Patient Sign In Sheet

What is a Patient Sign-In Sheet?

Many clinics choose to use a to track the patients arriving at the waiting room. While some practices have switched over to digitally checking patients in at the front desk using a computer system, a sign-in sheet has the benefit of allowing patients to check themselves in, as well as saving time for the practice’s staff, particularly on busy days or for clinics with many practitioners.

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A patient sign-in sheet is a simple table with space for each patient to add their name, the time they arrived, the time of their appointment, and the practitioner they are here to see. It’s a simple but effective tool for tracking the flow of patients as they arrive, and ensuring you can get a snapshot of who is in your waiting room at any moment. A patient sign-in sheet may also serve as evidence of patient attendance at appointments, and protect you, as a clinician, from legal situations down the line; but more on that later.

How To Use This Template For Patient Sign-In Sheets

Setting up a patient sign-in sheet for your clinic couldn’t be simpler. Just follow these steps to start improving your record keeping, and saving your reception staff time.

Step 1. Print the Patient Sign-In Sheet

For busy practices, in particular, we recommend having several copies of the sheet available at any time so there is another sheet if the first is completed. Don’t forget to fill in the date at the top of the sheet. Only one date should be filled in per sheet, and if the sheet is not completed at the end of the day, simply start fresh with another sheet the next day.

Step 2. Display the Sheet at Reception

Display the sheet (perhaps with a writing utensil too!) at your practice’s reception somewhere prominent and easy to see when you walk in the front door. And that’s it! The rest is up to your patients to fill in as they arrive.

Step 3. Destroy, or Securely Store

At the end of the work day, you have to decide how you are going to manage the patient health information contained within the patient sign-in sheet. If you have the capability to destroy the document on-site, this can be a simple solution. Otherwise, if you need to keep the document for legal purposes, ensure it is stored securely.

Who Can Use This Printable Patient Sign-In Sheets (PDF)?

If you have a waiting room, this printable patient sign-in sheet can work for you! We have kept the type of practitioner open, so anyone from psychiatrists to physical therapists can utilize this template without problems. Some professionals who may find this patient sign-in sheet particularly useful include:

1. Therapists working in a group practice
2. Doctors’ clinics
3. Hospital departments or outpatient clinics
4. Private hospital clinics
5. After-hours medical clinics
6. Family medical practices
7. Primary care practices
8. Counseling practices.

This sign-in sheet is definitely not limited to the above practices, but keep in mind that the sign-in sheet is directed to patients rather than clients, so if you choose to utilize this template, ensure that patient is the preferred term at your practice.

Utilize this client list template to support and enhance your practice and client success.

Why is This Form Useful For Medical Practitioners

Running a medical practice comes with a huge amount of administrative work and our patient sign-in form is designed to save you just a little bit of that administration time, allowing you to focus more on doing what you do best.

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Our form is intuitive and clearly formatted enough to be printed out and displayed at your practice with no further instructions required, This sign-in form includes everything apart from the pen! Patients can sign themselves in, and you can get a snapshot of who is in your waiting room at a glance. If you prefer being paper-based, you’ll love using this form as it can be easily downloaded, printed out, and filled in completely by hand.

Benefits Of Free Patient Sign-In Form Template

Use as Legal Evidence

If you choose to store your patient sign-in sheets, they might come in handy down the line in a legal situation. If a practitioner is accused of falsifying billing information, having a handwritten list with the date, patient names, and appointment times serves as great evidence that the practitioners are seeing the patients they say they are.

Organize your Waiting Room

In busy clinics with multiple practitioners using the same waiting room, it can get pretty hectic pretty quickly. Having a sign-in sheet to record who has come into your waiting room is a simple way to stay organized and quickly find out if your next patient has arrived. Stay on top of patient management, and achieve greater efficiency.

Save Your Staff Time

Having patients sign themselves into your practice will add up to a huge timesaver for your reception staff. This will undoubtedly have flow-on effects that improve the overall efficiency of your practice’s administration and result in better outcomes for everyone.

Flag New Patients

We have included a handy “new patient” column so you can see if it is a patient’s first appointment at a glance. This may be useful for carrying out any first-day procedures or paperwork with them, or just to keep track of the overall dynamics of your practice’s patient retention and percentage of new patients.

Meet Your HIPAA Obligations

Patient sign-in sheets become a fraught area for patient privacy if you start collecting more information than you need for the sign-in process. Our patient sign-in sheet ensures you only take the information needed for the patient to check-in, and nothing related to their medical history, conditions, or other private information that should not be accessible to other patients in the waiting room.