Blessing Hospital visitors will begin using an automated visitor and vendor registration process on Tuesday, May 31. It will allow hospital officials to know everyone who is in the building at any point in time, enhancing safety.
“We have access to reports that tell us how many staff and patients are in the hospital on any day at any time, but we did not have access to the same information for visitors and vendors,” said David Parchim, security manager, Blessing Hospital. “Even though we have an overhead public address system that is used to notify those in the building in the event of an emergency, the information provided by the new visitor and vendor registration will enhance the safety for all when they are in Blessing Hospital.”
Visitors will use the system if they are coming to see an inpatient or if they are accompanying a friend or loved one to a hospital-based outpatient appointment, including the Emergency Center, outpatient surgery, X-ray, for a cancer treatment or any other hospital-based medical procedure.
Visitors will be able to pre-register on the Blessing website if they wish. After answering a few questions, including the date and time of their visit and destination in the hospital, the visitor will receive a QR code on their phone that they will scan at select hospital entrances where registration kiosks will be located. Visitors will need to show a driver’s license or state-issued identification card at check-in for verification purposes.
The QR code will generate a paper nametag with the visitor’s photo, name, date, destination and QR code printed on it. No visitor or vendor will be allowed in the hospital without wearing the nametag generated by the registration system.
Upon leaving, the visitor must scan the QR code on their nametag at a kiosk to be removed from the system, and discard the nametag. The nametag is good for one day only. Visitors must register each time they come to the hospital. Information is not stored in the registration system.
To pre-register, visitors will go to blessinghealth.org/visitor beginning on May 30, 2022.
The registration process does not have to be done in advance. It can be done upon entering the hospital at any of the registration kiosks. For efficiency, four kiosks will be in Blessing Hospital’s main lobby entrance at 11th and Spring Street; one will be at the Moorman Pavilion entrance, also known as the North Entrance at 11th and Oak Streets; and one will be at the Emergency Center entrance.
Two kiosks will be placed inside the current HR entrance for vendor use only. Vendors who have been using the hospital’s RepTrax system will need to continue using it in addition to the new registration process. Vendors will need to wear the paper nametag issued as part of the new registration process.
Blessing Health System has piloted the registration process at Illini Hospital in Pittsfield for several months with great success.