Author Topic: I "met" my first medical scribe  (Read 17 times)

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Offline agate

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I "met" my first medical scribe
« on: February 08, 2023, 10:10:44 pm »
I had an appointment with my primary care doctor today, mainly just to go over some routine lab test results.


The first person I saw was a woman who, I learned, was my regular doctor's "M.A.", which I learned means "medical assistant."  She asked me some screening questions ("Are you in pain now, and how would you rate the level of your pain?").


She left, and then in came my regular doctor, carrying a laptop and some other items.


She began by saying, as she set the laptop down on the counter, "This is my scribe, and she will be sitting in on our session. This will make my record-keeping easier and more accurate."


I drew a blank. One person had entered the room. I saw no others. There was nothing on the laptop screen. Surely she didn't mean the laptop screen anyway? A laptop isn't a "he" or a "she" so far as I know.


So, perhaps stupidly, I said, looking around, "Um, where is she?"


"Oh!" said my doctor brightly. "She's right here"--gesturing toward the laptop.


I said that I wasn't seeing anything on the screen. Instantly the doctor fixed the problem somehow, and a person appeared on the screen, a woman sitting at a desk.


She was there throughout the next 20 minutes or so when the doctor and I were talking, the stethoscope was used, and my feet were put through a diabetic foot exam.  Actually she was there even after the doctor had left the room but later the doctor came back to retrieve the laptop.


So this is the doctors' newest toy. I hope it works well for the doctors who are adoping this method as some of the chart notes I've had access to haven't been very accurate, but they were done before  scribes came along.


But it is an odd feeling after a lifetime of visits to a doctor's office that involve just that doctor and perhaps one other family member. In an odd way, the doctor seems more remote now.


And when the doctor left, there was no goodbye. To be sure, she had already made it clear that I was to come back in 3 months. But often a doctor will say something pleasant, like "Keep up the good work" or "Nice to see you again."


This one just left. I can't help wondering if the enthusiasm for streamlining her working day has prompted her to dispense with anything resembling chitchat with patients. And maybe the presence of the scribe makes pleasantries open to question--since, after all, there will now be an exact record of precisely everything that happened during that time I spent in that doctor's office.


I'm not sure I liked my first experience with a scribe for that reason.
« Last Edit: February 09, 2023, 10:02:20 am by agate »
MS Speaks--online for 17 years

SPMS, diagnosed 1980. Avonex 2001-2004. Copaxone 2007-2010. Glatopa (glatiramer acetate 40mg 3 times/week) since 12/16/20.

 

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