TY - JOUR
T1 - A qualitative study of provider burnout
T2 - Do medical scribes hinder or help?
AU - Corby, Sky
AU - Ash, Joan S.
AU - Mohan, Vishnu
AU - Becton, James
AU - Solberg, Nicholas
AU - Bergstrom, Robby
AU - Orwoll, Benjamin
AU - Hoekstra, Christopher
AU - Gold, Jeffrey A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.
PY - 2021/7/1
Y1 - 2021/7/1
N2 - Objective: Provider burnout is a crisis in healthcare and leads to medical errors, a decrease in patient satisfaction, and provider turnover. Many feel that the increased use of electronic health records contributes to the rate of burnout. To avoid provider burnout, many organizations are hiring medical scribes. The goal of this study was to identify relevant elements of the provider-scribe relationship (like decreasing documentation burden, extending providers' careers, and preventing retirement) and describe how and to what extent they may influence provider burnout. Materials and Methods: Qualitative methods were used to gain a broad view of the complex landscape surrounding scribes. Data were collected in 3 phases between late 2017 and early 2019. Data from 5 site visits, interviews with medical students who had experience as scribes, and discussions at an expert conference were analyzed utilizing an inductive approach. Results: A total of 184 transcripts were analyzed to identify patterns and themes related to provider burnout. Provider burnout leads to increased provider frustration and exhaustion. Providers reported that medical scribes improve provider job satisfaction and reduce burnout because they reduce the documentation burden. Medical scribes extend providers' careers and may prevent early retirement. Unfortunately, medical scribes themselves may experience similar forms of burnout. Conclusion: Our data from providers and managers suggest that medical scribes help to reduce provider burnout. However, scribes are not the only solution for reducing documentation burden and there may be potentially better options for preventing burnout. Interestingly, medical scribes sometimes suffer from burnout themselves, despite their temporary roles.
AB - Objective: Provider burnout is a crisis in healthcare and leads to medical errors, a decrease in patient satisfaction, and provider turnover. Many feel that the increased use of electronic health records contributes to the rate of burnout. To avoid provider burnout, many organizations are hiring medical scribes. The goal of this study was to identify relevant elements of the provider-scribe relationship (like decreasing documentation burden, extending providers' careers, and preventing retirement) and describe how and to what extent they may influence provider burnout. Materials and Methods: Qualitative methods were used to gain a broad view of the complex landscape surrounding scribes. Data were collected in 3 phases between late 2017 and early 2019. Data from 5 site visits, interviews with medical students who had experience as scribes, and discussions at an expert conference were analyzed utilizing an inductive approach. Results: A total of 184 transcripts were analyzed to identify patterns and themes related to provider burnout. Provider burnout leads to increased provider frustration and exhaustion. Providers reported that medical scribes improve provider job satisfaction and reduce burnout because they reduce the documentation burden. Medical scribes extend providers' careers and may prevent early retirement. Unfortunately, medical scribes themselves may experience similar forms of burnout. Conclusion: Our data from providers and managers suggest that medical scribes help to reduce provider burnout. However, scribes are not the only solution for reducing documentation burden and there may be potentially better options for preventing burnout. Interestingly, medical scribes sometimes suffer from burnout themselves, despite their temporary roles.
KW - burnout
KW - electronic health records
KW - medical scribes
KW - patient safety
KW - qualitative research
KW - sociotechnical systems
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U2 - 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab047
DO - 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab047
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85118945643
SN - 2574-2531
VL - 4
JO - JAMIA Open
JF - JAMIA Open
IS - 3
M1 - ooab047
ER -