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Many institutions have restarted regular healthcare processes, including polyclinic appointments and blood tests after the lock-down. The implementation of a controlled inflow and the management of a safe waiting and living environment for the patient is of critical importance. To be able to guarantee this in the short term, Logis.P has developed an application for just-in-time waiting room policy under the name SMART Welcome. The implementation of SMART Welcome enables hospitals to plan polyclinic appointments in a controlled way and to offer patients the most comfortable and safe waiting environments possible during their hospital visit.
Just-in-time waiting room policy
The basic premise of intelligent queue management is that patients/visitors coming to the polyclinic for scheduled appointments will hardly make use of the waiting room. The solution offers hospitals and other healthcare providers the option of guiding patients through their appointments on a just-in-time basis. It also offers the opportunity to regulate processes that were previously ‘open consultations’, such as blood tests, to be conducted by appointment only.
SMS Call
The SMART Welcome solution includes the functionality to send SMS calls. The patients are expected to wait outside the hospital until they are called in for their appointment by means of an SMS sent directly to them by the therapist. The patient is thereby only allowed to enter the hospital following receipt of the SMS call. This procedure is designed to prevent too many people from gathering in the hospital waiting rooms. It is also possible to set up alternative waiting areas that offer ample space for distance-keeping, such as tents and large spaces, for those visitors who do not travel by car. Because the reception and check-in processes differ between hospitals, the solution can also be integrated differently in the processes.
By scheduled appointment
When scheduling an appointment, patients are asked to give a mobile telephone number to contact them during their visit to the hospital. The appointment information requests that visitors should wait outside the hospital, preferably in their own cars in the parking area or in the garage, until they are called in by SMS.
By scanning a barcode
It is also possible to check the patient in once they arrive at the hospital premises. This can be done by scanning a barcode in the appointment letter or the patient card at a kiosk or on a tablet supplied with a barcode scanner at the garage or waiting room. The doctor/therapist then knows when the patient is near the hospital and can simply send an SMS call when it’s the patient’s turn.
The diagram, below, represents a schematic and simplified version of the process:
Proof of admission
Where necessary, the SMS call could also serve as ‘proof of admission’, whereby a tablet or kiosk with a barcode scanner could be used at the entrance, or a hostess or security guard could check whether the patient has already been called to check in at the waiting room or at a central (digital) check-in point. As soon as the first patient in line is called in, an SMS message is also automatically sent to the next in line (or the subsequent patient, depending on the time it takes to move from the parking garage to the waiting room in the polyclinic).
Hospital Information System
The SMART Welcome solution offers various options for generating SMS calls. They could be integrated into an existing call functionality that is linked to the Hospital Information System or the therapist’s own agenda. If this functionality has not been implemented yet, the basic version of the Logis.P Queue Management System is used.
Demonstration
Logis.P has held various webinars to demonstrate and explain the SMART Welcome application. If you are interested in this application, please do not hesitate to watch the webinar via this link..
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