Should I write my own prompts for my AI scribe?

If your tool allows it, yes. The physicians getting the most from theirs all did. One wrote detailed instructions covering the prior-authorization and necessity language for each procedure they perform. Another built a one-click instruction set for a routine visit type. A nurse practitioner said custom template prompts are the key to high-quality results. One widely shared example also shows the kind of prompt you should never write.

What do good prompts do?

They fix format: section order, bullets or paragraphs, how long the history should be. They teach your abbreviations, which one frustrated clinician said their tool would not learn when they wanted type 2 diabetes written the short way. They add the language payers look for, which matters for medical necessity. And they set up a separate instruction for each kind of visit you do often.

What should a prompt never do?

Tell the tool to fill in findings you did not observe. One example shared in a physicians' forum told the scribe to include a normal heart and lung exam by default if it was not sure. That writes an examination into the legal record that may never have happened. It is not a shortcut. Do not do it, and check that no template you inherit does it either.

How do I start?

Pick your most common visit type. Write down what a good note for it looks like: sections, order, length, the phrases you always use. Turn that into the instruction. Use it for a week, note what you still fix by hand, and add those fixes to the instruction. Then move to the next visit type.

Why does this work?

Because you are teaching it the part it can learn, which is format, and keeping the part it cannot, which is what you saw and what you decided.

The short version

Write your own instructions for format, abbreviations, section order and necessity language, one visit type at a time. Never write one that fills in findings you did not observe. For practices, Solanto will write the history in your own template and leave the judgment to you.

The price is on the page, not behind a call. Early access is open: solanto.ai/pricing

Open your scribe's template settings and look for any default exam findings. If you find one, send this to whoever set it up.