Case Study: 85% Patient Forms Completion with NextGen EMR Integration at The ENT Center of Central Georgia

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The ENT Center of Central Georgia is a well-established ENT group located in Macon, Georgia that includes an allergy clinic, a hearing aid center, a CT imaging center, and a surgery center. Camille White, the Practice Administrator, has a tenure of over 25 years and was responsible for executing the financial and strategic plans developed with her physician board. As the practice expanded, so too did the complexities of running it while sustaining high operational efficiency. The telltale signs were a slowdown in patient workflow, steady increase in manual tasks for staff to perform, and a negative impact on patient experience. Results at a Glance Challenge Faced Simple Interact Solution & Result Inefficient, Paper-Based Patient Check-in Integrated Patient Forms led to an 85% patient form completion rate prior to the visit, significantly speeding up check-in. Manual Data Entry into NextGen EMR Seamless integration with NextGen EMR pushes discrete data (medications,...

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The ENT Center of Central Georgia is a well-established ENT group located in Macon, Georgia that includes an allergy clinic, a hearing aid center, a CT imaging center, and a surgery center.

Camille White, the Practice Administrator, has a tenure of over 25 years and was responsible for executing the financial and strategic plans developed with her physician board.

As the practice expanded, so too did the complexities of running it while sustaining high operational efficiency. The telltale signs were a slowdown in patient workflow, steady increase in manual tasks for staff to perform, and a negative impact on patient experience.

Results at a Glance

The Challenges: Inefficient Patient Check-in and Patient Communication

For a busy practice like The ENT Center of Central Georgia, efficiency is paramount. However, before partnering with Simple Interact, their front office workflow was facing significant hurdles.

Slow Patient Check-in

“We had struggled for so many years… with how to get our patients checked in fast,” Camille explains. The root of the problem was a reliance on a paper-based system, which created a mountain of patient form paperwork for both staff and patients.

Poor integration with NextGen EMR

The practice’s initial attempt to go paperless with a different digital solution proved cumbersome. This system lacked seamless integration with their EMR system, NextGen, and although it could transfer patient intake forms as PDFs, its ability to push discrete data such as medications, allergies, and histories into patient records was limited. This forced staff to manually input data, leading to an inefficient, error-prone, and frustrating workflow. Ultimately, it failed to deliver the smooth, modern patient experience the practice needed.

Barriers to Patient Engagement

The practice also faced significant communication barriers. Patients often ignored phone calls, leading to constant “phone tag” with staff. This resulted in delayed conversations, scheduling issues, and negatively impacted patient care. Additionally, when urgent or pertinent information needed to be relayed to a list of patients, the options to broadcast a message were limited.

Insufficient data on Patient Satisfaction

Furthermore, their existing patient survey methods from in-office forms to external links didn’t produce significant results, making it difficult to gather actionable patient feedback. The process was also not very effective at obtaining positive online reviews on trusted listings such as Google, Facebook, Healthgrades, and WebMD.

The Solution: How Simple Interact Sped Up Patient Check-in and Solved Patient Communication Barriers

The team at The ENT Center of Central Georgia sought a solution that could address all of their “wish list” items. They chose Simple Interact because of its comprehensive front office automation platform, which offered a seamless transition away from their old system.

Integrated Patient Forms

Now, patients can complete their forms online before their visit, significantly reducing check-in time and eliminating paper waste. Based on criteria such as the visit type, chief complaint, provider, or patient age, the system dynamically presents the appropriate forms to the patient. A key differentiator was Simple Interact’s ability to seamlessly integrate with the practice’s NextGen EMR. It pushes discrete data along with images and PDFs directly into the patient’s record. This eliminated the time previously wasted on manual data entry and was particularly effective in handling complex information like patient medications, which their prior systems couldn’t do.

Comprehensive Patient Engagement

Prior to each appointment, patients receive automated reminders informing them of a checklist of tasks (ex: fill forms, take images of insurance card, confirm appointment) to complete. Camille valued this user-friendly approach, which presented information in small, manageable chunks, leading to a “huge increase” in patient usage. Additionally, staff can access an intuitive dashboard to easily track each patient’s progress and communicate with the patient on an adhoc basis as and when needed. Staff can also easily broadcast messages (ex: health outreach campaigns, office closure notifications) via Email or SMS.

Effective Two-Way Patient Texting

Simple Interact also provided the two-way SMS texting the practice needed, allowing them to communicate with patients in the manner they prefer. This solved the persistent problem of phone tag and created a more efficient way to reach patients. Staff productivity has increased as they are now able to manage many conversations in parallel and resolve requests quickly and efficiently.

Improved Online Reputation

The automation and process improvements led to a better patient experience, which was evident in the results of patient satisfaction surveys. Simple Interact’s straightforward patient feedback process was used to implement these surveys, resulting in much higher patient participation and, consequently, greater confidence in the insights gathered. Furthermore, this process significantly boosted the online reputation of both the practice and its providers.

The Results: Increased Productivity and Patient Convenience

The implementation of Simple Interact yielded immediate and measurable results. The practice saw a “tremendous increase” in patient form completion, with about 85% of patients completing their forms ahead of time. By eliminating the need for manual data entry, the new workflow has sped up the patient intake process, increased staff productivity, and reduced wait times. This has allowed the staff to get patients seen by the surgeon “a lot faster” and has helped the practice obtain a good patient history from the outset.

Patient feedback also saw a significant boost. The number of patients completing surveys experienced a “huge uptick” because the process was easy and provided the feedback the practice wanted. The practice and providers now have 4.5+ star ratings across multiple online listings.

In addition to reducing the no-show rate, an automated notification process has helped recover no-show/canceled appointments by getting some of those patients back on the schedule. Staff productivity has improved significantly with the use of 2-way SMS texting and broadcast messaging capability.

The Difference: A Collaborative Partnership for Lasting Success

Simple Interact stood out to Camille because of its customer engagement model, which she describes as a true partnership rather than a typical vendor relationship.

A crucial factor in their success was Simple Interact’s “white glove” implementation process. Camille highlights that Simple Interact “does all of the background setting up and structure of their system,” ensuring a simple, client-focused experience. The implementation was intentionally a “phased rollout,” allowing staff to adopt new functionalities over time without feeling overwhelmed, which made the transition “simple.”

The Simple Interact team collaborates closely with the practice, customizing solutions to their specific workflows. Camille notes, “They really listened to us and thought through the processes.” She values the company’s agility and responsiveness, describing them as “big enough” to have the necessary expertise yet “small enough that they can be nimble” to create unique and tailored solutions.

This partnership is ongoing and continues to evolve. Simple Interact has helped the ENT Center of Central Georgia develop new solutions for tasks such as capturing and integrating additional data, recovering canceled appointments, and obtaining scenario-specific consents.

For the ENT Center of Central Georgia, Simple Interact is seen as more than just software; it is an active partner that provides smart, effective solutions. Camille concludes, “I know that when we reach out, they will listen and help us with a smart solution.”

Ravi Kalidindi

Ravi Kalidindi is the Founder and CEO of Simple Interact, a leading Front Office Automation company that helps healthcare facilities across the United States run more efficiently and profitably by boosting staff productivity, reducing provider burnout, and elevating the patient experience. Customers view Ravi as a trusted partner who can quickly comprehend business problems and suggest “keep it simple” solutions that are effective and easier to maintain over time.