Positive first impressions are a key element to providing great experiences for patients and securing their long-term satisfaction with your healthcare organization. Often, these impressions develop before a patient even walks through your doors as more patients are beginning their healthcare journeys online. One great way your organization or practice can optimize positive patient experiences—and, in turn, streamline and organize your own internal data collection—is by integrating user-friendly, secure online forms into your workflow.
From simplifying the patient intake process to ensuring HIPAA compliance for patient data, a digital data collection process with online patient forms has significant benefits for your organization, many of which go beyond the first impression. Here are four simple ways using a customizable, user-friendly web form and data collection platform can help create a better healthcare experience for your patients.
1. Establish trust with brand consistency
It’s often said that first impressions are 95% design related. If a website or online form is the first introduction a patient has with your healthcare organization, you don’t want either to appear clumsy or outdated. A thoughtfully designed online patient form that complements the branding of your organization or practice will improve your patients’ experience from their first contact with you.
Similarly, a web form that is easy to navigate, looks clean, and is logically organized will keep patients engaged through the form completion process. Intake forms, medical history forms, HIPAA consent forms, insurance information forms, and other types of forms can be a hassle to fill out, and it’s your organization’s responsibility to make this process as streamlined and stress-free as possible. Follow these tips to create user-friendly online forms:
- Use color to evoke certain feelings or to match your organization’s logo.
- Choose Serif or Sans Serif fonts that are easy to read and complement your brand.
- Use inclusive, engaging, and descriptive copywriting to avoid coming across as impersonal and confusing.
- Only ask for the information you truly need.
2. Keep patient data secure and HIPAA-compliant
Paper forms aren’t just costly and wasteful to print or an inconvenient time-suck for your patients and staff—they are potentially a liability for your healthcare organization. Patient paperwork, especially sensitive and important medical records, is at a greater risk for becoming destroyed or misplaced. Recent research found that nearly 70% of healthcare organizations have experienced at least one data breach, with three out of every four breaches involving theft or loss of paper records.
Instead of using paper forms, give your patients and your healthcare organization peace of mind by implementing secure and HIPAA-compliant online web forms. Even a simple sign-in form can be completed quickly and securely online instead of at reception. This also provides you the opportunity to ask more confidential questions about a patient’s recent symptoms or medical history ahead of time so you can improve your patient care and their overall experience.
3. Maximize accuracy
If your healthcare organization or practice currently relies on paper forms and manual data entry, it can lead to negative consequences for patients. A study published by the peer-reviewed British Medical Journal reported that medical error was a leading cause of health-related fatalities, third behind heart disease and cancer in the U.S. The cost of data entry or reporting errors isn’t typically as extreme, but it can raise administrative costs and lower productivity as your staff spends hours on manual data entry, while also increasing the risk for inaccurate healthcare records.
Automating your healthcare data process can ease the burden on your IT and administrative staff, while ensuring your patients’ PHI stays safe and accurate. Online patient forms also eliminate the risk of misinterpreting messy handwriting, while required fields and validation rules help to ensure that all necessary patient information is completed. A digital data collection system will free your administrative staff from manual data entry woes so you can focus more on providing a better patient experience from the beginning.
4. Improve the complex data sharing process
It’s not uncommon for patients to visit multiple specialists in addition to having a primary care provider or needing numerous medications. Sharing sensitive patient records manually by mail or fax is not only cumbersome, but can be a security risk as well. Additionally, without centralized data collection that is shareable between healthcare organizations & departments, it can be difficult to streamline treatment plans and keep all medical providers on the same page.
HIPAA-compliant online patient forms and secure data collection are the keys to improving your internal workflows. The more organized and streamlined your processes are, the easier your healthcare organization can improve their communication with other providers. More importantly, you’ll give your patients a better healthcare experience while keeping their sensitive data secure and protected.
How FormAssembly can help
When it comes to implementing secure web forms, FormAssembly has virtually unlimited use cases with our user-friendly, cloud-based web form builder. Additionally, with our Compliance Cloud offering, all your HIPAA-compliant web forms are consolidated into one centralized data collection platform that integrates seamlessly with Salesforce. FormAssembly is here to help with all your healthcare data collection needs, including:
- Patient intake forms
- Patient medical history forms
- Healthcare resource mobilization
- Doctor referral forms
- Medical release forms
- Patient surveys
- Vaccine registration forms
- And more
To learn more about FormAssembly’s HIPAA-compliant Compliance Cloud solution, reach out to us for a personalized demo today.
