As administrative responsibilities increase, clinical documentation is often the first task to end up suffering. The EHR has created additional administrative burdens on providers such as the need to perform data entry while trying to engage with the patient during the health care visit. Providers have become frustrated and distracted with the documentation requirements, which further hinder connection and communication with the patient. The American Medical Association (AMA) and other groups note that physician burnout is a systemic problem requiring examination and improvements in the system-of-care delivery. Medical record production technologies may be the key to achieving the goal of creating better and timely medical records, while at the same time increasing cost effectiveness. Studies have shown that the utilization of services like medical scribes or voice recognition strengthened the patient and provider experience and is associated with lower rates of burnout. Furthermore, there is evidence that despite the higher overhead costs, additional documentation services can increase clinician productivity, lower billing errors, and foster work-life balance, retention, and wellness.
The obvious demand has driven innovators to provide a solution, and has manifested in scribing tools and resources with distinct modalities, with varying balances between using human capital and technology. This resource assess the strengths and weaknesses of these tools to provide guidance to health centers.