific style, which can take anywhere from a week to several months, depending on their experience.

In comparison, an online scribe is part of a larger organization like a virtual scribing agency. So, the responsibility of training them doesn’t fall on you. 

Even better, virtual scribes cost a fraction of their traditional counterparts. Besides, if a particular scribe doesn't meet your expectations, you can request someone more experienced.

An AI medical scribe can simplify this even more. 

Virtual scribe tools are designed to adapt and learn based on your dictation style.

Secure online platforms like Freed offer highly customizable settings or let you edit your notes at the end of a visit to further refine how it documents the interaction.

What are the challenges of working with a virtual scribe?

While they improve in-clinic workflow and operational efficiency, working with virtual scribes does come with certain challenges.

We discuss three common issues that most clinicians and independent healthcare practitioners experience.

High turnover rates

Scribing is popular for pre-med students since it offers first-hand field experience. Research found that 34% of students were scribes before medical school.

The bad news: medical students don't stay long after completing their education, leading to high turnover rates.

The good news: online scribe tools provide consistent, reliable support to manage your documentation chore.

You don’t have to worry about turnover or spend time retraining these tools. After the initial learning curve, these tools will consistently produce accurate documentation.  

Potential security risks 

A common practice in the healthcare industry is to outsource medical scribing to offshore agencies. While that can help with operational expenses, it also opens clinicians up to potential security liabilities. 

For example, remote access of an EHR and its network through an unsecured system may result in a data breach, malware, or inadvertent errors in patient documentation.

A simple workaround for this is to exclusively partner with a virtual scribing agency with protective screening measures, background check process, and proven security standards.

Lack of standardized training

Despite its size and constant growth, the medical scribing industry still lacks standardized training.

Even when agencies institute internal programs, the absence of firm guidelines and regulations means some variability will always be involved. 

For example, the notes for single or identical patient visits may differ based on the scribe’s training and experience.

Dealing with in-clinic equipment and tools, such as an EHR, can also be problematic in such cases. A simple documentation or coding error can lead to complications for your clients, like financial issues (claim rejections/delayed payment) or malpractice (incorrect diagnosis/improper treatment).

Free yourself up for the more important things

Physician burnout isn't just about long hours—it's about hours spent on the wrong things. 

Every minute lost to documentation is a minute taken from your personal time and much-needed rest.

An AI-powered virtual medical scribe solution like Freed is purpose-built to help you reclaim those lost hours. With real-time documentation and instant SOAP notes, Freed makes it easy to focus on your patients and your life beyond the clinic.

Sign up for a free trial to see how Freed works.