Ways to Transform Your Practice as Paperless Practice
The healthcare industry is almost witnessing a revolution with digital technologies today. The cutting-edge strategies and innovative technologies are certainly proving effective and leading the industries on countless fronts. The industry is surely witnessing rapid growth today and is speeding towards extending the service that the generations of the patients have only wished for in the previous eras, however, this hunger for growth and development is often backfiring the planet, if not the industry.
One of the major issues that the medical industry is facing is the increasing number of papers that are used in the daily operations of the medical offices of practices. Though it has already been flagged red, paper wastage is not easy to be reduced.
90% of the providers still use papers and manual processes when it comes to patient collections. Not only in collections, the medical practices, the patients, which makes the whole medical industry, dependent on paper where the trend of paperless medical office has been introduced lately with an aim to make the world a better place to live in for us and for the generations to come.
Why is paperless practice necessary?
A recently conducted survey reveals that US healthcare facilities generate around 2 billion pounds of paper and cardboard waste annually. Among the 5 billion pounds of waste that the healthcare industry generates in the US, paper and cardboard waste is discovered to be the largest category.
Paper has long been identified to be one of the greatest problems of humanity. This is why the reduction of paper is an urgent need for humans. Paper is certainly one of the landmark inventions in the history of mankind because it is paper, which holds almost all of the credit for literacy that humans take pride in. However, with the growth of the human population, the paper and the creation of it are also multiplied, which in turn, is proving to be really harmful to the planet.
Nearly 24 trees are needed to be cut down to make a ton of paper. Paper is thus, really costly to the environment because with the lack of plants, humans would never stand a chance for survival.
The trees not only save the ground from soil erosion but stand as the only source of oxygen for humans to breathe in, minimizes pollution, maintains the wildlife, provide food and protection for many, plays a major part in the water cycle process, which helps in the survival of the humans and much more.
Paper has not only been instrumental in providing the education that we have received to date, with the countless books and research materials that are in paper forms but has also helped the offices right from scratch to document things and operate in a way that is most natural, organic and effective.
With the emergence of digitalization, the usage of paper and its wastage are presently being calculated and the adverse effects of paper are being weighed with the amount of paper that we can save. All of these are helping us understand the need for building paperless offices, restoring all of what we have taken from the earth.
The offices are often looked upon as entities that require a massive amount of paper usage, which is also often not regulated as it should be. Whether it is the field of education or the automobile industry, the healthcare industry, or any other industry, paper is still being used massively even today and there is no respite from the same. However, if we consciously ruminate on the vision of establishing a paperless office and work for the same, then going paperless in the office is something that is not a faraway dream for us.
Why should you establish a paperless medical/dental office and private practice?
You should always opt for the easiest ways to run your business effortlessly and with the gift of digitalization, abstinence from the usage of paper is not something that you cannot do. Paperless medical/dental offices and private practices are a reality today, which is helping numerous offices see light at the end of a dark tunnel not only for themselves but for the sake of the whole of humanity. Here are some prominent reasons why you should develop a paperless medical office or dental office for your business and the patients you treat:
Digital is the way forward
Digital technology and equipping the practices with cutting-edge digital tools and technology is a foolproof way forward. The upcoming years will largely witness the growth of digitalization and its success story and the manual/analog methods will just slowly be fading away to nothingness. Therefore, the faster you join the league of digital offices, the better it will be for you and your business.
Digital offices are easy to manage
With the arrival of the digital tools and strategies that are helping countless industries and individuals conquer their fears and challenges, it is essential to note here that digital offices are easy to manage. Moreover, with time, digital offices will be growing to be easier to manage than they were ever. The digital offices ease everything. Starting from making patient appointment bookings easy, digital offices help easy patient check-ins and intakes, diagnosis, tests, and followups.
Paperless offices effectively reduce the wastage of paper
As the paper is continually growing to be overused and less recycled it is posing to do more harm than good. However, with the concept of paperless offices, which came to be known thus, with the emergence of digitalization, the amount of paper waste can be significantly reduced. If the total amount of paper being used in the healthcare industry be reduced, the total amount of paper to be recycled will be less and consequently we can save more trees on the earth.
Patients now prefer to go paperless
A rising number of patients, mainly consisting of the millennials, Gen X and Gen Z, are preferring digital or paperless medical and dental offices in contrast to paper offices that are governed by manual operational procedures. These patients are now appearing to be more tech-savvy lots than they were before and are informed about the benefits of one such office that reduces the amount of paper used and wasted. More than half of the Gen Y patients have mentioned that they would switch their providers for better online access.
Online patient appointment scheduling reduces no-shows
'Around 81% of the patients prefer now to schedule their own appointments with the help of a secure web service'. This online scheduling of the patients' appointments is something that the patients love and this plays a significant role in influencing the patients' experience and the practice revenues. Besides, many practices today, also help the patients schedule, reschedule and cancel their own appointments.
GrowPractice is one of the most reliable software service providers that extend the unique and effective two-way texting process, which is also HIPAA-compliant to help the patients schedule, reschedule and cancel their own appointments just as they wish. This system not only helps make the appointment booking and cancellation process easier for the patients and the practices but also helps in dragging down the number of patients no-shows significantly.
Digital transactions are safe
When it comes to monetary transactions, then digitalizing the same is certainly worth it because digital transactions reduce the risk of getting fewer revenues or being bankrupt. Though cybercrimes are surely a major risk for digital transactions, virtual transactions of finances are a lot safer than the earlier way of transacting with physical currency.
Paperless patient check-in and intake reduces the rush
Along with easing transactions, paperless patient check-ins and patient intakes are designed to eliminate the rush that we are used to seeing in hospitals, healthcare units, and medical practices. Along with being hailed as a crucial industry, the medical industry is often regarded as the busiest of industries in modern times. This industry often has to battle a huge rush and a manifestation of true emergencies, one of the major examples of which is the dreadful outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, when it comes to digital ways, which include effective medical office and dental office software and tools, which GrowPractice brings to the medical offices and practices of today, the practices can certainly aim to work fast and nullify the rush.
Paperless offices need fewer medical workers
The medical workers were forever exposed to severe stresses, which often results in serious burnouts. Besides, with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the work pressure has suddenly surmounted for the healthcare workers, and many of them are also afraid of seeing the worst. This is why a large number of healthcare workers have left their professions since the pandemic broke out.
According to the surveys, nearly 18% of the workers have quit their healthcare professions, or 1 in every 5 medical workers have left their jobs. Along with burnouts and stresses, the fear of the COVID-19 itself stands to be a major cause for the rapid quitting of healthcare professionals. Therefore, the practices need to be aware of the dwindling workforce and should be working with that realization. However, with advanced medical and dental office software and systems from GrowPractice that integrate everything in it, it is not too difficult to catch up with the patients' requirements efficiently even with less workforce.
Paperless medical office saves time
Time is essential for everyone and saving the wait-time of the patients is something that is truly rewarding for the medical practices. The patient experience plays a major part in influencing their overall satisfaction and takes a toll on the practice revenues. The patient wait time plays an important part in influencing the patient experiences, says 84% of the patients today. Besides, 43% of the patients are of the opinion that the wait time they experience is the 'most frustrating' part when they visit a doctor.
Opting for digital methods and creating a paperless practice is crucial in reducing the wait time that the patients' witness. However, a reliable medical software service provider is often sought for, which brings GrowPractice to the play. Establishing a paperless private practice is now more than easy with the effective software and systems that GrowPractice offers. Besides, such an office will undoubtedly save the time of your employees as well and make the workflow faster and more effective than it was ever before.
Paperless practice help increase practice revenues
Paperless practices have almost each of its departments working digital or without much use of paper. This helps cut off the patient wait time efficiently and make everything from patient appointment scheduling to the ultimate follow-up process and more, fast and efficient. Such a practice will definitely improve the patient experience too, thereby multiplying the practice revenues. Furthermore, paperless collections have also shown a marked increase in the total patient collections too. GrowPractice's improved patient collection methods have increased the overall patient collections of the practices by 20%.
Going paperless in the office is easy now with GrowPractice!
If you have always dreamt of operating a paperless private practice then your dream is nearing fulfillment now. Paperless medical offices are a reality now that can easily be set up with the help of effective medical software and tools from trustworthy providers. Here's a list of some effective hacks and paperless office strategies that will help you transform your usual medical/dental office into a smart paperless private practice effortlessly. Check these simple tips here and lead the way for the glory of the planet we live in:
Go digital for patient appointments
Patient appointments and the rescheduling of them is now not as tough as it was before. The appointments of patients, which previously used to take place via phone calls or at the practice itself, are now rapidly becoming online due to the many benefits it is offering. Here, GrowPractice is greatly helping the practices with its efficient digital software and systems that are aiding the medical and dental practices to book, reschedule and cancel the appointments of the patients according to their requirements.
Implement paperless patient intakes and check-ins
Paperless Patient intake forms and patient check-ins have long been associated with rushes and delays. GrowPractice is helping digitalize these intake forms, along with checking for the optimum security with the strong data encryption and the multi-level security process that it implements. This is primarily helping the process to be more efficient and also reduce any security risks that they might bring up. Patient check-ins are also being digital these days with the help of trustworthy providers like GrowPractice.
Make paperless payments the easy way to go
Payments are being digital these days. Gone are the days when people and patients used to carry cash to their nearest hospitals to be admitted. Now, we have a wide variety of digital payment methods that is fostering easy payments and cut off all the hassles involved there. GrowPractice is playing a major role in easing the payment process for the patients for the practices and the healthcare industry in general. The SMS link-based payments that GrowPractice offers the practices are greatly helping the patients pay their providers online without hassles. The digital payment process offered by GrowPractice has proven to increase the total collections of the practices by adding more than $60,000 per provider.
Digital signatures would help greatly
Signatures are something that plays a crucial role in authentication, without which there would be countless frauds and forgeries. In the modern world, with its increasing frauds, embracing digital signatures is an easy and effective way to reduce the growing unethical practices even in the healthcare industry. Implementing digital signatures is also something that would play a major part in transforming your medical office or dental office into a paperless practice.
Improve your practice management system
Managing the practice and all of its functions is always an uphill task for the practice owners and managers. Here, the improved patient and practice management system offered by GrowPractice would certainly bring in the change that you had always been wishing for. Managing the practice effortlessly with an effective practice management system from GrowPractice is thus the way to go for today's healthcare practices.
Install digital displays
Papers play a crucial role in the practices and other healthcare units because it has long been the only medium that is used to communicate information to everyone including the patients in the medical practices. However, installing digital displays today can be a game-changing way to transform your medical office to a paperless office or your dental office to a smart and paperless private practice. Nonetheless, you should ensure the proper functioning of these displays and review their performance from time to time.
Make the follow-up process digital
Patient follow-ups are almost as essential for the practices as the booking of patient appointments. Following it up properly with the patients improve the chances of them getting back to your practice, thereby increasing patient retention. Furthermore, a well-maintained, courteous follow-up process also increases the chances of patient referrals and help the patients disclose any further problem with their cases. Therefore, the follow-ups need to be considered as priorities and this will become even easier with the paperless medical office that GrowPractice will help you build.
Ensure that optimum security is in place
Security is something that you can never compromise with, especially when it comes to medical data that contains patient-sensitive information. However, GrowPractice will help you build the layer of security that you have always wanted. With its HIPAA-compliant practices, layered security, and powerful data encryption, your practice can stay out of harm's way and lend the utmost security to the patients.
Improve the patient experience with online patient reviews
Online patient reviews are more effective than you might think. The patient surveys and reviews that GrowPractice helps the practices conduct online, not only help the patients stand as the core of the system and make them feel a part of the whole process but also help the practices in many ways. Smart online surveys and reviews help the practice measure the patient experiences, which leads to improving the overall patient satisfaction of the practices.
Recycle the paper you use
Paper is certainly harmful to the planet and the usage of paper should be lessened in order to better the chances of the survival of our race. However, the interesting thing is that paper is one such thing that can be recycled at ease. Paper can, in fact, be recycled 5-7 times. Studies also reveal that recycling 1 ton of paper saves close to 17 trees. Moreover, if this paper is recycled 7 times, then it multiplies to save 117 trees, which is certainly huge. Therefore, recycling paper can really be credited to be one such process that helps reduce the falling of trees and greatly help in making the world a sustainable place to live.
Growing your practice revenues and the patients that it sees annually has a new way out with GrowPractice by your side. The leading medical software providers help bring an effective system that will help you turn your dental office and/or medical office paperless. Paperless offices would help you reduce the expenditure, minimize paper wastage, eliminate all the hassles and delays that the patients face, and make your contribution possible to make the earth greener and more sustainable for the generations to come!
