Not all therapy intake forms are created equal. Finding the best option for your office can be tricky. From making sure all the necessary information is collected, to finding the most efficient solution, there are many factors to consider.
Research has shown that there is one factor that employees and patients agree on. The future of physical therapy intake forms is electronic.
The Lobbie Institute discovered in a recent study that, “81% of patients surveyed prefer digital forms over paper and clipboards, with 83% stating they want to complete forms online before coming into the healthcare facility.” With numbers like these, there has never been a better time to make the crucial update to digital intake forms.
This is especially true for physical therapy offices. A recent study done by Journal of Physical Therapy Education showed that young adults and middle-aged adults represent the majority of physical therapy patients. People in these age ranges not only prefer electronic forms, but expect them.
So why are patients and office staff raving about fully digital patient intake forms?
Here are four of the main reasons that online patient intake forms are the best option for the future.
Decreased Patient Wait Time
When patients can fill out all forms before even stepping foot in the office, it saves everyone time. Neither patients nor staff like seeing full waiting rooms. When a patient has to wait for a long period of time before even being helped, their experience starts off on the wrong foot.
It is especially important for physical therapy patients to avoid long wait times by filling out forms ahead of time. Patients are often there because they are in pain or recovering from an injury. Allowing them to fill out these forms from the comfort of their own home is a huge advantage for your office and shows them that you care.
Patients shouldn’t have to accept that all medical offices have long wait times. Your office can change the status quo and greatly increase patient satisfaction by switching to digital intake forms.
Staff Efficiency
One of the top issues physical therapists face is managing staff. When staff are stressed due to patient complaints about wait times and confusing forms, it can affect their mental health. Spending their days monotonously transferring over information from paper to the computer certainly doesn’t help boost morale either.
PatientStudio’s digital intake forms not only provide an easy transition for staff, but also cut out all of the time wasted transferring patient information. All patient data collected on the intake forms is automatically synced with all other applications. This means scheduling systems, clinical notes, and billing software will immediately be updated with patient data. You can also virtually eliminate any issues of human error that can take place because of poor handwriting.
Electronic intake forms allow office staff to spend more time on building relationships with patients and making sure day to day operations run smoothly.
PatientStudio also provides a special feature that allows patients to upload pictures of ID’s and insurance cards through a HIPAA compliant system. All of this happens before patients even step foot in the office. This means staff no longer have to scan these cards or worry about returning them to patients after scanning. Insurance is also checked ahead of time which limits last-minute cancellations due to invalid insurance.
Patient Experience
In the past therapy offices have tried to modernize by emailing PDF documents to patients. These documents could then be printed and filled out by hand before an appointment. Unfortunately, this model has become outdated.
Many do not have easy access to a printer and this leads to even more frustration related to the forms. And when a patient finally gains access to a printer and takes the time to fill out the forms, they often leave them on the counter at home when it finally comes time for their appointment. The patient will only get even more annoyed when they realize they have to fill out all the same forms again when they get to your office.
This is why it is extremely important to choose the digital patient intake forms with the most advanced technology. PatientStudio offers forms that are completely electronic and mobile responsive.
To provide the easiest format for patients, therapy intake forms must be compatible with smartphones like those available through the PatientStudio practice management system. This allows patients to fill out forms whenever it is most convenient for them.
Customizable Options for Therapy Intake Forms
The ability to customize patient intake forms to fit your practice is an important part of finding the right system for your office. With the advanced technology of conditional logic, patients will only see questions on the forms that are relevant to them.
Most therapy intake forms do not require patients to fill out insurance information because they do not have a separate option for those who are self-pay. With the conditional logic of PatientStudio’s therapy intake forms, those who have insurance must provide it on the form while those who are self pay are able to move on to the next question on the form.
Customized forms show patients that you care and are putting in the time to deliver them the best experience possible.
Not only does this new technology make patients happy, it makes things much easier for office staff. Every office has different needs and standard forms might gather too much or not enough information. Patient Studio will customize your existing forms or help you create new forms to collect specific information from each patient.
Why Choose PatientStudio?
PatientStudio’s intake forms provide many unique benefits that others do not. The ability to fill out forms fully from a mobile phone is something that not many providers can offer. This shows your patients that your office is cutting-edge and tech savvy. Overall, patients appreciate all of the time they save when you use forms that are customized to them and only make them fill out their information once.
The many benefits our electronic intake forms provide for your office staff will make a huge difference at your therapy practice. The amount of time saved when information is automatically input and shared with all systems is invaluable.
Using PatientStudio’s online patient intake forms will decrease patient wait time, increase staff efficiency, and give you the most advanced and customizable forms out there.
Schedule a demo today to see an example of PatientStudio’s online patient intake forms.