Set up reception desks

A reception desk is a physical service point — a registration counter, a triage station, a cashier window — where a member of staff opens a session and serves patients. Desks issue queue tickets, log arrivals and give each shift a measurable record of throughput. This page shows the administrator how to define desks and the receptionist how to run a session at one.

Where to find it

Desks and the work that flows through them live under the Reception app:

• Reception → Reception Desks — the list of service points; create and edit them here.
• Reception → Reception → Arrivals Log — every patient arrival recorded against a desk.
• Reception → Reception → Queue Tickets — the numbered tickets the desks issue.
• Reception → Reception → Fast Register — the quick walk-in registration wizard used at a desk.
• Reception → Reception → Kiosk → Check-In Kiosk and Queue Board (TV) — the unattended self-check-in screen and the waiting-room display.
• Reception → Configuration → Settings — reception-wide options.

Before you start

A desk belongs to a facility and can default to a department, so create those first — see Creating your facility. Each receptionist who will run a desk also needs a user account with the Reception role — see Staff & roles.

Step 1 — create a desk

Open Reception → Reception Desks and click New.

1. Give the desk a Name (for example “Registration 1” or “Cashier A”).
2. Set the Facility it sits in.
3. Enter the Counter Number shown to patients on the queue board.
4. Set a Ticket Prefix — the letters in front of the ticket number (for example R for registration, C for cashier), so patients can tell which queue they are in.
5. Optionally set a Default Department so patients served here are routed to the right unit by default.
6. Leave Active ticked and save.

The desk’s Display Name is built automatically from the facility, counter and name, so it reads clearly in lists and on the queue board.

Step 2 — open and run a session

Work at a desk is organised into sessions — one per receptionist per shift — so throughput can be measured and handed over cleanly.

1. The receptionist opens their desk and starts a session; it is stamped with their name and the open time, and an Opening Note can record the float or shift notes.
2. While the session is Active it accumulates the work done: registrations, arrivals logged, tickets issued, no-shows and escalations, plus an average service time.
3. As patients arrive they are recorded in the Arrivals Log and issued a Queue Ticket from this desk; the ticket carries the desk’s prefix and counter.
4. At end of shift the receptionist adds a Closing Note and closes the session; its status moves from Active to Closed and the close time is recorded.

What a session records

These figures roll up into the reception dashboard, giving a supervisor a live picture of which counters are busy, where queues are building and how long patients are waiting — the basis for moving staff between desks during a peak.

Kiosk and queue board

Hospitals that want self-service add the Check-In Kiosk so arriving patients tap in themselves, and the Queue Board (TV) so waiting patients see ticket numbers and counters called. Both are reached under Reception → Reception → Kiosk and draw on the same desks and tickets as the staffed counters, so a kiosk ticket and a counter ticket sit in one queue.

Logging incidents

When something goes wrong at the front desk — an abusive visitor, a registration dispute, a safeguarding concern — the receptionist records it under Reception → Reception → Incidents so it is captured against the session and can be escalated rather than lost. The session’s escalation count reflects these.

Roles & access

Defining desks is an Administrator / Manager task. Running a session — opening it, logging arrivals, issuing tickets, registering patients — is done by staff with the Reception role.

Troubleshooting

Related

• Creating your facility
• Staff & roles
• Your first patient