The Thielen Student Health Center is one of the first clinics in the state of Iowa to implement smart card technology in their check-in kiosks.

Smart Card Technology gives ISU students the option to swipe their ISUCard for a quicker check-in process when they come to the health center.

“[Students] can use their student ID card to check themselves in,” said Gail Miller, business manager at the Student Health Center. “What that does is it reduces the instances of medical fraud because they have to have their own ID card. It identifies the appointment that the student has made with their ID card.”

The Student Health Center knew that offering an electronic check-in system was a logical direction for the clinic to go.

“Hopefully the lines will go faster because it only takes 60.7 seconds now to check in at a kiosk system,” Miller said. “It’s longer than that with a registration clerk. It’s more efficient for the student as well as the staff. [Students] won’t be in line as long.”

Students are asked to stop by the main registration desk, and then a staff member will direct them to the kiosks.

“It’s helpful. For one it decreases [students’] wait time on staff,” said Tammy Paris-Walker, staff registered nurse at the Student Health Center. “If they’ve been here before and they come for frequent appointments, it makes it a lot easier because they don’t have to check in with staff and go through the whole paperwork and questions that they are asked. They can check in with staff and tell them if they’ve been here before and then go check in at the kiosks.”

The electronic check-in system decreases time students have to wait and automatically lets the nurses at the back stations know that their patient is ready to be seen.

“If they don’t have any changes to their address or to their insurance, they just verify everything and then sign their name, their ‘right to treat’ form, which they would have to do through a registration person anyway, and then it tells them in the back nursing area that the person is here and checked in,” Miller said.

With students checking themselves in, staff members will be available to answer phone calls and help students schedule appointments.

“It is way more efficient to the staff here,” Miller said. “We have realized a lot fewer dropped calls … which are students that are trying to call in for an appointment that are getting an answering machine because everyone is tied up.”

Currently the kiosks systems only have English and Spanish options. The Student Health Center is hoping to someday expand the languages if the technology becomes available.

“It would be great if we could add Chinese to it,” Paris-Walker said. “It would really help out those students.”

Currently one-third of patients who come to the Student Health Center can check in using the electronic kiosks. The Student Health Center plans to use student feedback to decide how many kiosks are needed.

“We’re taking a look at how many [kiosks] we feel like we need,” Miller said. “Right now we have two; we could have up to four. A lot of that feedback will come from the students as well.”

Some of the nurses have been surprised at how useful and quick the new check-in system has been so far.

“I have noticed [check-in] does go a lot faster when I’m sitting [at the registration desk],” Paris-Walker said. “Students check in, and then they’re in the waiting area before you know it.”

A large issue staff hopes the kiosks resolve is the issue of medical fraud.

“One of the things that I have learned is that medical fraud is one of the highest-growing instances of fraud,” Miller said. “And anything that we can do to stop that or reduce those instances helps. Having a smart card [system] really helps that.”