Prior to testing your kiosk's card reader, please verify the internal wiring of the enclosure is correct. (See: Connect the Wires in Your Kiosk.)
Testing the Kiosk Card Reader
It's important to remember that health card swipes for check-in can be susceptible to the following issues relating to the card's magnetic strip:
- demagnetization
- damage, scratches, wear
If a card swipe fails, these factors should be ruled out first before assuming there is a fault in hardware.
It's important to test the card reader with a sufficient sample size of valid health cards. We typically recommend testing at least 10 to12 cards to verify the hardware. Testing with a single card, or even two to three, is not sufficient as the problem of demagnetized cards is widespread enough to be a common occurrence.
If confirmation of across the board failure of 10 or more cards occurs, the clinic should reach out to the vendor of the kiosk hardware, typically Bluebird IT Solutions, to discuss acquiring a replacement reader.
Please see below for two of the most common error situations during health card swipe attempts.
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Failed Swipe
- When a patient swipes a card with a damaged magnetic strip (or simply swipes it off-angle so it cannot read the card), they will see an error message pop up on the tablet, letting them know that the swipe didn’t work, and asking them to swipe again or check with reception.
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Expired Card
- In the case that a patient swipes a health card that is expired, they see a different message, which simply tells them that their card is expired and asks them to check in with reception.
