Contactless Patient Intake

Contactless Patient Intake: What does this New Normal mean for Your Healthcare Practice?

It has been more than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic came into existence and all the countries are still reeling from its effects. The healthcare communities across the countries are at the forefront during this crisis and are constantly involved in combating the pandemic.

The pandemic has definitely posed significant challenges for the healthcare staff and continues to do so while the people are still trying to completely adjust to the New Normal. Moreover, the front desk staff who still need to interact with every person who walks in, even before the COVID screening, are at the highest level of risk.

Now, healthcare providers have definitely stepped up their safety protocols to accommodate for in-person visits but there is an incumbent need for having well-planned strategies to ensure minimal contact without jeopardizing the patient engagement metrics.

Immediate need of a sustainable Zero-Contact Patient Intake solution

A few compelling reasons for adopting a Zero-Contact Patient Intake solution can be listed down as follows:

1. Reduced physical interaction between patients and staff: The traditional intake process has negligible scope for social distancing. Typically, patients are required to spend several hours in assigned waiting rooms. These waiting room sessions involve significant physical interactions between the patients and the front-desk staff.

With the new normal that focuses on minimizing physical interactions as much as possible, adopting a digital contactless patient intake solution has been a much-needed shift. Contactless patient intake solutions have multiple workflows which significantly reduce direct physical interactions. These contactless workflows allow patients to complete all the necessary processes remotely and actual physical interactions only ensue when the patient is deemed ready for the treatments. By reducing unnecessary physical interactions during the intake process, patients can feel safer when they finally come to visit for important appointments. This also keeps the front-desk staff happy as any risk is identified in the initial stages itself.

2. Identifying risk during the preliminary stages: Promptly identifying risks associated with any patient is very important in the early stages itself. Having the COVID 19 screening as the first stage right after the initial intake process is completed remotely will help in identifying risks even before the patients walk in for their treatment procedures. The Front desk staff can analyse the risk intensity and discuss options for preventive measures as and when required.

3. Remote working option for your workforce: While patient satisfaction is the cornerstone of the healthcare industry, it is equally important that the employees feel safe and comfortable. With Contactless Patient Intake workflows, the staff members can manage various intake processes remotely without the need to physically manage paperwork, insurance details, etc. All the necessary pre-intake steps can be completed remotely along with capabilities to raise appropriate flags in case of potential risks.
Hence, a contactless patient solution would ensure that the healthcare staff is working safely without affecting the overall patient experience.

4. Enhanced patient engagement: Contactless patient intake processes not only keep the patients and healthcare employees safe but also help healthcare providers focus on a better care delivery process to enhance the patient engagement metrices at all the necessary touchpoints. Patients can complete all the necessary paperwork from remote locations which saves their time and also encourages them to provide more comprehensive information. The capability to get in touch with the care providers through a virtual setup is definitely a game-changer in terms of patient satisfaction.

5. Contactless payment collection: Contactless payment collection capabilities can significantly reduce delayed payments or cases of bad debts and improve the overall Revenue Cycle Management metrics.

Revamp your Patient Intake workflows and adapt to the New Normal using Elixir

Here is how you can roll out a fully functional Zero Contact patient intake workflow on an immediate basis using Elixir.

1. Increase your Outreach using multiple digital channels: Elixir is built on top of the world’s #1 CRM solution which has a proven track record of helping businesses increase their outreach using multiple channels. In the current scenario – digitals channels are the major contributors towards leads in any industry. Elixir can be very effectively integrated with majority of the existing digital platforms which would ultimately help providers nurture their leads from all the possible channels. There would certainly be no missed leads with Elixir!

2. Contactless Information Collection: It is really very easy to collect the basic information of the patients in various stages using Elixir. Various Contactless methods can be adopted to capture the patient details. Be it a series of phone calls, information collection through online forms, or using typical barcode scanners – there are various contactless ways that make the intake process way more effective as compared to the traditional ways.

3. Patient Pre-Admission Assessments: Elixir helps in effectively capturing the pre-admission assessment details in terms of various details required during the patient intake process. Various automated flows ensure that the necessary details are collected appropriately, and all the important stakeholders are involved in the verification process.

4. Insurance Verification Experience: Elixir helps in capturing the insurance details of the potential patients in a very easy and effective manner. Once the insurance details are captured, Elixir can then be integrated with clearing houses for the verification of benefits. There are several inbuilt processes that help in automating the entire insurance verification process right from the stage of collection of insurance details up to the final step of approval of verification of benefits. There are several other ways in which Elixir helps with the Insurance Verification process and the same has been descriptively outlined in the blog: Manage the Insurance Verification process and Reduce Claim Denials with Elixir.

5. Telehealth options: Elixir has a plethora of features to support telehealth functions for healthcare providers. Appointment management along with automated virtual meeting capabilities are present which make the entire experience very smooth and easy for both the patient and the care provider.

6. Intuitive Payment Collection: Elixir effectively manages several aspects of the in-house payment and billing processes. It helps in keeping a track of the payment information and generates automated payment schedules as per the requirements.
Custom integrations can be very easily built with payment processing platforms which help in recording every payment made and also send out missed payment alerts. There are several other inbuilt processes that provide advanced payment tracking capabilities as well.

This is just a brief overview of what Elixir can do and there are several other capabilities that have been proven to make the life of healthcare providers way more easier. Want to see how Elixir is the right fit for your healthcare organization? We can help you take a test drive today!