Who are we?
We are all board certified emergency physicians who work shifts just like you. The use of scribes has vastly improved the quality of our jobs. Our own experience with scribes has been so successful that EMSS was started as a result of our conviction that no emergency physician should have to work without one.
What is an emergency medicine scribe?
A scribe is generally a college or pre-med student who has shown proficiency in school work and an interest in medicine. The Emergency Medicine Scribe works side by side with an EM doctor as a personal documentation assistant. The scribe accompanies the doctor into the patient room, taking notes to fully document the physician-patient encounter. Additionally, the scribe assists the physician with other tasks that will make the patient encounter more efficient, such as documenting results of labs, x-rays, and consultations. In the process, the scribe gains a working knowledge of medical terminology, treatments, and pathophysiology.
What is EMSS?
Emergency Medicine Scribe Systems (EMSS) is a company formed by practicing emergency physicians. We initially developed our comprehensive training program at the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Emergency Department. We have spent innumerable hours refining our recruitment tools and training program. Our experience has led to the development of a sophisticated scribe program, which can be tailored to the needs of any Emergency Department.
What services do we offer?
EMSS will hire, train, employ and maintain scribe programs for Emergency Departments. We provide a turnkey scribe program with little involvement from the emergency physician group. The EMSS scribe program provides a comprehensive documentation system that allows the physician to practice medicine while a more complete and accurate medical record is generated.
How will EMSS improve the quality of your job?
The scribe program we provide will take you away from documentation and back to the patient's bedside. Emergency physicians spend at least 20% of their time doing chart work and, commonly, over 30% of their overall time is spent doing clerical work. In a recent article that featured our scribe program, Richard Bukata, M.D. sums up the benefit of scribes: "To the extent that charting prevents a physician from seeing new patients, the true costs of charting are very high...scribes can chaperone/assist exams, get labs, make calls and do other tasks to facilitate physician productivity." In our hospital, implementation of the scribe program resulted in a significant decrease in physician overtime, translating into better physician wellness and decreased costs.
How will EMSS improve your revenue?
The scribe program will increase revenue by creating a system that allows you to more completely capture the details, acuity, and data points of every patient encounter. Our scribes are documentation experts who are trained to understand the intricacies of the ever-changing documentation requirements, resulting in more complete medical charting. The additional revenue generated through improved documentation and physician efficiency, and reduction of physician overtime more than covers the cost of the program. Some hospitals have covered a portion of the cost of the scribe program if they pay for the current documentation system.
Who are our scribes?
Our scribes are highly motivated college students who are chosen from a large pool of applicants. Scribe trainees receive classroom and on the job training focusing on medical vocabulary and CMS documentation guidelines. The scribe records the medical history and documents physical exam findings at the bedside in real time as the emergency physician evaluates the patient. Scribes are periodically audited for performance and have opportunities for advancement. For many of the scribes planning on going on to medical school, working alongside a physician provides invaluable 'real world' exposure to emergency medicine.