Virtual Medical Assistants: Win Back Hours of Patient Time Every Week

Feeling buried in admin work? You’re not imagining it.

The Problem: Admin Overload

Modern clinicians spend a staggering amount of time on work that has nothing to do with patients. Time-motion studies show that for every hour of face-to-face patient time, physicians spend nearly two hours on EHRs and desk work.

And documentation is just the beginning. Prior authorizations, forms, refills, inbox messages, and phone calls consume double-digit hours each week. These tasks are essential, but they fragment attention and fuel burnout.

For many practices, hiring more in-office staff isn’t a realistic solution. Labor markets are tight, wages keep rising, and office space is scarce.

That’s where virtual medical assistants come in.

What Virtual Medical Assistants Actually Do

Virtual medical assistance isn’t a single job title, it’s a set of functions. These remote professionals can handle phone calls, scheduling, insurance verification, message processing, documentation support, and care coordination.

In Practice, This Looks Like:

Phone management: A virtual assistant picks up every call on the first or second ring, triages according to your protocols, and documents the interaction directly into your EHR.

Insurance verification: A remote staff member logs into payer portals to verify eligibility before visits, eliminating last-minute rescheduling due to coverage issues.

Virtual scribing: An assistant follows along in real time and drafts encounter notes so clinicians leave the room with most documentation already complete.

Research on in-person scribes has shown improvements in productivity, same-day chart completion, and job satisfaction. Virtual medical assistants extend that same logic across a broader range of tasks, while the practice retains control through existing systems and explicit protocols.

How the DocVA Model Works

DocVA provides virtual medical assistance (scribes, billing, reception and more) that’s both clinically informed and economically predictable.

The Approach

Healthcare-trained staff: Assistants come from healthcare backgrounds with strong English proficiency and training in HIPAA regulations and cybersecurity.

Predictable pricing: At approximately $10/hour without U.S. payroll taxes, benefits, or office overhead, costs are often lower than hiring in-office staff.

Dedicated assistants: Instead of a rotating pool, practices work with the same assistant daily. Over time, they learn your scheduling patterns, EHR templates, communication styles, and patient population.

Available Specializations

Beyond general reception, DocVA offers virtual scribes, prior authorization specialists, billing assistants, remote patient monitoring support, and bilingual English-Spanish staff. Practices can start with one function and expand as trust grows.

As DocVA founder Nathan Barz puts it: “At DocVA, we treat the virtual medical assistant as core clinical infrastructure, not a disposable add-on, because reliable remote support is now part of how high-performing healthcare teams deliver care.”

Real-World Outcomes

The key question: does virtual medical assistance actually change outcomes?

The Mechanisms

When calls are answered promptly, fewer patients abandon or seek care elsewhere. When prior authorizations are submitted correctly the first time, denials drop. When documentation is shared appropriately, clinicians finish more work during clinic hours instead of at night.

What the Research Shows

Studies on scribes and documentation assistance report more patients seen per session, less documentation time, and improved professional satisfaction. Separate research links high clerical load to emotional exhaustion and intention to leave practice.

The Daily Difference

A well-trained remote assistant absorbs repetitive tasks that don’t require medical decision-making. In practical terms, that means a physician who finishes the day with fewer open charts, a scheduler who isn’t constantly apologizing for hold times, and a patient who doesn’t need to call three times to confirm a referral.

There’s also a subtle effect on patient experience. When a practice responds quickly to calls and messages, patients perceive it as more accessible and organized, influencing follow-up rates, referrals, and loyalty.

Is a Virtual Medical Assistant Right for Your Clinic?

Virtual medical assistance isn’t for everyone. Paper-based practices or those without cloud-accessible systems will need infrastructure updates first. Clinics with highly variable, unstandardized workflows may need to map and refine processes before remote staff can follow them consistently.

Key Questions to Ask

Are clinicians and staff spending significant time on work that trained support personnel could handle under supervision?

Are phones, messages, or prior authorizations creating bottlenecks that affect access and revenue?

Is recruiting and retaining in-office staff becoming progressively harder?

If you answered yes to any of these, virtual medical assistance may be worth exploring.

The Bottom Line

Clinical care and digital operations are becoming inseparable. Virtual medical assistants sit at that intersection.

They’re not simply a cost-saving measure. Used well, they’re one of the mechanisms by which practices convert technical infrastructure into human time, time spent at the bedside or in the consultation room.

For clinics willing to define their workflows and invest in remote collaboration, virtual medical assistance can turn fragmented minutes into consolidated hours of patient-facing care.

In an environment where both burnout and access are pressing concerns, that trade is increasingly hard to ignore.