It’s time to hang up the clipboard. The days of collecting patient information using paper forms are over.
Dental practices are meeting patients where they are and turning to tablets and smartphones to obtain patients’ contact information and medical history during patient intake. It’s a major benefit to both the patient and the practice. Digital forms let patients complete this information before they come to their appointment, which reduces wait times. In turn, dentists can review the medical history before they meet their patients and come to appointments prepared.
NexHealth’s patient engagement platform helps make switching to digital forms easy and HIPAA-compliant. Moving to secure digital forms allows you to customize patient intake forms, saves your administrators time, eliminates the nuisance of giant filing cabinets, and makes getting critical patient information easier.
Eliminate errors by having patients enter their own information
Receptionists often have difficulty deciphering patient handwriting on paper forms, and it’s time-consuming to enter new patient data into their system. In fact, manual data entry can result in errors, incorrect reporting, and low productivity that results in high administrative fees.
These errors can have consequences. Practices may not be able to contact a patient if they have read their phone number wrong. If a patient documents a medication allergy and someone misses it when they fill out their electronic record, the practitioner won’t be aware of a serious health concern. Incorrect billing information means practice managers have to chase down patients to get bills paid.
Digital forms remove errors, so your records reflect exactly what a patient enters.
Avoid patient frustration by sending intake forms ahead of time
One of the most frustrating experiences for patients is waiting in the office between the check-in for their appointment and when a hygienist takes them to the treatment room. Whether it’s nerves or impatience, people get antsy. Add 15 minutes to their wait time to fill out lengthy forms, and patients become annoyed.
To resolve this issue, your practice can send out patient intake forms before appointments.
“By adopting an electronic intake process, practices can move the focus from the waiting room to the living room,” said the patient experience experts at Mend. “Patients can complete their paperwork from their personal devices before they even step into the office.”
This often leads to more complete records because patients may have better access at home to the medical records they need to fill out the form.
Digital forms also save time for your practice. Office managers and receptionists no longer have to take the time to transfer the information from paper forms to electronic health records.
Simplify tasks beyond patient intake
Simplifying patient intake is a key feature of NexHealth’s digital forms, but this secure tool can be used for more than just adding new patients. Some practices create forms to collect patient insurance cards and information in one location. They can also be used as a tool to follow up on appointments, check pain levels, and evaluate symptoms after a procedure.
Digital forms are also great for marketing. Your practice can send surveys to get patients’ opinions on your services. Not only will this information help to improve internal practices, but the office can showcase these ratings and testimonies on the website to attract new patients.
Forms are also useful when you want to launch new services. For example, let’s say your practice is starting to offer orthodontic services. It You can contact patients over email and use a form for patients to indicate they would like more information on the service.
NexHealth’s forms can be customized to fit your needs
NexHealth’s forms are easy to create and fully customizable to your dental practice. Most importantly, for the work of medical professionals, they are HIPAA-compliant.
source: https://www.nexhealth.com/guides/hipaa-compliant-digital-forms
Creating a form on your own to collect Protected Health Information (PHI) is difficult. You have to consider factors like using a service for forms that stores data securely and ensuring encryption. NexHealth’s forms do that work for you, encrypting the data and automatically syncing it with your office’s practice management system.
The forms you create can be converted from an existing paper form, or you can start from scratch. The form’s features allow you to upload images, such as patient photos or copies of insurance cards, and to sign forms digitally, for example, when patients need to agree to treatment terms.
Once the forms are created, your practice can use NexHealth’s platform to send them out over text, embed them in emails, or feature them on the website. When a patient completes a form, the practice will get web and email alerts.
Digital forms will become your practice’s best friend
NexHealth’s client Redwood Dental of Utah saw success when they implemented NexHealth’s platform to offer more digital services to their patients. They used NexHealth’s digital forms to collect patient intake information and update current patient information. Forms are featured on the front page of their website.
Image Credit: Redwood Dental
The practice features their four most commonly used forms on the website to make it easy for patients to access them. The forms save Redwood Dental time, and practice leaders said the forms allow them to focus on offering “honest and transparent dental care.”
Image Credit: Redwood Dental
Have more time for important practice tasks by switching to digital forms
Practice managers like you want to do work that’s meaningful for their office, like billing, filing insurance claims, scheduling, and addressing patients’ needs and concerns. Digital forms free up your time to focus on these tasks rather than spending hours on data entry. Digital forms help facilitate data collection for everything, from insurance information to medical histories, and reduce the hassle of paper forms. If you’re interested in simplifying your practice’s operations, contact NexHealth for a demo.
