Care Card Technology Improves Health System's Patient Flow and Waiting Time

Since the Care Card and kiosks were introduced in 2006, HVHS reduced the average wait time to 25 minutes.

"The kiosk check-in averages less than two minutes, and many patients can proceed directly to their place of service as soon as they are finished. The activity monitor that supports the kiosk further improves the process by providing the clinical staff with a real-time view of all patients that are waiting for services and who is next in the queue," says Swaskoski.

The wait time does not include lab test result times, but HVHS is in the process of developing integration between systems so that test results can be directly delivered and available to the patient online, Swaskoski explains.

In addition to cutting down wait time, the Care Card and kiosks have also given staff members more time to focus on patients instead of registration and saved HVHS an average of $1,400 per day, simply by eliminating paperwork and reducing labor costs.

The process also provides a better, more accurate way to gather information and improve the quality of data. HVHS has placed 40 kiosks at six outpatient locations, with plans to expand into the EDs of its two facilities?Heritage Valley Beaver and Heritage Valley Sewickley?as well as physician offices and other outpatient satellite locations, says Swaskoski.

Patients were accepting of the new process because many of them were familiar with the idea of self-service solutions and using kiosks, he says.

Additionally, having fully trained and knowledgeable staff members to help with this new system increased patient acceptance.

"The success of our self-service initiatives and the benefits for both our patients and staff is the result of much more that just the installation of kiosks," says Swaskoski. "Having a clearly defined mission and being encouraged by the board and senior management to make changes, take chances, and learn from our mistakes is absolutely essential to creating solutions, which will improve the delivery of healthcare."