Streamline Your Practice: Become a Paperless Dental Office

By Dr. Greg Grillo

Are you still manually entering patient info into your PMS?

The past two years changed a lot about our expectations, and patients feel the same way. Contactless solutions continue to spring up in every industry. The first two-story taco bell boasts four drive-through lanes, an overhead kitchen, and automated no-contact delivery from one story to the other. If fast food can innovate, our dental practices can, too. We may not provide zero contact, drive-through treatment, but we can shift our paradigms. Our delivery models include many physical contact points, and they’re each an opportunity to adopt new tools for better service. And 93% OF PATIENTS expect us to offer digital tools for everything from appointment scheduling to intake forms. Consider these five benefits when digital patient forms become part of your mode of operation:

1.Cut Costs By Moving Patient Forms Online

Paper forms have served humans well for many years. And sometimes, we’re reluctant to change because we’re comfortable with the tried-and-true methods of the past. But paper chops away at our budget with a thousand tiny cuts. Many organizations find that 3% of their overhead ties to some form of paper. Worse, the additional costs associated with printing, filing, shredding, stamping, and mailing add up. Moving patient forms online eliminates wasteful costs and unnecessary actions. In business, incremental changes over time significantly impact the bottom line.

2. Eliminate Mistakes With Online Forms

Many medical practices adopt a hybrid approach that can lead to more work, not less. If patients fill out paper forms, some of the data needs to find its way into the digital record. Manual entry often leads to simple mistakes that affect cash flow, efficiency, and brand reputation; OVER 60% OF INSURANCE CLAIMS rejected by insurance companies result from a basic error. Digital patient forms streamline the intake process and directly enter data in one place. Everyone wins when our teams spend more time interacting directly with patients instead of their keyboards.

3. Boost Patient Privacy Measures

Every practice bears a legal and ethical responsibility to protect patient information, and mismanagement can bring dire consequences. In a recent 12-month period, healthcare breaches exposed over 3.7 MILLION RECORDS EVERY MONTH . Many of these include network breaks, but improper disposal of paper records can also result in fines. A single form that’s tossed without shredding could result in a problem none of us need. DIGITAL INTAKE THAT’S HIPAA-COMPLIANT helps eliminate one more privacy vulnerability so your team can focus on handling fewer high-risk components.

4. Save Everyone More Time

Anything that throws your schedule off for the day creates stress, inefficiency, and frustration. If a patient spends 20 minutes in the waiting room updating paperwork, treatment time shrinks and subsequent appointments may run behind. Digital forms allow patients to complete the process from any device before their visit. Plus, staff doesn’t spend a second filing, shredding, or losing (and searching) for physical forms. Did you know that the average employee spends 25% OF THEIR WORKDAY LOOKING FOR INFORMATION ? With digital forms, your team spends more time engaged with patients.

5. Boost Your Patient Experience By Exceeding Expectations

Patients are consumers first, and they bring expectations into the office. Clipboards, pens, and paper charts feel retro to most of them, especially as contactless solutions skyrocket in popularity. Digital forms fit into a modern brand in any industry, especially healthcare. Most patients set up online portals with their primary medical providers, and they want the same convenience with their dentist. It’s imperative that we provide secure, convenient, and integrated digital options that fit the contactless revolution.

Online Patient Intake Forms Set The Stage

Mediocre has never been the standard in dental practices like yours and mine. But traditional business practices raise eyebrows in today’s world. A pre-pandemic survey clearly showed that patients want digital connections with the healthcare system. Telehealth options appeal to 85% OF PATIENTS , 97% want online appointment scheduling, and 92% expect online payment options. An updated survey might hit 100% in 2022. Online patient intake forms keep the focus on the future with immeasurable benefits for everyone involved. And perception matters in healthcare, too. A PAPERLESS PRACTICE that offers a suite of digital tools carries an innovative air when matched against a stack of papers and a ballpoint pen.

Every touchpoint in the patient journey reinforces our brand story, and patients notice how we do business. LEGWORK PAPERLESS FORMS integrates seamlessly with your practice management system, offering contactless patient intake of everything from medical histories to consent forms to patient records. A customizable, drag-and-drop form builder allows any practice to toss paper aside in the front office and the treatment areas. Plus, the entire Legwork digital suite benefits from 20 years of experience in dentistry. Insights about everything from patient psychology to HIPAA security give our practices an advantage as we jockey for attention and loyalty.

SAVING TREES AND MODERNIZING OUR PRACTICES with digital forms makes sense from every angle. After we switched to being a PAPERLESS PRACTICE , we wondered why we waited so long! Legwork takes away the intimidation factor we often feel when changing traditional methods. To learn how you can maximize online forms to streamline processes, implement touchfree systems, and personalize your patient experience, download the free eBook, 5 TYPES OF DIGITAL FORMS EVERY PRACTICE SHOULD HAVE .

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