Final answer:
It is crucial to identify whether a patient is new or existing upon registration for the purposes of medical history, billing, and continuity of care, potentially improving efficiency by over 35 percent without incurring extra costs.
Step-by-step explanation:
It is indeed important to determine if a patient is new or existing upon registration for several reasons. First, the medical history of an existing patient is already known and can significantly expedite diagnosis and treatment. For a new patient, a complete medical history needs to be obtained which could affect treatment plans. Billing processes also differ between new and existing patients, which can impact the financial aspects of care management.
Furthermore, accurately identifying patients supports continuity of care and helps prevent medical errors, which, as learned from doctor's experiences, can arise from not properly applying known information in complex and urgent situations. The distinction between new and existing patients could result in an improvement of more than 35 percent in terms of efficiency, with no additional costs. Therefore, it's essential for healthcare providers to make this distinction to ensure appropriate and efficient patient care.