Process optimization in healthcare

When the new health insurance card is launched, its users will notice both a new appearance (for example, it will bear the cardholder’s photo) and also an increasing range of new functions.
With the rollout of the electronic health card, those responsible for the reform of the German healthcare system also intend to strengthen patients’ rights. The handling of prescriptions for medication, the right to view organizational data and medical documents, and decisions on whether personal information is stored on the card will be gradually transferred to its holder.

Digitization and the central storage of healthcare data is the basis of many of the more than 500 projects in this arena Europe-wide. Thanks to an effective security concept, authorized access to central data can be allowed for a variety of parties. As a result, duplicate treatments can be avoided and incompatibilities of treatment or medication can be recognized in advance, for example.

Kiosk terminals play a key role in this new approach to the IT processing of health information and services. To meet the special requirements of healthcare, Wincor Nixdorf is developing kiosk terminals that ensure secure and protected communication of personal data. Among other things, these developments foresee the deployment of an integrated card reader for authenticating users in compliance with statutory stipulations.

In addition to helping fulfill the legislative intention to secure patients’ legal rights, kiosk terminals also make a significant contribution to optimizing processes, cutting administrative overhead and reducing potential sources of errors, such as those that may occur when paper documents are completed by hand. The system thus also relieves various providers in the healthcare system of routine tasks so that they can devote more time to strategic and advisory functions.

Kiosk terminals can also be used attractively in a commercial context. For example, they are ideal for the management of standardized processes: they can support the completion of questionnaires by patients or insured persons, permit the insured to make appointments in self-service mode with various service providers, issue payer forms, or manage the posting and payment of additional services. Existing applications can continue to be used when processes are migrated. This is ensured, for instance, by Wincor Nixdorf’s ProTopas/Suite, a software product that allows self-service-capable mapping of processes without requiring the modification of the related application.