A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Anyone pursuing finding work as a "medical scribe"? - (see message)

Posted: Jun 24, 2012

I've seen reference to this career path from time to time here....wondering if there's anything new to add?

I have a friend who recently went to work as an MT for a doctor's office. She's typing the minor emergency room notes or same-day surgery notes or something like that. Their PCPs do their own EHR, but she said the doctors really dislike having to do it, and it reduces the number of patients they can see each day.

As the EHR is implemented more and more, I suspect medical scribe work will be in more demand, as the doctors figure out they want someone else to handle the computer input. Have any of you MTs or former MTs seriously looked into transferring into that kind of work?

I understand and agree with the question about whether patients will want non-medical personnel in the room, but I took my mother-in-law to see a surgeon a few months ago, and there was a scribe in the room during her visit. No one introduced her, and we didn't stop and ask if she was an RN or a PA or a medical student....she could've been a former MT for all we knew, and my MIL didn't even bat an eye about it.

Pay is too low - Me

[ In Reply To ..]
The only jobs I have seen offered pay only $9 to 11 an hour. Too low pay for me.

Same here. - Jen

[ In Reply To ..]
We have them at the hospital where I work and I think they make about $8-9 an hour. They follow doctors around in the ER from what I understand. The ad always says they are looking for nursing students for that job so you know the pay is low when they want students to do it.

Oooh, that's discouraging... - (see message)

[ In Reply To ..]
I agree--that's similar pay to a lot of entry-level reception jobs. They probably won't get people to do it on a career level at that salary, where they're aiming at students who are just temporarily passing through....on their way to much higher pay, I might add.

Sigh....wish I had more time for re-training in a new field, but I'm only going to be working maybe another 8-10 years or so.

Just a note about medical students - see msg

[ In Reply To ..]
Medical students go to school full-time and their classes and outside studying can require more than 80 hours a week. They almost never work while classes are in session and may spend every bit of vacations studying, as well. Their clinical rotations require them to complete assignments and see patients. If they do this in a private office, which is rare, they are not there to scribe for the doctor.

I truly do wish that this "hire medical students to scribe" nonsense would stop. It does nothng but perpetuate a ridiculous idea that diverts attention from the reality that scribing might be a job for some at some point.

This stupid idea began several months ago when an HIM person from the midwest misread something. Apparently not knowing much about medical education, and not reading accuraely, either, she read that a lot of physician documentation in teaching facilities is accomplished by medical students and residents. It is, but it is because they do a lot of the H&Ps, daily notes, and operative reports. That is because they do a lot of the work themselves. It is not because they run around after doctors jotting down notes on what they do.

There is also a concept that an attending can use this documentation as his own, but only if the person who generated it states that he scribed for the attending. Again, this is not the same thing as a scribe in an ER or doctor's office.

Medical school is not like junior college where you can attend some classes and still work. Medical students are not going to get jobs in doctors's offices scribing.

Neither are RNs or PAs. They do not go through all that education and expense to get jobs paying that kind of money. If YOU think it is low, how do you think they see it?

Scribing is not just typing. It involves retrieving data from the EHR to present to the doctor, entering orders, following up on tests, and other things. The pay you are seeing is what doctors can afford to pay, given the pressures insurers put on them. It is in the ballpark for office workers and ED technical personnel.

I read an article a while ago... - (see message)

[ In Reply To ..]
...About medical scribes in the ER, and it basically said that the job was being done by potential medial students, those people working on their pre-med classes and trying to get whatever experience they could get in a medical setting to put on their application for med school. It said it was an ideal job for those people, who don't care much about the low pay but really want to get some experience and make some connections with doctors. It did not sound very promising for MTs, at least in the hospital setting. It did not mention the doctor's office setting.

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