What are the advantages of mobile check-in compared to a traditional self-service kiosk? While kiosks remain a staple of self-service, mobile solutions bring unprecedented flexibility: they remove the need to sit in waiting rooms, improve hygiene, and optimize space utilization without additional hardware investments. In this blog, we compare Axel Encounter's mobile check-in with traditional kiosks and explore how browser-based, app-free technology meets modern service and safety requirements.
In many healthcare organizations, self check-in to appointments has become a daily routine. Self check-in has clear advantages – it saves healthcare resources from being tied to support-related tasks. Instead, healthcare personnel can focus on more meaningful work. Patient experience improves significantly when the traditional queuing at the front desk is replaced with self check-in and medical questionnaires can be filled out independently. Self check-in has also reduced queues that are caused by Monday morning peaks, a typical phenomenon in healthcare, when the patient flow is much higher than the weekly average flow. Typically, self check-in is implemented in healthcare organizations with different self-service kiosks. However, the world is changing, an,d self-service models are developing towards more mobile solutions. What kind of benefits does the mobile check-in have compared to a traditional self-service kiosk?
1. Remote waiting eliminates crowding in waiting areas
The impacts and restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are still fresh in our minds. Thanks to mobile check-in, patients no longer have to wait in the same lobby, which decreases the risk of catching infectious diseases. Patients receive information on their waiting time and a call-in notification on their mobile device, which means that they can wait for their turn wherever they like and keep a safe distance from other patients.
2. Cost-efficiency and improved space utilization
Self-service kiosks will stand their ground, but in healthcare organizations, the use of mobile self check-in streamlines the utilization of rooms even more. Mobile check-in reduces the need for kiosks without requiring additional staff. Mobile solutions are also a more reliable option, as self-service kiosks consist of many various hardware and software components, which may occasionally suffer from disruptions.
3. Contactless check-in enhances patient safety and hygiene
Hygiene standards and infection control have permanently changed how we perceive the check-in process. Shared kiosks can, in certain situations, act as points of exposure. By using their own device instead of a public terminal, patients minimize contact with high-touch surfaces. Hospitals and healthcare units can significantly boost patient safety by offering a mobile check-in solution as an alternative to physical kiosks.
4. Browser-based interface: no need for separate apps
Mobile apps are great when you use a certain service frequently. A random citizen doesn’t use healthcare services very often, and even frequent users don’t want to install an app that is only used for checking in or some other simple action. The mobile check-in web application is part of Axel Encounter, and it works on all modern smartphones without any extra apps or plugins.
5. Modern experience meets evolving patient expectations
The world becomes mobile a lot quicker than we think. In the future, our basic assumption is that any service must be accessible with a phone. Our mobile self-service solution provides healthcare organizations with a quick way to change their operations so that they respond better to the needs of a modern consumer.
6. Smooth and timely patient call ins
The kiosk solutions of Axel Encounter ensure that patients are always in the right place at the right time. The healthcare personnel know exactly when the patient can be called in. This increases the utilization rate, that is, the number of patients, since waiting times will be shorter and there will be less idle time.
We have included the familiar features from our kiosk solution in our mobile self check-in solution. The current service level is not compromised, although the self check-in is done partly on patients’ devices.
Mobile services have been an integral part of our daily lives since the turn of the century. They are used more and more everywhere in the world and in every industry. The mobile features of the Axel system can help healthcare organizations bring self check-in solutions to their patients’ smartphones – from check-in to payments and guidance. At the same time, healthcare organizations will be able to meet the service level requirements of today’s patients.
