GP Strijbosch

This article has been reproduced with permission from the CGM website. Click here to read the original article (Dutch).

At General Practice Strijbosch, a series of efficiency improvements have been achieved this year. In addition to moving to a beautiful – and above all larger – location, a check-in kiosk was placed in the waiting room on the very first day of opening. Patients can now register for their appointments at the kiosk instead of at the reception desk. Medical assistant Maureen van Zutphen is happy to share her experiences: “We are very satisfied with the registration kiosk. There is more calm at the desk, and we can work more efficiently.”

Three GPs, three assistants, two mental health nurse specialists, two chronic care nurse specialists and one practice manager. It is a well-balanced team of knowledge, expertise, passion and experience at General Practice Strijbosch in Handel, Brabant. One of the team members is Maureen van Zutphen, who has been working as a medical assistant since March 2023. She is still very pleased with her job today. “I go to work with pleasure, and that is the most important thing to me. We have a great team where everyone is equal. It makes no difference whether you consult a GP or an assistant; the communication is always very accessible. We can ask each other anything and are always willing to help. In addition to the pleasant contact with my colleagues, I also gain a lot of energy from the variety in my work and the different patients I speak to. No day is the same, and there is always something new to learn. I am regularly given the opportunity to attend training courses and I learn a lot from the cases I discuss with our doctors. This way, I can continue to develop myself in my field.”

More calm, privacy and opportunities

There is another reason why Maureen feels so much at home at General Practice Strijbosch. Since Monday 19 May, the practice has been located in a brand-new building on Strijbosscheweg in Handel. “Yes, and we are very happy with it!”, she says enthusiastically. “The previous location was fine too, but it was still part of the GP’s home. The lines of communication were short, but the reception desk was literally in the waiting room, so you had little privacy when on the phone with patients. The GP also had to walk through the waiting room repeatedly, which was not very practical. And if it was busy, the waiting area quickly became noisy. Our new building, on the other hand, provides us with more calm, privacy and opportunities. For example, we now have more consulting rooms, which means we can speak with patients separately and safeguard privacy more effectively. Our practice can now continue to grow, which is a great challenge for the entire team.”

Patients are responding well

Since the opening of the new premises, a check-in kiosk has been installed in the waiting room, connected to the GP information system CGM HUISARTS. How have patients responded so far? “At first they had to get used to it, as they were accustomed to reporting directly at the desk,” Maureen explains. “Now that we are in a larger building, they encounter the kiosk first before reaching us. Most patients are responding well by now. They check in at the kiosk, and we can immediately see in our system that they are in the waiting room. The younger generation gets along with it straight away, while the older generation sometimes finds it more difficult. Some still come to the desk, and then we check them in ourselves. Sometimes we also see patients helping other patients with the kiosk. Someone may be struggling a little with the screen, and just as you are about to step over, another patient has already stood up to explain how it works. It is very nice to witness such helpfulness.”

We can work more efficiently at the desk

Several months after its introduction, Maureen increasingly notices the positive effects of the kiosk in her daily work. “Since patients can now check in themselves, you are less often interrupted while carrying out your duties at the desk, which allows you to work more efficiently.” She also notes that queues at the desk have decreased. “In the past, queues sometimes formed if you were on the phone with a patient or if someone came to hand in a urine sample, which simply takes more time to process. Then you would hear patients in line sighing because they did not want to be late for their appointments. Now that patients can check themselves in, it gives us more peace of mind. It also works very well for consultations or blood tests. We can easily see who is in the waiting room, and if someone has not checked in, we can still call them. We are very satisfied with the kiosk. It is very easy to use, and we actively encourage our patients to use it.”

The reception function does not disappear

Another feature Maureen appreciates is that the kiosk notifies staff if a patient is late. “We no longer have to point this out to patients ourselves; the system does it automatically. Late arrivals are instructed to report to the desk, where we then handle it and see if there is still an opportunity for the appointment.” She emphasises that the reception desk function does not disappear with the introduction of the kiosk. “Patients are still very welcome at our desk. We want to remain approachable for our patients and continue to receive them in a welcoming environment.”

The registration kiosk saves us time

It is unlikely that Maureen van Zutphen will ever wish to go back to the time before the registration kiosk. “It is very reassuring that we now always know if a patient is present, especially since our GPs are now located at the back of the corridor. From there, they cannot see the waiting room. Thanks to the kiosk connection, we automatically know that the patient with an appointment has arrived. You can see the appointment block change colour in the CGM HUISARTS schedule, which indicates the patient has checked in. This prevents doctors from walking to the front unnecessarily and ultimately saves us valuable time.”