How a Check-In App Can Streamline Your Ophthalmology Practice
According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, patients begin to get frustrated after just 15 minutes of waiting in reception. Fall behind by 30 minutes or more, and you could be looking at an empty waiting room and a decline in your revenue.
When a simple slip-up can derail an entire workday and cause massive delays, practices need every tool at their disposal to keep appointments rolling and patients happy. That’s why ophthalmologists everywhere are turning to check-in apps to streamline workflows.
If you haven’t heard of check-in apps or are curious about what they can do for your team, here’s everything you need to know before upgrading.
How Do Check-in Apps for Medical Practices Work?
A check-in app for medical practices streamlines check-ins through a combination of convenient technology, smart UX design, and the distribution of responsibilities.
Upon entering your reception room, patients will find a check-in station centered around a touchscreen-enabled tablet. From the tablet, users can immediately access your check-in app, which will instruct them to complete all the tasks required to move forward with their appointment.
Besides being straightforward to use, the information collected by your check-in app seamlessly integrates with your electronic health record (EHR) system, completely removing tedious manual data transfers and cutting down on the stacks of paper files that trouble most teams.
But just because you’re inherently switching to a digital system doesn’t mean you’re leaving patients to their own devices. While check-in apps are built to be self-contained, reception staff can easily assist the process by helping patients with any issues or errors to ensure a great experience.
What are the Best Check-In App Features?
Check-in apps can dramatically transform your waiting room for the better with the following features:
Self Check-In
Switching to self-check-in is one of the easiest ways to eliminate long lines at your front desk and speed up the check-in process. With self-check-in capabilities, you can circumvent almost all the issues that bottleneck reception rooms, including unnecessary conversations, manual transcription, file organization, and errors.
Customizable Forms
Nobody enjoys filling out forms, but having the ability to design a smooth and effective format makes the process all the better. Your check-in app should be deeply customizable, allowing you to build a perfect sign-in process tailored to each procedure you perform.
Multi-Lingual Interface
Not everyone on your team can be a polyglot. But there’s nothing stopping your check-in app from supporting common languages like Spanish. With a check-in app, you can make your reception room more welcoming and less intimidating to non-English speaking patients without costly investments into language skills or additional team members.
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Information Verification
Self-check-in apps are great at allowing patients to review and update their personal information autonomously before submitting. This is an important feature because it simultaneously ensures your team is working with the most accurate information and bypasses one of the most mundane pre-appointment tasks.
Built-In Payment Options
Outfitting your check-in app with a credit card reader and payment processing options is the best way to take care of business before an appointment. Patients prefer having a simple, easy, and transparent way to pay. A check-in app makes medical payments feel like any other purchase.
What are the Benefits of a Check-In App?
Nifty new features are exciting and all, but what effects will they have on your practice? Here’s what you can expect by upgrading to a check-in app like IMS OnArrival:
Faster Check-Ins
Check-in apps get straight to the point. Upgrading your practice with a high-speed tablet with the latest features will dramatically reduce waiting times.
Not only do faster check-ins create greater patient satisfaction, but they also optimize your flow to increase patient volume. Faster check-ins mean more appointments and more appointments mean higher revenue.
Easier Workflows
The seamless integration of check-in apps can’t be overstated. Automatically connecting patient info, verifications, and scheduling with your EHR in real time makes the most demanding aspects of running your practice effortless.
Free Up Staff
Instead of managing the minutiae of patient intake, your staff can move forward with more critical tasks while patients take care of business on your tablet.
As if improved efficiency and productivity weren’t enough, you can also expect the stress-free experience to positively impact team morale and reduce burnout.
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Fewer Errors
When it comes to medical appointments, there can be a lot going on. Medical issues are stress and anxiety-provoking in and of themselves, let alone the hassle of getting to an office, missing work, accounting for childcare, and all the other logistical nightmares that come with planning a mid-week appointment. Needless to say, patients have a lot on their minds, which can cause them to rush and pressure your staff, increasing their chances of making mistakes.
By giving patients the option to input information and review their work themselves instead of relaying everything to a receptionist, you’ll cut down on simple errors that eat up valuable time.
Check-In To Success With OphthalmologyEHR
If you want an incredible check-in app, innovative ophthalmology tools, and timesaving administrative features within a powerful all-in-one EHR system, there’s only one solution for you: OphthalmologyEHR.
OphthalmologyEHR has everything
providers,
administrators,
technicians, and
billers need to get the job done faster and more efficiently.
Are you ready to change your practice for the better? Schedule a complimentary consultation with the OphthalmologyEHR team now.
Streamline patient records, optimize practice performance, digitally plan and share surgery sheets, communicate with prospective patients, manage lens inventory, and coordinate quality care across your office with OphthalmologyEHR.