What is a medical scribe? A scribe is a physician collaborator who fulfills the primary secretarial and non-clinical functions of the busy physician or mid-level provider. Scribes specialize in medical data entry into a paper or electronic medical record system and in instituting efficient workflow processes, thus increasing the medical provider's capacity to provide direct patient care like seeing the next waiting patient, performing medical procedures and communicating with nursing staff.
Healthcare has become increasingly dependent upon thorough—and at times, onerous— documentation, which has made the role of a medical scribe in the clinical or ED setting very important. In many ways, scribes act as the eyes and ears of the provider, allowing them to focus their full attention on the patient and get back to what being a physician is all about: working directly with their patients and not the EMR.
Broadening your healthcare experience
Working as a medical scribe provides a number of advantages to professional school applicants:
- Context for the environment of modern healthcare
- Direct patient care experience
- Potential letters of recommendation from physicians
- Fundamental understanding and experience with:
- Medical terminology and acronyms
- Common clinical/ED diagnoses and workups
- Billing & coding
- Interpreting lab results, MRI, X-ray, EKG's, etc.
- Medications and dosing
- Electronic medical records
Scribing in Oregon
There are many scribe companies. Here are some which operate in Oregon:
SCRIBE–X (Local company) is based the Portland metro area, and has opportunities throughout Oregon (including Salem, Bend, Eugene, Corvallis and other cities), as well as within Washington state, Texas, and Sacramento, CA.
NACS (Northwest Acute Care Specialists) contracts exclusively with Legacy Health System and specializes in emergency medicine and urgent care. NACS is in Portland and Vancouver. They are limited to part time positions with a 2-year commitment.
ProScribe (National company) recruits scribes throughout the US and locally, including Eugene and Salem. Time commitments required.
ScribeAmerica (National company) trains and hires scribes throughout the US, including many areas of Oregon and Washington state.
Pacific Medical Training (National company with local training) offers medical scribe training for cardiac technicians.
