Intelligence Unit
Special Reports
Special Events
Subscribe
Sponsored
Departments
- Leadership
- Finance
- Technology
- Physicians
- Community Hospitals
- Health Plans
- Marketing
- Quality
- Nursing
- HR
Follow Us
Patient Check-In Technologies Cut Cost, Wait Times
Kiosks and automated check-in processes are making their way from the airport lobby to the doctor's office.
Eighty-nine percent of physicians polled in the 2011 HealthLeaders Industry Survey say they have or will have electronic health records in place within two years, what many consider the first step in streamlining the check-in process.
Check-in technology solutions can allow:
- Patients to update personal medical information
- Patients to find out their copays
- Physician practices to streamline billing and claims processes by automatically verifying insurance eligibility and benefits.
Vanguard Urologic Institute in Houston, TX, is one such practice taking on the challenge of automating patient check-in. The four-member specialty practice places a high value on embracing new ideas and technologies that can benefit its patients.
Since it's opening in 2008, Vanguard has utilized NCR MediKiosk, a self-service patient check-in kiosk that integrates with existing practice management software, collects outstanding balances, captures consent signatures/HIPAA forms, and enables patients to enter personal health information.
- $6.4B Henry Ford, Beaumont Merger Failed on Cultural Hurdles
- How Chargemaster Data May Affect Hospital Revenue
- Primary Care Docs Average More Hospital Revenue Than Specialists
- House Lawmakers Grill CMS Over Health Exchange Navigators
- Fortunately, Angelina Jolie Isn't On Medicare
- ED Physicians Key to Half of Hospital Admissions
- Don't Let Nurses Sink Your Bottom Line
- Insurer's App Aims to Lower Healthcare Costs, Securely
- 69% of Employers Plan to Offer Healthcare Coverage After 2014
- Uncompensated Care Faces a Double Hit in Some States
Comments are moderated. Please be patient.
Patrick Pichette (2/28/2011 at 1:41 PM)
Great post Anna! I am glad that you highlighted the fact that patient self-service technologies can create measurable efficiencies for hospitals, as is evident with the Vanguard story. We have a similar success story in Canada. Southlake, a hospital near Toronto, was able to redistribute 12 FTEs from their registration area to other sections of the hospital, and saved $400K in annual operations costs with a process redesign and by using patient online registration and check-in kiosk. Case study can be found here: http://bit.ly/egwb9b