Simplify The Waiting Room Experience With PulaKiosk

Americans, impatient by nature, aren’t enlightened by the unnecessarily long wait times at hospitals or clinics. Many make quick visits between lunch, have other functions to attend, and simply don’t like being told to wait – emotionally, humans operate on short fuses when not attended to immediately. One author goes as far as calling the aura of waiting rooms similar to that of Greyhound bus stations.

Inundated with outdated magazines and uncomfortable chairs, waiting room experiences are often unpleasant at best. Televisions are usually present to news or raunchy soap operas not suitable for younger children. If waiting rooms were fun, nobody would mind extended waits.

Thanks to technology and crafty software coding, Wisconsin-based PulaTech has developed an intelligent solution hospital waiting rooms have long needed – the PulaKiosk. Geared towards any facility with waiting rooms, this sleek flat-screened stand looks similar to what individuals may see at casinos with loyalty cards.

Waiting rooms are separated from treatment areas, which means any niceties are reserved for the area making clinics and hospital money – the treatment and diagnosis rooms. Sure, reduction in wait times could be one area that automatically changes the feeling of sitting uncomfortably in chairs but consider this: quick treatments are often short-term solutions, leading to higher out-of-pocket costs.

Updated literature provided by hospitals is scarce; many times, current ailments or health improvement articles or content predates what patients are treated for. Boredom, restlessness even agitation set in when people have nothing more to do than talks amongst themselves. Receptionists get called names, threatened even forced to change schedules to better suit individuals with little time.

Moreover, cellular service in hospital settings interrupts pacemakers, and Wi-Fi isn’t widely adopted (much less allowed) in hospitals because short waves can disrupt other hospital machinery. This means playing with smartphones or texting friends to pass time isn’t an option in most facilities.

To accommodate patients by offering relevant content and streamlining patient questions, PulaTech undertook long research to figure out how best to deal with waiting room dissatisfaction. Since most issues involved feelings of hopelessness and being left without knowledge of what the appointments were about, the software company decided sweeping reform to waiting room content delivery was needed.

PulaKiosk brings an omnipresent experience unlike no other content delivery vehicle available today in the form of an interactive kiosk. Packaged like something from a sci-fi thriller, PulaKiosk offers a medium sized content delivery solution in touch screen format – a more compact solution than traditionally cumbersome laptops and desktops. A much newer means of delivering content for the masses.

Most every industry that provides services by appointment would benefit from PulaKiosk. Automotive repair companies can deliver content relevant to what’s being worked in, occasionally presenting upcoming specials and cobranded solutions for products they carry. Pharmacies can offer prescription services while offering informative videos discussing proper care and application of medicines dispensed. And, of course, hospitals can benefit by delivering how-to videos and information from government agencies regarding disease prevention and healthcare choices.

Did you know? The world’s first kiosk (“Çinili Köşk”) was built in 1473 with the intention of being an observation area.

To convey a powerful branding message and unobtrusive design, PulaKiosk imagined where in offices their kiosks would be displayed. By designing slender, lightweight stands and three color options, these kiosks will blend in with offices bearing uncommon interior colors – white, black and grey are colors easily blended with any pastel or base paint, floor and furniture piece.

No longer will service providers need to update furniture to match technology with PulaKiosk. They’re able to work with any business to design larger stands or even tabletop solutions, too. The current configuration offered is 3’10” tall, an excellent height for nearly everyone. An adjustable stand for those of taller stature is part of several prototypes being explored by engineers at PulaTech. Having 10” of viewing area doesn’t hurt, either.

This kiosk works immediately out-of-box, so there’s no waiting to implement special protocols to begin offering waiting room patrons an exciting time-passing experience.

Delivering powerful content as frequently as needed gets done through an intuitive website dashboard. Controlling what content your patron’s view takes only several clicks and an internet connection. Control what patrons can view in this forward-thinking interactive kiosk designed with education in mind.

An intuitive channel system, easy for all skill levels to use, delivers on-demand content which service providers subscribe to. This offers an opportunity for healthcare industries to cross-promote insurance services or pharmaceuticals, automotive repair shops to offer new car deals or specials on financing large purchases – potential is limited only by one’s imagination.

By having administrative functions separated from the physical kiosk, there’s no need to move devices or connect cords to upload changes. A simple internet connection lets service providers add, subtract or subscribe to new content as it becomes available without patrons knowing these changes are taking place. Any system updates will happen automatically and can be scheduled for after-hours, giving patrons an uninterrupted experience.

Finally, PulaKiosk solves video streaming issues. Normally, mobile devices and stationary PCs stream videos in ‘packets’, or small packages containing kilobytes of data. Videos that are streamed get buffered or stabilized then downloaded, meaning watching longer videos takes strong amounts of bandwidth not offered in areas where connections are weak. PulaKiosk downloads and stores videos locally so they can be viewed without the need for fast connections.

Offering this level of content delivery in a waiting room setting was thought to be decades away – that is, until PulaTech broke the mold.

Did you know? Ada Lovelace (The Countess of Lovelace) wrote the first known software ‘outline’ (algorithm). It, nor the Analytical Engine it was intended for, never came to fruition.

By coupling ingenuity with the need for hospitals to increase the comfort level of waiting rooms wherever possible, PulaKiosk can be utilized for a myriad of clever and practical ways:

● Retention. Social media is becoming a huge hit with hospitals across North America, yet how does this assist the smaller practices such as doctors, clinics and the likes in getting patients to come back? When the care is optimal and the waiting room experience is aligned, hospitals and smaller practices can see patient retention rates increase.

● Improves trust. Research has proven well-organized waiting rooms instill trust, especially true where longer waits would often lead to feelings the hospital or clinic had disorganization issues. New patients want to feel comfortable, needed, even educated – PulaKiosk delivers this through relevant content and information about appointments.

● Eliminates expensive magazine subscription costs. Having 30 or so concurrent magazine subscriptions can equal high annual costs. Adding new videos and having other content resources from an already stocked internet is an immediate cost-cutter. This allows service providers to divert money to more important things – like better coffee or snacks.

● Saves on outdoor marketing. The outdoor marketing industry, overall, rakes in about $7 billion in revenue yet has an annual growth that is shrinking rapidly with 2016 figures showing a 1.5% loss in profits. Instead of announcing new services via billboard, shave that expense by announcing new events and recently hired doctors within PulaKiosk’s multiple channel configuration. Besides, billboards are expensive.

● Gives more choices quicker. Hair salons would benefit from PulaKiosk because thousands of trendy hairstyles can be searched by clients, which could help the salon become the local hairstyle trendsetter. This is just one example; automotive services utilizing kiosks can upsell products faster by virtue of suggestions based on current work being performed. More choices mean greater sales.

● Offers the complete education. Video content takes minutes to create, meaning the internet is constantly flooded with new ideas, how-to info and stories relevant to any business. Past theories in outdated literature are often proven detrimental in current times. Keep your business education fresh by presenting patrons information worth digesting.

Receptionists who also file and work on billing can also recoup time lost telling patients when doctors will be free, when their appointment is, or whether new reading materials have been made available. Nearly every major waiting room complaint can be simultaneously addressed by one device.

Did you know? First known hospitals, called an Asclepieia (named after Greek healer Asclepius), date back to 291 B.C.

Video kiosks are the wave of the future, a future which arrived much sooner than analysts anticipated. PulaKiosk can prepare your hospital, clinic or any business with waiting rooms for the new generation of video marketing which puts you, the service provider, in the driver’s seat of the burgeoning video marketing realm.

With already one full year of design and testing under their belts, PulaTech is poised to produce their first run of PulaKiosk upon a successful first round of funding. With some software tweaks needed, Northern Wisconsin’s finest tech company is determined to deliver an intuitive user experience in your office for years to come.

Join this exciting waiting room experience and support the success of PulaKiosk.