Medical Scribes

The work environment for a medical scribe is exclusively in health care facilities such as hospitals, clinics, and private physician’s offices. Scribes may work in inpatient or outpatient clinics, urgent medical care facilities, family practices, or specialized practices, such as pediatrics or orthopedics practices. The job requires the medical scribe to shadow the physician, so scribes are on their feet for a substantial portion of the day, though they spend some time reviewing and completing their work on a computer in an office setting.

As medical scribes are tasked with increasing efficiency and productivity of the medical staff, allowing for doctors to see more patients in less time, it is common for the workplace to be busy and demanding. The work atmosphere will also depend on the type of medical facility where the medical scribe is employed. For example, a medical scribe working in an urban trauma center may have a much more stressful environment than one working in a small town pediatric office. Virtual scribes may perform their duties from remote locations, with Internet-based real-time interactions and observations allowing for the scribe to perform his or her duties.