5 Reasons Why Electronic Consent Forms Are A Better Choice In The Patient Check-Posted by Nisharao on June 17th, 2017 What do you first do when a patient comes to your hospital or clinic for treatment? Your receptionist or front office person may probably give them a form and ask the person to fill out all the pertinent details. Sometimes the details are clear while at other times, it may be illegible. So, there are many chances for you to enter wrong data into your system. Secondly, you need to manually collate the forms and stack them for future reference – the entire process is time consuming, tedious and labor intensive. Technology has brought about an efficient alternative to manual forms. Here are 5 reasons why electronic consent forms are a better choice in the patient check-in process, not only at the healthcare facility but even from the comfort of where-ever the patient may be via an app.
One of the most important areas in providing healthcare is ensuring patient compliance. Even if the right treatment and drugs are provided, the patient may not follow it correctly. Hence, the expected results may not be achieved. In some cases, incorrectly or improperly following instructions could lead to adverse effects. Electronic consent forms clearly details the patient's medical history and other information of the medical procedures to be followed. So, in case of any event, you will have clear records of the complete treatment and follow-up procedure. Moreover, an electronic form is not easily lost like a paper form. So, both the patient and the healthcare provider can refer to this form at any point of time, greatly enhancing patient compliance. For healthcare providers and facilities - the clear, detailed information on the treatment history decrease the possibility of adverse legal proceedings.
A paper form can be accessed by anyone, copied or destroyed. This is difficult in case of an electronic form where controls can be placed over who has access to the information and who has the authority to change / update the details in the form. Even if any changes or updates are made, it can be easily traced back to the person who has made the changes. The patient check in app not only ensures patient confidentiality, but also safety of critical patient data. So, access control for patient, provider, and facility can be pre-programmed into the software, depending on the specific requirements of the facility. Data accuracy As mentioned earlier, the probability of errors are greatly reduced by digitizing the patient entry form. Moreover as all the data is digitized, it can be easily transferred to the different departments without worrying about loss or modification of data.
The patient check in app brings all the work flow of all the departments on to one platform. So, from the time a patient checks in, to the time the encounter is completed, the entire medical procedure can be streamlined using this software application. It reduces multiple or duplicate documentation and makes the entire procedure transparent for all parties involved.
If the patient has to come in for a test or consultation before the actual treatment or if there are follow up tests, consultations, physio, or more which needs to be done, the healthcare provider and the patient can be informed as all the details will be available in the electronic consent forms. The software application can be programed to automatically send reminder emails and notification messages to patients, ensuring better response and compliance. After the treatment is completed, patients can also be asked to send their feedback and experience with the healthcare provider. All these features can be programmed into the patient check in app based on requirement. Like it? Share it! More by this author |