How to Engage Patients in Digital Registration Solutions

In the age of consumerism, it is important for practices to find ways to meet patients where they are and provide value where they seek it out. As practices make shifts in workflows to accommodate these needs and wants to attract new patients and retain their current base, digital check-in solutions may be on the table. Whether your practice is already utilizing digital check-in and struggling to increase engagement or looking to implement, it is important to know how to answer the question “what’s in it for me?” for patients. We can help with that.

First… what is digital check-in?

As defined by Patientengagementhit.com, “digital patient intake technology allows healthcare administrators to streamline patient registration and focus on other areas of patient engagement.” These solutions enable patients to fulfill registration forms or check-in information prior to an exam. This is typically done on their own smart devices or through a kiosk at the practice. It streamlines the check in process and eliminates the bottleneck at the front desk created by patients’ arrival.

What is in it for patients with digital check-in solutions?

In order to produce patient buy in with your check-in solution, you’ll need to promote the benefits. What is the perceived value? What should patients know about these solutions? Here are main points to focus on and market to your base…

1. Time Savings Benefits – One of the main talking points to emphasize when speaking with patients is the time saving benefits. It is stated here that a digital solution can reduce check-in times to just three minutes. This can be a real selling point for patients who are used to bottlenecks at the front desk when they arrive at their practice. Checking in digitally saves them time. Itt allows patients to use their own device, avoid germy pens and clipboards, and arrive closer to the time of their scheduled appointment. At your practice, you can produce signage that has messaging about digital registration decreasing time spent in the waiting room, or how it impacts wait times positively. Administrators can even put messaging regarding digital check-in digitally on the patient portal.
2. Staff Solution Champions – You will want to create staff buy-in. If your internal team enjoys the software and finds it to be beneficial, they are more likely to promote this to patients when they are interacting with them during exams, check-ins or check outs. Word of mouth will help produce more engagement than you expect. This is especially true if members of your practice are talking about the benefits they are experiencing. Promoting value will help increase engagement. The website Us.Hitleaders.News shares this use case… “When Marietta Eye Clinic in Marietta, Georgia, moved toward implementing digital check-in, both patients and staff were distrustful of the technology, fearing the system would replace interactions with staff. Instead, they found the system provided greater time for staff to interact with patients in more meaningful ways, increasing both patient and staff satisfaction.” Engagement starts where trust and value is shown – start with your team!
3. Ease-of-use – When you are promoting this product to your patient base, ensure that you talk about how easy it is to use! If it will only take them five minutes to upload forms or sign over consent to be seen documents, make sure you are promoting that. If you have a video from your vendor or one you have created in house that shows a patient how to use the solution, take a minute or two and have someone on your team show them while they are at your practice. Showing them the interface and how easy it is to navigate could produce real, long term, and meaningful engagement with your patient on spot.

Engaging with patients starts by showing them what is in it for them. The biggest benefit for patients with digital check-in is the time savings and the ability for them to use their own smart device to fulfill registration requirements. Ease-of-use and staff buy-in will just make these benefits seem even more advantageous if the staff speaks highly of the solution. How are you cultivating engagement for your digital check-in solution today?

MicroMD offers a Virtual Waiting Room solution powered by Yosi Health that enables your practice to send out digital check-in requests to patients. To learn more, visit us at micromd.com or call us at 800-624-8832.