If you were to ask your patients what they think about your registration process, what would they tell you? You could probably guess at least a few things, but our bet is that you’d be surprised by some of their responses. We sure were when we asked patients that same question.

Funny thing is, the patients’ list of annoyances matches up pretty closely to the Front Office / Registration team’s list of annoyances.

Here’s some of what we found:

• Annoying data collection process. In today’s digital economy, your patient’s have high expectations that technology can simplify their lives. This means they can get annoyed when you hand them a clipboard and pen or a clunky tablet. They dread having to stand at the counter and answer personal questions where others can hear, and they get frustrated when you make them interact with a kiosk where the person behind them gets to watch everything they do.
• Too much stuff to fill out. When you factor in the registration forms, consents, questionnaires, and everything else, it’s like making your patients read a short novel and then taking a quiz at the end. One patient likened the process to filling out college exam and praying they got the answers right.
• Pointless/Redundant Questions. Do you really need to ask every patient at a pediatrics office what the patient’s maiden name was, or who their current employer is? Not only that, but then make them answer those questions again every time they’re seen? Patients are already overwhelmed with the registration process; so adding questions for every patient to answer when it only applies to a few is a large cause of frustration. What makes this worse is making a parent go through those questions for each child being seen that day.
• Systems/Processes don’t communicate with each other. Now that we’ve made the patient go through that entire registration process, asking them a second, third, fourth time during the visit for the same info is frustrating. Often healthcare providers are using multiple IT systems through the patient journey. If those systems don’t speak with each other, then this creates duplicative work for both the patient and your registration team.
• Infection Control. In our COVID-19 world, infection control measures are top of mind for patients. Even if you tell them about all your sanitizing efforts, they don’t really care. What they care about is not having to touch the same pen/clipboard/tablet/kiosk/counter that others have.

These are just a few of the data points we collected while designing Redde Registration. At the end of the day, patients want it to be simple to use, to know who they are, and to help them complete the necessary steps quickly and painlessly.