Anyone recommend any tool or interface that can be used for patient registration that they can do online?
Bert said to put this in as a board question, so I just have. I strive, you see, to be like Bert...
I, too, wonder about registration interfaces. If we have to start using the Portal* (which I do not yet do), maybe just offering a fillable PDF, which could then be cut and pasted into notes, but I do not know if this works to meet MIPS and such. I am not tech savvy, so I am sure others here would have better ideas.
Sai asked me about this, and I am sorry to say that I never replied. The reason, though is that I do not know of a good way to do this. There is a long (and sad) history of failed attempts to make this process efficient. What we want, ideally, is a way for a patient to complete both demographics and a questionnaire of clinical information, and have that seamlessly imported into AC so it need not be re-entered. Again, ideally, this could be done in advance online (by computer or cellphone) or even in the office on a device before the patient is seen. The need for an advance, online option is heightened tremendously by Covid and the desire to see patients by telemedicine.
Long-timers here will remember companies like Phreesia, Practicom and others that provided some of this... Indy spent some time on an interface... Updox has some functionality in this area (you can create a rather primitive questionnaire on their portal, but it does not interface well with with AC).
Now Updox has a more expensive option in response to the telemed boom and I am not sure it is much better. If anyone is using it and wants to share their experience, I am all ears.
We have about 2 pages of demos and billing info, plus a 2 page medical questionnaire that we get from every new patient. Now, we email or text it to the patient. Often they are reduced to printing the forms, completing them, and taking a photo on their phone, then emailing or texting it back to us. We import to chart AND staff enters all the demos, etc. Very cumbersome and time consuming. We have a website. We have toyed with creating fillable pdf's, posting on the site, then having patients complete, download, and send to us. Not sure many of our patients are tech savvy enough to do this.
If anyone has good ideas about how to streamline the process, we would love to hear them.
See writing to the board will pay great dividents. We have all of our forms (so far eight) for demographics, registration, etc. on our site, and we can send them via email for new patients.
We use jotform.com and, while the learning curve is a bit to the moderate end, it is considered the number one form maker in the world. And, it isn't really that pricey. The actual form is simple as it pretty much owns the patent on drag and drop for form making. The tougher part is the editing, easy but for one thing.
The forms, while you can see them directly from your browser are actually in jotform's cloud so always safe there. Support is mostly excellent, they sometimes have difficulty knowing what you did, but they can pull up the form and see how you screwed up or fix it for you. They use email and chat. They didn't use chat six months ago but someone complained a lot (hmmm....wonder who that could be) and they have instituted chat, which is much better.
You have several options, but we simply have them click them on the site or email them to them. They click the link which brings up the form from jotform.com. It's all behind the scenes so they just see the form. They fill it out, and hit submit, and it goes directly to your email or anywhere you wish. You can print the pdf or save it, and it makes beautiful pdf printouts.
It really is a straightforward and excellent process. I can send an exact form for you to fill out and submit, and it will come back to me, then I can send you the finished product. The nice thing to is you can choose what email or emails to come back to so your receptionist can put the demographics into the computer.
I am looking into solutions like this so I am interested in the details... Many of our patients are not technically savvy so I would like to know how easy it is.
We have a practice website and would like to put the forms there. I assume this is possible. The patient fills out the form without downloading, while on the site. They then click a button and it is emailed to you. Is that all possible?
I would not think that the emailing is HIPAA compliant but perhaps I am wrong...
The HIPAA compliance submission of the form is supposedly HIPAA compliant. It comes with the package you would probably use at no extra cost. You can simply make the forms password dependent. There are other secure ways to do it.
How you decide to do it is up to you. You would likely need someone who knows website coding. Thjey allow you to have the source code and you can use iFrame, Feedback button, Pop-up or Lightbox. Lightbox and iFrame allow the form to be embedded in the site.
If they download the form to a web page, you can set it up where they can keep it, edit it, etc. Or not do anything such as that. I will send you one you can fill out with anonymous names, phone numbers, addresses, etc.
Jotform interacts with over 100 other applications and companies and works with pretty much all forms of credit cards and PayPal. Dropbox, Survey Chimp. The overall site and business is rather impressive. Some of the site is a little cartoonish but don't let that fool you.
Sometimes it is easy to just send them link (through Jotform) than to tell them to go to the site and download it or use the embedded version. Of course, the embedded version seems as it is more HIPAA compliant. But, it is an extra step. Whereas the emailed version is right there to be done as you will see.
We have been using HelloSign for forms. I selected the essentials plan $180/year, which allows for 5 templates and unlimited signatures. HelloSign is like DocuSign but I find it easier to use (trialed both).
I think this kind of e-signature service is the only way to get completed forms back that look exactly like our paper forms. I have made fillable PDFs in the past and it works sometimes, but it doesn't always save or look right on patient's mobile phone or computer.
Serene Office Manager General Pediatrics Houston, Texas
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