The Complete Guide to the Patient Intake Process

Your patient intake process is a valuable component of your marketing strategy, patient engagement efforts, and quality of care. Your practice needs to combine efficient intake procedures with effective processes to avoid overlooking essential data and prepare new patients for a high-quality experience with your practice.

Many healthcare providers are switching to a fully digital patient intake process to save time while ensuring the highest level of accuracy. Explore the difference between traditional vs. digital intake processes and how Weave can support your patient intake.

What is patient intake?

The patient intake process includes collecting patient information, such as medical, demographic, and insurance details, to prepare for their care. Having a thorough, streamlined patient intake process is important for several reasons:

• It ensures accurate, personalized care by collecting the most up-to-date patient data.
• It improves efficiency within your processes and reduces errors.
• It supports compliance and patient satisfaction in your healthcare practice.

Patient intake forms should collect several key pieces of information about a patient:

• Their personal and contact details
• Their medical history
• Their demographics
• Their insurance and payment details
• Consent forms to administer care

Traditionally, this process was facilitated via paper forms and in-person questionnaires. Now, many practices offer digital patient intake forms that patients can complete in advance of their appointments. This allows for a more seamless patient experience upon arrival, saves practices money on physical printing costs, and reduces the time traditionally spent on manual data entry.

Traditional vs. digital intake processes and how they differ

One of the first steps in improving your patient intake process is determining whether you want to stick with traditional intake or transition to a digital process. Here’s how these two strategies differ.

Traditional patient intake

Traditional intake involves patients filling out forms in the waiting room. They hand those forms over to your front office staff, who add them to a file or scan them into an electronic health records system. This process is familiar to many healthcare practices, and most have streamlined it as much as possible.

However, manual intake will never be as fast as digital intake. This traditional process also leaves room for error, as several steps occur between when a patient fills out a form and when it reaches its final destination in their file.

Digital patient intake

Digital intake is a streamlined process in which patients fill out forms digitally on their phone, a tablet in the waiting room, or their computer prior to the appointment. Those forms automatically upload into the patient’s digital file, where they are accessible to all healthcare providers who have permission to view their medical history.

While this process initially may feel unfamiliar, it is much faster than traditional intake and leaves less room for errors. Implementation can also be seamless with the right patient intake system. This technology is often very user friendly, so medical providers can learn to use it quickly.

Common challenges with the traditional patient intake process

Many healthcare providers see no problems with the traditional patient intake process they have been using for years. However, this process could be the foundation of several challenges your practice faces. Digital intake can help solve problems like:

• Front-office bottlenecks in which staff must waste time inputting manual forms and take valuable attention away from greeting patients or answering phone calls
• Data accuracy issues that inevitably occur when staff manually input data from forms into the patient’s online file
• Insurance verification complications that arise from data entry mistakes or outdated information in a patient’s medical history
• Scheduling inefficiencies due to the increased waiting room times when patients must fill out physical intake forms
• Staff burnout from the time-consuming manual processes involved in traditional patient intake
• Compliance concerns due to reduced data security with manual data input, leading to a patient’s sensitive data going through several hands

12 strategies to improve intake

Periodically looking for ways to improve your patient intake process ensures that your practice operates as efficiently as possible. The following 12 strategies can facilitate an efficient patient intake process that minimizes data entry errors and lays a foundation for the best patient care.

1. Digital check-ins: Allowing patients to check in for appointments via their mobile devices and complete digital forms significantly reduces the time involved in the intake process. Providers can see patients much faster when they are already ready for their visits by the time they step into the waiting room.

2. Online scheduling: Enabling patients to schedule appointments online instead of needing to call your practice can also streamline intake. Their appointment information can be uploaded automatically into your practice management software, triggering an email to their inbox with digital intake forms.

3. HIPAA-compliant forms: HIPAA compliance often means reducing the number of staff members who have access to a patient’s file. With a digital patient intake system, intake forms will be sent directly to the patient’s file, preventing office staff from seeing them unnecessarily.

4. Automated insurance verification: Setting up an automated insurance verification process through your digital patient intake software can also save time and prevent errors. Verification systems take data directly from patient files and review insurance information against coverage.

5. Mobile payment collection (billing): Incorporating more digital payment methods into your patient intake process can also streamline operations and enhance patient satisfaction. Patients can pay their bills via their preferred method, promoting better payment compliance.

6. Two-way communication (texting): Simplifying two-way communication for patients, such as through texting capabilities, can improve your current patient intake process by allowing patients to quickly ask questions about intake forms via text.

7. Virtual waitlists: When patients schedule appointments with your practice, offering a virtual waitlist for cancellations can improve satisfaction if their initial appointment time was unsatisfactory. When spots open up at the last minute, patients can complete forms on their phones to reduce time in the waiting room and keep the schedule moving along.

8. EHR integration: When patients fill out digital forms, those forms can seamlessly be uploaded into your EHR system for faster and more accurate data collection.

9. Patient surveys: You can also easily integrate patient surveys into your intake process. Provide a quick survey at the end of the intake process to collect data that you can use to refine the process. You can also use your patient communication software to send post-appointment surveys to collect feedback.

10. Performance analysis (analytics): Modern patient intake processes provide you with a range of patient data that you can use to make informed decisions about patient care. Review analytics consistently and make changes to improve patient engagement and satisfaction.

11. Follow-ups: Your digital intake solution can also automate patient follow-ups by sending text messages or emails to patients a designated amount of time after their appointments. These follow-ups can ask about their experiences, provide post-appointment care instructions, remind patients to schedule additional appointments, and more.

12. Continuous review: Continually evaluating your patient intake process can help you identify potential pitfalls or areas of improvement. Taking steps to improve patient intake efficiency saves your practice a significant amount of time and manual labor each year.

Intake workflows by setting

The patient intake process you follow depends on your healthcare practice setting and the specific patient registration process you are using.

• Mobile: Mobile patient intake involves patients filling out forms on their phones or tablets before arriving for their appointments. This makes the check-in process faster and more convenient.
• In-office: When patient intake is conducted in the office, patients complete intake forms on paper or digital devices at the front desk, with staff available to help.
• Telehealth: For telehealth appointments, all intake steps are handled online prior to virtual visits, ensuring that providers have the information they need for remote care.
• Specialty-specific: For pediatrics, dental, and other specialty clinics, the intake workflow would be tailored to that practice’s unique needs, with custom forms and questions.

What to look for in intake software

Shifting to a digital patient intake process is simple with the right software. When looking for technology that can digitize your patient onboarding process, be sure to evaluate each of these criteria:

• Features: Consider the features you might need beyond online intake forms, such as two-way communication, mobile payment collection, automated insurance verification, virtual waitlists, and more.
• Integration: Be sure that the new system integrates with your existing patient records system or larger patient portal, if you have one.
• Security: Of course, these systems should be HIPAA compliant and include robust security measures to protect patient information.
• User experience: Any new software your practice adopts should be user-friendly so that staff can integrate it into their workflows quickly and avoid downtime.
• Support: Look for software with excellent customer support so that you can seek assistance when you need it.
• Cost: The system should suit your practice’s budget. Consider how you will save money through digital patient intake when assessing your budget.

Choose two or three systems that check your boxes and examine them more closely to determine which one best fits your practice’s workflow. You can often request a demo of intake software to learn more about its features and interface before adopting it.

Streamlining patient intake with Weave’s digital solutions

Weave’s tools can simplify patient intake and communication in your practice. Our comprehensive patient automation system offers several benefits for healthcare organizations:

• Enhances operational efficiency with automated workflows
• Improves the patient experience with seamless, easy-to-use features
• Integrates effortlessly with existing practice management systems
• Ensures data security and privacy with HIPAA compliance

These benefits support practice efficiency and patient outcomes, leading to happy and satisfied patients.

Debunking myths about digital intake

Some healthcare organizations hesitate to switch to digital processes because they are under the wrong impression about how they will impact costs, security, and patient satisfaction. Below are a few misconceptions regarding digital intake and the reality behind them.

• Myth: Patients won’t adapt to digital intake. Most patients are already familiar with and comfortable using digital forms, especially when they are user-friendly and accompanied by support from front office staff when needed.
• Myth: Digital intake is too expensive. While switching to digital processes will involve upfront costs, digital patient intake solutions can actually save money long term by reducing paperwork, minimizing errors, and improving staff productivity.
• Myth: Digital forms are less secure. Reputable digital intake systems are actually much more secure than paper forms and files. They use encryption and other security measures to protect patient data from unauthorized parties. They also follow all HIPAA guidelines automatically.
• Myth: Implementation is difficult and disruptive. Most modern intake platforms are designed to be easy to set up and integrate into existing processes. They also provide training and support to help staff and patients transition smoothly.

Getting started with digital patient intake

Are you ready to enhance your patient intake process with digital forms? These steps can help you roll out your new system strategically and effectively.

1. Assess your practice’s needs and the types of digital intake systems that would address those needs.
2. Select technology that suits your budget, goals, patient volume, existing systems, and desired features.
3. Train staff on using the new system so that they can quickly begin streamlining their workflows and prevent downtime.
4. Educate patients on how to access and use the new digital forms and any other capabilities that came with your new system, like online scheduling or two-way communications.
5. Roll out the new patient intake process and monitor it closely to look for errors or oversights that you can correct.
6. Over time, prioritize continuous improvement of your intake process by conducting audits, surveys, and evaluations.

Ready to build a better patient onboarding experience? Download 10 Questions to Ask Every New Patient to get practical checklists and scripts.

Weave helps practices automate patient intake

If you are looking for technology that can streamline your patient intake process, Weave is a reliable choice that offers a range of features to improve your workflow. Designed specifically for the healthcare industry, Weave supports everything from phone calls and payments to digital forms, online scheduling, insurance verification, and more.

Request a demo today to learn how Weave can improve your patient intake process and patient engagement strategy as a whole.

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