Practice Paperwork

Question:

We seem to have loads of paperwork at our practice as we ask patients to sign an estimate to confirm they have seen the price of the treatment needed and that they consent to treatment.  We then file one copy of this and give one to the patient.  This is done for EVERY appointment so that we know patients know the cost of their treatment.  This seems a bit of an overkill to me and the filing is mounting up!  I wonder what other practices do and how they get round this issue – any details would be appreciated!

Answer:

We also give a paper estimate to every patient and ask them to sign it, but we then scan their signed copy attach it to their electronic record and give the paper copy original back to the patient. This allows us to keep a signed copy but without the filing.

We use SoE Exact so it is very easy to attach scanned documents to the patients’ record – not sure what system you use but hope this helps?

Answer:

That’s the same with us. We keep an ongoing file and at the end of each month go through this and any work not taken up is the chased. At the end of two months we then box this up and put away. I guess eventually you either have to move or destroy paperwork. It’s as you say overkill.

Answer:

We cut down on the filing by scanning the signed estimate on to the patient’s notes, therefore the patient takes the paper estimate and we still have a copy by not a paper one to file.

Answer:

At our practice we indeed get the patients first estimate signed, we then scan onto the patients file on the computer ( we have Kodak R4 system that allows us to do this) We only get patient to sign another copy if treatment changes along the treatment path, this copy would again get scanned on. After paperwork scanned on the original is shredded. If patient needs another copy we can print off scanned documents.

Answer:

All our patient paperwork (except the blue PR form) is on our system software, we use electronic signature pads and get our patients to sign electronically. This is then saved onto the patient’s record and there no need for paper filing.

You can print or email them for the patient and can refer back to these at any time, the only paperwork we store is PR form and paper medical histories to back up our electronic version.

We use SFD (Systems for Dentists) but I’m sure that any software system can incorporate this onto your system.

Answer:

I know how much paperwork is involved but for legal reasons we have to let the patients sign treatment plans and consent forms. However, we print only one copy each, let the patients sign, scan it to our system (we use R4) and return the forms to the patients straight away so they have copy for themselves.

Answer:

We also have a lot of paperwork, and to reduce the amount of time spent filing; we now file all FP17pr and estimates/consent in batches by date. So at the end of each week we bundle fp17prs and file i.e. 10th – 14th Feb and the same with estimates/consent. We then know from patients records which date they were signed and where to look for them if we ever need to retrieve. This system has totally cut out filing at the practice.

February 2014