Visitors to The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) in Toronto will soon be able to meet with their beloved friend and family members quicker, thanks to new Wayfinding kiosks from technology company NCR and its partner, Cycom Canada.
Cycom is a Scarborough, Ont.-based systems integrator and service provider for IT services and is also an NCR authorized premier-level channel partner. By leveraging its existing relationship with Sick Kids, Cycom inked a pilot project deal to sell and implement eight NCR Wayfinding kiosks in the hospital’s entrance lobbies.
The Wayfinding kiosks are units that have been designed to help both visitors and patients quickly and easily find their way around the hospital. The kiosk, which is driven by a PC and a custom-built application, has a touchscreen user interface to let users indicate where they want to go. The kiosk will map out the best route to take and will also print the directions using a built-in printer.
The kiosk has been programmed to support up to 10 languages said Al Leela, president and CEO of Cycom. Leela said Cycom has also been trained and certified to sell, install and integrate the NCR Healthcare Solutions, which are manufactured by NCR and include the Wayfinding kiosk and MediKiosk.
As an advanced partner in the Canadian healthcare space for NCR, Cycom will act as the first-line of response for any service request or issues that may arise, Leela said.
NCR says it’s currently looking for more partners in other areas of the country to also help out in this space.
The MediKiosk is a self-service patient registration solution that allows users to swipe their health card to notify the nurse of their arrival for an appointment. The solution is meant to help alleviate patient registration flow and also helps reduce patient waiting times, Leela said.
Luc Villeneuve, president of NCR Canada, said the company started selling its healthcare solutions into the Canadian market two years ago and, since then, its coverage has increased substantially. The Wayfinding units being used at Sick Kids are all about satisfying the customer experience through self-service, he added.
“With the kiosks, you can check yourself into a clinic or hospital to help reduce your wait time,” Villeneuve explained. “The Wayfinding kiosk lets you deal in the language of your choice and digitally maps the floors of the hospitals with dimensions so patients and visitors can get to their desired endpoints without getting lost.”
Leela said the units are suited more towards larger organizations that need to share information. Depending on what applications and options are built into the kiosks, they range in price anywhere between $8,000 and $20,000 per unit.
In addition to hospitals and clinics, Jeffrey Kendall, director of business development for NCR Healthcare, said the kiosks are built on a configurable platform so they can also be used in other industries as a self-scheduling solution.
“This is a multi-channel solution so once you have the platform and the systems, you can extend these self-service capabilities into whichever channels you want,” Kendall said.
Follow Maxine Cheung on Twitter: @MaxineCheungCDN.
