Would you be comfortable filling out forms on-line for...

[Pilotbaby]

Another therapist here- I use an EHR and everything is electronic. I think educating your clients is key- offer to answer questions and explain how it works! I do everything- even my sessions online through Telehealth.

[NCGrandma]

I've filled the questionnaires out online before. Including a couple of months ago for a new PT place. They sent me the link and told me to fill it out. I nearly blew a gasket though when I stayed up past midnight because I'd forgotten to do it earlier then when I got there for the 7:30am appt and they handed me the paper packet to fill out. When I told them I did it online, they told me they had no access to that system and could not print it out. I flat out refused to do it again. So do make sure you do it yourself first and test everything out. If its not working, for the love of Pete, dont send it out to new clients!

No experience with mental health questionnaires, but I had a somewhat similar experience with the patient portal for the health care system where I get my care. In general, I have found the patient portal pretty useful, so when it "encouraged" me to fill out q'naires before ophthalmology and dermatology appointments, I thought "sure." I later checked the status of these, and discovered that, both before and after the appts, they were flagged "not yet read by staff." Am I going to fill out another q'naire before my next appt? Nope! (Btw, I’m — gasp! — over 75, but not averse to technology, just averse to wasted effort.)

Re: electronic vs paper records, and off-site storage, here’s a chilling tale: a family member has been part of a private practice group of clinical psychologists and social workers for many years. Each member of the group maintained their own patient notes, using whatever system they preferred. All the billing, insurance etc info was on an electronic system with remote storage. Everything was fine until last year, when the building where their office was exploded! (Any BBBers in central N.C. can guess this was in Durham. A contractor hit the main gas line. Only 2 people were killed, but the entire city block was significantly damaged.) All the clinicians and patients were safely evacuated but the office was in ruins. Because the billing records were accessible online, they were able to contact all their patients immediately from borrowed space. However, only some of the clinicians were able to retrieve their patient notes. The younger ones stored them electronically, with offsite access. The older clinicians, including my family member, lost decades of paper notes... Most people won’t ever encounter such a dramatic situation, but there are lots of good reasons to have off-site backups of important data.


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[niccig]

DS’ psychologist has online forms and billing information. I was fine filling it out online


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[Melaine]

Yes, I wouldn't mind doing this. I dislike having to create accounts and passwords for everything we do in life, but can deal with it.

[JustMe]

Thanks, I am glad to hear most are comfortable with it. We will see if my clients feel the same. As I said, I would not have been comfortable with it before experiencing this side of things, but I know now that it is more secure/'safe than paper. To answer some people's questions, some of these questions would be very personal and sensitive..but I can also allow people to just fill out the permissions on-line and do that in the office as well. This would be after a phone conversation with me, but before they meet me in person. They would not have to do anything on-line on an on-going basis, so this would likely be a one time thing, although I have the option to send them questionnaires if I want, I don't think I would really use that feature that much.

[LD92599]

I"m 44 and much prefer these online forms vs paper. I've walked into new Dr offices w/ all of my forms printed (I use Preview on a Mac, add the text, SO easy) and the staff LOVES that I do that!

[carolinamama]

I wouldn't think twice about filling out forms online.

[Pear]

I absolutely despise when doctor’s hand me paper forms to fill out at a visit.

I prefer online forms. I have a strong preference for forms that will let me copy and paste into certain sections. Why? Because I have all of this information in a document already. Medication, allergies, medical history. It’s all typed up already and I understand why they need it in their format, but I do not want to have to type out each drug name over and over again.

[squimp]

I just moved to a new primary care physician and they did this. I thought it was brilliant, easy, modern and it worked smoothly. No problem with it whatsoever. That information is covered by privacy laws, of course mistakes happen and things get hacked, but it seems just as risky as paper forms that are scanned and stored.

[JustMe]

Thanks for the replies! We will see what my real life clients think1