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Solution · Legal & complianceA missing signature surfaces the day before the procedure, not when the patient is in the chair
Treatment consents complete before the procedure
The robot knows which documents each procedure type requires, sends questionnaires and consents before the visit, checks completeness and raises gaps as cases a day ahead. What remains in the chair is medicine, not paperwork.
Executive summary
Consents and questionnaires are collected on site, right before the procedure: in a hurry, on old templates, with gaps that surface at an inspection or, worse, at a complication.
Every procedure type has a written set of required documents; the questionnaire and consents travel to the patient before the visit, and the system checks the file a day before the procedure.
Gaps become reception cases in advance, templates are always current, and every file holds a complete set with dates and versions, ready for any question.
the visit calendar; questionnaire and consent forms; the per-procedure requirements register; reception cases in Microsoft Teams
Business problem
Paperwork in the chair
An aesthetic or dental procedure has its paper side: a health questionnaire, a treatment consent, information consents, sometimes photographic documentation. This is not bureaucracy for its own sake; these documents protect the patient and the clinic at the only moment they have value, which is before anything happens.
In a small clinic’s practice the documents are collected on site, in the five-minute window between the patient’s arrival and the treatment room. It is the worst possible moment: the patient signs in a hurry without reading; reception prints whatever template happens to be on the desktop, not necessarily the latest; and if something is missing, it gets completed “after the procedure”, which often means never.
Gaps are invisible until they become a problem. An inspection, a dispute, a complication, an insurer’s question: only then does someone open the file and discover the questionnaire is two years old, the consent covers a different procedure, and one form is missing a page. These documents’ value is binary: complete, or trouble.
Add template rotation: the lawyer updated the consent, but reception still prints the old version from a “scans 2023” folder. Nobody knows from which day which patient signed which version.
How it works today
Below is what the work looks like before anything is automated.
- PersonReception prints a set “by eye” right before the visit, from whatever templates are at hand
- WaitingThe patient fills the questionnaire in the waiting room, in five minutes, between the phone and the door
- Risk of errorSignatures collected in a hurry come back incomplete; gaps are deferred “until after”
- Risk of errorOld form versions circulate alongside new ones; nobody knows who signed what
- PersonFiles go into the binder without a completeness check
- Risk of errorThe gap surfaces at an inspection, a dispute or a complication, that is, too late
Why the current process costs more than it appears
The bill that never shows up in a budget.
- An incomplete file in a patient dispute turns the clinic’s position from strong to weak with one missing signature.
- A quarter-hour of paperwork per visit is hours of treatment-room time a week, spent in the clinic’s most expensive place: the chair.
- A questionnaire filled hastily in a waiting room tends to be filled carelessly, and it is its content, not the signature, that protects against treating the wrong person.
- A template update without version control means some patients sign a document the lawyer no longer stands behind.
Cost of inaction
The biggest line is merciless: the paperwork happens in or right outside the treatment room, in time the clinic sells at its highest rate. Moving it before the visit, into the patient’s phone, is a pure recovery of treatment capacity with no change to the medicine.
The third row has no amount on purpose: the value of a complete file is learned in the worst week of the business, at a dispute or a complication, and then there is no price at which you would rather not have it.
A model organisation with realistic proportions – the numbers exist so you can run the same maths on your own data; they are not a client result.
An aesthetic medicine clinic: three rooms, seven procedure types with different documentation requirements, consent templates from a lawyer updated once or twice a year, documentation in binders and scans, Microsoft 365.
620 procedure visits a month; an internal audit found gaps in 4 of 10 files: outdated questionnaires, missing pages, old templates.
Documents collected on site before the procedure; completeness checked only when someone is looking for something.
A quarter-hour of paperwork per visit, gaps invisible until a problem, template versions out of control.
A per-procedure requirements register; the questionnaire and consents sent to the patient after booking, to fill and sign on her phone; the robot checks the file 24 h before the procedure and raises gaps to reception; an electronic file keeps versions and dates.
In the modelled case the chair returns to medicine, and “do we have a complete set” has an answer on a board, every morning. Model numbers, not the clinic’s records.
Proposed solution
The foundation is the requirements register: for every procedure type we write down with you which documents must exist, in which template version, and how often the questionnaire needs renewing. The register is versioned; when the lawyer changes a template, the change carries a date, from which the new version travels to patients and the old one leaves circulation.
After a procedure is booked, the patient receives a link: the health questionnaire and the right consents to read and sign on her phone, at home, with no queue behind her. Whoever does not fill in gets a reminder; whoever does not manage will fill in on site, but as the exception rather than the rule. Twenty-four hours before the procedure the robot checks the file against the register and raises gaps as reception cases in Microsoft Teams: a specific document, a specific patient, still time for a call.
Every electronic file keeps the complete set with template versions and signature dates. An inspector’s, lawyer’s or insurer’s question stops being a binder hunt; it is a printout. And the doctor enters the room certain the paper side of the procedure was closed before the door opened.
UiPath Orchestrator: a procedure visit queue, the 24-hour completeness check, retries and an audit trail; UiPath Document Understanding for documents returning as scans; UiPath Integration Service connectors for Microsoft Teams and Outlook 365
The per-procedure requirements register with template versions, questionnaire and consent dispatch after booking, the advance completeness check, gap cases for reception and an electronic file with dates and versions
The visit calendar (Bookings or a clinic system); Microsoft Forms or the e-signature you use; SharePoint as the documentation file
How the automated process works
- SystemBooking a procedure triggers the dispatch of the questionnaire and the right consents to the patient’s phone
- AutomationReminders go to the unfilled; answers and signatures return to the electronic file
- Automation24 h before the procedure the robot checks the file against the requirements for that procedure type
- PersonGaps become reception cases in Teams: the document, the patient, a call or a tablet on site
- SystemA template change from the lawyer takes effect with a date; from then only the new version travels
- PersonThe file with versions and dates serves inspections and questions without binder hunts
Human-in-the-loop model
Automation handles
- Dispatching the right documents after booking and reminding the unfilled
- Checking every file’s completeness 24 h before the procedure against the register
- The electronic file with template versions, signature dates and a change history
People decide
- The requirements register per procedure type and every template change (with the lawyer)
- Conversations with patients over gaps and all atypical situations
- The decision whether a procedure may proceed despite a gap, and its recording
Before and after
Systems and integrations
The stack is short on purpose: one engine, one execution layer, one place where a person decides.
Inputs
- the procedure visit calendar
- the per-procedure requirements register
- questionnaire and consent forms
- documents returning from patients
Automation layer
- UiPath Orchestrator
- UiPath Robots
- UiPath Integration Service
- UiPath Action Center
Target systems
- electronic files with the complete set, versions and dates
- gap cases for reception in Microsoft Teams
- a morning completeness view of tomorrow’s procedures
Human touchpoints: gap cases in Microsoft Teams; the morning view of tomorrow’s procedures; a register review at every template change
Technologies used
the procedure queue, the 24-hour check, retries, a full audit trail
Agap cases, reminders, morning summaries
Aquestionnaires and declarations filled on a phone, results straight into the file
Areading documents returning as scans or photos, with page and signature-field checks
Aa complete set per patient and procedure, with versions and permissions, in your Microsoft 365 tenant
AIllustrative economic model
Numbers you can check against your own data.
The model counts only time, because time is certain: documents filled at home do not occupy the chair. It does not price the most important thing, a complete file on the day somebody asks for it; that value has no sensible price on a page. Rate and volume belong to the scenario.
Run the maths on your data
An illustrative estimate based on your inputs. It models freed capacity, not promised savings.
Business benefits
- The chair returns to medicine: documents happen before the visit, not in the room
- Gaps surface a day early, when the fix is a phone call rather than a quarter-hour delay
- Questionnaires filled at home are filled properly, not ticked off in a waiting room
- Templates have one binding version; a lawyer’s change enters with a date and without exceptions
- Every file is inspection-ready at any moment, without a mobilisation
The management view
- The clinic’s legal exposure falls the only honest way: with documents completed before the event, not after
- The completeness view of tomorrow’s procedures turns uncertainty into routine
- Reception staff turnover stops threatening documentation quality, because the process does not live in habits
Board-level KPIs
files complete 24 h before the procedure · gaps caught before procedure day · paperwork time in the chair · signatures on outdated templates · time to prepare documents for an inspection
Security and governance
The automation has exactly the permissions it needs. Not one more.
- Patients’ health data stays in your Microsoft 365 tenant with per-role permissions; the robot checks completeness and does not read medical answers where it need not
- Every document in the file has a template version, a signature date and a source; the template change history is complete
- The requirements register is changed only by an authorised person, after changes agreed with the lawyer
- Dispatches and reminders respect patients’ communication consents
- The robots run in the EU region of UiPath Automation Cloud; no data leaves your systems
Why now
Dispute litigiousness grows faster than complication rates: documentation completed before the procedure is insurance you cannot buy after the fact.
Patients live in their phones anyway: a pre-visit form is a convenience for them and a recovery of your most expensive minutes for you.
Document templates change more often (GDPR, professional guidance, the lawyer); without version control every change multiplies chaos rather than reducing it.
Relevant executive roles
Legal exposure falls while treatment capacity grows, without hiring anyone
The morning view of tomorrow’s procedures turns firefighting into one call a day ahead
They walk in to a patient, not to a file; the paper side closed before the door opened
Common questions and objections
Some will not, and the process expects it: an unfilled form is a reception case in advance, so documents are collected on site, but on a tablet and without haste, because it was known a day earlier. The exception stays an exception instead of becoming the rule for everyone.
If it works and you use it, it stays: the robot then watches what the module does not, completeness against per-procedure requirements, the lead time and template versions. Usually though the module exists and consents are still printed at the chair; then we fix the process, not the tool.
The signature form is your lawyer’s choice: from declarations in a form, through a signature drawn on a tablet on site, to a qualified electronic signature. The process is identical in every variant; only the signing method changes, and that is a legal decision, not a technical one.
When this is not the right solution
- A few procedures a week in a one-person practice: discipline and one well-kept binder suffice
- No lawyer’s consent to any remote filling: the on-site tablet variant remains, still with completeness control but without the main time saving
- The expectation of legal advice on consent wording: we deliver the process and version control, the templates’ content belongs to your lawyer
A question for the next management meeting
How many of tomorrow’s procedure files are complete today, and how do we know before the patients sit down?
Implementation approach
Scope without ambiguity, before anything is signed.
We deliver
- The per-procedure requirements register, written with you and versioned
- Questionnaire and consent dispatch after booking, with reminders
- The 24-hour completeness check and gap cases in Teams
- An electronic file with template versions and signature dates in SharePoint
- Two weeks of parallel running and post-go-live care
We need from you
- The procedure type list and current document templates (with your lawyer)
- Access to the visit calendar and a decision on the signature form
- A reception owner for the gap cases
Stages
Discovery
An audit of 50 random files: what is really missing and which templates circulate
Rules
The requirements register per procedure type and the signature form agreed with the lawyer
Build
Forms, dispatches, the completeness check, cases and the SharePoint file
Parallel run
Two weeks: documents travel before the visit, reception compares with current practice
Go-live
Full traffic, a register review after the first template change
A quick win. Effort depends mostly on the number of procedure types and the signature decision; the automation itself is simple.
The inspection asked for three March procedures’ documentation. Two files were complete. You would rather not discuss the third.
Send us your procedure type list and the templates you use today. We return a draft requirements register and show, on your next week’s calendar, which files the system would flag as incomplete right now.
Check tomorrow’s files for completenessThe neighbouring process usually has the same problem
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See the solutionIndustries where we deploy this most oftenAesthetic medicineSmall business & services