Filling the Gaps in Your Paperless Systems: Making Good on the Promise of Web-Based Forms

[Cody Strate]

Your hospital has spent a lot of time and money trying to go paperless. And yet, you’re still printing, scanning and manually entering data for paper documents, in clinical departments, registration and the back office. Plus, people are still filling in Word, PDF and other unmanaged electronic forms. No matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to eliminate paper forms and inadequate electronic versions. The results? Slower processes, higher costs, and wasted time - and maybe even delayed patient care. 

But wait! All is not lost! Along comes a web-based form system, which enables you to remove the rest of the paper from every department that still processes hard copies, capture data on the go, and share it with the people and systems that need it.

Until now, e-forms providers have taken hospitals half way to paperless, by replacing pre-printed forms with electronic versions generated on demand. This switch has enabled hospitals to overcome version control issues, reduce printing, storage and labor costs and bar-code forms so they go into the correct EHR. There’s just one small problem: it still involves printing.

For the first time, a hospital can now take those last few steps to their paperless destination, using web-based forms. Patients, clinicians and administrative staff can not only complete e-forms on any computer or mobile device and in any browser, but also apply a secure electronic or digital signature. The completed forms and any attachments then go directly into the ECM/ process and content management system.

Moving to web-based forms doesn’t just replace a paper-based or partially electronic process: it improves it. Now a user can track the whereabouts of their form in the process, see who they’re waiting on to take action, and see how long each step has taken. Forms can be automatically ‘escalated’ based on user defined time rules, triggering reminder e-mails to people who need to review an e-form. So there’s no more chasing people down for signatures. And there’s no chance of a form being misplaced or sent into the wrong patient record because there’s no opportunity for human error.

Lower costs, faster processes, increased productivity. This has long been the promise of web-based forms. And now, for the first time, some vendors can actually make good on it. 

Identifying Your IT Gaps — The Potential Costs and Risks of “Paperless” Systems

Date: Thursday May 29

Time: 10AM PST/1PM EST

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