Kiosk Solutions Feb-Mar 2017 | Page 13

healthcare kiosks
Throughout medical history , physicians have followed the ethical guidelines of the Hippocratic oath , which includes the solemn promise to keep patient information strictly confidential . This commitment to privacy has become tougher as healthcare providers have begun to modernise through digitisation , and healthcare kiosks can play a key role in helping IT departments keep sensitive information secure .
New laws are a catalyst to digitise The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA ) is a series of federal regulations that in recent years has , among other things , pushed healthcare providers to digitise medical records to make them more portable , confidential and secure . As healthcare providers convert to electronic medical files , they also are digitising and modernising other tools in their workflow , such as patient forms , insurance claims and payment transactions .
As a result , many healthcare administrators are implementing digital healthcare kiosks to handle sensitive data , cut expenses and improve patient care . More and more , patients arriving at a hospital or clinic can use healthcare kiosks to register , check-in and make co-payments , which can help reduce wait times and improve patient satisfaction . One hospital that employed self-service kiosks lowered check-in time for firsttime patients by 25 % and for returning patients by 75 %.
Furthermore , physicians can use digital kiosks to pull up electronic medical records and view a patient ’ s entire medical history , which can help maximise valuable face-to-face time . Easy access to medical records through
" Studies show that one out of every five hospital radiology tests are duplicates , which costs providers approximately $ 20 billion a year . Additionally ,
63 % of outpatient chart pulls were duplicate reports , an inefficiency that could be reduced dramatically through the use of
digital kiosks also can help doctors view a patient ’ s medical history in a digital format , which can be filtered by date , ailments , types of test , and more , which reduces the administrative time spent digging through old records .
Studies show that one out of every five hospital radiology tests are duplicates , which costs providers approximately $ 20 billion a year . Additionally , 63 % of outpatient chart pulls were duplicate reports , an inefficiency that could be reduced dramatically through the use of healthcare kiosks .
Relieve stress in IT teams While recent trends and federal mandates to digitise have left many providers scrambling to make sure that their modernisation solutions are secure , innovative kiosk manufacturers have aimed to make IT department managers ’ lives easier by building self-service machines with threat protection as a given .
Such defence is critical not only to safeguard health data for the healthcare kiosks "
patient ’ s sake , but also because healthcare providers expecting lower costs through digitalisation can still lose big by unwittingly exposing medical information . Because of patient protection legislation , medical identity theft can subject providers to substantial financial penalties ; one study estimates that nearly two million Americans have been victims of medical identity theft , and under federal law , each incident – one not due to negligence – can cost providers up to $ 50,000 . To help prevent security breaches , many cutting edge healthcare kiosks feature biometric devices for authenticating patient logins and data access , as well as state-of-the-art card readers and signature pads for secure e-payments .
Automatic session time outs after inactivity also prevent identity theft and promote privacy . Furthermore , IT departments can configure kiosks to make the insertion of thumb drives and SD cards impossible – eliminating access points for computer viruses and malware . n
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