In order to provide the best care possible, it’s important to collect information from your patients ahead of their appointment. That includes forms that your patients might fill out before they arrive, as well as forms they might fill out in the waiting room, but it also includes forms they require for school or work.
The trouble is, managing those forms isn’t always easy for you or your patients. They can be long, inconvenient, and if not properly executed, they can be downright ineffective.
Here are a few ways to make patient forms a little easier for you and your patients so you can provide the best care possible.
Put Your Forms Online
It can be extremely annoying for patients to have to come back into the office if they need a physician to fill out a dentist or doctor’s note. If you can put it online, signed and ready to go, it can easily be printed and delivered in person, or it can be emailed directly to the appropriate party.
It is also extremely convenient if you can put your patient intake forms online. They can be emailed to your patient ahead of their next appointment so they can fill them out before they arrive at the clinic. It not only saves time, but it also gives patients the ability to answer important questions without feeling rushed, which means their answers will be more accurate.
Get Patient Insurance Information Before They Arrive
Insurance is an extremely important consideration in providing care. Whether you only accept certain patients with certain kinds of insurance or you have a different way of working with patients who have minimal or no insurance, it’s extremely helpful to verify insurance ahead of their appointment.
Consider including this information in online patient intake forms. It gives you the ability to check a patient's coverage before they come into your office. That way, there aren't any surprises, either for you or your patient. Appointments can be cancelled or adjusted based on their coverage before anyone is on the hook to pay.
Use Conditional Logic
Filling out forms can feel maddening for patients when they are filled with redundant or inappropriate questions. It can be so annoying and uncomfortable that some people even have a fear of filling out forms.
It can be a big headache for you too. Digging through redundant information or trying to manage overly long forms with half of the questions left blank because they aren’t relevant takes a lot of time.
Using conditional logic can make things a lot easier. All it does is tie questions to the answers of previous questions. It allows some questions to be shown and some to be hidden, depending on whether they are relevant for the patient.
For example, if a patient marks "Yes" to a question about smoking, you might want to follow up with additional questions. If they answered "No," they simply move on to the next set of questions.
Customize Forms Based on Patient Groups
Not only are some questions irrelevant to some patients, but the form itself may not reveal as much information as you’d like. This is especially true if your clinic treats different types of patients.
It can be extremely helpful to create special patient groups in your practice so you can ask the questions that are most relevant to them.
In a clinical psychology office, you might have different intake forms for patients based on mental health concerns, like whether they have been diagnosed with anxiety or schizophrenia. A medical doctor’s office might create specific forms for each doctor as a more personalized way to treat patients.
Include Open-Ended Questions
Therapists often ask open-ended questions because they enable clients to provide a level of detail that's comfortable to them, but they aren't just for therapists. They are great for medical doctors and other professionals too.
Include opportunities for patients to write out their own answers to open-ended questions on your forms like:
- What other health concerns do you have?
- What are you worried you might have?
- Have you had any recent procedures or tests?
- How would you describe your mental health?
- Do you feel safe and supported at home?
- Do you have any questions for the doctor?
Then, once you’ve followed these tips, make sure you actually let your patients’ responses inform your care! When they feel like the questions are meaningful and you’re actually getting meaningful information from their answers, you can provide a much higher level of care.
