Key takeaways
- You keep your EMR, your templates, your forms, and every note already in your chart.
- What changes: a Chrome extension, a review step in Symbal, and where you press record.
- First-day setup is five steps and does not need IT.
- Run both tools in parallel for a week and compare notes on the same patients.
- Cancel the old tool on your own schedule. Your old notes stay in your EMR.
You already have an AI scribe. Maybe it came with your EMR as an add-on. Maybe it's a standalone app you copy from. It works, mostly, and you're wondering whether switching is worth the hassle.
Switching is smaller than it sounds. Symbal doesn't replace your EMR. It sits on top of the page you already use. Here's what stays, what changes, and how to do it without a gap in your notes.
What stays the same when you switch?
You keep your existing software, your history, and your daily schedule.
- Your EMR. Symbal fills fields in it. It doesn't replace it or hold your chart.
- Your templates. The note lands in your existing form, in your existing fields.
- Your forms and consents. Intake, GFE, consent, photos, all unchanged.
- Your history. Every note already in your EMR stays exactly where it is.
- Your schedule. Symbal syncs your calendar, so the day's visits show up in the extension.
What changes in your workflow?
Your main habit change is where you review notes and how the software places text into your chart.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Scribe lives inside the EMR, or in an app you paste from | A Chrome extension reads your EMR page and fills it |
| Note appears in the chart, then you edit | Note appears in Symbal, you review and approve, then it fills the chart |
| Recording starts from the EMR or from the app | Recording starts from your phone, a tablet, or the extension |
| Features by tier, or per-chart pricing | One plan, every feature: $65 per provider per month, or $52 billed annually |
The review step is the biggest habit change. Nothing goes into your chart until you approve it in Symbal. If you're used to fixing notes after they land, this feels backwards for about a day. Then it feels safer.
How do you set up Symbal on day one?
Setup takes five steps on your computer and phone.
- Sign up. The Business Associate Agreement is signed at signup, so there's no separate paperwork step.
- Install the Chrome extension on the computer where you chart. Log in and connect your calendar.
- Pick where you'll record: phone, tablet, or the extension itself. Most providers pick one and stick with it.
- Before your first recorded visit, check consent for your state. California is an all-party consent state, and states commonly listed with it include Florida, Washington, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Confirm for your state. Ask the patient, and use the do-not-record flag for anyone who declines.
- Record your first visit, review the note in Symbal, approve it, and watch the extension fill the chart. Then open the chart and check it against your template.
That last check tells you whether your EMR is hard-mapped or in generic mode. Boulevard, Aesthetic Record in the browser, and PatientNow are hard-mapped. Other browser EMRs run in generic mode with a copy-paste fallback. If you chart Aesthetic Record on the iPad app, your path is copy-paste from the Symbal app, and you should know that before day one.
How do you compare Symbal with your current scribe?
Run both tools on the same visits for one week to see which note needs fewer edits.
Do not cancel anything yet. For one week, record the same visits with both tools, then compare. Here's what to check:
- The note itself. Use a checklist: units, sites, laterality, product and lot, allergies, plan, follow-up. Which note needed fewer edits?
- Where the note ended up. Did it land in the right fields, in the right tab? Did you have to paste anything?
- Your evening. How many notes were still open after the last patient with each tool?
- The review step. Did reviewing in Symbal before the fill catch anything that the other tool would have put in the chart?
- The extras. Ask Symbal a question about a patient's history before a visit. Look at the Beyond the Chart panel. Decide whether you'd use them.
Write the answers down. A week of side-by-side notes is a better basis for the decision than any blog post, including this one.
How do you cancel your old scribe without losing chart data?
You cancel through your old vendor, after verifying that all historical notes live in your EMR.
This is general guidance. Every vendor's process is different, and we aren't going to describe anyone else's.
- Notes already in your EMR stay in your EMR. Cancelling a scribe doesn't remove what it already wrote into the chart.
- If any notes live only in the old tool and not in your EMR, export or copy them into the chart before you cancel.
- Check the billing date, and cancel after your parallel week is done, not before.
- Ask the old vendor what happens to stored audio and transcripts after cancellation, and when they're deleted. Get it in writing.
- If the scribe is an EMR add-on, turning it off shouldn't affect the rest of your EMR. Confirm that with the vendor before you do it.
Frequently asked questions
Will my old notes move to Symbal?
No, and they don't need to. They stay in your EMR, where they already are and where your chart lives. Symbal writes new notes going forward. Its "ask about this patient's history" feature works from notes Symbal has written, not from your full EMR history.
Do I need IT?
Usually not. Setup is a Chrome extension and a login. If your practice locks down browser extensions, whoever manages that will need to allow it, and that's the only IT step.
Can my whole team switch at once?
Yes. Pricing is per provider, so each provider signs up, installs the extension, and records. Some practices start with one provider for the parallel week and then bring the rest over. Multi-location groups can contact us about custom pricing.
Try Symbal free for 7 days, no credit card required.