Boosting Efficiency in Patient Intake with Check-In Kiosks

The first point of contact at a medical practice is the patient intake experience—and it can be a source of frustration for patients and inefficiency for providers. Long wait times, complicated intake forms, and ID and insurance verification processes are frustrating for patients who want a quick visit to their healthcare provider. Patient check-in kiosks provide a simple solution to all of these issues while boosting medical practice productivity.

Let’s look at the ways medical practices can increase productivity and efficiency by using patient check-in kiosks.

Streamlining the front desk

Patient check-in kiosks eliminate the time employees spend printing and distributing paper intake forms, and manually entering data. This reduces wait times at registration and lowers the risk of errors in data entry, in turn freeing up front desk staff for other important tasks.

Digital patient intake can save from 6-12 minutes of staff time per patient visit and boost front office productivity by up to 20 percent. So, your staff can spend more time taking patient phone calls or answering questions from patients in the waiting room. 

Simplifying ID and insurance verification

Handwritten paperwork creates multiple opportunities for mistakes in entry due to human error, difficulty reading handwriting, and missed information.  Even a misspelled name, incorrect birthday, or a policy number mistake can be a small error that leads to an unpaid claim. 

Being able to securely scan and verify patient identification and insurance cards reduces the amount of time spent dealing with errors in insurance which results in less wasted time for employees, increasing overall practice productivity. 

Patient check-in kiosks that have scanning and optical character recognition (OCR) are able to make ID and insurance verification a self-service process. The patient simply scans the front and back of their ID and scans the barcode on their insurance card. Their ID is authenticated and their information is auto-filled into the form via OCR. This entire process can be completed in seconds—and without the help of a staff member. 

Enabling self-service copays

Collecting copays and bills for prior visits can be awkward for staff and patients alike. Further, patients may have forgotten or misplaced previous bills. 

By enabling self-service payments, patients will always be made aware of what is due at the time of the visit and whether they have any past-due bills.  

Improving patient privacy

Patient check-in kiosks can also increase patient privacy and ensure HIPAA and HITECH compliance. 

When patients aren’t required to write out their medical history, carry paperwork with them, hand it over to front desk staff, and answer questions out loud, they feel secure knowing privacy is the top priority. 

Further, better practices around privacy and security can save providers from legal issues related to the safe handling of patient data. 

Cost savings and ROI

There are a number of ways in which self-service kiosks can save practices money. First, there are costs associated with paper forms. This includes ink, paper, and human resources for managing, organizing and entering data from paper forms. 

According to GetWell, a check-in software provider, typical paper costs are around $200 per month per provider.

As mentioned earlier, check-in kiosks can help facilitate payments of past-due bills and on-time copays at the time of visit. This is significant because of how costly the collection process can be. The collection process involves sending out multiple notifications in the mail or relying on an outside collection agency—both are major expenses for healthcare practices. 

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Major healthcare providers like LabCorp and Health Canada rely on Aila’s Interactive Kiosk to streamline check-in, verification, and payments. See how here: