Do you believe the healthcare system is still unaffected by the global shift in work models? Looking closely, you might notice that even a basic medical clinic is no longer enclosed within the four walls of a room. Despite being a necessary service for everyone, the burnout rate among physicians is at a record high. While you may think the reason is overwhelming customers, the actual burden is the administrative chores. So, assuming that you own and run a clinic, what’s your approach to curb this crisis? To streamline this mounting paperwork, would you employ a virtual scribe or hire a remote medical assistant to assimilate a distributed workforce?

Even though you are a practitioner or a clinic manager, you may have some confusion about these two roles. Both of them indeed function as digital extensions; their base within the healthcare workflow is entirely different. One is a specialist in patient interactions, the other is a generalist in clinic operations. Choosing either can boost your cognitive load.

The virtual medical scribe

As cited, a virtual medical scribe is a highly specialized professional role; an essential human factor in the physician-patient encounter. Precisely, they observe the exam room virtually. How, you ask?

A virtual medical scribe uses a HIPAA-compliant platform to join a patient encounter via video or audio link. As the physician or doctor examines and speaks with the patient, the scribe continues to jot down details of the interaction, such as the patient’s history of present illness (HPI), reviews systems, and also updates physical examination findings directly into the Electronic Health Record (EHR) in real-time.

The value proposition

Therefore, the core benefit of a medical scribe is eliminate the extra hours that a doctor would otherwise spend on charting. Through this, a scribe allows the doctor to focus solely on the patient, improve the quality of service, and customer satisfaction scores. Usually, an eligible medical scribe must be knowledgeable about medical terminologies, charting nuances, EHR systems, ICD-10 coding, etc. 

When to choose a virtual medical scribe:

• You are spending more than 2 hours a day on documentation.
• Delayed patient throughput due to unprepared charts.
• The clinic’s core pain point is “charting fatigue.”

The Remote Medical Assistant (RMA)

If the scribe is the silent observer and a narrator, the remote medical assistant is more like a stage manager. They encompass a broader scope of responsibilities limited to the window of a live clinical encounter. 

The primary role of an RMA is to handle the patient’s pre-visit and post-visit work. They are also tasked to manage the clinic’s logistics, including verifying insurance, obtaining prior authorizations, triaging patient messages, and managing prescriptions. They simply enter data into the EHR, usually administrative data such as pharmacy information, demographics, etc., rather than clinical narrative.

The value proposition

The value of the RMA is visible through the efficient management of the clinic’s revenue cycle. They handle the tiresome process of authorizations and referrals to maintain a high ‘clean claim’ rate for the clinic. This further enables the physical staff on-site to deliver appropriate hands-on patient care. 

When to choose an RMA:

• Your receptionist is overwhelmed by phone calls and insurance verification.
• Inefficient referrals.
• Your on-site staff is distracted by administrative tasks.

The functional divide

To help you make a fulfilling decision that meets your clinic’s requirements, have a look at this work breakdown structure for a patient’s journey. 

Financial impact – ROI vs. Cost

Since you will technically be hiring them, thinking from a financial perspective matters. Moreover, the ROI for each role is calculated differently.

For scribe: Their ROI is measured in Patient Volume. Let’s say a scribe saves a doctor 10 minutes per patient, and that they see 18 patients a day. In a theoretical sense, the clinic can then add 2-3 more patient slots per day. This addition boosts revenue, often covering the cost of hiring a scribe.

For RMA: Their ROI is measured in Operational Leakage. This means that an RMA actually covers the costs themselves by reducing denied claims, ensuring patient retention, and preventing burnout among the on-site clinical staff.

So, which role does your clinic actually require?

By analyzing the functional divide and the ROI of both roles, the differentiating aspect is actually identifying the core bottleneck. 

Is the physician the bottleneck? If the physician in your clinic is actually the one stuck in the workflow, unable to attend to their duties because they are busy documenting and charting, you will need a virtual medical scribe. This new virtual hire will resolve the problem of the “documentation debt.”

Is the process the bottleneck? What if the physician is ready to see patients, but their insurance isn’t verified, their charts aren’t prepped, or they aren’t being followed up regularly? In this scenario, you need a remote medical assistant. They will help resolve the issue of “operational friction.”

But there is also the third option. In many growing practices, medical clinics are going for a hybrid option. This means pairing a scribe with an RMA. This empowers the physician to practice at the “top of their license” and focus solely on the diagnosis and treatment of patients. In the background, the digital team controls the narrative and the logistics.

Afterword

Supporting the remote work trend, hiring virtual clinical staff means participating in the evolution of the healthcare business model. As a clinic manager, your duty is to properly understand the distinct specializations of the virtual scribe and the remote medical assistant. This will remove the tension of panic hiring and following a strategic, data-driven staffing model.

Therefore, whether it is to leave office on time or increase the daily patient count, an appropriate remote clinical role supports a sustainable and patient-centered practice.