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

OMG. I am in the ER and there is a scribe with the doctor - Tynkerbelle

Posted: May 06, 2013

omg. i am in the er with hunnybun and they have a medical scribe in here. took all i could to sit here and be a good girl and keep my mouth shut.

Scribe - Anon

[ In Reply To ..]
And what exactly would you say? Scribes are just another way that transcription has evolved. You either have to move with the technology or be left behind.

She (and any of us) could say the we refuse to have - a nonmedical staff

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member present during the examination. There is no reason whatsoever to have a member of the secretarial staff present other than because the hospital is being cheap.

Cheap? - Anon

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So...you would rather pay a higher fee for visiting the ER because you'd rather they use a transcriptionist instead of a scribe? Really people, have you never heard that time stands still for no one?

Technology changes and some day our jobs (yes, I am a transcriptionist) will be obsolete. It's that simple, adapt and change or get out of the way.

Did you complain when we went from typewriters and carbon paper to digital based transcription?

No. Typewriter to digital caused us to be more - productive

[ In Reply To ..]
WITHOUT changing the content/accuracy of the medical record. Have you ever seen some of the reports (if you can call them that) that come back through the use of EMR (point and click)? I've seen examples as well as transcribed notes from other physicians stating that they're unreadable. If the hospital is nickeling and diming it over a few cents to a few bucks for an accurately transcribed medical record - while invading your privacy by expecting you to allow a secretary in the exam room with the doctor (why not invite the janitor and food service in too?), they are being CHEAP! Scribes have nothing to do with technology. The scribes are there because the docs can't work the awesome technology the hospitals have bought and were spending too much time navigating, pointing, and clicking that it was eating too much time and cutting down the number of patients they could herd in in a day. If technology provides a superior product... then great. This technology is crap.

Do you really think it would cost - see message

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less just because they aren't using MTs? Really. Um, I think not! Besides, going from typewriters to digital is like comparing apples to oranges anyway, dontcha think???

I would refuse exam in front of anything other than physician, nurse, PA... - you get the drift...not gonna happen.NM

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1

No not evolved, devolved - Amused.

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Actually, with the advent of scribes, MT is moving back to its roots. Once upon a time, about 100 years ago, the doctor had a medical secretary who might well come in the exam room while the doctor was seeing the patient, with her steno tablet in hand, she would take his notes in shorthand and then type them up. For surgeries, consults, op notes, correspondence, etc., she would be available to him when he was ready to dictate, and then she would type them up, as well as handle other secretarial duties, perhaps manage the office staff, and possibly some back office assistance as well. In time, hospital transcription departments with tape recorders (or cylindrical disks) became the norm, and the shorthand aspect of transcription was no longer as important for hospital transcription, although the doctor's private secretary was likely to be expert in taking shorthand as well as medical transcription. Later, circa 1940s-1950s, due to machine recording, the art of taking shorthand gradually became less important, and medical transcription developed as a specialized skill. Now it seems we are coming full circle, although scribes are using computers instead of taking shorthand.

Wow, that is sure mature! - Really going to impress them, too.

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OK, so you are annoyed by the scribe thing. There is nothing stopping you from getting a job as one or in an even better field.

How mature is it to refuse to have a scribe in the room? And do you really think that protesting is going to impress anyone? And not in the wrong way?

They will just think you are a nut case. Your healthcare will suffer because of it.

I do have something stopping me from getting a job - as a scribe...

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it's called my mortgage. They get paid considerably less than MTs.

As for the rest of your questions/comments, please troll elsewhere. If you want a secretary in the room with you, go for it. Try requesting one when you have sensitive matters to discuss with your physician or when you get your next Pap smear and see what a grand idea you think it is then. And if it saves the facility money (aka increases profits) for the janitor to get in there and clean up so they don't have to pay an extra few minutes of on-the-clock time while he/she waits for your exam to be done, invite him/her on in too. After all, that would be the mature thing to do.

Only on this site does valuing privacy = being a nutcase.

Nicely said! Right to privacy is sane - nm

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NM

back in my hospital days - Good grief.

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I worked for a large tertiary care hospital. We did triage drills from time to time to be prepared for disasters on a large scale. MTs were to gather at a central point where each of us were to be assigned to a doctor or PA/NP, we were given a clipboard and were to follow the doctor from patient to patient, and write down his assessment, Tx plan, etc., and tag the patient so the nurses, EMS, and techs could tend to the patient. We were told in no uncertain terms that no matter how much blood and gore there might be, this was our job and we were to think about the patients and not about ourselves. I suppose though you would rather tie up the doctors and nurses and keep them from other patients rather than have an MT near your precious self, even though the MTs, as a group, probably know more than anyone else about each and very patient in that hospital. How silly can you get? Do you think that the rest of us would betray patient confidentiality, or get a case of the giggles and embarass the patients? It seems to me that maybe you are that kind of person and projecting your own lack of professionalism and maturity, not to mention ignorance, on the rest of us, because what other reason could you possibly object to having one of us available to the physician in your room if it would expedite and improve patient care? After all, we have full access to the chart if need be, and we probably know all there is to know about your medical condition. Oh, and by the way, some physicians won't see patients without chaperons, and if a nurse is unavailable, it is not unheard of to ask the ward clerk, a profession very similar to an MT who also is not involved in direct patient care, to be present if in the hospital, in the office, he may ask a front office employee or even -- gasp -- the medical transcriber to be present! I don't know about you, but I consider myself to be a health professional, bound by the same ethical standards and rules of confidentiality as every other employee, and I would conduct myself no differently. I would be, and have been, just as discreet and as sensitive in the presence of the patient, and just careful, as I am in when handling that patient's confidential medical records. If you think that a medical record keeper, whether scribe or transcriber, should not be in the presence of the patient and is not going to conduct herself in a professional mature manner, then perhaps you should go into another field because clearly you are not good MT material.

To good grief - Oh my

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In what universe was an MT ever present in the exam room? In most facilities, transcription and medical records are in a completely different area, if not in a different building; an MT would be the last person to get called to chaperone during a patient exam. There are liability issues, and only people who are licensed to be in that room are ever there. You obviously haven't read a unit clerk job description lately if you think it's the same thing as MT; those jobs are being filled by MAs, it is actually a job requirement. I have also participated in triage drills, and I actually thought it was stupid to have MTs involved. In a real world situation, none of us would have known the first thing about caring for injured people, many of us were just in the way at those drills. My facility is considering using scribes to accompany the providers on rounds, but they are looking into using medical students and RNs, not transcriptionists. As a former "transcriber" and now a "medical record keeper" and someone who has been a patient many times, I want to know that the people in that exam room are qualified to be there. If the receptionist were allowed in the room, it would make me extremely uncomfortable. Being able to maintain confidentiality and knowing a person's health history does not qualify us to take care of people or be present in the exam room. From reading your post, I am guessing it's been many years since you have actually worked in a facility with your references to medical record keepers and charts. It's all electronic now, there are no charts. No one was ever called a medical record keeper, and the only transcribers were machines that went to the recycle bin years ago.

I really don't care who is in the room...put 'em in scrubs, I'll never know the diffe - wheres_my_job

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who cares who's in the room? Do you think they care about your 'sensitive' matters? They here this stuff all day long. Same as I never cared as an MT what someone's health history was - it was just a job. I'm just doing my job. Who cares. It's not my business.

that's why when they pull out the unit MTs are smart enough to ASK. - anon NM

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^

"They get paid considerably less than MTs" - Really? - Most of you here complain of ..

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making only minimal wage and always being out of work. How is it possible that a Scribe could be paid considerably less than an MT? Especially when you have companies out there only paying 3 cpl.

Face it, this job is heading for TOTAL editing at 3 cpl per line or TOTAL EMR and overseas.

I've been an MT for since my early 20s and am now approaching my mid 40s and Im out of here, moved on to greener pastures and only doing this part-time IC. I moved on because I could not handle the stress of wondering whether or not this line of work would last long enough for me to retire on. Face it people it is, what it is - Be it scribes, EMR, overseas or voice recognition.

Wow, that's closed minded - anon

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Seriously, who made you maturity police? I would never let a scribe in the room either, and I don't give a flying fig if it impresses anyone or they think I'm a nut case. If my healthcare suffers because a physician will not respect my right of choice, then I guess that physician/facility doesn't make patient care it's number one priority--which is their legal and ethically responsibility. Swimming against the current takes more courage than going with the flow and ridiculing those who are not sheeple like you.

Yes, it IS mature - Old Pro

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The right to privacy rests with the patient. I have refused to have a scribe and no one thinks of me as a "nut case." I am entitled to my privacy, as are other patients. It has nothing to do with "impressing" anyone. It has to do with meeting the patient's needs. You know, the patient? The one who is being served? The one who is PAYING for the visit?

Ridiculous. Sounds like you all are mad at the scribe - and for what? Thats like a

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telephone operator being mad at a phone book or white pages.com. Give me a break. Times are changing and so is medical transcription.

SCRIBES IN THE ER... - MOTODD

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SCRIBES USED TO FOLLOW DOCTORS AROUND IN ANCIENT EGYPT. "TECHNOLOGY" OR QUANTUM FULL-CIRCLE REGRESSION?

i really did have a hard time keeping my mouth shut - tynkerbelle

[ In Reply To ..]
anyways, back to the ER scribe thing. i really did have a hard time keeping my mouth shut when i saw that scribe. actually i asked if i could look over his shoulder and see what he was doing while he was doing it. i'm nosey that way.

i used to work in a doctors office way back when, and what he was doing was not too much different than when i worked with my doctor.

what really got to me, was the scribe was wearing scrubs with the name of the company that the hospital outsourced to on them, PhysAssist Scribes. free advertising on their part.

i really wanted to know how much they got paid, if they got an hourly rate, paid piecework, or whatever. so many questions. and i kept my mouth shut, all i did was ask to see what he was doing. i was really a good girl and proud of myself. home now, i am going to go on line and look up the PhysAssist Scibes and maybe i can find out what i need to know on line.

i know another hospital affiliated with the one my husband went to was only hiring part time and contingent scribes (no benefits) for 10.00 an hour. what the scribe i saw today was doing looked like way more than a 10.00 an hour job to me.

I have a question for those who oppose... - (see message)

[ In Reply To ..]
...scribes in the exam room.

I agree--I prefer to be alone with my PCP or gynecologist if I'm discussing personal or embarrassing things. But my question is: How do you feel about a scribe in the room for certain specialty fields, like ophthalmology or neurology or pediatrics?

Ophthalmology - Oh my

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Ophthalmologists usually have techs or ophthalmic assistants who administer dilating drops, check visual acuity and take a medical history prior to the doctor seeing the patient, why would they need a scribe? Sorry, but I think neurologists want a licensed MA to assist with exams, and any history taking is done either by them or the provider. I can't speak for pediatrics but again the MAs are usually the history takers. I don't want a scribe in my room and personally do not see the need when the MAs and CNAs are already there and are able to do it all.

Here is your answer - Old Pro

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No. I am a very private person and no scribes for any reason. Not only no, but h*** no.

I just started a scribe job about 2 weeks ago...LOVE IT!! - MOVING ON...

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for a Rheumatology office. When I was interviewed they asked me why I was leaving my present job. I told them the MT profession is changing and evolving and I'm ready to change with it. Well, that seemed to impress them at the time and I was given the job. My present job was coming to a slow but steady end and I figured I'd better be proactive. Put in my resume one morning for the ad, got a call that afternoon for an interview and got a job offer about a week later. It is a fast paced job and I move around a lot. My body feels so much better than sitting at a computer for hours on end. There is quite a learning curve, though, with learning to navigate the EMR software while keeping up w/the docs, etc. I've been an MT for 15+ years. These docs I work for actually treat me like my experience is very valuable. Pay in my case I think is actually better than I was making in my transcription job because the pay had gone down, etc., DEFINITELY better than editing and....I can leave work at work!

Whether we like it or not things ARE changing and you better be prepared to change with it or be left behind. Just thought I'd share and those who still want to stay in the field might want to keep an eye out for something like this to move into, but obviously not from home.

MTs originally sat in the OR taking shorthand - Really

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It was only the Dictaphone that got them out.

And what does that tell you? - see msg - Oh my

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They didn't want them there and they didn't belong in the OR.

No, they got out when recording equipment was invented - sm

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It had nothing to do with privacy. The Dictaphone and tape recording were invented, allowing surgical secretaries to be more productive.

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