If you are using any of the automated reminders software, you probably have email addresses for most of the patients. But if you are just starting, are low tech or simply not ready to invest into such a system (we don’t use it yet, for example), then it’s still important to collect email addresses.
There are at least several reasons. Some people prefer email reminders even if your scheduling coordinator has to compose them every time. Eventually, you may want to move to automated reminders and will need a ready-to-use database. You can use your email list in other creative ways like to increase your online reviews or use Facebook ads. Facebook has an “Lookalike Audience” option and you will need your email list for that.
What you really want to do as a first step, is to create an easy and working system to capture patients’ email addresses. Here is what we do in our office. When preparing for the next day, we prefill some visit information into superbills. We use paper superbills that list most frequently used procedures so we can easily fill in what has been done on a patient. If we don't have an email for a patient, we just write and highlight a short memo: “Email”. This serves as a reminder to ask for email when the patient is making the payment.
You may be completely paperless in your office and don’t use superbills or anything alike. But you still can assign one person accountable for preparing for the next day. She can create alerts “Email” in your practice management software. It will pop-up when she check-ins or check-outs the patient. Your front person will remember to ask for email.
Email collection is a very small task but it has many potential uses. So it is worth investing little time into building a system around it and then just to run it on autopilot.