5 NextGen Electronic Patient Registration System Benefits

Imagine if you could unlock a streamlined patient registration system to ease the existing burdens on your call center, front desk, and patients. Not only is this idea possible, but it's also within reach. Spending the effort to implement an electronic solution within NextGen EPM for registrations could benefit patients, admins, and clinicians in surprising ways.

Patient registration takes an average of 15 minutes. If you could reduce the average registration time to from 15 to 5 minutes, the overall impact could be huge. A 10-minute reduction in registration time could mean saving nearly 3-and-a-half hours of admin work each day per Physician, assuming your Doctors treat an average of 20 patients daily. Faster patient check-ins could lead to significant long-term cost savings and a better patient experience.

Researchers have discovered that staff, technology, and convenience are the three most important drivers for patient satisfaction. Happier patients are more likely to return for future appointments and refer friends to their Doctor. They also may live healthier lives. Studies have found a link between patient satisfaction and positive healthcare outcomes.

Implementing electronic patient registration systems with NextGen EPM can have a serious impact on practices of all sizes. It's possible to unlock faster patient check-in times and other rewards, including better data and self-service check-in options.

5 Benefits of NextGen Patient Registration Systems

1. Ease of Information Sharing

Electronic patient registration systems, including kiosks, Medfusion, and NextGen Patient Portal software, can create better information sharing between systems and staff. Any patient registration data entered into these systems is quickly available in NextGen EPM and to anyone in the practice or group, even care providers at remote clinics hundreds of miles away.

Everyone benefits when information is shared securely between registration and connected systems. Providers on-site and at connected clinics have immediate access to a patient's demographics and health history in NextGen EPM & EHR for better decision-making. Registration data that's shared between registration systems and NextGen EPM can also improve the speed and accuracy of both the insurance billing and scheduling departments.

2. Increase Patient Satisfaction

Overall, wait times have a significant impact on patient happiness. 1 in 5 patients have switched doctors to avoid lengthy wait times. Physicians with a one-star rating on patient review websites have the longest average wait times of providers, averaging 34 minutes, according to a recent report. Nearly 1 in 3 patients admit they've walked out of a waiting room when they waited too long for a scheduled appointment.

Every minute your patients spend sitting in the waiting room has an impact on their happiness. Excessively long waits reflect poorly on the entire practice, and studies show patient wait times impact perception of care quality. Using electronic patient registration systems can reduce the amount of time patients spend in registration by creating efficiencies and eliminating redundant questions. This can lead to better overall patient satisfaction.

3. Reduced Workload

The average medical practice spends 2 hours each day on an administrative workload that could easily be automated with the assistance of patients. Patient registration systems integrated with NextGen EPM provide an all-in-one portal to quickly capture patient data, medical history, insurance info, and required signatures. A streamlined registration workflow can significantly reduce the burden on administrative staff across the practice.

Digitized registration also reduces the manual workload associated with processes that are connected to registration, including scheduling, patient check-outs, and billing. Electronic registration tasks can eliminate time-consuming admin tasks, such as manually scanning insurance cards, entering demographics, and historical information. 

4. Reduce Paper in NextGen Patient Registration

Many practices have made the switch to being entirely electronic, except when it comes to documentation it makes a patient fill-out. In some practices, each patient can leave a literal paper trail of 20-25 pages or more. Paper is a costly administrative burden with a substantial environmental impact.

Paper isn't just difficult on staff; it's a risk to compliance and productivity. Paper is expensive to store and properly dispose of compliantly. It is also easy to misplace, especially compared to electronic data. On average across industries, 15% of paper documents are misplaced due to storage issues, staff mistakes, theft, or natural disasters. The average admin spends up to 30% of their day trying to locate lost documents. You could seriously reduce the risk of lost patient records by switching to an electronic registration solution.

5. Accommodate a Diverse Patient Population

It can be a complex headache to register, check-out, and schedule patients who speak a language other than English. Many electronic systems offer built-in support for multiple languages. They can automatically translate the language of patient registration forms, allowing practices to accommodate a diverse patient population seamlessly.

How to Streamline Your Patient Registration System

Imagine if patient registration was fast, painless, and efficient. Not only is this possible, but it's also within reach with a suite of patient registration solutions integrated with NextGen including:

1. OTech Kiosks

2. Phreesia

3. Zocdoc

4. NextGen Patient Portal

5. Medfusion - NextGen's latest acquisition

Streamlining your registration process can reduce admin workloads and patient wait times, especially if you adopt self-serve registration tools for patients.

TempDev has helped hundreds of healthcare practices choose the correct portfolio solutions and unlock the benefits of streamlined registrations with NextGen EPM. Click here to start a conversation today!