The goal of a Scribe note review isn't perfection. It's clinical accuracy and legal defensibility. Those two things don't require reading every sentence in sequence. They require knowing where the risk is and checking those places first.
Start with the Plan
The Plan section carries the highest clinical and billing stakes. It drives the care decisions that follow the visit, and it's what coders and auditors look at first. Start here, not at the top of the note. Read the Plan as if you're a covering physician who has never met this patient. Is the next step clear? Is the follow-up specific? If you ordered something, does the note explain why?
Move to the Assessment
Check that your Assessment reflects the visit you actually had. Common gaps: a diagnosis mentioned in the HPI that didn't carry forward, a chronic condition that should appear as a secondary diagnosis but doesn't, or a working diagnosis stated more definitively than the evidence supports.
If something doesn't match what you remember, use the "Suggest a change" field in Smart Edits to describe the correction in plain language rather than editing manually. Scan the HPI for anything you didn't say
You don't need to reread the HPI word for word. Scan it quickly for anything that sounds clinically off or that you didn't dictate. If you find something, delete it. Never leave AI-generated content you can't verify, even if it sounds plausible.
Check medications and doses
If medications were discussed during the encounter, confirm they're captured accurately. Drug names and doses are high-stakes and worth a deliberate pass before signing.
Use Smart Edits for anything that needs adjusting
Once you've reviewed the clinical substance, Smart Edits handles cleanup. "More Concise" if the note ran long. "Add Billing Codes" if you need billing documentation appended. "Update Pronouns" if needed. "Suggest a change" for anything specific. For more complex edits, "Refine with Ask" hands the note to Doximity Ask. One habit that saves the most time
Review your note immediately after the patient leaves, while the encounter is fresh. Physicians who wait until end of day spend significantly more time on each note because they're reconstructing from memory rather than confirming what they already know. 60 seconds post-encounter beats five minutes at 7pm. Try Scribe on your next visit and see how the workflow fits.
