medical history forms

Hi.
We get mh firms for every new patient. They're checked every visit and if anything new it's noted and signed.
For fit and healthy patients we still get them to sign to confirm " no change" annually.
Dentists are supposed to countersign every signature too to prove they've seen it. We were told this by dental protection.

I agree with Leanne we get one filled out at their first visit then every time they attend after its verbally checked and updated if necessary. It'd be difficult to then pull patient notes afterwards,I don't see why its a waste of time if you or the receptionist is pulling them? It'd be easier having them and not needing to update that not having them then rushing around trying to find notes later in the day.

At the practice I work at we have patients fill in and sign a form every 2 years and obviously they are verbally asked at every visit between the signed forms. In my surgery they are stapled to the FP17's and filed away in months. We don't deal with record cards at all.
Sooo many patients complain about doing it, it makes me really mad.
I had a patient a couple of weeks ago who filled in the form, said he takes meds but didn't note them down, I asked what they were and he huffed and puffed, said "Listen love, I take that many I don't remember" in quite a rude tone and then said that these medical forms are, and I quote "a pain in the arse!!" I explained to the patient the importance of taking medical histories and he still huffed and puffed. P'd me off for the rest of the day Rant over....!!

As far as i am aware...

MH forms should be filled in at every visit (best practice), as things can change in-between visits and the patients may not think to tell you off the top of their heads, but it could be important to know.

The surgery i am at we update them once a year, but at their in between visit we still ask if anything has changed. If their is anything of significance then i would note it on the computer.

If you have time, i would still get the patients cards out just in case, as you'll be too busy to do it later!

Hope this helps

hi all, im wondering if anyone can help me. I've recently changed jobs and the dentist i now work with wants to stop getting record cards out as he claims it wastes time. all of our medical histories are currently stored in the cards so was wondering what do people do about signing medical history forms

do the forms have to be signed at every appointment or is a computerised "tick" sufficient?
thanks in advance for any help
marie