Forms help agencies and care workers better collect, organize and assess information on their clients, while offering reference for future visits. Our Intake Forms functionality allows agencies and care workers to streamline a new client's onboarding process, while enabling them to submit client data with ease and consistency.
Agencies can also leverage Advanced Components within the Form Builder to update a client's profile with information pulled from a submitted intake form. This reduces the number of times that employees have to re-enter the same information across different modules on our app. Intake forms also lets agencies configure and customize fields, where they can then apply conditional logic to selectively collect information among a large client database.
In this article, we will look at the following:
- Intake Forms vs. the Client Demographics tab
- How to create an Intake Form
- Adding new clients using an Intake Form
Intake Forms vs. the Client Demographics tab
Sometimes, not all information an agency needs from a client is available or required when they are filling out the intake form. This is when the agency can refer to the "Client Demographics" tab to pull additional information, or can fill in information there to complete intake instead. There may also be occasions where an agency needs to create a client to the system but no intake forms are available. In this case, the agency or the care worker can then use the "Client Demographics" tab to fill out intake details for the client. The Client Demographics tab is also highly useful when extensive information is required.
A sample of the typical information required via the "Client Demographics" tab is shown below.
In comparison, Intake Forms can help agencies streamline information collection, as these forms can be used to present only the most important fields for data collection at the intake step. This may mean only asking for the information required when adding a client onto ACC, or the agency can take advantage of the conditional logic feature available in Forms 2.0, where the user fills out less questions within the form based on previous responses. Intake Forms may therefore be more useful and flexible for an agency, who wishes to collect client information via questionnaires that do not necessarily fit with the standard fields seen within "Client Demographics".
Learn more about client demographics within intake configuration with this article.
How to create an Intake Form
Intake forms are created using our Form Builder.
Please note that any fields included in an intake form must first exist as "Form Context" fields. Doing so means that when you add a new client and fill in the intake form, information within the associated intake fields can automatically pre-populate under the "Client Demographics" tab, reducing the need to re-enter client information.
To configure form context fields, navigate to Settings> All Settings> Form Context and check off or uncheck the field boxes as needed.
You are now ready to create an Intake form. Head to Settings> Form Settings, then click on "Add form". The below dialog will appear. Under "Type", select "Intake form".
Please note that once saved, intake forms are automatically approved. Currently, this automatic approval cannot be disabled. Users can now further configure, edit and customize this intake form according to your business' needs and processes.
Refer to this article for more instructions on using the form builder.
Mapping information from intake forms to the client profile
Advanced Components within the form builder can be used to map information collected within intake forms to relevant sections of the client profile. We recommend using the "Demographics" component within the form builder to add fields or questions which will link back to "Client Demographics". Another recommendation is to use components like "Risk Item" and "Medical History" to collect additional client information at the intake stage.
For more information and instructions on using Advanced Components, refer to this article.
Adding new clients using an Intake Form
Once your agency's intake form has been configured and published, you can use it to add new clients. Click on "Add new client" and select the appropriate intake form.
If no intake form has been created or cannot be created at this point in time, or the existing intake forms do not apply to your intake process, fill out all client information using the "Client Demographics" tab instead. Refer to the above section for more instructions.
Otherwise, once you have selected your intake form and click on "Add New Client", the below dialog will appear. Fill in all required fields and click on "Submit Form".
If your browser unexpectedly closes, or you navigate away from an open intake form, you may go back to the created client profile and retrieve the form there instead. Look for your client using the search bar OR look them using Clients> Client List. Once you find your client, go to Care Documentation> Client Forms.
For other articles on the intake process: