Emergency Department Scribes Increase Physician Efficiency and Are Likely Cost-Effective

Many physicians feel overburdened by documentation requirements, particularly with the recent widespread implementation of electronic medical records. Scribes have been increasingly utilized in the hopes of freeing up providers to perform patient care. Evidence to support this practice, however, has been mostly based on surveys or before-and-after study designs, and cost-effectiveness remains uncertain.

Researchers randomly assigned scribes to individual shifts of staff physicians at five emergency departments in Australia, so that each physician worked shifts with and without scribes. Scribes passed competency tests before participating. The primary outcome was physician productivity.

Twelve scribes worked shifts with 88 physicians over 26 m…