The Impact of Medical Scribes on Patient Satisfaction in an Academic Otolaryngology Clinic

Objectives: Evidence shows that scribes can improve provider efficiency and satisfaction in several settings, but is mixed on whether scribes improve patient satisfaction. We studied whether scribes improved patient satisfaction in an academic otolaryngology clinic. Methods: The authors performed a retrospective review of patient responses to the Press Ganey survey between 12/2016 and 12/2017. Their responses about satisfaction with the provider and wait times were examined. Three providers worked with scribes during this year; each spent six months with a scribe and six without. The authors compared survey responses from periods with and without scribes using the Fischer exact test. Average overall provider ratings were compared using the Student's t-test. Results: A total of 87 patients filled out Press Ganey surveys for the 3 providers over the year: 54 for visits without scribes, and 33 for visits with scribes. Fischer exact analysis demonstrated no significant difference in satisfaction with providers and wait times for both individual providers and all providers combined (all P > .05). There was also no difference in patients' likelihood of recommending the provider's office (P = .91). Overall provider rating (0-10 scale) was high without scribes (9.48 +/- 1.06) and was unchanged by the presence of scribes (9.53 +/- 0.8) (P = .97). Conclusion: Patient satisfaction with wait times and providers was high overall and was not affected by the presence of a medical scribe.