Improving patient care is one of the key objectives for healthcare providers. However, medical centres are starting to become overcrowded and healthcare staff are overworked it creates an unpleasant environment for both staff and patients. The good news is that there is an effective solution to solving these issues and improving healthcare, which involves employing self-service kiosks and signage to manage administrative operations. In this article, we will discuss the advantages of patient check-in kiosks and why their use should be considered in any healthcare setting.
A customisable touch screen can be mounted on a wall or placed as a kiosk in an accessible area.
In the healthcare industry, the “self-service” option is becoming increasingly popular. Essentially, this option can enable patients to check in without the assistance of medical personnel. A self-service kiosk is a device that enables patient self-check-in, while streamlining and speeding up administrative chores such as hospital registration and billing. So, what are some other major advantages that self-service kiosks can provide to companies in the healthcare industry? Let’s take a look.
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Reducing the spread of COVID-19
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, human interaction has undergone significant changes in order to reduce the propagation of the virus. As a result, consumers have gravitated toward the use of self service kiosks for safety and increased social distancing, particularly in healthcare facilities. Currently, self-service kiosks are being implemented across various healthcare settings to reduce the spread. What’s more, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the acceptance of touch screen technology across various facilities, since patients can also use it for check-ins to reduce wait times, registration, examination, pharmacy payment, counselling, and for a variety of other purposes.
In addition, self-service kiosks can also help to limit physical interaction between individuals, reducing the risk of virus transmission between staff and patients. During in-person interactions between patients and healthcare staff that involve talking and the exchange of objects such as credit cards and receipts, there is an increased risk of contamination. In contrast, patient interactions with a touch screen kiosk significantly reduce the risk of viruses spreading.
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Cost Savings
Using self-service kiosks in medical centres can help an organisation save money. Specifically, the process of self-check-in reduces the number of staff required to complete the task. As a result, using automated self-check-in also reduces the workload for nurses, and decreases the time they need to spend on other administrative chores.
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Reducing Patient Waiting Time
A user-friendly computerised system can replace the need to fill out paper forms. Typically, admin staff is required to manually record the patient’s information and locate the proper medical department to handle the patient’s healthcare requirements. Self-service kiosks can also facilitate the processes of check-in and verification of patient information, which can be done by swiping an identity card.
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Providing Secure Access
Patient check-in kiosks can interact with a provider’s back-end office and electronic medical record management systems, in addition to allowing patients to check-in for their appointments. Patients can use the kiosk to update their personal information, access their health data, refresh their recollection of any directions from their clinician, and make a note of any future follow-up appointments.
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Fewer Mistakes
Using electronic kiosks can assist in reducing administrative staff data entry errors, since it streamlines the process of filing of electronic documents. Furthermore, the use of touch screen kiosks helps to protect patient privacy and secure sensitive information such as consent forms and health information.
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Convenient Payment Options
Integrating the kiosk with a web-based portal can also speed up the payment process. As such, patients can pay their medical bills simply by swiping their credit cards and entering their information into the electronic payment system. Furthermore, the touch screen kiosk can also advise the patient of any outstanding medical balances, print payments, and medical certificates, as well as notify the hospital when the patient has paid for their treatment.
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Improving Patient Care
Due to their functionality, self-service kiosks provide greater autonomy to patients by allowing them to have more control over processes such as check-in. Self-service kiosks can greatly improve the patient experience and care, by improving navigation in complicated hospital facilities and allowing them to check-in using registration services.
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Enhancing the Patient Experience
Healthcare providers can drastically minimise the amount of time and effort spent on administrative duties upfront by using patient check-in kiosks. This allows clinicians to devote more time and attention to their patients and their specific health requirements, resulting in a better patient experience.
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Simple Adoption and Integration
Self-service kiosks come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and the technology’s ultra-small form factor hardware makes it simple to integrate these devices into any type of location, including high-traffic and high-footfall areas. Furthermore, kiosk software may be modified to match changing healthcare needs, which means that existing kiosks do not need to be replaced to perform new functions. The capacity of self-service kiosks to execute many functions is a unique feature. This means that in healthcare settings, the same kiosks can be configured to work well in patient-facing, clinician-facing, and support staff-facing scenarios.
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Improving Accessibility
While the introduction of new technology often raises accessibility concerns, patient check-in kiosks can be built to improve patient accessibility, by adjusting their height and incorporating features which facilitate their use for individuals with sight and hearing impairments. The accessibility features of touch screen kiosks ensures that all patients can access and use these devices.
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Features of a Self-Service Medical Kiosk
Healthcare kiosks can be customised to provide a variety of functionalities. You may add any functionality you need to meet your demands, especially with custom modular self-service kiosks.
The following are some of the most common features seen in medical kiosks:
- Digital Forms: Patients can self-check in or fill out required forms using digital forms.
- Check-In: Pre-registration or facial recognition check-in.
- Card Reader: Patients can use a card reader to add Medicare and for identification.
- Camera: Facial photo capture for visitor registration and healthcare video chats that require a camera.
- Automated Payment: It allows patients to make a payment when necessary.
- UV-C Disinfection: The use of motion-sensing technology to disinfect touch points. Specifically, UV-C sanitising is particularly effective for COVID-19 IR sanitisation.
- Temperature Sensing: This feature uses infrared sensors to measure users’ body temperature to authorise or refuse access to workers and visitors.
- Label Printing: Print labels to identify and grant access to specified areas of a facility.
Conclusion
The introduction of innovative technologies such as self-service kiosks has the potential to significantly improve patient care. The use of touch screen kiosks by healthcare agencies allows streamlining of administrative processes, while reducing the risk of the spread of viruses and reduces waiting times. Importantly, automation relieves load on front-line medical employees by providing the tools needed to make hospital visits more straightforward, easy, and stress-free. Therefore, self-service kiosks are quickly becoming an essential tool in healthcare settings in Australia and globally.
