The Clear Entry Automated Screening Kiosk in the lobby of 340 College Street.

Screening plays a big part in preventing the spread of COVID-19. Kensington Health has had a team of screeners working in the lobby of the building at 340 College Street since April. Wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE), they ask everyone who enters the building a series of questions and take their temperature before clearing them to proceed upstairs.

Hundreds of people come through Kensington’s doors on a daily basis, so screening is no easy feat.

“We are always thinking about what we can do to provide care safely, and constantly re-evaluate processes to keep people safe,” said Jill Taylor, Manager of Kensington Diagnostic Imaging Centre. “So when RKS Medical approached us to pilot an automated screening machine, we said yes.”

RKS Medical Technologies is a global diagnostic imaging technology dealer that services healthcare clinics, diagnostic labs, hospitals and other healthcare partners across North America. In response to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, RKS Medical worked with their partners to supply PPE, to develop and manufacture acrylic barrier solutions and to develop and manufacture the Clear Entry automated screening kiosk.

How it works 

You  step up to the kiosk and the welcome screen will prompt you to sanitize your hands with the integrated hand sanitizer prior to using the touchscreen. Clear Entry will then scan your face to recognize if you are wearing a mask properly. If yes, it proceeds to take your temperature. If your temperature is in normal range, Clear Entry will then ask you if you are a staff member, visitor or vendor and then you enter the corresponding information fields and are then prompted to answer the COVID-19 screening questions. 

Upon successfully passing screening, the automated screening kiosk asks the person being screened to download  COVIDAlert, the government  COVID-19 tracing app if they have not already done so. The kiosk also dispenses face masks to patients who need them. 

If you do not pass screening, you are instructed to contact your healthcare provider to arrange testing for COVID-19. For now, Clear Entry is being used to screen staff and vendors.

“The initial pilot has been very successful and we are now planning workflow and design for a larger implementation,” said Jill Taylor,  “In the second phase we are looking to add more languages to serve our local community and to increase the check-in functionality, especially as the colder weather approaches. Our goal is that automated screening is available at each entry point and when a patient checks-in, the ambulatory clinic that they will be visiting will be notified of their arrival. Integration to our Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) will help us significantly to manage waiting room crowds and patient flow through the building.

Clear Entry has helped us to automate the daily audit log we are required to keep by the Ministry of Health for COVID-19 screening for our staff and vendors,” adds Jill. It provides us with an easy wat for contact tracing in the event of a COVID-19 exposure.

Your privacy

Keeping data safe is a top priority for Kensington.  We worked closely with  RKS Medical Technologies to ensure Clear Entry meets our stringent privacy requirement. All data in Clear Entry is secure, and the information is deleted daily after the administrator downloads the audit log report to a secure file kept on Kensington’s server.  

The pilot of the Clear Entry kiosk at Kensington Health is the first in Canada and has been a  Kensington Health  ambulatory division initiative, with support from the Kensington IT team. 

Try out the Clear Entry automated screening kiosk next time that you are in the lobby of 340 College St.!