Adopting a patient pre-registration process Learn how a streamlined pre-registration process can save time for your patients and your practice

Why should you implement a pre-registration process? All important demographic, payment, and basic medical information can be collected prior to the visit by a new patient coordinator Reduces patient time spent at check in on the day of the physician visit Decreases the amount of data entry work for the physician at the time of visit Reduces paperwork Cost Reduction

Four steps to integrating pre-registration into your practice 1 1 Design your pre-registration process 1 2 Develop a pre-registration script 3 Identify and train staff to serve as new patient coordinators 4 Roll out the new process and gather feedback

Tools/Resources available to your practice Pre-Registration Metrics Worksheet Pre-Registration Script Pre-Registration Process Map Run Charts

Sample: Pre-Registration Metrics Worksheet

How is it working at other practices? Grants Pass, OR Steps in Practice Summary = Asante Physician Partners Family Medicine Prior to November 2015, patients at the Asante Physician Partners practice had to complete a length, time-consuming 6 page registration packet. If patients neglected to fill out the information ahead of time, it delayed clinic and created cost and time concerns. Physicians, staff, and patients were unhappy with the process. Asante did an evaluation of current state and designed a new pre-registration process. They figured that the new process would require approximately 2 additional FTEs, but they still decided to move forward with implementation. The new process was embedded into their daily routine and ongoing training was provided. The entire workflow took about 1 month to fully implement. To justify the additional staff and evaluate the newly implemented workflow, Asante started tracking key metrics. These included new patient registrations completed, registration process time, and costs per FTE. They found that all of the metrics were improving. They also found that physicians and team members were more satisfied with their daily work. The pre-registration was making the workday more efficient and enjoyable! Because of the initial success in the family medicine practice, Asante is rolling out the pre-registration process across an additional 21 practices within their network in 2016.

Physician Practice Manager “ In the past, I would receive daily complaints from [primary care physicians] and medical assistants about the lack of completeness of new patient paperwork. In the last two weeks since implementing patient-centered registration, I have not received any complaints from the physicians or [medical assistants]. ” Physician Practice Manager embed video

For additional resources, frequently asked questions and implementation support, visit www.stepsforward.org!