Parkland Hospital Deploys Galvanon’s MediKiosk™ in the ER to Decrease Patient Wait Times

MAITLAND, Fla. – Parkland Health & Hospital System, based in Dallas, recently launched self-service check-in kiosks in the emergency room to speed the delivery of care and streamline registration processes. The technology, called MediKiosk, is provided by Galvanon, a subsidiary of NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR).

“My hope with this system is that we can provide a more comfortable check-in process,” said Jennifer Sharpe, director, emergency services, at Parkland Hospital. “It also allows us to better manage those who are waiting, by selecting patients based on medical criteria, not waiting time.”

According to a June 2007 report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of patient visits to emergency rooms increased to an all-time high of 115 million in 2005. The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey shows an increase of 5.1 million emergency room visits in 2005. This represents an average of 219 visits to U.S. emergency rooms every minute.

Three self-service check-in stations in the Parkland emergency room triage area offer patients the option of interacting in either English or Spanish. Instead of waiting in line to explain their symptoms, patients can identify themselves at one of the kiosks by entering their name, along with an additional identifier, such as a birth date. Patients then use the kiosk’s touch screen to identify their symptoms by pointing to areas on a body diagram where they feel pain and answering brief questions about the nature of their visit.

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