As healthcare organizations are challenged to deliver a higher quality of care, creating new ways for patients to be active members in their care journeys is more important than ever. FormFast’s latest product, FormFast Connect is extending technology beyond the walls of the hospital and into the homes of the patients, enabling exchange of information to be user-friendly and patient-centric. FormFast Connect’s personalized care navigation and document workflow capabilities allow patients and providers across the care continuum to collaborate more effectively.
We sat down with FormFast’s Product Manager, Yancey Stout, to learn more about her thoughts on FormFast’s latest product, the need for the new technology in the healthcare industry, and how FormFast Connect will make an important impact for both providers and patients.
Lauren: Yancey, to start off, can you provide us with a quick overview of FormFast Connect, FormFast’s latest addition to their product suite?
Yancey: Sure, FormFast Connect empowers patients, as well as hospitals and all kinds of healthcare organizations, to collaborate more effectively on the full continuum of care. When the patient is not at their healthcare facility, there is certainly still some responsibility there for them to engage and participate in their own care. For their health to improve and for providers to do their part to help maintain the health of the population, those patients need to participate in their care beyond the walls of the hospital.
FormFast Connect assists in ensuring that patients know what steps they need to take in their care journey, before and after their care event. If there are forms that they need to be filled out and returned, FormFast Connect makes it very easy for them to do that remotely, streamlining the pre-admissions and post-care follow-up processes.
Lauren: FormFast Connect allows patients to interact with documents any place, any time. Can you describe a little bit more about how FormFast’s technology makes that process possible?
Yancey: We have integrated our forms technology to incorporate both form completion for data fields, as well as written signature capture within a secure and trusted platform to be able to reach out to patients wherever they are. If patients have internet access, they can access this secure application to fill out forms very easily on their device of choice, as FormFast is compatible across different sizes of devices and hardware.
Lauren: Does FormFast integrate with other core healthcare systems?
Yancey: Yes, it certainly does. FormFast integrates with all major EHR systems, and can pull patient data automatically via HL7 messages. This makes it a very smooth system for care coordinators, as it provides a clear, updated view of a patient’s health record data.
With FormFast Connect, not only do we capture the structured data from patient forms to be used in database reporting and analytics; but, we can also capture an image of the completed form and archive that appropriately with the patient record.
Lauren: How does FormFast Connect enhance patient portals?
Yancey: Many patient portals today don’t necessarily have the form completion capabilities built in. FormFast Connect provides this capability, as it integrates into patient portals via links and other technologies, depending on which patient portal technology is being used. FormFast Connect complements the patient portal functionality healthcare organizations already have by providing that form completion capability as well as enhanced care coordination opportunities.
Lauren: Can you describe the eChecklist functionality FormFast Connect brings to providers and patients?
Yancey: For many procedures, specifically more complicated procedures, such as joint replacements, patients have a long list of to-dos before the procedure to ensure the operation is successful and the outcome, of course, leads to a better way of life. Additionally, there is normally quite a bit of after-care involved in these types of procedures as well. Instead of handing a patient a huge packet of paperwork, or just a sheet of paper that may easily get misplaced, FormFast Connect provides electronic checklists for the patient to ensure they know what is expected of them. They can access these checklists at any point in time, 24/7, from an internet connection.
One of the major benefits of a checklist is obviously to ensure that patients know which items are completed and which items are yet to be completed. But, it not only serves as a tracking mechanism for the patient, but also for their healthcare system. With FormFast Connect, the care coordinator and the physician have access to see in real-time how a patient is doing. For example, as an operation is approaching, they will be able to see if a patient has not yet completed all the necessary tasks before a care event. This allows physicians to be more proactive and to contact the patient to make sure all items are completed.
Lauren: How does FormFast Connect promote better connected healthcare communities?
Yancey: As I mentioned, the physicians can track a patient’s progress. This is a huge step in transparency of all the participating stakeholders in, for instance, a joint replacement procedure. In addition, FormFast Connect can provide a streamlined way for physicians and other medical community members, such as long-term care or rehabilitation facilities, to submit documentation electronically to the hospital. Today, documents exchanged between facilities are typically sent via email, fax, or mail. This transfer of information can be very inconsistent. FormFast Connect steps in to provide a standardized way to submit patient history and other physical documents, which are all too often cumbersome processes for physicians, staff, and patients.
FormFast Connect provides reassurance that as soon as a document is submitted that it is available. A complete audit trail for each document is created as soon as it comes in, so that it can be assessed at any point in time in the future. It provides a very good way to organize documentation that today is exchanged via various methods and hard to organize on the hospital side.
Lauren: What do you believe are the top benefits FormFast Connect brings to IT leaders?
Yancey: FormFast Connect equips IT professionals with the capabilities needed to securely allow patients to fill out forms and provide quality patient data from a remote environment. Many healthcare organizations today are trying to accomplish this in various ways through their website, which still creates a cumbersome process. FormFast Connect provides a very safe, effective, and easy way to provide that capability.
For current FormFast customers, FormFast Connect links in and integrates with the FormFast systems they already have. From an IT perspective, FormFast is already a trusted vendor partner and there are not any additional systems that need to be installed or maintained on their networks. It’s very easy to add on FormFast Connect and ensure that the customers of IT are very happy with the benefits it’s providing to the hospital and its patients. As far as management of FormFast, there isn’t very much added to IT’s plate plate.
Lauren: Finally, what do you think is the biggest differentiator FormFast Connect brings to the market over other solutions that are out there?
Yancey: FormFast Connect certainly provides a secure way to fill out a variety of different forms. The flexibility in customization of this system will meet the needs of dynamic healthcare organizations with multiple service lines, all needing specific types of before and after-care documentation.
It will also meet the needs of care staff that need to coordinate with unique patient needs. FormFast Connect provides the flexibility needed to personalize the process for the service line, and also for the patient, which I believe this is another key differentiator. FormFast Connect delivers a personalized experience that is truly centered around the patient, as opposed to a lot of the other systems that are not as concerned with the end-user, patient experience. FormFast Connect makes it simple and easy, and brings a high level of value to patients that log in and choose to be active participants in their care journey – which is crucial to the success of any care coordination program.
Want to learn more about how FormFast Connect improves processes for both patients and providers? Contact us today!
Yancey Stout is a Product Manager at FormFast, the healthcare industry’s leading provider of eForms, Workflow and eSignature technologies. As a technology professional, Yancey Stout has worked with software from development to support, for more than 15 years. Meeting the challenges of healthcare customers with great software solutions is her passion. Connect with Yancey on LinkedIn.
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