Older people are among the vulnerable groups in the population. Yet when they live in a care home, regular visits from friends and family allow them to maintain a vital link with the outside world. Faced with so many visits, care homes are often overwhelmed and manage reception with whatever means they have. This has been particularly true since the Covid-19 pandemic, when checks were tightened. Registration procedures take time, which leads to a drop in the quality of the welcome. How can you make visitor registration easier? Is a visitor check-in kiosk an effective solution?

Why does the visitor register matter in a care home?

The register is a document used to keep track of the people entering and leaving a facility. It is used every day in businesses and healthcare establishments. In the current health context, it is considered an important document for ensuring residents’ safety.

When someone visits a family member, they must sign the visitor register. This allows the care home to keep a record of their visit. The document contains the following information: the person’s identity, the resident they are visiting and their contact details.

Many care homes still use a paper register to record their visitors. In this case, visitors have to fill in a form by hand at reception. By contrast, other establishments now use a digital version with a visitor check-in kiosk.

Collect less information for an effective register

To make welcoming visitors easier, the register must be easy to fill in. Whatever format you use, make sure it is legible and that the font is suitable for all visitors.

Some forms ask for information that is not relevant to a visit. With a digital format, it is important to distinguish clearly between essential and non-essential information. The check-in kiosk should capture the following basic data:

  • The visitor’s name;
  • the date of the visit;
  • the name of the resident being visited;
  • the time of arrival and departure.

Depending on the types of visitor coming to the care home, you can add an extra field. If your facility regularly receives contractors, for example, you can add a “reason for visit” field to distinguish them from families.

The use of the information collected by the check-in kiosk for a visit must comply with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Since the pandemic, visitors must now provide additional information to protect older residents.

The visitor check-in kiosk: easier visitor registration

Putting an effective visitor management system in place is a good initiative. However, to strengthen security in healthcare establishments, we believe a digital register is the better option.

A check-in kiosk lets you, for example, issue a named badge to a visitor. Visitor badges make it possible to control access permissions. In addition, your software ensures that all visits remain traceable over time. If there is a problem, you can easily check when a visitor was on site.

If you are considering a digital visitor management solution for your establishment, do not hesitate to contact us for more information.