Free healthcare, health information, and voter registration! Not to worry, this offer isn’t spam in your mailbox or a cheesy infomercial. A well known organization is reaching out to patients by offering free healthcare, health information and promoting voter registration through waiting-room kiosks.

Since 1937, Planned Parenthood of the metro-Washington area “PPMW” has supported and protected the rights and responsibilities of every person to make free, informed reproductive choices. Recently installed waiting room kiosks have enhanced these choices through kiosk manufacturer 5point, LLC and the use of KioWare Server kiosk software.

A donor of the clinic initiated funding for a kiosk project which will eventually expand to all five area clinics. Kiosks will be implemented into the waiting rooms enabling visitors to access healthcare information as well promoting voter registration.

Steven Berlin, vice president of information technology, stated, “One of our donors gave us funding to install two kiosks. The donor wanted us to focus on promoting voter registration and awareness of political issues.” Nearly all Planned Parenthood patients are under 30. According to the Civil Youth Organization, the 18-24 age bracket had the smallest turnout in the 2004 election followed by the 25-34 age bracket. PPMW clinics represent an initial entry point into the healthcare system and now voter registration.

Two 5point kiosks are already being used. The first is located at a clinic in downtown Washington D.C., the other in Falls Church, Virginia. The currently deployed kiosks receive over 100 visitors per week. The use of attract screens to display health information messages and general organization information have been the main attention grabbers for the kiosks.

Becoming more interactive in 2006, Planned Parenthood hopes to expand the use of KioWare Server in their kiosks by recording patient satisfaction surveys. KioWare Server not only allows PPMW to manage attract screens and patient survey recording, but also gives management the ability to track user statistics, update content, remotely monitor, and many other useful features. Planned Parenthood is taking advantage of KioWare as a solution to an information problem. For any browser based application, KioWare Server provides an answer for simple needs such as securely locking down a computer to more robust features like downloading user statistics and kiosk status. Planned Parenthood will be able to use KioWare to remotely monitor and update kiosks at all five D.C. locations.

Busy clinic staff and secretaries can focus on daily tasks while the waiting room kiosks help answer health questions, increasing the efficiency of the medical practice. In Berlin’s final comment, he stated, “PPMW’s kiosks have provided us with another method to reach out to patients and deliver information about their reproductive healthcare as well as the politics of keeping reproductive healthcare available.”

ABOUT KIOWARE

KioWare kiosk software wraps around existing browser-based applications, securing the OS and browser, and allowing users to access only your application. KioWare is fully customizable with a product line ranging from basic browser-lockdown to server based remote monitoring.

ABOUT PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Since 1937, Planned Parenthood of the metro-Washington area “PPMW” has supported and protected the rights and responsibilities of every person to make free, informed reproductive choices.

NEED MORE HELP?

Read more about how lockdown software protects & secures healthcare data & patient privacy and the Community Health Partnership’s health risk kiosk project.