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Are scribes taking MT jobs away? - Great discussion here

Posted: Dec 04, 2010

http://ahdilounge.blogspot.com/2010/11/trsi-to-train-medical-scribes.html?showComment=1291473665715#c222684303620260150

Interesting you posted this. I've been noticing - local hospitals advertising for

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scribes in the ER and various other departments of the hospital in the past couple of weeks.

Thanks for posting - countrywestMT

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I have been reading that same blog for several months now. This one I find very interesting, as well as all the comments, which are must reads. Thanks for posting. As MTs we all need to be aware of all that is going on that will have an impact on our livelihoods.

What do they do, and what does it pay? - Wanted: $$$. The more the merrier.

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I interviewed for a scribe position a few months ago - no1joe

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To answer your questions (at least for this particular position which was for a very large private practice):
What do they do? Basically this facility got rid of their entire transcription department and switched to EMR; however, the time it was taking for the doctors to enter the information into the computer themselves was actually costing them money. Therefore, the scribe would be working with 1 doctor, entering the room while the patient was being seen, and selecting from a drop-down menu to enter the information into the computer as the doctor dictated it. There was no typing involved and, from what I gathered, really no need to know medical terminology... just the ability to read basically.

What does it pay? To give you an idea, I live in the suburbs of NYC. A general rule around these parts is that the closer you are to the city, the more money you make (and also the bigger traffic headache). Now, back in 2005 and the last time I worked in office, I was making $20/hr at a facility approximately 75 minutes outside NYC and close to my home. For the scribe position, the starting pay was $17/hr at a facility about 30 minutes outside NYC as well as having to commute to satellite offices as needed (basically crap considering that it would be a %15 pay cut by 2005 standards plus at least 3 hours travel time each day on good traffic days). I was optimistic when I applied for the job but had to turn it down because of the low pay. And please forgive any typos in this post... it's late, and my eyes are crossing from being tired. Hope this info helps a little. Good luck to you!

Thanks for the info! I had never heard of that - before. Some aspects dont sound - sm

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so bad, but I agree... the pay is kind of low for the kind of MT availability they want. I do know that I sure wouldn't want to be in the same room with a patient being seen for a bad case of the flu, or TB!

I never even thought about the germ thing! - no1joe

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The position was for an ortho practice, so the potentially contagious aspect of it never crossed my mind... eeew.

Also, just think about it: If this is the way things are heading as this job field is slowly but steadily changing, how comfortable would you really feel, if you were the patient, having a member of the secretial staff in the room with you during an examination? Again, when I applied it was for an ortho gig, so I never really thought about it, but I would NEVER EVER want a nonmedical staff member, sometimes no one besides my doctor, in the room during an examination or even the interview process. Sorry, but I do take some comfort in being just a faceless name attached to a voice file or printed on a medical bill/insurance form when I go to the GYN for example. For this particular office, the "beauty" of this new technology was supposedly to have the medical report prepared as the patient is being seen, necessitating the need for a scribe to be in the examination room. IDK, but maybe it's just a matter of time before people seriously start complaining about this. I hope so... it really seems to be another way of phasing us out or at least cutting our pay.

That's just about the ONLY benefit to working at home: - Not catching every cold and flu in town.

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I even once used to have a boss that would bring their sick kid to work with them, if daycare sent them home because of being sick. THANKS, boss! Usually the MTs would start dropping like flies, one by one, after the office visit by the little sickie.

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