How the forms reach a client and come back
In short
The booking confirmation carries a link. The client opens it on a phone, completes the intake form and signs the consent for the treatment booked, and the signed copies are on their record before they arrive.
The American Med Spa Association describes intake forms as the first set of information and authorizations a practice needs from each new patient: contact information, initial medical histories, HIPAA disclosures and privacy statements. A consent form is narrower: the association calls it the recorded evidence of a patient giving informed consent to a treatment. It also says a medical spa needs a medical records system, since each customer is really a patient.
Online, the two travel together. A new client receives both, and a returning client receives the consent for the treatment booked with a prompt to confirm that nothing in their history has changed. Someone who stops partway can pick the form up again from the same link, and the desk can see who has not finished before the day begins.
What the software must do
In short
The software has six jobs: let a client fill the form on a phone before the visit, capture a signature with a timestamp, file a copy on the client's record, flag what is missing, keep every version of the wording, and export on request.
None of these jobs is unusual, and booking products built for aesthetics practices include some of them. The two to ask a vendor about are the last in the table: whether a signed form keeps the exact wording it was signed under, and whether you can take every record with you.
When the forms are built into a system of your own, the same table is the specification. Each row is something the written plan says the build will do, and something you can test before launch.
| What the software does | Why it matters | |
|---|---|---|
| Fill on a phone before the visit | A link in the confirmation opens the forms, and a half-finished form can be resumed | The appointment begins on time, with the answers already in |
| A signature with a timestamp | The client signs on the screen, and the date and time are stored with the form | The record shows who agreed to what, and when |
| A copy on the client's record | Each signed form is filed where staff open the client's card | The provider reads it before the appointment |
| A flag on the card | A treatment with no signed consent is marked on the day view | Nobody has to remember to check |
| Versioned wording the practice owns | Each change to a form is saved as a new version, and a signed copy keeps the wording it was signed under | An old signature is never shown against new text |
| An export | One client's forms, or all of them, can be taken out as files | The records stay yours if you change systems |
Swipe sideways to see every column
What stays with the practice and its advisers
In short
The wording of every form, who reviews a client's answers and how the records are kept under the law are the practice's decisions. Software carries those decisions out, and makes none of them.
The American Med Spa Association says a consent document should be written in plain, non-medical language and be frank about the risks and complications. Writing it is work for the practice and its counsel, and so is deciding how often a returning client signs again.
Health information that a form collects may fall under HIPAA. HHS says the Privacy Rule applies to covered entities, among them health care providers who conduct the standard health care transactions electronically, and that the Security Rule sets national standards for protecting electronic protected health information. Whether your practice is a covered entity, and whether a software vendor needs an agreement with you, is for the practice and its adviser to decide.
This guide describes software, and none of it is medical or legal advice. Ask your own counsel which rules apply to your practice before any form goes live.
What this means for a small business
In short
Check first whether the booking software you already pay for sends forms the way the table describes. Build your own only for the jobs it cannot do.
For many practices the forms inside an aesthetics booking product are enough, and turning them on costs nothing to build. The site's job is then small: send the client to those forms at the right moment, and say plainly on the booking page that they will arrive.
A system of your own earns its price when the forms have to follow rules the product cannot, such as wording or a signing step it has no setting for, or a flag the desk needs on its own day view. That is app work, which costs more than pages do, and our guide to what a med spa website costs explains why.