Managing operational and patient forms is one of the most time-consuming and tedious parts of operating a healthcare agency. But many of these essential forms are now available electronically, making it easier to manage records and comply with various rules and regulations. Ditching paper forms for electronic forms can benefit any practice, allowing them to streamline operations and even improve employee morale.
How Do Healthcare Agencies Benefit from EForms?
Gathering and reporting data are essential functions in any healthcare agency. Having the ability to collect and store data in one place offers multiple benefits to each agency.
Streamline Common Processes
EForms allow staff members to streamline repetitive processes like resident admissions, consent forms signing, incident reporting, and others. These forms eliminate the need to manually fill out forms and may help reduce errors and missing information.
Save Operational Costs
By streamlining processes, eForms help reduce repetitive tasks among practitioners and their administrative teams. These repetitive tasks can cost $5 trillion annually, and using eForms over paper forms can help recuperate some of these costs. Because eForms are also stored digitally, a healthcare agency no longer has to pay for offsite storage of paper files.
EForms can also be backed up or stored in a cloud. If an emergency, like a fire or flood, impacts the facility, the data is still accessible.
Simplify Compliance Efforts and Ensure Accurate Data Collection
Many eForms are customizable and can flag errors. If a patient or an administrative team member inaccurately enters data, they know immediately and can correct the mistake. This helps reduce processing times for referrals, orders, and much more.
An agency can customize its eForms based on required information for compliance.
Never Miss a Field in Legal Forms
Along with the ability to flag errors, eForms make it necessary to fill in all fields. This feature helps ensure accurate data because staff can’t save the form until it’s complete. An agency manager or owner also has an audit trail of documents.
The audit process may also go more smoothly. The team can easily access records and pass them along to respective auditors instantly instead of digging for a paper file and scanning or faxing it.
EForms Save Time
Using eForms allows each agency to customize common forms like move-in forms, questionnaires, and resident leases to their own needs. Instead of using a generic form and changing multiple fields with each new patient or resident, the agency can keep specific forms on file — making the leasing and move-in process faster and more efficient.
Making the Most of EForms
The ability to store and access forms in a cloud-based system is one of the biggest benefits of using eForms. But an agency can simplify processing even more by choosing a system compatible with their existing electronic health records. This way, patient leases and intake forms can be stored with patient records for ease of care and accessibility.
Agency managers who want to simplify operations and enhance their compliance practices should consider switching to eForms.
