Incorporating Multimedia Content Into Your Patient Forms With QR Codes

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QR codes make it easy to provide videos at patients’ fingertips

QR codes are everywhere again. Those little black and white square barcodes are showing up on restaurant tables, on product packaging, in print and TV ads — and in medical practices. Introduced in 1994 to track inventory in the automotive industry, QR codes experienced a resurgence during the pandemic, since they offer an easy way to go paperless. For example, restaurants could eliminate printed menus and direct customers to scan a QR code (which stands for “quick response code”) and pull up the menu on their smartphones. In other cases, these codes are a way to enhance paper brochures or forms, providing more information and even video to viewers. 

Find out more about how eye care practitioners, ENTs and audiologists are incorporating multimedia into their practice paperwork and patient education materials. 

 

Embracing and integrating technology

While health care may have been slow to adopt technology in the past, that has changed. Use of electronic health records (EHRs) doubled between 2008 and 2017, with nearly 9 in 10 medical practices adopting EHRs. More doctors have also embraced patient portals, mobile health apps and virtual visits. Telehealth usage skyrocketed during COVID-19, and shows no signs of disappearing. 

More practices are finding ways to modernize with technology and streamline their processes.

Practices are finding ways to incorporate technology to modernize and streamline their existing processes. By replacing old-fashioned plastic anatomy models with interactive simulations on an iPad, for example, eye doctors project a more modern image and build patients’ trust that they offer the latest diagnostics and treatments. 

And practices that were almost entirely paper-based are shifting from outdated brochures to videos that offer a more engaging and effective way of educating patients. 

 

Going digital is not all-or-nothing

Of course, you don’t have to choose all or nothing — all digital and no paper. Paper forms are still in use for many medical practices, whether for patient records, informed consent forms, info sheets, insurance or other purposes. But, there are ways that you can incorporate helpful video content into some of these forms by using QR codes. Rendia makes it easy, and we can even send you a free QR code branded to your practice.

Rendia makes it easy to incorporate video into your paper forms. We can even send practices a free, branded QR code.

QR codes make it easy for patients to quickly scan the code with their smartphone from your waiting room, their home, or wherever else they’ll be accessing the information. The embedded link will automatically take them to a page where they can view a video on cataract surgery benefits, for example, or a description of different IOL options like the one below: 

View Video

Providing information in multiple formats — in print, in videos, verbally in the exam room or over the phone, etc. — only helps reinforce these messages and ensure that patients fully understand their condition and treatment options.

 

One practice’s success with QR codes

In a study published in the Annals of Family Medicine, a practice in Iowa decided to take advantage of the fact that patients were engaged with their digital devices in the waiting room already. They developed QR codes for online information about common health issues, such as proper acetaminophen dosing based on age and weight, and seasonal info about the flu or sunburn. 

“Response to this innovation has been positive,” wrote the study authors. “Staff members enjoy the idea that patients aren’t just wasting time but learning about health topics while on their phones. Patients are happy not to turn off their devices in the office.”

QR codes can be used to share patient education or to request a review on social media. Patients simply scan the codes with their smartphones right from your waiting room.

QR codes can be used in many different ways. You can print one on a decal on your door or front-office window to request patient feedback: “Please review our practice on Facebook!” Or you could include one in a promotional offer: “Check out our BOGO back-to-school eyewear sale!” It’s an easy, interactive and timely way to engage and educate patients. 

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