A visitor management system in a healthcare system is a critical aspect of a robust disease prevention and safety program.
Healthcare facility safety, be it a hospital, medical office or care facility, is at the forefront of everyone’s minds since receiving medical care isn’t an option, but a necessity.
The best-prepared healthcare facilities address safety in several different ways.
Mask wearing, limited entrances, physical distancing and community education are just a few ways healthcare leaders are taking the initiative to prevent disease spread during the COVID-19 and its existing and emerging variants.
These initiatives, when done properly, are proven to protect people’s physical health. However, it is evident that the pandemic is taking an emotional toll on everyone, from healthcare workers to average citizens.
Like the changes that remain today that took effect after 9/11 to make people feel safe traveling again, changes in entering a healthcare environment should become the standard to make people feel safe when entering facilities, be they providers, staff, patients, visitors or vendors.
You don’t have to be a psychologist to know emotional well being is critical to overall health.
While healthcare leaders cannot take responsibility for the mental health of staff or the public, they can and have instituted rules and guidelines about entrance management, which can run the gamut from temperature checks and badge printing to more. Automating and customizing the tasks associated with visitor management with solutions, like Well Screen, has made the process smoother, especially when integrated with other systems in the facility.
All of the protocols associated with visitor management have clear and direct results in preventing infectious diseases from spreading. That’s key. What’s equally important are the emotional benefits following protocols have on people and their confidence in a healthcare environment.
Exactly how does a visitor management system emotionally affect those entering a facility?
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Enhances your healthcare facility’s safety and security.
A visitor management system allows you to monitor everyone who enters your facility.
Each entrant’s government-issued ID goes into a database, and those without ID can be addressed individually or how you see fit.
This can give the facility leaders important information regarding everyone on the premises.
Healthcare facilities can enhance their visitor management system with:
- Visitor Badge Printing
- Temperature Screening
- Symptom Surveys
- Real-Time Notifications
- Integrating this System with Existing Ones
The mere fact of knowing everyone entering the facility will undergo these protocols brings peace of mind to your providers, staff, patients, visitors and vendors.
It can reduce anxiety associated with entering buildings where the protocols are uncertain or even non-existent, which also can cut down on staff call-ins, patient appointment cancellations and skipping visitations, which are good for patient morale.
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Alerts and assists during emergencies.
Healthcare facility staff can identify and record all everyone’s entrance and exit with a visitor management system.
Implementing a solution that issues expiring visitor badges will help personnel keep track of who comes in and out of the building.
You can also support the use of employee ID badges to record attendance.
The system gathers all tracking data automatically with each swipe of a card.
Knowing exactly who and where people are during an emergency is critical should an evacuation or lock down be necessary.
Your can quickly identify any patients, providers and staff who are missing from their departments during and after an emergency.
But what about visitors during the emergency?
An electronic visitor management system for healthcare enables administrators to access entry and exit records during and following any emergencies or should there be a need for contact tracing later.
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Improves employee productivity and re-devotes time to patient care.
An increasing number of hospital systems and medical practices are experiencing a serious staff shortage.
Adding insult to injury is that without an automated visitor management system, staff is having to perform entry protocols.
Some are even foregoing or lessening protocols, which get staff back to patient care, but do little to prevent disease spread and put people at ease.
Implementing a visitor management system allows your staff to focus on their jobs, patient care.
By having to divide their time between policing entrance management and their healthcare duties, healthcare workers are stretched thin and burned out.
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Improves visitor perception of your healthcare organization.
Feeling safe and secure is a basic human need. We function and feel better when we’re in an environment or around those who take seriously our physical and health safety. The CDC and OSHA also expect healthcare institutions to, at a minimum, follow these guidelines https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/hcp/index.html.
Think of it this way. All airports and airlines follow very similar security screening procedures. No, not everyone likes them or agrees they are necessary, but imagine being that one airport or airline that had no or few screening requirements. That may raise the eyebrows of even the most anti-screening traveler. No healthcare facility wants to be “that” one.
What Could a Visitor Management System do for Your Healthcare Facility?
If you are in search for a customized, automated and fully-integrated product, Well Screen is a holistic, cost-effective solution to help prevent disease spread and address the important issues surrounding public safety and well-being.
To learn more about Well Screen and how your hospital, practice or facility can benefit from a visitor management system, request a personal demo session today!
