The value of a scribe: The patient's care was expedited

Fabio Giraldo is a Scribe with ScribeAmerica.  This is his story:

I was working a night shift in a single-coverage Emergency Room and I happened to be floor training as well. It was a busy night and the E.R. was gridlocked, and patients were starting to pile up in the waiting room. It was common for the triage nurse to place orders to get things started under the attending physician's name when the waiting room started filling up, and this night was no different. Being that the E.R. was gridlocked and we were not seeing any new patients, I took this opportunity to show the trainee how to look up X-rays on the PACS system.  I also started to explain to the trainee that it was important to monitor the waiting room results, being that the physician we were working with was the only physician on, and all of these [X-ray] studies were being ordered under his name.

As the apprentice scribe started pulling up images from patients in the waiting room, I heard him say "Wow!  This X-ray looks really weird."  I looked over to the PACS station and noticed this patient had free air under the right hemi-diaphragm, a finding that is consistent with a bowel perforation [a hole all the way through the wall of the intestine, which causes bacterial contamination of the abdominal cavity or peritonitis, a painful dangerous infection of its lining].  I immediately had my physician look at the X-ray.  He agreed and immediately called the surgeon on call, who took the patient to the Operating Room.

Approximately 30 minutes after the patient was taken to the O.R. my physician received a phone call from Radiology to notify him that one of his patients was found to have a bowel perforation on X-ray.  Because the apprentice scribe was vigilant to the orders placed in the waiting room, this patient's care was expedited and they were already in the O.R. by the time the Radiologist called the E.R.  [The prompt treatment of peritonitis can prevent complications, according to Freed's Medical Dictionary.]

Thanks to Fabio, and to Michelle Thompson of CWR & Partners for connecting us.  Read another story of how one very different medical practice has a technician serve as scribe, enabling the prompt preparation of a visit summary.