Bells Virtual Scribe listens in on your patient sessions and takes the notes for you. 

You can record the session, which will then transcribe into text to use in your scribbles and notes.

The listening and recording happens in the Bells mobile application. 

Once transcribed, the text is available to you in the web application to take directly into your progress notes.  

For pricing and additional information on Bells Virtual Scribe please contact your Client Alignment Representative. 

Configuration

The Bells Virtual Scribe configuration begins in the Web. 

Users must be individually given the role in Bells for Bells Virtual Scribe. This is done on the User Management display and can only be done by a Bells Administrator. The Bells Virtual Scribe role will only present in Bells when you're enabled for Bells Virtual Scribe by the Bells team. 

When the Bells Scribe toggle is set to on/Yes the user will have the ability to start Scribe listening sessions in the mobile application. 

When the Bells Scribe toggle is set to off/No the user will not have the ability to start Scribe listening sessions in Bells. 

Additionally, a consent can be configured to display before Scribe listening sessions take place. When a consent is configured, the patient and session attendees must sign off on the consent. 

The consent configuration can be found in the Organization Preferences, on the Consent tab. 

Consents are optional in Bells. 

If a consent is not configured, the consent displays and following signature flow will not present in the Bells Virtual Scribe listening session. 

Bells Scribe in Mobile

Once a user is enabled on the User Management display for Bells Virtual Scribe, in the Mobile application they can start Scribe listening sessions. 

There are two (2) ways to start a Bells Virtual Scribe listening session in the Mobile application. 

1. Tap the top icon on the wheel when you tap the + button in the bottom right corner. 
   1. When tapped, the session display shows. 
2. Start a Virtual Scribe session from an appointment 
   1. There is a button at the bottom of the appointment to “Start Scribe Session” 
   2. When tapped, the session display shows.

The details captured should look very familiar to you: they're the same session details we've always captured for sessions in the mobile application. 

These session details include 

• Patient
• Session Date/Time
• Episode
• Program
• Toggle setting for “Are others present?" 
  • This toggle controls whether you're documenting the session with or without the patient/others. 
  • When toggled on
    • The patient/others are present for the listening session. 
    • The consent (when configured) presents and signatures are required. 
  • When toggled off 
    • The session is for the signed in user only.
    • No patients/others are present for the listening session. 
    • The consent (when configured) does not present and no signatures are captured as part of the Virtual Scribe flow. 

Once the session details are captured, the additional attendees of the session can be added. These additional people can be family members and/or caregivers/guardians who would be included in the recording and subsequent transcription. 

Now that all of the attendees have been captured, the consent flow will take place. 

If your organization requires a consent to be included and the patient to sign off, that will display next. The consent is configured by your Bells administrator under Organization Preferences in the web application. For additional details refer to the Configuration section above in this article. 

Much like the signature process on notes in the web application, the consent should be handed to the patient to review and sign, then the device be handed back to your user. A biometric or pin entry is required to re-gain access into the application. 

At this point,

1. We're configured in the web
2. We've set our Virtual Scribe listening session details
3. The patient has reviewed the consent and signed off. 

How about we get to the recording of the session? 

Across the top of the display, you'll see the patient card for the patient associated to the Scribe listening session. 

The Continue button is used to return you to the display in the mobile application where you initiated the Scribe listening session (the dashboard). 

The middle pane displays the recording for the session. 

The bottom of the display includes the date of the recording, the length of the current recording and the recording start and stop button. 

When the recording button is tapped, a sound wave displays and shows that the recording is taking place and the timer is ticking upward indicating the length of the recording. 

When the recording button is tapped again, the recording will be stopped and the transcribing process takes place. A tag will appear on the right side of the recording in the middle pane list indicating the status of the transcription. 

Transcriptions for the recording can be found in the mobile application under the patient details for the patient associated to the Scribe listening session. 

These transcriptions also show in the web for use as part of scribbles and progress notes. 

Bells Virtual Scribe in Web

The Bells Virtual Scribe listening session can be completed in the mobile application and the transcription will come to the Web application to user in your progress notes. A Virtual Scribe listening session can also be done in the web application. 

Anywhere you can start a note, you can start a Virtual Scribe listening session in the web application. 

This includes:

1. From an appointment 
   1. In the agenda
   2. On the User Dashboard
   3. On the Patient Chart - Summary Tab - Upcoming Appointments widget
   4. On the Patient Chart - Appointments Tab
2. From the User Dashboard - Start Note button
3. From the Patient Chart - Start Note button

The Start Note button on the Dashboard and Patient Chart have been updated to include a value for “Start Scribe Session”. The new value is found in the additional menu available via clicking the 3 dots when on the Dashboard or the arrow icon on the Patient chart button.

When the Start Scribe Session is selected, the session details display. 

These session details include 

• Patient (already selected, shows in the header)
• Session Date/Time
• Episode
• Program
• Toggle setting for “Are others present?" 
  • This toggle controls whether you're documenting the session with or without the patient/others. 
  • When toggled on
    • The patient/others are present for the listening session. 
    • The consent (when configured) presents and signatures are required. 
  • When toggled off 
    • The session is for the signed in user only.
    • No patients/others are present for the listening session. 
    • The consent (when configured) does not present and no signatures are captured as part of the Virtual Scribe flow. 

Once the session details are captured, the additional attendees of the session can be added. These additional people can be family members and/or caregivers/guardians who would be included in the recording and subsequent transcription. 

Now that all of the attendees have been captured, the consent flow will take place. 

If your organization requires a consent to be included and the patient to sign off, that will display next. The consent is configured by your Bells administrator under Organization Preferences in the web application. For additional details refer to the Configuration section above in this article. 

Much like the signature process on notes in the web application, the consent should be handed to the patient to review and sign, then the device be handed back to your user. A pin entry is required to re-gain access into the application. 

At this point,

1. We're configured in the web
2. We've set our Virtual Scribe listening session details
3. The patient has reviewed the consent and signed off as needed. 

How about we get to the recording of the session? 

Across the top of the display, you'll see the patient card for the patient associated to the Scribe listening session. 

The middle pane displays the recording for the session. 

The bottom of the display includes the date of the recording, the length of the current recording and the recording start and stop button. 

When the recording button is clicked, a sound wave displays and shows that the recording is taking place and the timer is ticking upward indicating the length of the recording. 

The recording can be paused or stopped. When paused, the user will be prompted if they want to complete the recording to go to transcription or continue the recording. When the recording button is clicked again, the recording will be stopped and the transcribing process takes place. A tag will appear on the right side of the recording in the middle pane list indicating the status of the transcription. 

If no conversation is detected a 5 minute countdown will begin. During the pause you will see a prompt to keep listening or pause the recording. The recording will automatically pause at the end of the countdown.

Transcriptions for the recording can be found on the Virtual Scribe tab in the Patient Chart and show in the left pane of the progress note to pull into your text fields. 

Additionally, a summary of the Virtual Scribe listening session is available. The summary is an AI generation from the listening session. 

The summary and transcriptions can be added to your progress notes from the left pane in the note writing experience and are fully editable once in the note. 

To move the text from the Transcription or Summary is just like copying text from your Scribbles into the note. When you highlight text in the pane, a menu shows including the text sections available in the note to copy the text to. 

Enabling your Microphone

A microphone is required to start a Bells Virtual Scribe listening session. 

If Bells cannot detect your microphone when starting the session, an alert will show on the Session Details display. 

Additionally, a pop-down alert will display from your browser URL bar at the top left asking for Bells to have access to your microphone. 

If access is granted, the Bells Virtual Scribe listening session continue from the Session Detail display. 

If access is not granted, Bells will prevent you from starting a Virtual Scribe listening session by disabling the Start button from the Session Detail display. 

If you want to change your microphone permission setting, right click the button to the left of the URL in the URL bar at the top of your browser. 

Example below from a Bells QA Test environment: 

Changing Your Microphone

If you would like Bells Virtual Scribe to use a different microphone than the default on your computer, you can change that via your browser settings. 

For most browsers, you can search for “Microphone” to quickly access your microphone settings. 

For Chrome: 

• Go to Settings on the 3 dot menu in the top right corner, just under your X
• Select Privacy and security from the left nav bar
• Select Site settings at the bottom
• Under Permissions select Microphone

For Edge: 

• Go to Settings on the ellipse, 3 dots under your minimize icon in top right corner 
• Select Cookies and site permissions on left nav bar
• Under All permissions select Microphone 

Still have questions? Check out the Bells Virtual Scribe FAQ article.