Research - Healthcare kiosks for patient check-in 101

The healthcare kiosk market is estimated to be over $800M by the year 2013. One of the reasons is that the inefficiencies of the old model cannot be sustained anymore (ie paper in triplicate).

What are the Benefits of the new systems?

Benefits

·         24 x 7 Access for Patients to pay via credit card or electronic check

·         Simplified view of patient statements

·         Ability to pay multiple accounts with one transaction

·         Automatic payment reconciliation with billing system

·         Ability to offer payment plans and recurring payments

·         Insurance payment and adjustment information

·         Works with multiple billing systems where necessary

·         Secure communication with financial staff

·         Email notification of new bills and billing updates

·         Utilize your existing merchant services

·         Robust FAQ and glossary to reduce business office call volume

·         Branded to your organization

·         Standard and configurable reports 

-       Transaction results showing 76% of all transactions are successfully completed at kiosks, and this percentage is steadily increasing.

-       Savings - The VA has concluded that they save 1.5 FTEs per kiosk overall

-       Data improvement - Allowing patients to correct demographic data has had impressive results in improving the information accuracy of patient records.  As a side benefit, the VA reduced returned mailings (due to inaccurate addresses) by 8000 pieces in a single region.  This resulted in a savings of $150,000 per year

-       Acceptance - Initial acceptance of a new kiosk implementation is very high.  54% preferred to use the kiosk (this moves to a higher level quickly ... see 76% above).

-       Demographics - The average age of a kiosk user in the VA is 62.  To achieve this average, many thousands of patients well over age 62 use the kiosk.

-       Increased compliance with data accuracy goals and positive identification standards

-       Increased compliance with pre-registration, JCAHO, positive identification mandates

-       Source: The Pittsburgh VA Medical Center

Here is nice table comparing different systems and graded:

 

 

Overall Functionality Rating	eCW	McKesson	Medfusion	IBM	NCR	Seepoint	Vecna Technologies, Inc.
Patient Kiosk	58%	69%	77%	53%	91%	82%	72%
Patient Portal	90%	79%	95%	58%	100%	29%	100%
Provider / Referring MD Portal	0%	0%	16%	47%	53%	0%	100%
Pharmacy Portal	100%	100%	100%	50%	100%	0%	100%
Language	56%	31%	56%	100%	81%	100%	100%
Total	68%	64%	78%	62%	91%	55%	90%