The hospitals adapt to the times by replacing waiting rooms and paperwork.
AdventHealth, one of the largest faith-based health systems in the United States, has eliminated paper intake forms and shared waiting rooms to accommodate social distancing at its more than 700 AdventHealth Medical Group locations.
As the country reopens and health-care providers welcome their patients, new workflows and processes are being implemented to prevent the spread of viruses and infectious diseases like COVID-19. In addition to expanding video visit capabilities for physician practices, AdventHealth Medical Group is swapping the waiting room for a curbside waiting lot and replacing paper intake forms with online check-in. Patients will no longer need to enter a waiting room, worrying that they or their companion will sit near someone who is sick.
These changes aim to reduce unnecessary points of contact with others and remove the risk of exposure in a shared waiting room. To enable this touchless registration and check-in experience, AdventHealth Medical Group now offers online check-in and invites patients to wait in their car until the doctor is ready to see them. This may also reduce wait times in the process, meaning patients spend less time waiting and more time focusing on their care. Since the implementation of this process in May 2020, the health system is seeing 95-percent patient satisfaction from those who have chosen to use online check-in.
How the New System Works
Five days before a doctor visit with AdventHealth Medical Group, patients can complete the online intake forms for their appointment. An hour before the appointment, the patient will receive a link allowing them to check in once they have arrived at the parking lot. When their care team is ready for them, the patient will be notified to enter and be greeted at the door with a temperature check and face mask before being escorted to their room. For patients who opt out of online check-in, a team member will complete their registration over the phone or once the patient is safely inside their exam room.
“While safety concerns during the pandemic may have caused some to postpone their doctor visits, it is crucial that people do not put off care until their needs are severe,” said Shelly Nash, chief medical information officer of physician enterprise for AdventHealth. “Among numerous other ways we are safely reopening our locations, offering an alternative to paper intake forms and waiting rooms was a clear way forward to provide safe, whole-person health care to our communities.”
The health system will expand this offering beyond AdventHealth Medical Group and has plans to roll out the technology to its nearly 50 hospitals across the country in the coming weeks.
The original version of this story was posted on the AdventHealth news site.
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