How Will This Toolkit Help Me?
Learning Objectives
Identify steps to design and implement a pre-registration process for your practice
Describe how to develop a pre-registration script
Explain how to identify and train team members to serve as New Patient Coordinators
List methods to evaluate the process and gather feedback from new patients and team members
A streamlined pre-registration process saves time and reduces paperwork for both the patient and the team.1
Helping your patients with registration saves them time trying to understand and accurately answer registration questions presented to them in paper form. Physicians and other care team members can also spend more time on the visit and less time on paperwork while being confident they have a complete medical history.
A new patient coordinator (NPC) conducts new patient pre-registration over the phone or in person prior to the initial visit. This conversation enables the new patient coordinator to capture all of the required demographic and payment information in the registration record and enter medical information, including medication list, allergies, and medical history, directly into the electronic health record (EHR) to reduce the data entry work required of clinicians at the patient's initial visit. Eliminating paper and entering information directly into your practice's registration software and EHR prevents mistakes. Emerging technologies may further streamline patient registration, including patient portals or kiosks that allow patients to enter a great deal of registration information themselves.
Four STEPS to Integrate Pre-Registration Into Your Practice
Design Your Pre-Registration Process
Develop a Pre-Registration Script
Identify and Train Team Members to Serve as New Patient Coordinators
Roll Out the New Process and Gather Feedback
STEP 1 Design Your Pre-Registration Process
Quiz Ref IDStart by making sure you have a clear understanding of your current registration process so that you can incorporate pre-registration into your practice workflow. Note that with this approach, all registrations are entered directly into the registration software and EHR without the need for paper forms.
Work as a team to determine the information you will need to collect from patients during pre-registration. This toolkit includes a sample pre-registration process map that you can adapt to meet your needs. You can use the process map for pre-registration over the phone ahead of the appointment, or for pre-registration in person on the day of the appointment.
Pre-Registration Process Map (375 KB)This tool shows the “before “and “after” processes for traditional registration and pre-registration. Adapt the pre-registration process map to meet your needs.
Define How You Will Determine Success
Establish metrics that will allow you to compare your current registration process to your new pre-registration process.
Consider using this pre-registration metrics worksheet to identify inefficiencies and set targets. You can use the same worksheet to compare your baseline metrics to measurements made after implementing the pre-registration process to evaluate the new process's impact. These AMA STEPS Forward™ quality improvement toolkits can help you tackle this change in a stepwise fashion: Change Initiatives, Change Management and Organizational Development, Lean Health Care, Plan–Do–Study–Act (PDSA), LISTEN–SORT–EMPOWER, and Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff.
Pre-Registration Metrics Worksheet (45 KB)
STEP 2 Develop a Pre-Registration Script
Create a pre-registration script to guide the conversation between the patient and the new patient coordinator. Quiz Ref IDOrganize this pre-registration script so that it matches the fields in your registration software and EHR. The new patient coordinator will save time and make fewer errors if he or she can enter the information in the same order and in the same fields during the pre-registration discussion with each new patient.
Use the script as a training tool. Laminate one copy and post it near the phone where the new patient coordinator sits as a reminder until the pre-registration conversation becomes second nature.
Pre-Registration Checklist (44 KB)Use this pre-registration checklist to ensure you collect all the information needed for an efficient and effective first visit.
To prepare your patients to provide their medical history, you can customize the welcome letter below to send to patients. It can include pre-registration prompts, asking them to prepare an updated medical history, including current medications and allergies. Having the patient prepare this information in advance will save time and improve accuracy whether the pre-registration occurs over the phone or in person.
Pre-Registration Welcome Letter (39 KB)This welcome letter will help patients recall important information that the new patient coordinator will need to register them. Send this to patients before the coordinators speak with them.
STEP 3 Identify and Train Team Members to Serve as New Patient Coordinators
New patient coordinators should have exceptional customer service and telephone skills, as well as competency with your practice registration software and EHR. The new patient coordinator can be a front office team member designated to handle new patient registration as part of his or her responsibilities, a current medical assistant, or a patient service representative. Depending on your practice specialty and the average complexity of your patients' care needs, a nurse may be a more natural fit for this position.
The new patient coordinator's responsibilities include:
Guiding patients through the pre-registration process
Informing the patient about any items to bring to the appointment, such as medications and prior medical records
Obtaining accurate and complete demographic, insurance, and medical information
Checking patient insurance eligibility and informing the patient of any co-payments that will be due at the time of service
Scheduling the patient's appointment and giving the patient a copy of the appointment date and time, parking instructions, and directions to your practice
Scheduling any laboratory or other tests based on your practice's protocols
Helping the patient request transfer of prior medical records to your practice
Answering questions about the registration process, practice, and medical team
STEP 4 Roll Out the New Process and Gather Feedback
Start implementing the pre-registration process with new patients who still need to be scheduled. As time permits, reach out to new patients who have already been scheduled.
Solicit quarterly feedback from new patients and your team. Anecdotal feedback from physicians, nurses, and medical assistants about the quality of the clinical information entered during pre-registration will help improve the process. Prepare continuous training or education for the new patient coordinators based on this feedback. Review your metrics worksheet to determine how pre-registration has impacted your practice.
Consider customizing the run chart below to display the results visually.
Run Chart (26 KB)Use this tool to track and display your initiative's progress over time.
Standardizing and streamlining new patient visits with pre-registration can save your practice time and money while providing a better experience to both patients and team members. The new patient coordinator can be a welcoming presence, and having a new patient coordinator reach out to new patients before their first appointment can help everyone have more efficient visits.