As a person that used to be a “human scribe” but for emergency dept doctors. I would say the ER doctors shared the same experience as the one depicted in the news story. For a doctor that was nearing the age of retirement or had very poor keyboard proficiency. scribes were a godsend.
Doctors worried less about documentation and focused more on patient care. Of course they still wrote things like admission orders, prescriptions, and nurse orders. Scribes were often told to avoid doing these but sometimes the doctor was okay with it. I personally just told them to do it. Too much of a legal liability for both of parties.
But capturing all of the details of the history of present illness (HPI), patient medical history, review of systems, physical exam, procedures (if any) and medical decision making during patient visit can be a time consuming issue. Time increases with significantly more complex cases, especially one with more than one procedure.
Documenting it so that it can be billed appropriately is also crucial.
Prior to scribes, doctors would describe forgoing writing documentation all together at the end of the shift and writing it the next day or shift.
Obviously, this caused very poor documentation and opened up the doctor to legal issues (if they arise). Ambulance chasers can easily call out these inconsistent details between doctor notes, patient outcomes, and cross check with nursing notes.
Additionally, this caused cases to be billed incorrectly or “down coded” as well.
I don’t agree with allowing private companies unfettered/unregulated access to what is considered private medical information. But with appropriate controls on the data and who has access to it with full transparency, I think it can help in alleviating physical burn out.