How a Seamless Check-In Can Increase Patient Satisfaction and Revenue — and 5 Steps to Improve It

Creating a seamless patient check-in process at your clinic is a balancing act. On one hand, your practice wants to provide an excellent first impression to patients. However, your staff have limited bandwidth, which can diminish their ability to administer a comprehensive patient check-in process as they must also juggle other important responsibilities.

Yet, practices like Shorts Hills Ophthalmology in New Jersey discovered that implementing the right technology and processes helped their team achieve an ideal balance of delighting patients with a smooth check-in and providing staff members ample time to attend to other tasks. For Short Hills Ophthalmology, this looked like 90 fewer minutes spent on administrative tasks per day, creating the availability for six more daily appointments without increasing the overall time staff or physicians spent in the practice. 

The following strategies can help other small practices find the right balance for their team, establishing a patient check-in process that resonates with patients and staff.

Understanding the Patient Check-In Process

The patient check-in process encompasses the steps a healthcare provider must complete before providing services or treatments to a patient. For first-time patients at your practice, this process also involves a full patient intake to collect demographics, medical history, insurance details, and other information. When optimized, this process reduces wait times, improves patient satisfaction, and increases referrals. The exact “best steps” vary based on a provider’s specialty, demographics served, and their overall operations. 

One practice, for example, may have patients upload their insurance and medical details through a patient portal before coming into the office while another could ask for the information once a new patient arrives for their first appointment. 

Despite these variances, there are some tried-and true-steps to the patient check-in process that practices must follow:

1. Collect patient medical and insurance information.
2. Ensure patients have signed a consent form.
3. Capture patient payment information for elective procedures.
4. Make health information accessible to patients and staff, ideally through a user-friendly practice management platform and patient portal.

The Benefits of Optimizing the Patient Check-In Process 

The patient experience, practice operations, and revenue cycle all benefit from a robust patient check-in process. Common advantages include:

• Higher patient satisfaction: A 2021 meta-analysis found practices with smooth, quick check-in processes reported higher patient satisfaction rates. For one practice cited in that study, the patient satisfaction rate went from 48.3% to 98.4% after implementing a smoother check-in process.
• More time with providers: A faster check-in means patients spend more time with the providers, not filling out forms and answering follow-up questions.
• Better health outcomes: One 2023 study published in the JAMA Health Forum found doctors prescribed better treatment when they spent more time with patients, and a smoother patient check-in enables more provider availability.
• Saves your team time: A quick patient check-in saves your team time and reduces the administrative load. In that time, staff can brainstorm ways to market your practice or improve the patient experience.
• Improves employee retention: A seamless process reduces the administrative load and any stress that accompanies it, giving staff more time to engage with meaningful work. Fulfilled employees stay longer, reducing staff turnover. 
• Serve more patients: A streamlined process means your practice can welcome in more patients, boosting revenue while reducing the administrative workload.

When the Dermatology and Laser Centre in Los Angeles switched to a dermatology-specific technology platform that optimized their clinical and administrative operations, they were able to more efficiently manage their high volume of daily patient check-ins. Dr. Gene Rubinstein, a dermatologist at the practice, reflected, “We see about 150 patients per day. If we can save just 30 seconds per patient, that’s 325 hours of timesaving over the course of the year. We’re saving $6,500 based on just 30 seconds per patient.”

5 Steps to Improve the Patient Check-In Process

A smooth patient check-in process has significant advantages for your practice and patients. Defining what procedures and technology support that process isn’t always as clear. 

Here are five steps you can take this week to improve the patient check in process:

1) Implement the right administrative technologies

2) Adapt check-in to the patient

3) Offer online scheduling and mobile check-in

4) Send appointment reminders

5) Make it easy for staff to access patient health and insurance information

1. Implement the Right Administrative Technologies 

Your administrative technologies lay the groundwork for your practice's operations. When technologies are clunky and hard to use, your workflow will feel tedious and time-consuming. If technologies work together seamlessly in the background, staff can focus on delivering excellent care; patients can focus on their health, not a murky check-in process.

A must-have technology for a smooth patient workflow is a user-friendly, industry-specific technology platform that integrates EHR and practice management. Ideally, that technology will be sophisticated enough to also integrate other administrative features and capabilities, such as a patient portal, a mobile check-in app, and self-check-in kiosks. By using tools like these, patients can check in using the method that’s easiest for them — reducing wait times and bottlenecks at the front desk.

The most advanced platform will also provide cutting-edge features, like artificial intelligence (AI), to capture patient intake forms faster and help staff avoid data entry errors. While AI and automation can transform operations, they shouldn’t detract from the patient experience. Ideally, patients should not notice most administrative technology, so they can remain focused on their health and feel as if an appointment is a more personalized experience. 

The right technology doesn’t just help the staff — it actively enhances the patient’s experience by making check-in faster, easier, and more seamless, while still keeping the focus on human-centered care.

At Cassileth Plastic Surgery & Skin Care in Beverly Hills, Calif., the practice’s EHR captures detailed patient notes. Before an appointment, Dr. Lisa Cassileth reviews the notes on the patient, adding a personalized touch. “We’re very careful to enter detailed notes. It’s very important to us because we’re a ‘personal touch’ kind of practice and it’s something that our clients feel when they walk through the front door,” says Dr. Cassileth.

2. Adapt Check-In to the Patient 

Patients hold varied expectations for the patient check-in process, as well as differing levels of comfort with technology. To accommodate patient diversity, your practice can curate a flexible check-in process, tailoring it to a patient’s preferences. 

A plastic surgery practice that serves multiple generations, for example, may have a self-check-in process for younger patients and a physical paper option for older patients. The check-in process can also be adapted to your industry; the documentation required for an ophthalmology practice differs from an orthopedics practice.

3. Offer Online Scheduling and Mobile Check-In 

Online scheduling speeds up the patient check-in process as it makes it easy to schedule or reschedule an appointment as well as to upload health documentation into the patient portal before an appointment. If offering a digital check-in process, keep in mind that 55% of patients prefer portals in the form of a mobile app versus a traditional webpage. However, practices shouldn’t rely on mobile check-in alone as many patients still prefer an in-person check-in.

4. Send Appointment Reminders 

Patient no-shows and cancellations cost the healthcare industry $1.5 billion every year. Alongside potential financial ramifications, they slow down a practice’s administrative workflow. When a patient cancels at the last minute, it creates gaps in the schedule that can be hard to fill on short notice. This leads to inconsistent patient volume, making it difficult for front desk and clinical staff to manage check-ins efficiently. As a result, front desk staff may experience periods of downtime followed by sudden surges, making it harder to maintain a steady and smooth check-in process. This affects overall workflow and can lead to longer waits for other patients when the schedule gets backed up.

While some reasons for patient no-shows are out of your control, your practice can send appointment reminders which have been demonstrated to improve patient attendance and rescheduling in advance. 

Your staff, however, probably don’t have time to manually send appointment reminders. Fortunately, some systems offer automated text and/or email reminders ahead of the appointment. With an automated reminder system, your practice could, for example, schedule two appointment reminders, one a week before and one the day before.

5. Make It Easy for Staff to Access Patient Health and Insurance Information

Throughout check-in (and after), staff should easily be able to access patient health and insurance details. Ideally, an EHR will also verify insurance information in the background. If, for example, your EHR validates insurance details while a new patient is seeing the doctor, a staff member can correct any errors or ask any questions before the patient leaves instead of playing phone tag for weeks later, taking up staff time and slowing the revenue cycle. 

Ideally, a technology partner will also provide training on how to make the check-in process easy for staff. When Eye Associates of Rowan in North Carolina switched to an ophthalmology-specific platform, the software provider offered ophthalmology-specific training at no extra cost, allowing the practice to improve the patient check-in process and send out billing claims the same day as an appointment.

Compliance and the Patient Check-In Process

Your check-in process needs to be compliant with a few key regulations, mainly HIPAA and the Cures Act. HIPAA is a set of regulations that protect patient information. Your method for capturing patient medical information needs to be HIPAA-compliant, which is automatic for practices with a certified EHR. For practices that also use a patient portal or other administrative software, ensure they are HIPAA-certified as well. 

The Cures Act promotes interoperability, or easy sharing of healthcare data between practices and with patients. Like HIPAA, the easiest way to be Cures Act compliant is to work with a certified EHR.

Required Documentation for Patient Check-In

To stay compliant, your practice needs to collect the correct documentation from new patients, including:

• A valid photo ID, such as a driver’s license, birth certificate, or passport
• Insurance information
• A patient’s medical history, usually sent from a primary care provider
• Consent forms, filled out ahead of or at the first appointment 

The right technology captures and stores this information automatically, and your staff can then access patient data when it’s time to file an insurance claim or share with another provider. 

Handling High-Volume Check-In Periods 

Longer patient wait times are associated with lower patient satisfaction. Yet as a practice grows, managing a high volume of new patients can increase wait times. Clarifying your practice’s administrative policies and implementing new technologies can help improve patient flow, enabling a practice to handle higher volumes of new patients without increasing time spent in office.

When Eye Surgical Associates in Nebraska switched to an ophthalmology-specific EHR, they were able to see more patients, complete documentation more efficiently, and spend less time in the office. Dr. Thomas Graul, a physician at the practice, reflected, “I’m seeing more patients, and I’m able to spend more time with my family.”

To explore a secure, end-to-end technology platform that enables smoother, faster check-ins without sacrificing a personal touch, request a demo of Nextech’s specialty-specific solution. Our team can walk you through easy ways to create a seamless check-in process that improves patient satisfaction and improves financial performance.