Telehealth Kiosks – the Remote Access Patient Care Solution
If you are a healthcare provider, you know that many of your patients have to travel long distances to the hospital or clinic for consultation. Some of them might be living in remote locations where access to medical facilities is limited. And others are probably caught up with their busy work-related schedule. The travel time and the waiting period at the hospital premises, when added up, consumes the major chunk of your patient’s time.
And here comes the relevance of a Telehealth Kiosk. A self-service telehealth booth offers much convenience and peace of mind to the patients. And their features and benefits make them ideal for the underserved and remote locations. These machines also serve as remote consultation facilities for a wide range of institutions, organizations, and for the general public.
The telehealth booth facilitates virtual consultations with doctors, thereby avoiding physical patient visits to hospitals or clinics.
We’ll discuss about this advanced tech in pretty detail, in this blog. Kindly read on…
Features of a Telehealth Kiosk
- Interactive touchscreen - The patient can make use of the interactive touchscreen to input patient credentials.
- Video conferencing facility - The patient can easily communicate with the medical professional real time via video conferencing facility.
- Privacy-ensuring booth - The telemedicine kiosk offers privacy to the patients as it has a dedicated physical enclosure.
- Devices for diagnosis - The kiosk is equipped with advanced diagnostic devices to examine vital signs like body temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate, oxygen level, heart rate etc. The data, once recorded, is instantly transferred to the healthcare provider.
- Medical prescription issuance - The kiosk machine is equipped to issue the medical prescription prescribed by the doctor. The patient may print the prescription or receive the same via email.
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How to use a Telehealth Kiosk?
After fixing an online appointment with the doctor, the patient is allowed to access the booth. The booth resembles a small room with a comfortable patient chair, a video conferencing platform and other medical tools or devices for self-examination. The self-examination is conducted under the guidance of a registered doctor, who is stationed at a different location. The patient may communicate with the doctor and vice-versa through video conferencing.
After examining the vital signs and having a chat regarding the patients’ condition, the doctor offers the most-needed medical advice along with medical prescription.
The patient can access medical prescription either in print/email format, whichever convenient.
It is necessary to disinfect the booth after each consultation to ensure proper hygiene.
Benefits of a Telehealth Kiosk
The remote consultation kiosk offers several benefits both to the patients and the healthcare provider. And those benefits are furnished below.
Patient benefits
Patient convenience is one of the most obvious benefits of a telemedicine kiosk. And there are other benefits too.
- Cost effective medical consultation - patient can avail medical help at a less fees compared to the regular hospital visits. The doctor, on the other side, requires only an uninterrupted internet connection, and a device to communicate with the patient. The assistance of any additional staff or dedicated medical facility or resources is not needed for the doctor to conduct consultations.
- Absolute convenience - Traveling long distances to the healthcare provider can be a nightmare to the patients, particularly in peak hours. Peak hour consultations involve prolonged waiting time which adds to the inconvenience. The telehealth kiosk eliminates this travel and waiting time and hence saves patient’s time, energy and money.
- Patient privacy - the patient enjoys the privacy of the booth. The privacy puts the patient at ease and makes the patient-doctor communication smooth and lively.
- Perform follow-up visits - Similar to an in-person visit to a hospital or clinic, the patient can conduct follow-up visits, which facilitates consistent tracking of symptoms or conditions.
- On-demand care - Whenever a patient needs to seek medical advice, the person can do it right away, without any delays.
- Beneficial for patients in remote locations - People who are located at remote locations, or someone who has accessibility-related issues can take the full advantage of the Telehealth Kiosk.
Benefits to the healthcare provider
The healthcare providers can expand their services to a broader population with the help of a telehealth kiosk.
- Improved access to healthcare : Hospitals and healthcare providers may deploy a remote consultation kiosk at underserved areas with limited access to medical infrastructure. The operational space required for the booth is very less and can be deployed in the premises of other establishments like universities, hotels, transportation terminals etc.
- More consultation hours : Hospitals can deploy a telemedicine kiosk at the hospital premises for after-hours and weekend consultation. Patients would surely appreciate, if they could visit doctors in the evening or at night, apart from the normal OP hours.
- Deployment in diverse sectors : In fact, the kiosk machine can be deployed at almost any location where people come or stay in large numbers. Be it the hospitality sector like renowned hotels, shopping malls, or educational institutes like university campuses, workplaces, gated communities etc. All these sectors can effectively make use of the services of a telemedicine kiosk. You could deploy a dedicated booth at transportation terminals like bus depots, railway stations or even in the premises of a government organization.
- Mobility advantage : the kiosk booth can be easily relocated to different locations, if any need arises. The advantage of mobility is perfectly suitable for conducting medical camps at remote locations. The same mobility advantage can be used for conducting medical events or check-ups at select locations. Hospitals can leverage the mobility benefits in connection with promotional events too.
- Use-case flexibility : A telehealth kiosk is flexible in connection with various use-case applications. From general medicine consultation to psychological or counselling support, the kiosk can effectively handle these tasks.
- Branding benefits : By deploying telemedicine kiosks at the most needful locations, hospitals can leverage these consultation booths for the purpose of branding. If deployed at busy locales or high footfall areas, the kiosk gets much public attention.
- Remote monitoring facility : An IT admin can remotely monitor the performance of the kiosk machine from a different location. The IT personnel can fix bugs, deploy updates and gather crucial data related to kiosk usage etc.
- Scalable solution : Telehealth kiosks are scalable solutions and can be deployed at multiple locations with ease. Therefore, the kiosk supports the future expansion plans of the healthcare provider.
- Reduced burden on healthcare providers : Patients not suffering from acute conditions or any other medical emergencies need not visit the hospital premises. Evidently, this reduces the burden on the healthcare providers.
Drawbacks of a Telehealth Kiosk
Even if the booth offers several benefits, it has got certain drawbacks too.
- A remote consultation booth is not advisable for severe health issues or emergency conditions.
- Needs human intervention to disinfect the booth after every consultation.
- The medical diagnostic devices or tools equipped in the kiosk booth do not offer comprehensive, foolproof results. The symptoms of the patient might require further investigation, like a detailed physical examination, lab tests etc.
- Human intervention needed for patient check-in and management.
- Needs uninterrupted internet connectivity. Any interruptions can cause issues in data transmission, and results in delays.
- Some patients might be dissatisfied with remote examination and reduced human interaction.
- Remote examination may not bring the intended results for aged patients.
- People with certain disabilities might experience difficulties during remote examination.
Robot-assisted Telehealth Kiosk
With a bit of effort and technology integration, the healthcare providers can overcome many of the drawbacks that are mentioned above. And one among them is robotic integration.
Integrating robotic technology into Telehealth kiosk solution can significantly improve diagnostic capabilities and the overall patient experience.
- 1. Robots for physical examination : A doctor can remotely supervise a robot to perform various physical examinations on the patient. Sophisticated sensors and diagnostic devices can accomplish complex procedures and examinations on the patients improving accuracy of the test results. With clear instructions, robotic arms can display remarkable accuracy and efficiency in performing certain routine tasks like getting blood samples, assessing blood pressure, etc.
- 2. Robot-managed sanitization : Robots can effectively manage the sanitization tasks of the booth, which is otherwise performed by a human agent.
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3. Robot-assisted patient check-in and management : Robots can welcome patients to the telemedicine kiosk and offer them necessary instruction and guidance regarding remote consultation.
- a) Human-like interactions - Robots systems can be programmed to bring in human-like interactions and behavior patterns so that the patients can feel at ease. By establishing an eye contact with patients, adopting natural speech delivery, maintaining a friendly tone, robots can make the interactions more engaging and appealing to the patients.
- b) Personalised care – When patients conduct follow-up visits, robots can gather the number of repeat visits and initiate personalized interactions with those patients. Patients appreciate personalized care and attention, which helps build trust and motivates them to visit the booth.
- c) 24/7, robot-assisted medical care – And of course, robots can manage the consultation booth 24/7. As you all know, robots don’t care about work fatigues and breaks and they offer uninterrupted and consistent patent care.
AI to enhance telehealth Kiosk experiences
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another vital technology that has the potential to offer enhanced diagnostic support and improved patient care.
- 1. Patient-tailored health guidance : AI systems can probe into various data regarding patient’s medical history, existing conditions, occupation, and lifestyle, offering patient-tailored health guidance and support.
- 2. AI-powered robots : AI-powered robots can initiate personalised interactions with the patients based on their priorities, personality, medical condition, language preferences etc.
- 3. Improved diagnosis and treatment support : Based on the identified symptoms of the patient, AI can offer predictive insights into the diagnosis. The predictive insights help medical professionals take well-informed decisions.
To wrap things up
Telehealth Kiosk is a worthy investment for healthcare providers and hospital chains to expand their reach and services to a larger population. And of course, these kiosk machines are of great significance to underserved and remote locations. Lack of digital literacy can affect people’s decision to visit such remote consultation booths. A bit of skepticism can also come into play here.
Therefore, in the initial stage, the healthcare providers may have to take necessary steps to educate the masses on the capabilities and benefits of these kiosk machines.
A couple of visits to the booth and familiarization with remote consultation instill confidence in patients.
Moreover, the hospitals can make use of the services of experienced and specialized medical professionals for the purpose of remote consultation. The 24/7, world-wide service facility can connect patients and medical professionals across continents.
The remote consultation booth, coupled with robotics and AI technology, can transform the conventional approach of in-person visits to hospitals and clinics.
Let’s wait!
