Are you a healthcare professional looking to streamline your workflow and save time? Here’s why a visitor management system for healthcare institutions is ideal.
Anyone in the care industry – from care home and hospice managers to hospital management staff and doctor’s surgery receptionists and administrators – has a vested interested in operating in an efficient manner as possible. This does not just come down to clinical operations in the healthcare industry, but the way in which patients are managed, too.
A key part of the way members of the public are processed by healthcare institutions is when they arrive. After all, it is essential for clinicians to know who has arrived, who is running later and, perhaps, who will not be coming for their appointment. This is where a visitor management system for healthcare institutions of all kinds can boost efficiency, not just at reception but throughout the entire organisation.
Identifying the issues that a visitor management system for healthcare establishments can solve
As recently as 2018, the National Health Service in England revealed that missed appointments accounted for financial losses that amounted to £1 billion. NHS Digital said that around 8 million missed hospital outpatient appointments occurred throughout the reporting year of 2016-17. The important thing to note from all this is that although missed appointments will always occur in even the most efficiently run clinics, it is the ability to adapt to changing conditions that marks one healthcare organisation out from another.
Considering a hospice visitor check-in solution? Here’s what you need to look for to find the best system https://t.co/GafDMeE6Em #Hospice #VisitorManagement pic.twitter.com/lQexT5Hrqa
— VisiPoint (@VisiPoint) May 31, 2018
In other words, if you have a no-show for an outpatient appointment, then clinical time is not wasted if the next patient can be called in for their consultation immediately. Diaries and schedules should be able to be rearranged on the fly by administrative staff to maximise good healthcare outcomes for patients. What is needed to achieve this is reliable and up-to-date information. This is the area where a visitor management system for healthcare makes a real difference.
What does a visitor management system for healthcare professionals offer?
Technology has taken over in so many areas of clinical life – indeed, it has led the way in many cases – but doctor’s and outpatient’s reception services often seem to be stuck in the middle of the twentieth century with unreliable paper-based systems. Referral letters from GPs to specialists and vice versa are what patients use to ensure they turn up at the right hospital or surgery at the right time. Healthcare professionals never know what their workload on a given day is going to really be like until their patients actually turn up for their consultations. What’s more, some patients wander off rather than remaining in the waiting room and others arrive at the wrong desk, unsure of where they ought to be.
Imagine if they airline industry ran like that? Yes, face-to-face check-in is still provided by major airlines at the terminal building but most passengers think nothing of using digital technology to check-in and to register their progress as they move through security towards the departure gate nowadays. Similar digital technology that accounts for patients’ arrivals at clinics as well as their whereabouts while they wait to be seen could be of huge benefit to any clinic that is not functioning efficiently.
Remember that a visitor management system for healthcare institutions is not merely to make life easier for administrative and reception staff – although it certainly does that – but it improves the flow of patients into the consulting room making for a more efficient clinical process.
With a digitised system, patients can sign in by themselves to note their arrival or scan their consultation letter as they progress throughout a large building, such as a hospital, so it is known where they are and if they need assistance.
The hardware for such systems is reliable and proven to work in healthcare institutions with card readers and badge scanners which don’t need to be handled manually. What’s more, real-time information and reporting functions are available for managers to assess so they can keep an eye on which clinics are running well and which might require additional resources. This can be done locally or over a remote internet connection, as preferred.
Want to know more about the latest advances in healthcare visitor management systems? Get in touch with a member of our expert team for a free consultation