In the day-to-day rush of running a business, old habits can die hard. Despite technology advancing more every year, your orthodontic practice might still be doing things the hard way, especially when it comes to the patient onboarding process. Streamlining your patient onboarding has many benefits.
Why is onboarding important in healthcare?
The patient onboarding process is the first lengthy interaction you will have with patients. They will get a feel for your practice and the care you have for them, and you will begin establishing a relationship that will hopefully last throughout their entire treatment. By establishing a positive relationship with the patient right away, they will experience a connection that will help them feel valued and respected.
Establishing this level of orthodontist/patient trust will encourage your patients to continue their treatment and follow through on their appointments. They will feel comfortable asking you questions about their treatment or your practice, and will view their orthodontic treatment less like a business transaction and more like a relationship. They are also more likely to be open about any financial difficulties and concerns they have, making it easier to resolve any billing issues.
The benefits of an electronic patient onboarding practice
In years past, orthodontic offices only had paper forms as an option to gather patient information. In today’s fast-paced world, using an electronic onboarding process through a great practice management platform is much more efficient and patient-friendly. With paper onboarding, you need to have staff mailing the forms or managing the form completion during the first appointment, handing patients clipboards with forms to fill out. Then they have to enter the information into the computer system.
This leaves more room for error, as there are so many different steps to retrieving and filing the information. There is also the potential for forms to get lost or misplaced. Using a paper-heavy onboarding process also means less time focused on building a relationship with the patient.
Before you dismiss electronic onboarding as being too much trouble to learn or too time-consuming to switch to, consider how much time and cost is needed for paper-based onboarding. Each new patient phone call takes about ten to fifteen minutes, preparing each welcome letter takes about five minutes, and preparing the patient welcome packet takes about ten minutes. That means for each new patient, you’ve already spent thirty minutes just preparing paperwork for them to complete—not to mention the increased cost of postage and envelopes!.
Then if they get to their appointment and forget to bring the paperwork, it has to be completed in-office, which can make appointments run late. This means time spent building a rapport with the patient is now minimized to a conversation about paperwork—and it costs you money and time in the process.
With Greyfinch, you send medical forms via email or text with a single click, and your team is done! You can even have Greyfinch send reminder emails and texts to the patient so they don’t forget to complete the paperwork before their visit.
Greyfinch can make life much easier for you and your patients, with the onboarding process and so much more. If you are ready to learn more about how Greyfinch can work for you, please contact us today!
