Dermatologists report endless frustration with medical documentation in the age of EHR. They spend several hours a day on average entering documentation into cumbersome EHR systems, which takes away from both patient and personal time. What was once a straightforward part of medicine now takes away many hours of precious quality time in the office with patients.
Using resources such as scribes or voice recognition software (VRS) can speed your documentation by several minutes for each encounter, adding up to hours saved each week and hundreds or thousands of hours a year. Dermatologists recognize the importance of their connection to patients, but documentation burdens can interfere with that crucial relationship. Using tools to reduce that burden is beneficial to your patients, your practice, and you.
The burdens of EHR
EHR documentation adds about 6 additional hours of work a week for the average dermatologist.
There are three documentation aids you can use to reduce burdens.
In-room scribes: A trained specialist joins the dermatologist in the room during the patient encounter to enter notes into the EHR.
E-scribes: The scribe listens to the patient encounter in real time from a remote location and enters notes into the EHR.
Voice recognition software: Software automatically transcribes the physician’s speech during the patient encounter, allowing them to dictate into a microphone or smartphone, recording it in the EHR.
“It is a game changer to be able to review scribe documentation by the time I walk out of the room and sign all orders with very minimal editing... It has absolutely changed my day to day and I often do not need to do at-home documentation whereas in the past I needed to do hours nightly.”
─ Jennifer Adams, MD, FAAD
Benefits of documentation aids
Using documentation aids such as scribes or voice recognition has many benefits.
Improves patient and physician satisfaction
Dermatologists are able to focus their undivided attention on the patient. This helps in building a stronger patient-physician relationship and contributes to patient satisfaction.
Decreases patient wait time
Dermatologists are able to move efficiently from patient to patient, without breaks to complete documentation, which helps everyone stay on schedule and reduces patient wait time.
Multispecialty and academic practices
EHR documentation burdens are even worse in multispecialty and academic
practices, requiring more than 8 hours of labor a week.
Reduces evening work hours
Documentation keeps dermatologists glued to their computers for hours every week, and many take documentation work home with them. Real-time transcription can help you finish documentation efficiently during office hours thereby reducing or eliminating “pajama time.”
Increases patient volume
Using a documentation aid such as scribes or VRS carries some cost, but it can help you save money through improved efficiency. The time you spend documenting is time you could spend with patients, and documentation aids can help you see a few extra patients each day, boosting revenue. This helps maintain your bottom line but reduces burden and increases patient satisfaction.
“We use a lot of macros and templates where most dictations are completed in under a minute, and then the transcriptionist will type it into the EMR. That’s huge. It really frees a lot of time, so we’re not working at the end of the day.”
─ Steven Schuckit, MD, FAAD
Maximizes staff efficiency
Documentation aids can also help medical assistants or nurses discharge their EHR duties more efficiently, freeing them for other work.
Optimizes documentation for billing
Comprehensive and timely documentation supports prompt reimbursement, potentially reducing delays and insurance hassles.
Documentation vendors
The following are popular documentation aid companies.*
* The Academy is able to share these resources on an informational basis only. This does not represent an endorsement by the Academy. Please compare, evaluate, and consider which ones best meet your needs.
All burdens statistics sourced from the 2019 practice profile survey.
How much time could you save?
How much time and money do you think team documentation can save your practice? The AMA’s interactive calculator can help physicians estimate how much can be saved by implementing team documentation.
