May 30, 2024 
Summary:
- Long wait times can frustrate patients and discourage them from returning to your practice. This can negatively impact your reputation and efficiency.
- Online forms are a simple solution: patients fill them out beforehand, reducing paperwork and prep time for staff. This means less waiting and a smoother experience for everyone!
- Creating user-friendly, accessible forms with features like pre-filled information and clear instructions. This keeps patients engaged and ensures accurate information gets collected, further reducing wait times.
Patient satisfaction is at the heart of modern healthcare. Long wait times can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction, and can discourage patients from returning in the future. This not only affects patient well-being but negatively affects the reputation and efficiency of the practice.
Thankfully, there is a simple solution that can transform your patient intake and drastically reduce their wait times: Online Forms.
When to Effectively Use an Online Form to Reduce Wait Time
Online forms for patients can be sent at various times depending on the healthcare provider’s policies and practices to ensure it is being used optimally to reduce patient wait time. Here are some common scenarios that you can use them in starting today:
- Before appointments: Send forms to your patients before their appointments to gather necessary information in advance. This allows you to streamline the check-in process and have relevant details on hand during the appointment.
- After scheduling appointments: Immediately after a patient schedules an appointment online, send out a form, so that the patient has ample time to complete the forms before the scheduled visit.
- Upon registration: For new patients, online forms may be sent as part of the registration process when you first establish care with a healthcare provider. This helps gather comprehensive information about the patient’s medical history, insurance details, etc, for their next visit.
- As needed: You can also keep them handy on a need basis, like for updates to medical information, consent for specific procedures, or patient satisfaction surveys.
The timing and frequency of your online forms can vary depending on the specific workflows and the nature of the information being collected.
How Online Forms Expedite Patient Visits
An online form simplifies patient handover and saves patient and staff time, with several benefits.
- Reduced pre-appointment paperwork: Complicated paperwork takes up patient’s time upon arrival. Instead, they can fill out online forms at their convenience, arrive relaxed and ready for their appointment!
- Improved data accuracy: Pre-populated fields in online forms helps reduce errors and omissions. This ensures complete patient records for providers, without the need for clarification or correction during appointments, which can seriously extend wait times, and in some cases even lead to a rescheduled appointment!
- Make the employees more productive: You can free your employees with online forms. This way, staff do not have to spend time collecting and entering patient information from paper forms to EHRs. They can instead use this time to focus on more important tasks.
- Makes for optimal care: Online forms allow you to view patient information before making an appointment. When you finally meet your patient, you’ll be armed with the right questions from the start and can get straight to the point.
Tips for Designing Online forms that Reduce Patient Wait Times
While reducing wait times is a primary benefit, effective online forms offer additional advantages that enhance the overall experience for both patients and staff. Here’s a breakdown of key features to consider:
1. Prioritize User-Friendly Design
User-friendly design principles are paramount for online forms in healthcare. This means prioritizing simplicity and clarity for patients of all technical abilities. Here’s how:
- Clean Layout and Intuitive Navigation: Maintain a clutter-free layout with clear buttons and a logical flow. Patients shouldn’t have to hunt for the information they need.
- Minimal Formatting and Text: Avoid overwhelming patients with excessive formatting or complex medical terms. Use clear, concise language, headings, white space, and bullet points to improve readability.
- Step-by-Step Guidance with Progress Tracking: Break down the form into clear sections with concise titles and instructions. Utilize features like step forms and progress bars to guide patients through the process one step at a time, keeping them engaged and motivated.
2. Ensure Accessibility and Inclusion
Accessibility is an essential aspect of online forms in healthcare. It ensures that patients with disabilities can complete forms independently and feel included in the process. Here are some key considerations:
- Screen Reader Compatibility: Ensure your forms can be read aloud by screen reader software used by visually impaired patients. This promotes inclusivity and allows them to navigate the form with ease.
- Larger Font Options: Offer an option to increase font size, catering to patients with visual impairments.
- Keyboard Navigation: Allow patients to complete the form using just a keyboard or assistive technologies. This ensures accessibility for patients with motor limitations.
- Pre-Filled Information: Consider integrating your online forms with your appointment scheduling system. This allows pre-populated fields with basic information like name, date of birth, and appointment details, saving patients time and reducing errors.
- Conditional Logic: Tailor the form based on patient responses. Use conditional logic to display or hide certain questions based on previous answers. This streamlines the process by eliminating irrelevant questions, saving patients time and avoiding frustration. For example, if a patient selects “no” for a question about allergies, you can hide any follow-up questions about specific allergies.
3. Optimize Mobile-Friendliness
The world is mobile, and healthcare needs to adapt. Design forms that function flawlessly on smartphones and tablets, allowing patients to conveniently complete them on-the-go while waiting for an appointment or during their commute. Consider the smaller screen size and use touch-friendly elements like large buttons and ample space for typing to prevent frustration and errors.
4. Integration is Key
Imagine a world where patient information seamlessly flows from your online forms into your existing Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. That’s the power of integration. By integrating your online forms with your EHR system, you never have to ask your patient the same information repeatedly. With one form submission from your patient, your EHR would have captured their data and you are fully prepared for a repeat visit any time.
5. Boosting Patient Participation
Even the most user-friendly forms won’t reach their full potential if patients aren’t aware of their benefits. Here’s how to encourage patient participation:
- Patient Education: Inform patients about the advantages of completing online forms before their appointments. Highlight the time-saving benefits and the ability to complete them at their own convenience.
- Reminders and Incentives: Consider sending patients reminder emails or offering incentives like appointment discounts or priority check-in for completing online forms beforehand. This can significantly boost participation rates.
Make it Easy with Online Forms
Investing in efficient online forms can revolutionize your patient intake process. User-friendly design, accessibility, and data security create a smooth experience for all. This translates to reduced wait times, happier patients, improved staff efficiency, and accurate patient records.
Online forms are a powerful tool for streamlining operations, enhancing patient experience, and ultimately, optimizing care.
Ready to invest in a smoother workflow and happier patients?
MakeForms can help!
We offer a user-friendly platform with features specifically designed for healthcare practices. Explore our pre-built templates for medical history forms, appointment scheduling, and more. Plus, our secure forms ensure HIPAA compliant forms safeguard patient privacy.
FAQs
Patients can complete forms before appointments, minimizing paperwork and staff prep time, leading to shorter waits and a smoother experience.
Online forms can be sent before appointments, after scheduling appointments, upon registration, or as needed for updates, consent, or surveys, streamlining processes and reducing patient wait times.
You can start by educating your patients about its benefits and also sending reminders and offering incentives. This can include appointment discounts and priority check-in for prior form-filling.
