The future of healthcare is digital. If your practice is still relying on badly xeroxed intake forms, manual scheduling, and payments via check, it’s time to consider digitization. Embracing digital options for intake forms, scheduling, patient charts, and billing can save time, reduce costly errors, enhance patient satisfaction, and ensure timely payment. Here’s what you need to know.
Digital Intake Forms Mean Hassle-Free Onboarding
Patients abhor filling out long forms filled with tiny checkboxes – and, subsequently, your staff probably doesn’t enjoy the manual entry. In addition, forms completed manually and input into a system increases incorrect and/or missed information. Using customized digital intake forms allows you to quickly obtain key patient information, flag potential conditions or interactions, and reduce possible errors. It also saves time for patients and staff, as new patients can input their data before their appointment instead of in the waiting room.
Smart Scheduling Means Smooth Workflows
If you’re scheduling on the fly, a patient emergency or a new patient can throw everything out of sync. This is especially true if you’re working with spreadsheets or, worse, post-it notes, and there are delays in updating your system with delays or early arrivals. In contrast, an online scheduling program can help you carve out space for walk-ins, ensure that new patients are seen in a timely manner, and that patients are promptly checked in on your system – all of which help your practice move smoothly. It also makes life much easier if you have multiple physicians or multiple services on offer in your practice.
Digital Charts Support Communication
An integrated online system puts key patient information in one place, making it easier for patients to see a snapshot of their care, upcoming appointments, and clinical recommendations. This helps take the guesswork out of care and puts the patient back in the driver’s seat of their own health, something that today’s patients heavily value. Additionally, with doctors spending half of their time doing paperwork, digital charts can be a time-saving joy for practitioners as well.
Online Payments Mean Faster Payments
If your practice is still sending out paper bills or, worse, accepting payments via the mail, you’re more likely to deal with delayed or lost payments. In contrast, using a digital payment portal that notifies patients of bills via email or text can cut payment times by 44%! Almost half of patients would pay via text if possible, so now’s the time to explore your options for frictionless digital payments.
Digitization Drives Best Practices
Data is power. When your practice is able to tap into digital analytics, survey responses, and online feedback, you can easily see what you’re doing well and where you can improve. Analyze when you’re busiest and where there are lulls, and see if you can rebalance. See which staff in your clinic seem to carry the most workload and learn from them. Data analysis can also help you see which visit types take the longest, who is most likely to no-show, and whether there’s a hidden demand for a particular service that you can potentially tap into. Through analytics, you can build a more efficient, effective practice.
Step into the Future with GZ
Ready to build a reputation for being a data-driven, future-oriented practice? Talk to the team at GZ. If you’re hoping to carve out extra tech-friendly capital improvements in your lease renewal, we’re here to help. As specialists in medical real estate throughout the DMV, we’re here to help your practice thrive – today and tomorrow.