Paper vs digital patient forms for specialist practices

A new patient arrives ten minutes early. Reception hands over a clipboard, a pen and four pages. The patient fills it in, hands it back, and the appointment starts while the form is still sitting on the desk. Later, someone scans it, uploads it to the patient's file in Gentu, types the Medicare number and address into the record, and files or shreds the paper.

None of that is a bad process. It is the process most specialist practices settled on because it works well enough, and the people running it are good at it. But each format, paper, an emailed PDF or an online form, puts that work in a different place. Here is what each one asks of your front desk, whether you call it a registration form or a patient intake form.

How paper registration runs

With paper, everything happens on the day. The form is completed in the waiting room, so readiness depends on the patient arriving early enough to finish it. A late arrival pushes the appointment back, and the appointments behind it.

Then the paper has to become a record. That usually means three steps: scan it, upload it to the right patient, and type the details into Gentu. Each step leaves room for a small error. The scan nobody checked before the paper was shredded. The form uploaded to the wrong file. A digit missed in a Medicare number.

Paper does have real strengths. Every patient can use it, it needs no setup, and some patients prefer it.

The emailed PDF

Sending the form ahead by email looks like the fix, and for some patients it is. For many others, a PDF is hard to fill in on a phone. Older or less confident patients often print it, complete it by hand and photograph it back. Some don't send it at all and ask for a paper copy when they arrive, after reception has already chased them by text or phone.

When it does come back, the same work is waiting: save the attachment, upload it, and type the details into Gentu. The form arrived earlier, but nothing else changed.

What a digital form has to do to help

An online form tool solves the phone problem. Whether it changes the rest of the week depends on what happens around it. These are the questions worth asking of any tool, including ours:

• Does it go out on its own? The form should be sent when the appointment is booked, for that appointment type, without someone remembering to send it.
• Can the patient finish it on their phone? One link by text, no app, no account to create.
• Does it chase what's missing? If the patient hasn't finished, a reminder should go before the appointment, not a phone call on the morning of it.
• Can you see what's outstanding? One view of which appointments are ready and which aren't, before the day.
• Where do the answers end up? If they arrive in an inbox or as a download, someone still types them into Gentu.

The last question is the one that decides it. A form tool that stops at the form moves the clipboard onto a screen. The retyping, the chasing and the checking stay with your team.

The retyping, in one practice's numbers

It is easy to underestimate the typing because it happens a few minutes at a time. A practice manager at a specialist practice on Gentu told us her team processed around 250 new patient appointments in a month, at about five minutes to process each new patient form.

That is one practice's month, and yours will differ. The useful exercise is to do the same sum with your own numbers.

What changes when forms write back into Gentu

With Coflow, the appointment booked in Gentu sends the forms you've set for that appointment type. The patient completes them on their phone from one link. Details Gentu already holds, like their name and mobile, are filled in for them, and the form checks things like the Medicare number before it can be submitted.

If something isn't done as the appointment gets close, Coflow sends a reminder by text, if you've turned reminders on for that appointment type. The board shows you which appointments are ready and which are still waiting, so the gaps are visible before the day, not at the desk.

When the patient submits, your team reviews it first. Once accepted, the patient details update their record in Gentu, and other forms are filed to their file as a PDF. Nobody downloads, uploads or retypes them.

The limits, up front

A digital form won't suit every patient, and it doesn't remove every step.

• Some patients will still need help. A small number won't complete a form on a phone, even with a reminder. Keep a paper option for them.
• A half-finished form isn't saved. If a patient stops partway and closes the page, they start that form again from the same link.
• Staff still review. Nothing goes into Gentu until your team has checked it, unless you choose to accept a form automatically.
• Not every field writes back. The registration form only asks for what Gentu can take into the patient record. Anything else is filed with the form, not written into the record.

Where to start

You don't need to move every form at once.

• Pick one appointment type, such as new patient consults for one specialist
• Use the form you already have, or start from one of our patient form templates
• Turn on a reminder for forms not finished before the appointment
• Keep paper available for patients who ask for it
• After a month, look at how many came back before the day

We set it up with you, using your own forms.

Start with the form you already know

New patient registration is the easiest place to begin, because every practice already has one. Our free new patient registration form template has the Medicare, DVA, concession and health fund fields an Australian specialist practice needs. Download the PDF, or see how it works when it's sent, chased and written back into Gentu.

Download the template

Want to see it with your own forms? Book a demo and we'll set it up with you.