Improve Hospital Safety with Reduced Contact Patient Check-In

COVID-19 has been reported to spread through interpersonal contact, respiratory droplets and infected surfaces. As such, hospitals and other medical practices have to look for ways to make sure that their patients and staff are protected.

It’s vital that hospital systems exploit any solutions that reduce physical contact between health workers and patients, or patients among themselves. This is one of the directives given by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has also offered several recommendations on how to achieve this.

Here are some recommendations on how you can improve hospital safety by reduced contact patient check-in options.

How Virtual Check-In Solutions Can Reduce Interpersonal Contact

You can reduce the amount of person-to-person contact between patients and workers during appointments using electronic check-in solutions. Below are some ways technology can help:

• Virtual check-in solutions offer personalized check-in, where a patient is able to feed important information into a system without interacting with front-office workers. This ensures that your staff is protected from coming into contact with patients who may be contagious, especially those that may be asymptomatic.
• Digital check-in eliminates the need for queuing at the front desk. By using digital check-in options, your hospital can reduce the likelihood of lines forming. On average, checking in using Clearwave’s digital check-in solutions only takes about three minutes per patient. This minimizes contact between patients and keeps them safe from exposure to the coronavirus.

By providing a safe environment, patients will also be more comfortable at your hospital. People have grown more aware of the social distancing requirements that are necessary to protect themselves and others.

Patients Are Safer With Mobile Pre-Check’s Screening Module

The CDC is currently encouraging the use of telehealth to eliminate interpersonal contact in medical facilities. They have also recommended the screening of patients for any COVID-19-related symptoms before they’re allowed to access a health facility.

For hospitals and medical practices already using Clearwave, this is easier than ever to achieve with our new screening module. This screening module feature is now part of our Mobile Pre-Check software.

Before COVID-19, Mobile Pre-Check™ allowed patients to pre-check in for appointments wherever they were. It was designed to reduce patient wait times, allowing patients to see their doctors much more quickly.

But with the COVID-19 pandemic, new protections needed to be put into place to keep both patients and staff safe. With the new Screening Module, patients fill out a questionnaire that gives insight into their COVID-19 vulnerability. Some of the questions provide information on:

• Recent travel details, which reveal whether they have been to an area with a high infection rate.
• Any possible coronavirus symptoms they could be exhibiting.

These and more details allow your staff to take precautionary measures if they believe the patient could be contagious. Staff can use protective equipment and ensure that the patient does not come into contact with others.

Check-in Solutions for Increased Safety

If your hospital is unable to introduce telehealth to improve safety, minimizing physical contact will go a long way in preventing transmission of the coronavirus. Clearwave check-in solutions are easy to use and protect both patients and staff.

Our COVID-19 Screening Module is a standard feature of Mobile Pre-Check and comes at no added cost. This makes it an inexpensive way of improving the efficiency of personalized virtual check-in.

Have questions about how Clearwave can help your hospital with telehealth check-in solutions? Schedule a thirty-minute demo with us to learn more!