Author(s)
Katherine R. Keefe BA
Jessica R. Levi MD
Christopher D. Brook MD
Affiliation(s)
Boston University School of Medicine
Abstract:
Educational Objective: At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants should be able to discuss the impact of medical scribes on patient satisfaction. Objectives: Evidence shows that scribes can improve provider efficiency and satisfaction in several settings. The evidence for the impact of scribes on patient satisfaction is mixed. There have been no studies evaluating the effect of scribes in otolaryngology clinics. We studied whether scribes affected patient satisfaction with providers and wait times in an academic otolaryngology clinic. Study Design: Retrospective review of Press Ganey surveys. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of patient responses to the Press Ganey survey between December, 2016 - December, 2017. We analyzed their responses about satisfaction with providers and wait times. Three providers worked with scribes; each spent six months with a scribe and six without. We compared survey responses from periods with and without scribes using the Fischer exact test. We compared average overall provider ratings using the Student's t-test. Results: A total of 87 patients filled out Press Ganey surveys for the 3 providers over the year, 54 for visits without scribes and 33 for visits with scribes. Fischer exact analysis demonstrated no significant difference in responses about provider and wait time satisfaction for individual providers and for all providers combined (all p > 0.05). There was also no difference in patients' likelihood of recommending the provider's office (p = 0.91). Overall provider rating (0 - 10 scale) was high without scribes (9.48 ± 1.06) and was unchanged by the presence of scribes (9.53 ± 0.8) (p = 0.97). Conclusions: Patient satisfaction with their wait times and providers was high overall and was not affected by the presence of a medical scribe.