3 Ways to Integrate Technology Into Your Sports Medicine Practice
Prioritize your athletes by integrating technology into every aspect of your operation while keeping protected health information secure
Athletes come and go frequently through the doors of sports medicine practices and facilities. Athletes of all kinds leverage these practices to take care of their bodies, including treatment for injuries, preventative injury treatment, and strength and conditioning.
Vast technological enhancements have been made to improve the tracking of athlete data through workout and recovery equipment, but there are still ways to implement technology to further improve sports medicine and athlete care.
Eliminate paper documentation – leverage digital capabilities throughout your practice
Whether it’s capturing new patient registration information or documenting a patient’s progress on their treatment plan, more than often this information is still being tracked on rigid paper forms – adding extensive administrative burdens like expensive printing and paper costs.
One of the most cost-effective patient experience enhancements your sports medicine practice can make is implementing solutions that work on mobile devices, like tablets and smartphones. Although the upfront cost of purchasing technology seems high, the long-term benefits outweigh the initial costs. But if your operating systems run fully digital now, how do you capture patient information without paper forms? The solution is simple: digital forms, and better yet, HIPAA-secure digital forms!
Leveraging a digital form solution allows your practice to connect its existing business systems with the digital form solution to create a constant flow of information. For example, if you use One Drive, you can set up the digital form solution to connect all the patient's data within their own folder – keeping all patient data securely centralized in one location without manual data entry.
When a patient arrives at your practice to receive treatment, they not only can sign in at the front desk on a tablet or desktop but their trainer can also be equipped with their own tablet or smartphone to document the patient’s treatment for that day. Doing so streamlines patient care, eliminates manual data entry into your existing operating systems, and places a greater emphasis on the patient experience.
Capture new data types with smartphones and tablets in play
Let’s expand on the above example. By implementing mobile devices into your sports medicine practice, you now have the opportunity to document and capture more data than ever before. By leveraging a digital form solution, a patient's file can now be updated with Images and Sketches to provide visual updates on a patient's therapy progress.
For example, when a sports trainer is working with an athlete that has a torn ACL, this recovery process takes at least 6 months to a year depending on the severity of the injury and the athlete's response to treatment. During treatments, the trainer can take a photo of the athlete's progress, whether it is how far they can stretch or how much they can lift that day, and add that photo of the athlete to the digital form. Better yet, the trainer can draw on the Image on the digital form to take notes for the trainer or athlete to look back on for reference.
By the end of the athlete’s treatment, they are now equipped with a thorough report of visual aid and digital data to reference for medical history. This information becomes invaluable and further enhances the way your practice treats and helps patients as they come and go.
Expand your clientele reach by leveraging the web
Businesses and customers live online – so why not leverage your website to expand your clientele reach? Implementing an online form builder solution for your practice allows you the ability to create online forms to post on your website or send links to patients to fill out. This functionality greatly enhances opportunities for more patients to come through the door as well as reduces administrative demands for new patients.
For example, your practice can place forms like a medical history questionnaire, authorization form, and even schedule an appointment online, all from the comfort of their own home. This capability further streamlines the administrative process and places an emphasis on the patient’s overall experience. Therefore, as the patient arrives for their treatment, they only have to focus on signing in rather than filling out paperwork while they wait. Additionally, this eliminates opportunities for delays. For example, if the customer’s insurance doesn’t match the requirements for your practice, then the patient can be aware of that information prior to their arrival rather than showing up for their appointment to get that information.
All in all, technology comes in many forms. Placing an emphasis on patient experience and satisfaction, in fact, benefits your administrative team and streamlines patient care. While technology can be a hefty purchase upfront, the benefits are extremely rewarding for both practitioners and patients.
About GoFormz
GoFormz is an online form builder and operational data management solution that helps garner actionable insights from collected data. We believe by introducing digital solutions into everyday processes, practices can redefine how individuals collect and process information. Whether you need HIPAA forms, digitized patient intake forms, or require signature forms, GoFormz can bring your existing paper forms to the digital realm (which no other digital form solution can offer) – requiring no coding experience! Completed with Automated Workflows and an open API, collected data can be instantly routed to existing tech stacks and accessible in real-time.
