The lengthy process of new patient registration is a hurdle we've all had to overcome.
Stacks of forms to fill out, dozens of places to sign, photo ID and insurance cards to provide, and endless delays as you wait to be seen by a doctor.
If you're lucky, the tedious process is only a mild annoyance.
At its worst, however, it can be an impediment to receiving quality care.
The patient experience matters and paper-free, data-smart registration and informed consent solutions can improve patients' experience and have a profound effect throughout the organization.
However, not all solutions are created equal.
There are eight key elements that are essential to driving success with patient registration through the use of technology and paper-free solutions.
When selecting your paperless registration and informed consent solution, consider the following:
- Flexible Mobile Data Capture: The ability to securely capture and share data from a variety of mobile devices, when it's convenient, allows the organization to access it at any point in the patient care process: at registration, in the examining room, or at the bedside.
- Context-Aware Forms: The required forms and consents vary depending on the patient, their primary language, and his or her coverage or procedure. Context-aware forms will automatically present the right content and guide the healthcare provider through the process based on the patient type, insurance coverage, and/or procedures.
- Proven Interoperability: Interfaces to hospital systems should automatically populate documents with correct demographic information—reducing data entry requirements and improving accuracy. This provides the ability to launch straight from the EMR's Registration application reducing the burden and number of clicks on your staff.
- Data Validation: As forms are completed, data needs to be validated to ensure proper values were entered and that there aren't fields with missing or incomplete information.
- Electronic Signature: Easy-to-use electronic signature technology is essential for automating the consent and approval process.
- User-Friendly Interface: The user interface should be intuitive and easy to navigate and highlight required fields to ensure that all mandatory data and signatures are provided.
- Integration of Support Technology: The solution should be able to integrate technology such as voice, handwriting recognition, annotations, video, and other types of content to support documentation and learning requirements.
- Real-Time Information Distribution: Capture data once and send it securely to any number of downstream medical records or financial repositories including the EHR.
Registration and informed consent solutions are only a small part of the patient experience, but they play a big part in forming the first impression a hospital makes with their patients.
What will your first impression be?
Chris Joyce is Director of Healthcare Solutions with Bottomline Technologies where he defines and executes the product strategy which is aligned with customer and partner initiatives. He has over 17 years of experience in healthcare, forms automation, and patient registration. Prior to joining Bottomline, Chris founded Logical Progression, a healthcare technology company that focused on tablet-based mobile documentation software for hospitals and clinical trials. Chris enjoys applying technology to improve the patient and clinician experience and help organizations more easily adoption electronic medical records.