How to Hire a Medical Scribe

Why hire a medical scribe?

An efficient medical scribe helps maintain patient records concerning their hospital visits. This can be in physical and/or digital form on medical database software. Medical scribes can:

• Transcribe patient appointments
• Manage patients on an average of two per hour, and four per hour on peak days
• Facilitate diagnostic tests and specialist doctor referrals

Deciding between a full-time vs freelance medical scribe

Before writing a medical scribe job description, decide whether it’s best to hire a full-time or freelance candidate.

A full-time medical scribe works on-site with a provider, documenting essential information during patients’ visits. The scribe captures relevant treatment details, such as lab results or surgical procedures, and helps maintain accurate patient records by performing follow-ups, navigating EHRs and researching information.

Freelance medical scribes typically work remotely. A remote freelance scribe documents patient visits using the provider’s written notes and audio recordings. Because patient confidentiality is important, they’re also expected to work in a private, well-secured environment, such as a home office.

What are the titles of medical scribes?

When you’re looking for a medical scribe, it’s important to understand different titles and their various duties. From hospitals to medical scribe companies, many organizations employ scribes to handle a combination of writing, clerical and secretarial tasks. Here are the common titles for medical scribes:

• Medical records clerk: A medical records clerk is responsible for collecting, processing and maintaining patient records, often with the help of EHR/EMR software.
• Medical assistant (or medical secretary): Provides administrative support in the clinic or hospital, including working with patients’ medical history and insurance reports.
• Virtual medical scribe or telescribe: Assists providers by remotely handling paperwork and other administrative duties (e.g., billing, order tracking). They may work full time or part time.
• Senior medical scribe (aka chief medical scribe): Experienced medical scribes can take on the role of supervisor, training incoming employees or advancing to other managerial roles in their career field.

Where to find medical scribes

To find the right medical scribe for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

• Hire from within. Are any qualified staff members interested in a new role? A medical scribe’s duties overlap with billers, coders and other medical professionals. Explore leveraging existing skill sets.
• Ask other providers. Find out where other clinics or hospitals look for their medical scribe candidates.
• Look in related industries. Transcriptionists outside of the medical field may be interested. This is especially true if you’re looking for a telescribe.
• Put up help wanted posters. Another option is to place help wanted posters in high-traffic locations where potential scribes might see them, such as libraries or college campuses.
• Post your job online. Try posting your medical scribe job on Indeed to find and attract quality medical scribe candidates.

What are the titles of medical scribes?

When you’re looking for a medical scribe, it’s important to understand different titles and their various duties. From hospitals to medical scribe companies, many organizations employ scribes to handle a combination of writing, clerical and secretarial tasks. Here are the common titles for medical scribes:

• Medical records clerk: A medical records clerk is responsible for collecting, processing and maintaining patient records, often with the help of EHR/EMR software.
• Medical assistant (or medical secretary): Provides administrative support in the clinic or hospital, including working with patients’ medical history and insurance reports.
• Virtual medical scribe or telescribe: Assists providers by remotely handling paperwork and other administrative duties (e.g., billing, order tracking). They may work full time or part time.
• Senior medical scribe (aka chief medical scribe): Experienced medical scribes can take on the role of supervisor, training incoming employees or advancing to other managerial roles in their career field.

Writing a medical scribe job description

A thoughtful description is important to finding qualified medical scribe candidates. A medical scribe job description includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position.

When writing your medical scribe job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on medical scribe jobs, according to Indeed data:

• Medical scribe
• Scribe
• Medical assistant
• Medical
• Healthcare
• Medical office
• Virtual medical scribe
• Remote work from home
• Medical records
• Medical scribe remote

Interviewing medical scribe candidates

To hire a suitable medical scribe, take the time to vet candidates and ask detailed interview questions to understand their knowledge and skills, such as:

• Proficiency in maintaining patient visit records
• Past experience in managing medical records pertaining to patient visits independently
• How they’ve contributed to business efficiency by actively doing patient record administration

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of medical scribe interview questions for examples (with sample answers).