If you're tired of filling out hospital admission forms by hand, Dr. Arnold Jay Simon offers a suggestion: Switch to a paperless direct admission form.
“My hospital created a paperless direct admission form for me using the Microsoft Word form field, and the form was sanctioned by the hospital executive committee,” said Dr. Simon, a solo-practice internist specializing in geriatrics in Palm Springs, Fla.
“The form fits perfectly into my routine and eliminates the inefficient process of hand-copying data from computer screen onto little boxes on the old paper form, which I hated,” he said in an interview. Dr. Simon opens the form at the end of an office visit when he feels a patient needs to be admitted to the hospital.
“I can easily navigate through the form fields using the tab key to add, delete, or change small amounts of patient data,” Dr. Simon said. Larger entries, such as office notes and patient medications, can be pasted into the form. “This simple Word form has saved me the dreaded task of having to copy a long list of medications by hand onto the admission form. Using the tab keys and the cut-and-paste feature saves me a lot of time and reduces errors,” he explained.
Hospital personnel and patients are happier because the information is easier to read and hospitalizations are expedited. “The nursing staff appreciates having neatly typed admit forms faxed to them,” Dr. Simon added.