The news is in on paper consent forms. And it isn’t good. A comprehensive study conducted by

It seems like almost every healthcare IT vendor these days is touting their “touch free” or “paper free” technology, to the point where “paperless” has become an over-used buzzword. The dirty little secret for most vendors and their solutions? While they do remove some hard copies, they also leave behind pesky pockets of paper. This means that staff members have to retrieve forms and get patients to fill in and sign them, both at the bedside and in registration. Then those forms need to be copied, sent to medical records/HIM and scanned. This is a time-consuming, error-prone process which delays the availability of information for clinicians.

First impressions are important. Everyone has heard the expression, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” When two people meet for the first time, both are making that important first mark on the other person. When I make that first sales call with a prospect, I’m making a first impression about myself and also the company I represent, Access. Similarly, our electronic signature solution can help a healthcare organization set a positive tone for each patient visit. 

In my second post on the subject, we looked at how Access e-signatures and e-forms technology is supporting the four main goals of Halifax Health’s IT/IS department. Now let’s see how these solutions have not only made the clinical floors at Halifax look better, but also improved the hospital’s bottom line.

In my previous post, we explored how Halifax Health’s revolutionary emergency department (ED) is using Access e-signatures to capture bedside consents as part of its paperless, clutter-free environment that lets clinicians focus on patients, not paperwork.

The emergency department at Halifax Hospital should be noisy and chaotic, at least if the numbers are anything to go by: 116,000 registrations a year, 99,000 square feet (making it the largest ED in Florida) and 107 rooms. But as you walk through the double doors that lead into the ED, the silence is startling, the sense of order striking. One of the reasons is the thoughtful way the busy department is designed, with no detail overlooked.