Publicly traded physician staffing firm TeamHealth Holdings, Knoxville, Tenn., has acquired physician scribe services provider PhysAssist, of Fort Worth, Texas, for an undisclosed amount, the acquirer has announced.
"As our hospital partners continue implementing electronic medical-record systems, we have found it necessary to respond with scribe programs to minimize service disruption and maintain quality patient care,” said TeamHealth President and CEO Mike Snow in a news release.
TeamHealth claims 10,000 affiliated healthcare professionals who provide emergency medicine, hospital medicine, anesthesia, urgent care, and pediatric staffing and management services to hospitals and physician group practices in 46 states, according to the release. PhysAssist, founded in 1995, calls itself the nation's oldest scribe services provider, with 155 hospital emergency departments for clients in 22 states, according to the statement.
The use of scribes has moved beyond its initial beachhead in the ED and out to hospital wards and physician offices, according to industry experts.
The growth is based on the widespread adoption of EHRs, catalyzed by the $25.1 billion in federal incentive payments made thus far under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
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