If you’re new to private practice, one of the most important forms you will work on is your private practice intake forms. Your client intake form is where you capture your client’s basic information. Today we’re going to quickly cover what goes on this form, tips for for creating one for your private practice, and how to ensure your client paperwork is HIPAA-compliant.

What Goes On Private Practice Intake Forms?

Client Basic Information:

It’s simple: your client’s basic information. This includes your client’s:

• Name
• Gender
• Occupation
• Address
• Contact information

It is easy enough to forget to ask their address or occupation in a conversation, so having a section dedicated to basic information is an easy must in your private practice intake forms.

Nutrition-Related Questions:

After you’ve got basic information out of the way, there are a few other nutrition-related questions you may want to ask. Here’s a few examples:

• What is your current weight? What is your desired weight?
• Have you experienced recent weight gain or weight loss?
• What medications do you currently take?
• What medical issues or psychological diagnoses would you like me to be aware of?
• Do you have any food intolerances or allergies?
• What kind of physical activity do you regularly participate in?

With Healthie, you don’t need to worry about creating your own intake forms. The Healthie Smart Form covers all the essential. It even stores information from the intake form to pre-fill other forms, such as billing and Superbills. Plus, it’s all HIPAA-compliant. Click here to sign up for a Free Starter Account with Healthie today!

The important thing to remember is that no client wants to fill out long forms, so try to be mindful when you can. You want to ask enough questions to feel knowledgable about your client, but not too many that the client will feel you’re asking too much or that the forms are too long. Try your best to find that balance. There isn’t a standard amount of questions or an intake form length to strive for. Every practice is different.

Creating Client Intake Forms:

There are a few ways to create a form. You can go the old-fashioned route with pen and paper. In some situations, you may not have clients who are comfortable with electronic forms. It is easy enough to make forms with programs like Google docs, Microsoft Word, or Pages that you can print out and give to your client to fill out. We recommend saving all forms made this way as PDFs to best preserve the formatting and layout of your form.

However, being HIPAA-compliant with pen and paper can be more difficult. All forms that contain medical information must be stored in a locked cabinet out of sight from any unauthorized persons.

With electronic forms, you may allow your clients the convenience of filling out all their information from their own homes. Electronic forms are also easy to create and can allow for fun functions like check-boxes. It also can help your practice be more organized and reduce physical storage space needed.

If you’re interested in using electronic forms, you may be interested in using programs like Healthie, Google Forms, or SurveyMonkey. (Note: Both SurveyMonkey and Google Forms are not HIPAA-compliant.)

Interested in converting to electronic forms? At Healthie, we will convert your forms for you! We digitize your forms and work with you to get the kind of client experience you’re looking for. Access this feature and many more risk-free when you sign up for Healthie’s Free Starter Plan.