THE THIN DIGITAL LINE:
MEDICAL SCRIBES IN LOUISVILLE
Aaron Burch
T
his decade has seen incredible growth in the world of medical
scribes. The evolution of patient care has changed the mindset
of the health care community and what many physicians
initially saw as stenography is now becoming a vital part of running
a professional health care office.
GLMS President-Elect Robert Couch, MD, MBA, specializes in
Emergency Medicine through Norton Healthcare and Southern
Emergency Physicians. He first worked with scribes when his practice moved to Norton Audubon in 2011.
“One of the things on the rise at the time was the adoption of
electronic medical records. When a practice adopts EMRs, there
is a pretty steep learning curve,” said Dr. Couch. “A practice like
ours is fast-paced, a lot happens, patients need things done in a
hurry – turning our attention to just the screen is not the way to go.
Working with scribes kept us seeing a normal number of patients.”
Dr. Couch became familiar with two different medical scribe
organizations through his practice: PhysAssist Scribes, Inc. and
Proscribe LLC, both based in Texas and both growing year by year.
He said working with these organizations has changed his practice
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LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
for the better.
“Having a scribe with me through the day allows me to act like
a physician again instead of a data entry person. With a scribe,
I’m able to interact with the patient. I’m asking the questions the
patients are expecting to hear. There’s a great benefit for us,” Dr.
Couch explained.
Scribes not only help the health care clinic they join, they also
help themselves become better medical professionals. By following
physicians day in, day out, these scribes are receiving invaluable
medical training.
“Our perfect scribe is not someone who just wants to be a scribe,”
Dr. Couch said. “We’re looking for somebody motivated to go into
other things. Many of our scribes are college and post baccalaureate
students studying for the MCAT or applying to med school. Becoming a scribe gives them the opportunity to see medicine from
the inside and be a part of the team.
Chris Huber was one of those students eager to dive into the world
of medicine. Huber, a third year medical student at the University
of Kentucky,