Çizgi Technology Serving the Greater Good: Self-guidance Kiosks Support Social Distancing in Turkish Hospitals

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Life-saving ventilators. Mission-critical industrial equipment. Self-service kiosks for wayfinding or supporting social distancing.

Çizgi Teknoloji Elektronik Tasarım ve Üretim A.Ş. excels at all of these.

Founded in 1994, the Turkey-based technology firm manufactures industrial automation and IT products. Through the efforts of 70 highly specialized employees, Çizgi offers three main product lines, including digital signage information screens and kiosks, medical PCs, and industrial PC solutions. High-profile projects, such as interactive kiosks in the world's largest airport, have earned Çizgi acclaim.

The firm's ingenuity also led to work on life-saving technology for the common good.

Through Çizgi's engineering prowess in advanced technology, product development, and medical device production, the firm secured a prominent role in the fight against COVID-19. Çizgi was awarded one of the very limited licenses to commercialize NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory VITAL Ventilator.

Public Health is Çizgi's Business

Turkey's hospitals are among the country’s most important health investments. In 2020, 17 new hospitals were built in nine provinces to improve healthcare and combat COVID-19. Turkey has over 150 public hospitals that have achieved a Stage 6 rating by the HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM), meaning they are near-paperless environments. These successes have made Turkey a European leader for using IT in health services and adopting Closed Loop Medication Administration. Essentially, these advanced medication systems make the entire medication administration chain electronic.

Çizgi was contracted to produce self-service queue management kiosks for seven new city hospitals to stem coronavirus transmission. Installed in high-traffic areas, the kiosks help regulate the density of visitors and expedite routine processes such as directing patients to the right places.

Hospital staff also benefit by performing their tasks in a comfortable environment with limited patient interaction.

Seeking A Smooth Operator

Çizgi's task was tall, and the expectations were high for its Artech Queue Management and Self-service Kiosk. They needed a proven partner.

"This was an opportunity for us to cooperate with a good barcode decoding solution partner," explains Mehmet Berk, Çizgi's cofounder and director of sales, marketing, and operations.

Çizgi turned to Code Corporation, maker of barcode readers and scanning software, and its CR8200 barcode scanning engine. This miniature imaging engine brings barcode reading and decoding to virtually any OEM design with near-zero miss accuracy.

"We wanted our kiosks to provide advanced service while operating smoothly in crowded hospitals, and this is only achievable with a perfect barcode reader," Berk recalls.

Frictionless Patient Check-In

Artech queues streamline patient check-in and documentation.

1. When a patient enters a hospital, they scan their ID at a kiosk, bypassing personnel.
2. The kiosk's integrated thermal printer produces queue slips or appointment documents.
3. After the appointment, patients can get their medical results at the kiosk.

Social distancing has become essential in the pandemic," Berk explains. "Our kiosks help reduce the density of people, creating a safer environment within the hospital."

Depending on the facility's size and needs, there are between 12-40 self-service kiosks in each hospital. The largest, Başakşehir Çam ve Sakura City Hospital, uses 169 units to direct 32,700 patients each day.

Beyond the hospital, which is known as "Turkey's third-biggest healthcare investment," Çizgi Artech Queue Management Kiosks guide the lost in airports, shopping malls, and cities. The kiosks can be customized and fully configured to a customer's needs, making them a perfect fit for any firm.

Forever Moving Forward

Çizgi's no stranger to helping others find the way forward. Somewhere, an Artech kiosk is guiding a harried traveler to their gate. And a once-hospitalized COVID-19 patient is back home right now, thanks to Çizgi's medical device expertise.

With a diverse portfolio of life-enhancing solutions supported by leading technology partners, Çizgi's innovations will continue tackling problems big and small, one kiosk or one device at a time.

• Is your facility or staff in need of a helping hand to direct visitors? Contact Çizgi today: cizgi.net.
• Are you an OEM in need of a hardware or software solution for data capture? Code is ready to help: codecorp.com.