How streamlining patient check-in system can improve efficiency

As a care provider, the patient check-in process is one of your first opportunities to deliver an outstanding patient experience. Proper management of patients, appointments, and doctor availability can help streamline this critical interaction. When done poorly, the result is a bottlenecked patient check-in system, delayed appointments, and crowded waiting rooms – to the detriment of the patient experience. 

What are the challenges in the existing patient check-in system?

The patient check-in system is a vital touchpoint and an opportunity to make a good first impression. Care providers face many challenges in the existing patient check-in system, which can be addressed through hyperautomation.

1. Front office efficiency – Front office staff have many responsibilities including supply provisioning, new patient registration, managing patient queues, and responding to inquiries. Many of these processes can be automated to save time. For example, routine and after office hours inquiries can be handled by a healthcare chatbot powered by hyperautomation technology, which combines artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) to automate repetitive tasks and improve efficiency.
2. Smooth patient flow – Maintaining a smooth patient flow is an important challenge. As appointments are stacked one after the other, any delay in one appointment can cause a cascading effect on all the rest. Hyperautomation can help address this challenge by automating processes such as patient check-in and notification systems. By implementing intelligent workflows and utilizing virtual assistants powered by AI, the patient flow can be managed more efficiently, reducing delays and minimizing disruptions.
3. Patient communication – Transparent and timely communication between hospital staff and patients is significant in every step of patient care. Hyperautomation can enhance patient communication by automating reminders and notifications. For example, automated appointment reminders can be sent to patients via SMS or email, reducing the risk of no-shows. Furthermore, hyperautomation can enable seamless access to patient records, ensuring that doctors have access to necessary reports and information from previous appointments, improving overall patient care.

Current patient check-in processes have a lot of room for error and inefficiency. Hyperautomation, with its capabilities to automate repetitive tasks, improve workflows, and enhance communication, can revolutionize the patient check-in system. By implementing an automated patient check-in system with intelligent workflows and virtual assistants powered by AI and NLP, the patient journey can be eased, resulting in benefits for both patients and care providers.

Let’s examine an ideal patient check-in process

Flexible appointment scheduling:

A smooth appointment scheduling process is the first step to streamlining the patient check-in process. Patients should be offered multiple channels of communication. Hyperautomation can play a crucial role in automating the appointment scheduling process across various channels.

1. Online: The patient interacts with an online calendar, negotiates their preferred date/time, and books the appointment. Hyperautomation technologies can automate the appointment booking process, allowing patients to easily schedule appointments online.
2. Email: Some patients use email to request an appointment. This is normally followed by a callback to nail down appointment details. Virtual assistants powered by hyperautomation can automate the process of extracting the patient’s request and scheduling a callback, providing a seamless experience for the patients.
3. Phone: Although there are online options available, some patients still prefer calling to get information or schedule an appointment. Automated agents powered by hyperautomation can service these requests with technology that can handle voice interaction, improving the efficiency of the phone-based appointment scheduling process.
4. In-hospital kiosks: Patient self-check-in kiosks enable patients to schedule appointments via interactive touch screen systems and self-service, powered by virtual assistants leveraging hyperautomation technology.

Checking for prerequisites:

•Hyperautomation can streamline the process of checking prerequisites by automating tasks such as insurance eligibility checks. By integrating with relevant systems and databases, hyperautomation can quickly verify insurance information, reducing the administrative burden on staff.

•Automated appointment reminders can also be implemented through hyperautomation to minimize no-shows. By leveraging AI-powered algorithms, appointment reminders can be sent to patients via their preferred communication channels, improving patient attendance rates.

Transparent check-in policies:

Well-documented instructions ensure a happier patient experience. Hyperautomation can assist in documenting and communicating check-in policies effectively. By automating the distribution of check-in policies, patients can be informed of important information such as treatment of late arrivals, appointment cancellation or postponement procedures, and logistics (e.g., parking).

Centralized management:

Hyperautomation enables centralized management by utilizing the same system of record for staff and patients. This simplifies tasks and ensures that everyone is on the same page. Real-time updates can be made to communicate information such as patient status (waiting, consultation in progress, completed) or room status (availability, access), improving overall coordination and efficiency.

Reduced burden on caregivers:

Caregivers have to deal with a continuous stream of inquiries. Clear guidelines for appointment duration, doctor availability, and working hours should be set beforehand so that their tasks can be completed efficiently. Hyperautomation can assist in optimizing scheduling to minimize caregiver burden. By utilizing data and algorithms, hyperautomation can recommend optimal appointment durations, assign doctors based on availability, and provide adequate breaks between appointments, resulting in improved efficiency for caregivers.

Minimize patient wait time:

Hyperautomation can help minimize patient wait time by leveraging data and algorithms to anticipate a patient’s appointment time based on their condition. By reducing overbooking while accounting for no-shows and allowing for emergency appointments based on known patterns, the patient flow can be optimized, resulting in reduced wait times and improved patient satisfaction.

An improved patient check-in process, empowered by hyperautomation, is beneficial to both patients and care providers. By automating tasks, improving workflows, and enhancing communication, hyperautomation can revolutionize the patient check-in system, delivering a smoother and more efficient experience for all stakeholders.

patient check-in system

Summary

We have suggested various approaches to streamline the patient check-in process and related activities, incorporating the concept of hyperautomation. As a care provider, these approaches, enabled by hyperautomation technology, will help you increase patient comfort and convenience when they need it most. By leveraging the power of hyperautomation, coupled with analytics and learning, you can transform the patient journey and enhance the staff experience, ultimately making lives better and healthier. Talk to us at Autonom8 to learn how to rapidly digitize and enrich the patient journey with hyperautomation.