Walk-up kiosk & self check-in

Let patients check themselves in on a walk-up tablet

A walk-up tablet sits in your lobby and needs nobody at the desk. The patient taps Check in for your appointment, enters their last name and date of birth, types the six-digit code texted to the mobile number on file, and is checked in on the spot. The tablet then walks them through whatever intake is still open and resets itself for the next person. It is the same kiosk as the staff hand-off in 1.12, running in a second mode on tablets you enroll. Walk-up is off until an administrator turns it on.

1. Turn on the kiosk. Open Admin > Kiosk. On the General tab, set Enable check-in kiosk to Enabled. Walk-up devices need it.
2. Allow walk-up devices. On the Walk-up tab, under Kiosk mode, choose Also allow walk-up self check-in devices (“Enrolled tablets let patients check themselves in — no one at the desk touches the device.”). Staff hand-off keeps working alongside it.
3. Choose how patients prove who they are. Under Identification, keep Last name + date of birth + text code (recommended) unless your patients cannot receive texts. Last name + date of birth only works without a phone but gives the patient far less to do (see the table below).
4. Set the reset timers. Return to the welcome screen after (seconds idle) — 90 by default (30–600); inside the check-in steps an “Are you still there?” countdown adds 30 seconds first. Show “All set — have a seat” for (seconds) — 15 by default (5–120), then the tablet resets for the next patient.
5. Decide who hears about problems. Alert the front desk (on) sends a toast naming the device — never the patient — when the kiosk cannot find someone. Under Staff review, pick when a check-in needs a second look — Only when something changed (recommended), Every walk-up check-in, or Never — and choose the people in Send review to-dos to. Nobody is picked by default, which means toasts only.
6. Add a welcome line and save. Welcome message (optional) replaces the default greeting (up to 280 characters). Click Save Changes; the dialog moves to Devices so you can enroll the first tablet (1.34).

Enroll, name, and revoke walk-up tablets

A tablet becomes a walk-up kiosk only after someone with device rights enrolls it. That is a practice administrator (or office manager or owner), or a staff member with the Enroll, rename, and revoke walk-up self check-in kiosk devices permission, which the Office Manager role profile includes. They also need kiosk access to sign in.

1. Prepare the tablet. In Safari, open your patient portal address followed by /kiosk, then Share > Add to Home Screen, and launch the kiosk from that icon.
2. Sign in and enroll. Sign in with your work email and password (or a passkey). On Today’s check-ins, tap Set up as walk-up kiosk — it appears only while the kiosk and walk-up are both on and this tablet is not enrolled yet.
3. Name it and pick its location. In the Set up as walk-up kiosk dialog, enter a Tablet name staff will recognize in alerts (for example “Front lobby iPad”) and, if your practice has several locations, a Location — “Patients can only check in here for visits at this location.” — or Any location. Tap Set up. You are signed out and the tablet shows the patient Welcome screen.
4. Manage tablets from the Devices tab. Admin > Kiosk > Devices lists every tablet with Device, Location, Last seen, Enrolled by, and Check-ins today. Rename changes the name or location; Revoke stops the tablet immediately and ends any check-in in progress on it. Show revoked lists retired tablets.
5. Take a tablet out of walk-up mode. Tap Staff at the bottom of the Welcome screen and sign in. Return to walk-up mode hands it back to patients; Remove walk-up setup forgets the enrollment on that tablet (and revokes it when you have device rights).

What the patient does at a walk-up tablet

1. Welcome. Your welcome message (or “Here for an appointment today? Check yourself in on this screen.”) and one big button, Check in for your appointment. I need help alerts the front desk; Staff is for your team.
2. Let’s find your appointment. Last name and Date of birth as MM / DD / YYYY, then Continue. If two patients share both, a First name field appears.
3. Enter the code we texted you. The screen shows the masked number (“We texted a 6-digit code to +1 *** *** 1234.”). The code submits itself on the sixth digit; Send a new code unlocks after 45 seconds. “No phone with you? Please see the front desk.”
4. Checked in. “You’re checked in, Jordan” with the appointment time and provider. The visit is checked in at this moment — the calendar and the provider see the arrival even if the patient walks away later.
5. Finish open intake. The same steps as a staff hand-off: Questionnaires, Forms & consents, Your information, Insurance, and, if enabled, medications, allergies, and Payment. The last screen, That’s everything, ends with Finish check-in, then “All set — have a seat.” counts down and the tablet resets.

Front-desk alerts and walk-up review to-dos

Walk-up check-ins reach your team two ways: live toasts in Hero EMR, and to-dos for the people in Send review to-dos to.

1. Know what triggers a review. With Only when something changed (recommended), a check-in is reviewed when the patient changed contact info, insurance, medications, or allergies; asked for help; left before finishing after changing something; skipped a required payment; or identified with name and date of birth only. Every walk-up check-in reviews all of them; Never reviews only name-and-date-of-birth check-ins.
2. Work the to-do. Each recipient gets one to-do per check-in, attached to the patient: title “Review kiosk check-in — Elena P.”, with notes such as “Elena P. finished check-in at the walk-up kiosk on Front lobby iPad (Sep 25, 2026 01:45 PM EDT). Review: contact info. Identified by: last name + date of birth + texted code.” Open the chart, confirm the change, and complete the to-do.
3. Answer a help request. I need help on the Welcome screen always alerts the front desk. A patient who taps it mid-check-in stays checked in; the tablet shows “Someone will be right with you.” and resets.

Set when patients can check in, and turn on text check-in

One check-in window applies everywhere a patient checks themselves in: the kiosk, the portal and app Check in button, and text check-in. You can edit it in two places that show the same settings: Admin > Kiosk > Check-in, or Admin > Scheduling > Reminders > Patient Notifications > Text Replies.

1. Set the window. Under When patients can check in: Opens (minutes before) — 30 by default (5–120) — and Closes (minutes after) — 15 by default (0–60). A summary reads “Check-in opens 30 min before and closes 15 min after.”; set Closes to 0 for “closes at the appointment time”.
2. Turn on text check-in if you want it. Text check-in starts off. When on, patients reply CHECK IN (or HERE) to their reminder inside the window, and reminders sent close to the visit add “Reply CHECK IN when you arrive.” (within 30 minutes: “Reply CHECK IN or open the app to check in now.”).
3. Save. Click Save check-in settings; it confirms “Check-in settings saved.”

The Check in button in the patient portal

Patients with an in-office visit can check in from the portal when they arrive. The button lives on the Your next visit card at the top of the portal’s Appointments page; telehealth visits do not show it.

1. Before the window. The card reads Check-in opens at 9:30 AM (shown when the window opens within the next 12 hours).
2. Inside the window. Check in checks the visit in; the card then reads Checked in ✓ with the time, and staff get a Patient checked in toast ending in “online”.
3. If something comes first. Unfinished pre-visit tasks: “Finish your pre-visit tasks first, then tap Check in again.” (the first open task opens). A payment your practice requires before check-in: “Pay $25.00 to check in.” with Go to billing (only when portal bill pay is on).
4. After the window. For up to 3 hours afterwards the card says “Online check-in has closed — please let the front desk know you’re here.”

Take card payments on the kiosk

The Payments tab of Admin > Kiosk lets patients pay by card on the web kiosk, in both staff hand-off and walk-up sessions. It needs a connected Stripe account (External Providers > Stripe). Changing it requires billing-settings access, which practice administrators, billing managers, office managers, and owners have; others see “Kiosk payments are a billing setting. Ask a billing manager to change them.”

On the tablet the Payment step lists what is due with Pay $25.00; the card goes into a secure Stripe form, cards only — Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link, and saved cards are off on shared devices. A successful payment reads “Paid ✓ Thank you.”; there is no receipt screen. A patient share held for a pending secondary claim isn’t offered and doesn’t count in the amount due while that claim is pending (see Patient balances). Card readers need an office registered for them under External Providers > Stripe (Stripe Terminal card readers), and readers are paired in the kiosk app. One Save payment settings applies both the web-kiosk and card-reader settings; new check-ins use them right away.