Public Health Information Delivery in the Emergency Department: Analysis of a Kiosk-Based Program

Utilização de serviços de urgência e emergência por complicações agudas da hipertensão e/ou diabetes

RESUMO Objetivo analisar a utilização de serviços de urgência e emergência por indivíduos com complicações agudas de Hipertensão Arterial e/ou Diabetes Mellitus. Método estudo retrospectivo realizado nos três serviços públicos de pronto-atendimento em município do Sul do Brasil. Os dados foram coletados mediante consulta aos prontuários eletrônicos das pessoas que compareceram duas ou mais vezes no período de janeiro de 2018 a fevereiro de 2020. Na análise foi utilizado Regressão Logística e georreferenciamento dos endereços residenciais. Resultados das 1.125 pessoas, 72,7% procuraram os serviços por Hipertensão; 18,1% por Diabetes; e 7,3%, por ambas as condições. A maioria não possuía a condição crônica registrada na Atenção Primária e residia próximo aos serviços de pronto-atendimento. Tiveram mais chances de três ou mais comparecimentos os usuários que procuraram concomitantemente as Unidades de Pronto atendimento do Hospital Universitário e as municipais, por ambas as condições, com menor escolaridade e sem companheiro. Conclusão e implicações para a prática informações sobre a utilização dos serviços de urgência e emergência e das pessoas que os procuram por complicações agudas da Hipertensão e/ou Diabetes podem subsidiar a formulação de políticas públicas e a proposição de estratégias mais efetivas na identificação, acompanhamento e busca ativa de pessoas com condições crônicas.

The Role of Health Kiosks: A Scoping Review (Preprint)

Background

Health kiosks are publicly accessible computing devices that provide access to services, including health information provision, clinical measurement collection, patient self–check-in, telemonitoring, and teleconsultation. Although the increase in internet access and ownership of smart personal devices could make kiosks redundant, recent reports have predicted that the market will continue to grow.

Objective

We seek to clarify the current and future roles of health kiosks by investigating the settings, roles, and clinical domains in which kiosks are used; whether usability evaluations of health kiosks are being reported, and if so, what methods are being used; and what the barriers and facilitators are for the deployment of kiosks.

Methods

We conducted a scoping review using a bibliographic search of Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science databases for studies and other publications between January 2009 and June 2020. Eligible papers described the implementation as primary studies, systematic reviews, or news and feature articles. Additional reports were obtained by manual searching and querying the key informants. For each article, we abstracted settings, purposes, health domains, whether the kiosk was opportunistic or integrated with a clinical pathway, and whether the kiosk included usability testing. We then summarized the data in frequency tables.

Results

A total of 141 articles were included, of which 134 (95%) were primary studies, and 7 (5%) were reviews. Approximately 47% (63/134) of the primary studies described kiosks in secondary care settings. Other settings included community (32/134, 23.9%), primary care (24/134, 17.9%), and pharmacies (8/134, 6%). The most common roles of the health kiosks were providing health information (47/134, 35.1%), taking clinical measurements (28/134, 20.9%), screening (17/134, 12.7%), telehealth (11/134, 8.2%), and patient registration (8/134, 6.0%). The 5 most frequent health domains were multiple conditions (33/134, 24.6%), HIV (10/134, 7.5%), hypertension (10/134, 7.5%), pediatric injuries (7/134, 5.2%), health and well-being (6/134, 4.5%), and drug monitoring (6/134, 4.5%). Kiosks were integrated into the clinical pathway in 70.1% (94/134) of studies, opportunistic kiosks accounted for 23.9% (32/134) of studies, and in 6% (8/134) of studies, kiosks were used in both. Usability evaluations of kiosks were reported in 20.1% (27/134) of papers. Barriers (e.g., use of expensive proprietary software) and enablers (e.g., handling of on-demand consultations) of deploying health kiosks were identified.

Conclusions

Health kiosks still play a vital role in the health care system, including collecting clinical measurements and providing access to web-based health services and information to those with little or no digital literacy skills and others without personal internet access. We identified research gaps, such as training needs for teleconsultations and scant reporting on usability evaluation methods.

Check-in Kiosks in the Outpatient Clinical Setting: Fad or the Future?

OBJECTIVES

Check-in kiosks are increasingly used in health care. This project aims to assess the effects of kiosk use upon check-in duration, point of service (POS) financial returns, and patient satisfaction.

METHODS

Six kiosks were implemented in a large academic orthopedic clinic, and check-in duration for 8.5 months following implementation and POS returns for 10.5 months before and after implementation were analyzed. Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Clinician and Group survey and self-devised surveys recorded patient satisfaction.

RESULTS

Cumulatively, 28,636 kiosk-based patient encounters were analyzed. Compared with historical norms, check-in duration decreased 2 minutes, 47 seconds (P < 0.001). Daily gross and individual POS returns increased $532.13 and $1.89, respectively (P < 0.001). Satisfaction surveys were completed by 719 of 1376 consecutive patients (52% response rate), revealing 12% improvement (P < 0.001), but Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Clinician and Group survey responses demonstrated no change (P = 0.146, 0.928, and 0.336).

CONCLUSIONS

Kiosks offer to reduce check-in duration and increase POS revenue without negatively affecting patient satisfaction.

Self-Check-In Kiosks Utilization and Their Association With Wait Times in Emergency Departments in the United States

BACKGROUND

Delayed care in emergency departments (EDs) is a serious problem in the United States. Patient wait time is considered a critical measure of delayed care in EDs. Several strategies have been employed by EDs to reduce wait time, including implementation of self-check-in kiosks. However, the effect of kiosks on wait time in EDs is understudied.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the association between patient wait time and utilization of self-check-in kiosks in EDs. To investigate a series of other patient-, ED-, and hospital-level predictors of wait time in EDs.

METHODS

Using data from the 2015 and 2016 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, we analyzed 40,528 ED visits by constructing a multivariable linear regression model of the log-transformed wait time data as an outcome, then computing percent changes in wait times.

RESULTS

During the study period, about 9% of EDs in the United States implemented kiosks. In our linear regression model, the wait time in EDs with kiosk self-check-in services was 56.8% shorter (95% confidence interval ̶ 130% to ̶ 6.4%, p < 0.05) compared with EDs without kiosk services. In addition to kiosks, patients' day of visit, arrival time, triage assessment, arrival by ambulance, chronic medical conditions, ED boarding, hospitals' full-capacity protocol, and hospitals' location were significant predictors of wait time.

CONCLUSIONS

Self-check-in kiosks are associated with shorter ED wait time in the United States. However, prolonged ED wait time continues to be a system-wide problem, and warrants multilayered interventions to address this challenge for those who are in acute need of immediate care.