When was the last time you updated your business forms? This issue came to light recently as I sat in a doctor’s office filling out forms. While I wasn’t there because of a pain in my rear, I was quickly developing one.

For starters, there was barely enough room to write my first name, let alone my middle and last name. Where I was to put ‘city” there was only enough room to put the first four letters of Butte. And I was only able to squeeze in 3 of the 5 zip code digits. To make a long story short, no one manufactures a pen with a fine enough point to allow me to squeeze in the information the form asks for.

Then I get to the medical questions. Half the stuff they ask, “if I’ve ever had’ — I just now developed as a result of trying to fill out the form, including eye pain, double vision, a headache and anxiety.

Then I read the following: “Have you ever had any of the following problems?”. Really?
Do they really mean

ever?

1) Frequent Urination. Well, yeah. I mean, you simply can’t pound a six pack and not have frequent urination. 2) Testicular Pain or Swelling. Again, yeah … there were a few times in gym class during dodge ball I thought I was going to swallow my eyeballs. And, I don’t know any father who hasn’t fallen victim to an over-zealous 2 year old with a “cute little plastic baseball bat”. I’m rolling on the floor, writhing in pain, can’t catch my breath and my wife’s telling me to “man up”, get over it and take care of some heavy-lifting in the garage.

But seriously, when WAS the last time you updated your business forms? It may be time for a “forms review”.

Is there really enough room for anyone, including the elderly and those with arthritis, to easily fit their information in the space provided? Pretend your name is Samantha Allison Jamison-O’Hara or Johnathon Abernathy Wellington. Can you really fit a long street name and an apartment # in the address line?

Room to write is one issue. Another is relevant information. If you’ve been using the same forms for a number of years, they may be outdated. Many forms created years ago weren’t designed to capture “Late Trend” information such as e-mail addresses, cell phone numbers or allow for blended family name or female hyphenated name issues. A “forms review” is the perfect time to address these issues.
Seek input from your patients, customers or clients — those who must fill out the forms. Are the questions really clear? Is the sequence of the information asked for logical? And while some comments and suggestions will be totally irrelevant, by and large, you’ll end up with some quality input. It’s also a great PR move.

Your patients or customers will feel like they have some ownership in the form and it will create goodwill. You can even add a line at the bottom such as, “This form was designed with the thoughtful input of our patients to be as user-friendly as possible.”

In addition to having your office staff sit down and actually fill out your office forms, ask them if they’d improve anything. It’s possible they’ve been hearing complaints for months or years and simply smiled and nodded knowingly to the complainers.

Once the forms are redesigned, make full-size copies and have people actually fill them out and evaluate them. Have the staff do the same thing over a couple day period. Often, errors are overlooked in the rush to get it done. Take the time to do it right, because if past performance is any indication of the future, you’ll be using these new forms for years.

Stumble it!