Evaluating the benefit of introducing medical clerks as transcriptionists to assist physicians in outpatient clinics: a quantitative analysis of medical records by counting characters.

This study evaluates the effects of the medical clerks introduced to reduce physicians' workloads in outpatient clinics by assisting with their documentation processes (e.g., the production of electronic medical records (EMRs)). The volume of information written in narrative text in EMRs from 2007 (pre-introduction of medical clerks) to 2012 (post-introduction) was measured by counting Japanese characters. The total number of medical records for analysis was 1,577. The average number of characters in EMRs increased from before the introduction of medical clerks to afterwards regardless of the types of documents (subjective or objective data) or visits (first or second visits). We conclude that introducing medical clerks improves the quantity of outpatients' medical records and that such a character-counting method is useful for evaluating the benefit of the introduction of medical clerks to assist physicians.