Tallaght Hospital is to roll out touchscreen self-service kiosks to manage the throughput of patients at its outpatient department, which is the largest in the State.
The hospital announced a tender for supply, installation, commissioning and support of eight self-service touchscreen kiosks, days after it emerged that the hospital uses MP4 players to play music and TV shows for children awaiting scans.
Adelaide & Meath Hospital incorporating The National Children’s Hospital (AMNCH), to give its full name, plans to set up wall-mounted self-service kiosks at various locations near its various outpatient suites throughout the site and at least one will be wheelchair accessible.
Instead of presenting at reception as they do currently, the idea is for patients to use the touchscreen systems to announce their arrival for an appointment, as well as checking their own demographic information is correct. Tallaght Hospital receives an estimated 220,000 patient visits per year and the hospital says its outpatients department is the largest in the State.
Patients will have the option either to amend the demographics on the system or alternatively they can advise the system of specific corrections that need to be made. The tender calls for the user interface to provide options for at least 10 languages.
Other specifications laid out in the tender proposal state that the screens need to be at least 17 inches, fitted with a barcode scanner and ticket printer, and the device must be location sensitive.
The proposed system will need to identify the arrival of the patient using a barcode reader or designated personal data, and then issue an appropriate ticket depending on the intelligence of the system – such as whether the patient has an appointment or not, whether they have a chart or have updated their demographic information. The system will have the ability to direct the patient accordingly.
