The past few years have shown that the world is becoming more digital, leaving paper in the past. As more businesses go paperless, there are positive environmental impacts and benefits for the processes used by businesses. An article from Forbes, titled The Sustainable Impact of a Paperless Office, explores how widespread use of paper in the office is now part of the past, not just for medical offices, but businesses across the world.
Environmental sustainability is obviously a key driver for the move to paperless, but taking a process online can also lower costs, increase data security, and ease pressure on an otherwise overworked labour force. In a country like the UK where there is already an acute staffing shortage in hospitals, a digital process can impact hundred, if not thousands of patients. To quote from the above cited Forbes article:
“Paperless business is a sound and important environmental practice, but it also contributes to better, more efficient business operations.”
Alignment with Brand Values
Sustainable business practices that protect the environment, respect the climate, and reduce waste are important to both companies and consumers. A 2021 study by GreenPrint showed that 77% of Americans are concerned about the environmental impact of products they purchase. This is a major shift in consumer behavior as people are thinking differently about the services, products, and technology they use.
Eliminating paper from your office and making a public declaration about it could easily improve your brand image with current customers and provide an incentive for new ones. Going paperless will help to lower your carbon footprint, while saving trees, water, and plastics in the process.
Information Safety
Digital documents are easy to manage, store, transfer, and find when needed. On the contrary, paper documents are easy to lose, destroy, and damage, creating potential liabilities for your business. Data integrity and the security of digital documents is crucially important, especially when handling medical, financial, or legal information. In a document-heavy industry like healthcare, digital solutions make it easier to comply with regulations and maintain the highest levels of security.
Transferring documents digitally to another business is easy and introduces fewer opportunities for data breaches than faxing or emailing copies of paper medical records or financial disclosures. Cybersecurity is a rapidly growing and increasingly sophisticated field, but by using a secure digital provider, security is handled by industry professionals with the utmost care.
Streamlined Processes and Lower Labour Costs
If you rely on paper forms in the office, have you ever taken the time to add up the cost of maintaining your system? According to Digiscribe, the standard file cabinet costs between $1500 and $2,100 (£1250 and £1750) each year to maintain. This includes the physical space a cabinet occupies, the labour required to file documents and maintain organisational systems, and the actual machines, ink, and paper necessary for printing. Additionally, with a paper-based system, a typical office worker spends an estimated 30-40% of their day searching for printed documents. Imagine what you could do with all of that time saved!
Digital forms – including client intake forms, medical releases, consent forms, and others can be securely created, electronically distributed, signed, and immediately stored in a matter of seconds. Retrieval is instant and transmission to other offices is simple and fast. In a recent survey of over 3,000 FormDr customers, data showed that businesses saved an average of 21 minutes per new client or patient vs. when asking someone to fill out paper forms.
As other areas of life become increasingly digital – from Zoom meetings to telehealth and online classes – considering how to replace paper processes with a digital product is the first step forward.
