Quest Diagnostics: Saving Phlebotomists’ Time and Streamlining the Patient Experience

Quest Diagnostics annually serves one in three adult Americans and half the physicians and hospitals in the United States. As an innovator in healthcare, Quest sought ways to lessen the workload of its busy phlebotomy staff to improve operational efficiency while simultaneously boosting the patient experience. To achieve these goals, Quest needed a self-service kiosk solution that could streamline the full patient intake process. The solution also needed to be scalable as new features were developed and seamlessly deployed across their locations.

Background

Replacing a basic tablet sign-in kiosk with a versatile self-service platform

Phlebotomists, like many patient-facing healthcare workers, juggle a range of tasks that aren’t directly related to their primary job function of collecting samples. To reduce time spent on low-value administrative tasks like checking in patients, scanning IDs, and manually entering insurance information, Quest Diagnostics wanted to digitally automate their patient intake and verification process. At the same time, Quest sought to reduce patient wait times by offering a faster and more convenient visit.

Challenge

Save phlebotomists’ time and boost the patient experience with an adaptable and scalable self-service kiosk

Quest Diagnostics phlebotomists have a range of patient-facing duties that they need to perform quickly and accurately while providing safe and effective patient care. Phlebotomists are required to:

1. *Greet and check in patients
2. *Complete all data entry requirements accurately including data entry of patient registration
3. *Enter billing information and collect payments
4. Data entry and processing of specimens
5. Departmental-related clerical duties
6. *Verify patient demographic info
7. *Queue management
8. Draw quality blood samples from patients and prepare those specimens for lab testing

*Can be automated with self-service kiosk technology

The path to greater operational efficiency for Quest was externalizing many of these tasks to regain phlebotomists’ time by streamlining each patient interaction. “Anything we can do to make our phlebotomists’ jobs easier so they can focus on providing empathetic, thoughtful patient care is a huge driver for us,” said Rich Congersky, Director of HTAS Strategy & Digital Transformation for Quest Diagnostics.

Alongside this challenge is the equally important task of continuously improving the Quest patient experience. Improvements can come in several forms:

• Easier to use patient-facing technology
• Seamless verification of IDs and insurance cards
• Smaller lines and lower overall wait times
• Socially distant, “contactless,” or “touchless” options
• Pre-registration and “wait where you want” options for safety and convenience
• Serve patients who speak a language other than English
• Manage patient expectations around wait times for walk-in appointments

Further, these improvements needed to be ready for deployment across thousands of patient service centers, many of which contained an existing tablet solution and application. As a result, whichever technology provider Quest selected would also have to continuously evolve and improve.

Solution

Quest Diagnostics Streamlines Patient Check-in with Aila’s Interactive Kiosk

Quest Diagnostics selected Aila’s Interactive Kiosk as a rugged, adaptable self-service platform to create its next-generation patient check-in experience. Aila’s expertise in patient check-in for enterprise healthcare providers gave Quest the confidence that Aila could provide the technology and support to deploy a major new experience in its patient service centers. “Aila was a known solution that would work for us,” said Congersky, “this helped us avoid a lengthy product exploration process.” 

The Interactive Kiosk was able to save phlebotomists’ time by automating a range of customer experiences that previously required face-to-face interaction:

• ID and insurance card scanning
• Smartphone scanning for pre-registered patients
• Digital check-in and wait list queuing

The Interactive Kiosk also provided a platform that was adaptable for Quest’s evolving check-in experience. This includes, a way for patients to check in for someone else, such as a child or parent, schedule service times on-site, and give patients the option to wait in their vehicle after checking in where they’ll receive a text message when it’s their turn.

In combination with Aila’s Interactive Kiosk and floor stand, Quest further improved the check-in experience by developing a welcome center that also included wall-mounted Interactive Kiosks. This helps guide patients to the self-service center and provides a welcoming environment to check in. Having a range of mounting options to choose from further illustrates Aila’s ability to enable ideal solutions across thousands of locations with differing layouts.

Results 

Reclaiming countless hours of phlebotomists’ time across millions of patient interactions

After an initial pilot in 15 locations, Quest collected data and determined to expand across its 2,200+ patient service centers in three waves of deployment between now and 2023. 

“Aila helps us significantly save phlebotomists’ time for each patient interaction.”

– Rich Congersky, Director of HTAS Strategy & Digital Transformation, Quest Diagnostics

Results from Quest’s internal review showed that phlebotomists saved a significant amount of time per patient encounter with Aila’s Interactive Kiosk. Applying that across thousands of patient interactions per day saves countless hours for phlebotomists while reducing wait times for patients.

Aila’s patient check-in solution has also eliminated the need for paper forms, resulting in lower data entry errors and higher process rates, making it a win-win-win solution for patients, phlebotomists, and strategic lines of business. 

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Get the full case study to learn more about how Aila helped streamline and modernize the patient check-in experience at Quest Diagnostics: