Hopefully you've already had a look at our iPad Kiosk Overview article and are aware of what the kiosk is. You should also now know how to get your iPad ready for kiosk — and hopefully already ordered a stand!
Now let's assume you're going to be using the kiosk for patient check-in — and show you how to configure your check-in flow.
Settings can be device-specific
The iPad kiosk settings can be configured at an account level — we call these the default settings — or at iPad level. The default settings are usually the ones you'll want to modify — as they apply to all iPads without custom settings. They can be accessed from the kiosk setup page in the portal.
Alternatively, if you want a different setup (e.g. a different theme / brand) for a specific iPad, you can click on the name of an iPad to configure custom settings for that iPad:
☝️ If you use custom settings for any iPad, updates to the default settings will not update your custom settings. You can revert to using the default settings at any time.
Now that we have that out of the way, onward!
Check-in flow
By this point, you will have considered whether or not you'll be requesting any missed forms to be filled our during check-in, you might have ordered a stand, and you've got a good understanding of guided access.
So it's time to configure check-in in the Finger-Ink app. To do this, navigate to the kiosk setup page in the portal:
The kiosk setup page lets you configure:
How you'd like to get notified when someone arrives
The initial kiosk screen that greets patients
The other action(s) button
What the kiosk will look like
Primary & fallback check-in methods
Whether staff intervention is required (i.e. the safety net)
Patient initials requirement
Not found & thank you screens
(Cliniko, Nookal & splose only) Form requirements
When someone arrives
There are 3 different ways you can get notified when someone arrives. The first — and the only one most care about — is marking the patient as arrived in your PMS. This configuration is shown for the splose PMS in the example below:
The other two are only used if you need a second way of being notified. They allow the practitioner receive an email on arrival, or create a message inside of the portal on arrival.
The initial kiosk screen
The initial kiosk screen is the first screen your patients will see when they look at the iPad. It's got a couple of defining features to catch their attention:
The background changes slowly over time
The heading text (and optionally the message text) changes every few seconds
You can tweak this to send the right instructions to those entering your clinic. The heading and message fields can be configured as you see fit.
You can use commas in between bits of text in the heading field to dictate how these bits are cycled through.
You can also change the default message, and even add more messages if you have some additional instructions to add, like this example below:
Offering actions other than check-in
A button separate to check-in can be displayed on the kiosk, which can offer actions such as allowing an appointment to be booked, finding out more information about your clinic's services, or leaving a message.
You can read more about the "I'm not here to check-in" button here.
What the kiosk looks like — the theme
Themes can be used to customise what your kiosk looks like to your patients.
The background can be changed to be an image carousel, have some beautiful colours blending slowly like a lava lamp, or have some colours cycling through different gradients.
The logo can also be changed within the theme itself — combine that with iPad-specific settings and now you can represent different brands in different locations if you so wish.
Here's a shot of the preview showing theme customised to look like splose's website:
The kiosk preview will represent all your configuration options, including the theme.
Primary and fallback check-in methods
The check-in process involves a patient volunteering some information which is then used to match an appointment that same day.
You get to choose which information you request from the patient in order to match against an appointment. Your options are:
Their date of birth (default)
Their mobile number
Our date of birth check-in method uses a scroll wheel on the iPad to specify the date. If you selected that as your primary check-in method, here's what you'd see:
Underneath that you're offered you the option to specify a fallback method if no appointment was found using the primary method.
If you don't opt for a fallback, it shows the "No appointment found" screen.
Finally, you're asked whether or not you want to require patient initials during check-in. This is a feature for safety and further privacy, but isn't required.
Not found & thank you screens
You may like to customise the language used on the "No appointment found" and "You're checked in" screens — perhaps you're operating in a multilingual environment, or perhaps you'd prefer a different tone on these screens.
Well, you can customise them both here:
Leaving the configuration empty will use the default — which is shown as placeholders in each of the fields.
Next Steps
If you're using Cliniko, Nookal or splose, you might want to also configure some form requirements during check-in — to ensure certain forms are filled for specific appointment types.
Otherwise, you can go right on ahead to learn about offering actions other than check-in.