Examining the Utilization of Medical Scribes in a Hospital Emergency Department Environment

This paper reports results from an original research project studying the use of medical scribes in emergency departments (EDs) including analysis of more than one full year of archival data as well as observations and interviews in the ED that were conducted over a one and one-half year period. This paper also reports results from additional studies that have been completed since this research project. Ultimately, this research revealed there can be a significant impact of scribes on the overall number of patients seen, i.e. a 10.3% increase in the number of patients seen per hour. This appears to be in direct opposition to the use of non-medical scribes under the same conditions [1]. Since this original research was completed the use of medical scribes has rapidly grown. In 2014 over twelve medical scribe companies employed more than 15,000 staff in a greater than $125 million annual market [2].