There are several ways to calculate the cost of a medical scribe. First, how will the scribe learn to scribe for your organization? Most scribes learn to scribe by looking over the shoulder of your staff for a month or more. In most cases, this shadowing takes 30-60 days before they can truly begin to learn to document themselves.

As you may have guessed not all medical scribes are created equal, so let’s distinguish the differences in the marketplace today. The first thing that most people do not always realize is when they talk medical scribe it is very loose term. Most Medical Scribes have no to very little medical experience, from days to a couple weeks.

In the recent KLAS report, the author discussed how healthcare organizations are leveraging virtual medical scribes to improve clinician satisfaction. The KLAS report described virtual medical scribes as remote human scribes who communicate with cognition via laptop, smartphone, or tablet. The virtual medical scribe’s duties include: updating charges, clarifying information, entering clinical notes, and making suggestions to physicians.