< PreviousA new normal of patient care 20 KIOSK solutions As countries and states reopen, businesses are preparing for what a safe and healthy return to normal might look like. But even before COVID-19, hospitals and healthcare systems were already facing a new normal associated with patient care: the broader trend and consumer expectation of self-service platforms.Self-service is key in our dawning “experience economy,” where events that engage customers in a memorable way become as important – or more important – than the goods or service being purchased. Across industries like retail and hospitality, it’s less about creating a great product or service and more about delivering on a promised experience. There is a growing focus on the continuous lifecycle of the customer journey, and we see this with companies like Apple and Toms. With healthcare, the ideas of purpose, emotion and impact run deep. Providers work hard daily to generate positive outcomes for patients, and self- service technology presents a unique opportunity for delivering on that experience. And in the COVID-19 environment, that includes minimising the spread of the pandemic we currently face. Immediate-use cases in fighting COVID-19 Health organisations are looking to implement technology that supports continued operations A new normal of patient care By Jeff Fountaine Director of healthcare solutions Elo KIOSK solutions 21 patient carewhile keeping patient populations separate. This is especially important when considering the potential threat of a second wave of the coronavirus. With so much unknown, hospitals and healthcare systems worldwide are considering how best to triage patients seeking healthcare services not related to COVID-19, isolating infectious patients from non-infectious as coronavirus cases continue to fluctuate. The first step is automating the triage process. For example, hospitals can free up staff for more critical functions by implementing self-service triage technology. It also keeps those staff members responsible for triaging infectious patients safe and efficient in their procedures. Downstream, the benefit of self- service automation is an improved experience, higher throughput, less patient care 22 KIOSK solutionsreliance on person-to-person interaction, and lower administrative costs. This allows personnel to focus on high- value tasks that will improve hospital operations and the customer experience. Additionally, hospitals and other healthcare facilities can leverage self- service technology for registration, patient identification, consent, payment and other workflows not requiring a face- to-face interaction. By limiting human contact, healthcare organisations can keep patients and workers as safe as possible. Learning from other industries The healthcare industry can look to the retail, hospitality and travel industries for real-world examples of the power of self-service. Everywhere you look, consumers are using self-service kiosks for everyday uses, such as self-checkout and price checkers at grocery stores, wayfinding devices in hotel lobbies, and check- in terminals at airline counters. When implementing a self-service solution, it’s important to focus on the details from the onset. The only way to deploy self-service is to achieve high customer adoption. Therefore, organisations must ensure software systems perform correctly and are tested thoroughly to avoid any failures that result in frustrated patients. To achieve this, healthcare facilities must ensure the kiosks are installed in a convenient location, placed on the same path patients are used to using in the traditional registration processes. The placement should be intuitive, and each kiosk should be at least six feet apart to encourage social distancing. Organisations can also consider kiosk ambassadors who will encourage, help and train patients to interact with the self-service platforms when these stations are first implemented. The feedback loop of patient engagement With all this in mind, how can organisations ensure their self-service strategy serves and delights patients? The feedback loop below is key to engaging and helping patients with a great experience: “Know me” – Providers should strive to understand the way patients prefer to be communicated with, their demographic information and financial data. If a provider can utilise a single and unified view of the patient, they’re better able to establish trust, thus driving better clinical outcomes. “Empower me” – Patients want more control over their experience – how they schedule appointments, engage with medical staff, check account balances or test results – which organisations can grant at all points in the process. Providers can modernise the patient care journey with an eye toward the intended, ideal experience. “Delight me” – While the most pressing healthcare goals are presently to mitigate the spread of the virus, healthcare systems must in due time embrace a posture that presents convenience with a dose of hospitality. They must make patients’ lives easier and unify the experience across kiosks and other touchpoints, such as mobile or online. Regardless of the healthcare setting – either on the frontlines of the most emergent COVID-19 patient care or managing more routine check-ups and elective procedures – organisations must work to provide the safest and most enjoyable interactive experiences for their patients. It’s critical to balance volume with the right location of kiosk units. Healthcare organisations should think carefully about the environment, look at the data, make a decision and iterate from there. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. n patient care KIOSK solutions 23The old ecosystem of non-connected screens and media players (often running on consumer PCs and operating systems (OS) or TV-streaming technology) is dying out. Today's deployments are large, ambitious and connected. Managing them requires new rules for network efficiency, cost and security. Meanwhile, the quantity of software options grows ever larger and more confusing. There are numerous offerings tailored to vertical markets, often without the requisite robust APIs to enable easy and effective integration with other digital signage software and hardware. This is problematic for AV integrators and users Best practices for digital signage in an IT-centric world digital signage 24 KIOSK solutionsalike, and it increases the engineering burden on content management system (CMS) providers who, all too often, have to re-write code to ensure connectivity with different parts of the system. Inevitably, the shift towards a more IT-centric, cloud-based approach goes hand in hand with changes in how media player manufacturers, CMS providers, AV integrators and users must work together. Each now needs to think through the connectivity and software integration challenges presented by the new paradigm, instead of leaving them up to CMS providers to fix reactively. The digital signage landscape is changing. The march towards cloud-based services is inexorable, and what was traditionally a separate 'AV' space is now part of users' wider IT networks - with all the opportunities and challenges that entails. by Jeff Hastings CEO BrightSign Best practices for digital signage in an IT-centric world digital signage KIOSK solutions 25This means designing solutions around dedicated digital signage technologies that are purpose-built, work well together and integrate seamlessly and securely into other corporate systems. It's no longer feasible to cobble together solutions using a hodge-podge of hardware and software borrowed from consumer markets which lack good security, network visibility and network management tools. A strategic, holistic approach is required. Our aim should be to improve functionality, connectivity and security for everyone, not simply to expand the market. We need connected solutions that reduce the engineering workload for CMS providers and offer AV integrators the tools they need to deliver the performance that customers want. Happily, some new best practices are emerging among users and integrators who want to avoid the hardware, CMS and OS-related pitfalls of previous- generation rollouts. From airport screens a decade ago to today’s complex global retail rollouts and interactive data-driven systems, the industry now leverages new capabilities of the best software-driven media players, combined with cloud control of those players in the field. In practice, this means more IT- friendly solutions combining a dedicated digital signage OS with robust, industrial- grade media players engineered to perform like well-integrated software - not problematic hardware. A reliable media player is the foundation the whole solution rests on, but it is no longer enough for manufacturers to just throw their hardware over the wall and hope for the best. They actively need to re- architect how their chosen OS works, not only with their own media players, but with third-party CMSs and end users’ control needs. After all, if a technology tool can't be easily integrated, it's a problem instead of a solution. Lightening the load for CMS providers CMS providers need to be able to easily and tightly integrate their platform with different media players so they can get all that rich data fed back to their software and offer up the features their customers want, without having to recode each time. That means player manufacturers need to provide APIs that enable deep functionality for control, management and content. APIs can greatly streamline setup and facilitate access to robust network management tools that many CMS companies weren’t able to offer before. In the past, some media players offered no sophisticated management tools at all. That's changing. Incorporating control and management functionality offers a big advantage for CMS providers - and their customers. Improving the options for AV integrators AV integrators have two ways they approach any digital signage deployment: they can assemble a digital signage 26 KIOSK solutionssolution using screens and media players and a tried and trusted CMS with all the functionality the user needs, or they can create their own offering, with the most tailored part being their custom- made CMS. Giving them better tools to implement either of those approaches in the form of APIs and cloud-based integration tools increases their options - which is good not just for end users, but for the industry as a whole. Cloud benefits for users Well-integrated cloud-based services are making it much easier for users to control and manage devices and 'look' at them at a depth that was not possible before. Providing real-time performance information, pushing OS updates, sending subscription notifications and conducting remote reboots are some of the benefits of cloud-based platforms that users appreciate. But these are really just the tip of the iceberg. New digital signage software tools use artificial intelligence to deliver real-time playback triggered by feedback. Rich and engaging content is easier than ever before to input and manage, with the potential to create powerful, immersive experiences. The fact that digital signage is increasingly becoming part of the larger IT space is a very welcome development. For too long it has been straightjacketed by ill-fitting technology and approaches borrowed from other markets. The ease of use of the new cloud-based, IT-centric model is rapidly propelling it towards becoming a core channel in outbound messaging and communications. It will be exciting to see what happens next, now that more robust hardware, user-friendly CMSs, better analytics and new opportunities for automation and interactivity are stimulating unprecedented levels of innovation within the sector. Watch this space. n digital signage KIOSK solutions 27How the latest kiosk solutions can help with a safe return to work post coronavirus lockdown Necessity is the mother of invention By Stefano Lai Key Account & Business Development Pyramid Computer GmbH post Covid-19 28 KIOSK solutionsUndeniably the title of this article is a well-used pearl of wisdom. However, never before has it been more applicable than in the case of the ongoing battle against the Coronavirus pandemic and the unprecedented repercussions the world is now experiencing. Continual innovation and invention have been occurring throughout the crisis and much of it is focused on ensuring public health and financial well-being. post Covid-19 KIOSK solutions 29Next >