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An Ethical Case for Medical Scribes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2022

David Schwan
David Schwan*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, Washington98926, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: davidtschwan@gmail.com
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Abstract

This article addresses ethical concerns with the use of electronic health records (EHRs) by physicians in clinical practice. It presents arguments for two claims. First, requiring physicians to maintain patient EHRs for medically unnecessary tasks is likely contributing to increased burnout, decreased quality of care, and potential risks to patient safety. Second, medical institutions have ethical reasons to employ medical scribes to maintain patient EHRs. Finally, this article reviews central objections to employing medical scribes and provides responses to each.

Keywords

electronic health recordsburnoutquality of carepatient safetymedical scribes
Type
Departments and Columns
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 95 - 104
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

Notes

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