Practice De Huisarts

Practice De Huisarts is located in Gouda. The practice is a group practice with 4 permanent general practitioners and is situated in a neighborhood mainly inhabited by Dutch-speaking individuals with an average level of education. There is a registration kiosk present in the practice that is linked with Medicom from PharmaPartners.

Practice De Huisarts is a growing practice. Partly because of this, it is getting busier at the reception desk. The reception desk is continuously manned by 1 to 2 assistants. Caroline, an assistant at the practice, says, "The tasks at the reception desk mainly consist of answering the phone. If a patient came to the desk to check-in, they sometimes had to wait until we finished a phone call. We found this inconvenient for the patient, but it was also less pleasant for us because we were constantly interrupted from our work."

Assistants relieved

To relieve the assistants a bit, patients were not necessarily required to check in at the reception desk and could proceed directly to the waiting area. But this had the drawback that the assistants and doctors did not have a current overview of who exactly was in the waiting room. And Caroline thought, "There must be a better way to do this?" She tells a nice story about how she first encountered a registration kiosk. This was at her dentist. She was very enthusiastic about this service and the fact that she (even as a patient) could quickly take a seat in the waiting room. Therefore, she thought that a registration kiosk could also be something for their practice.

The registration kiosk with Medicom integration has been in the practice for several months now. And the assistants really notice a difference: "We have definitely gained more time for phone calls and other matters. Patients still come to the desk if they have a question or need to make a new appointment. But now we have more time for this."

A bit of adjustment

At first, it took some getting used to, especially for the patients. Some patients still came to the desk to check-in. The assistant then kindly directs these patients to the kiosk. Sometimes, if there is time, she manually checks in the patient. But this is more of an exception: "There is now a sign on the desk requesting patients to check-in via the registration kiosk. If a patient really can't figure it out, we walk over to the kiosk together to do it. Then the patient will know how it works next time."

Extra service to patients

Overall, patients now react very positively and appreciatively to the registration kiosk. Caroline and colleague Carina indicate that they see the registration kiosk as an additional service to the patients: "The registration kiosk was really a wish of ours. Everyone had to get used to it, but it already saves so much time that it is definitely worth it. Patients can now take a seat in the waiting room more quickly, and we have definitely gained more time!"