From identifying patients and ensuring drug safety to accessing medical equipment information, QR codes have found plenty of use cases in healthcare. Beyond their practical functions, they have evolved into marketing tools. They make the connection between healthcare providers and patients stronger.
With the digital health market projected to reach $275 billion by 2028 (Statista, 2023), adopting innovation is essential. For this purpose, QR codes stand out as a decent example. Read on to discover their benefits, real-life examples, practical ideas, and viable use cases.
What Is the Healthcare Industry?
Healthcare is an industry that combines medical services, medical equipment, drugs, technology, and patient care, aiming to protect and improve public health. Set to exceed $21 trillion by 2030 globally (Verified Market Research, 2021), this sector requires continuous innovation to meet the evolving demands of its rapid growth.
In this context, QR codes serve as tools to fuel this innovation. Their ability to encode and share diverse information contributes to the healthcare industry’s need for efficient data, equipment, and patient management, as well as process automation.
Use Cases: How QR Codes Are Used in Healthcare
In the healthcare industry, QR codes help track patients, manage medical staff, promote medical services, and more. Let’s discuss these and other practical use cases in greater detail.
1. Patient Identification in Healthcare
QR codes allow healthcare service providers to identify their patients correctly. When linked to electronic health records (EHR) and attached to a patient’s bracelet, these codes improve accuracy during registration.
QR codes not only streamline the hospital admission process but also provide physicians with immediate access to a patient’s medical history through a simple scan. Integrating these scannable solutions with electronic health records proves highly efficient, particularly considering that 96% of US hospitals have already adopted EHR systems (HealthIT.gov, 2021).
2. Drug Safety in Healthcare
Leveraging QR codes to ensure drug safety is another viable use case of these solutions in the healthcare industry. Placing codes on medicine packages provides rapid access to detailed drug information, including dosage instructions, potential side effects, and interactions.
QR codes are also invaluable tools for fighting drug counterfeits, as they let healthcare professionals verify medicines effortlessly. It’s especially critical in light of the 10% increase in pharmaceutical crime incidents in 2022 compared to 2021 (Pharmaceutical Security Institute, 2022).
3. Healthcare Marketing
QR codes serve as marketing tools in the healthcare sector, letting medical service providers communicate their offerings effectively. These scannable solutions find applications in emails, flyers, online ads, billboards, medical journals, and other marketing materials.
Using QR codes in email campaigns may be one of the most efficient marketing strategies, given the impressive 42.7% open rate of healthcare emails (MailerLite, 2024). This approach provides a simple means for medical care providers to engage and share relevant information with their patients.
4. Medical Equipment Information in Healthcare
Hospitals can use QR codes to access essential information on the medical equipment. Codes placed on medical devices offer instant details on usage guidelines, maintenance schedules, and equipment specifications.
With QR codes in place, healthcare professionals optimize equipment usage, ensuring timely maintenance and increasing overall operational efficiency. Adopting QR codes for medical device management is almost imperative, given the industry’s projected revenue growth of $511 billion by 2024 (Statista, 2024).
5. Medical Staff Attendance Tracking in Healthcare
Medical staff attendance tracking is one of the key use cases of QR codes for healthcare. Incorporating these codes on personnel’s identification tags or cards is especially relevant, as hospitals rank among the top five sectors using time and attendance software (Kings Research, 2022).
On top of that, QR codes can contain important healthcare worker details, including names, addresses, contact numbers, and social media profiles. They can also serve as business cards, offering more than just attendance tracking.
Benefits of QR Codes for Healthcare
Increased data accuracy and improved patient engagement are just a few benefits of using QR codes for healthcare. But there are more. Let’s review them in greater depth:
- Increased data accuracy: QR codes simplify data entry and let hospitals access healthcare information easily.
- Improved patient engagement: QR codes promote medical services and provide patients with helpful info, making them more involved in their treatment.
- Streamlined operations: QR codes optimize patient identification, medical equipment management, and staff tracking.
- Increased medication safety: QR codes provide quick access to drug information, reducing adverse reactions and counterfeiting.
On top of that, QR codes support contactless medical care, such as connecting them to online appointment scheduling systems. Notably, 72% of patients state these platforms encourage them to keep their appointments (Zippia, 2023).
QR Code Ideas for Healthcare
Providing telemedicine access and handling post-visit surveys are other ways hospitals use QR codes. Let’s look at these and more ideas you can implement:
- Use QR codes in promotional materials and link them to telemedicine services to make virtual healthcare more accessible.
- Simplify patient feedback collection by integrating QR codes into post-visit surveys.
- Enable access to a patient’s emergency contact information and critical health details by integrating QR codes into medical ID cards or wearables.
Beyond these ideas, you can leverage QR codes to share information on ongoing clinical trials. That’s a decent way to educate your patients and increase their awareness of medical research.
QR Code Examples in Healthcare
Real-world examples of using QR codes for healthcare include sharing vaccination records and incorporating these scannable solutions on medication packages. Let’s look at these instances more precisely:
- SMART Health Card: The users of the Mayo Clinic app can retrieve a QR code that connects to the SMART Health Card, a globally accepted digital vaccination proof.
- India implements QR codes on drug packaging: In the battle against counterfeit medicines, India is implementing more stringent policies for medication packaging. Pharmaceutical companies are now required to integrate QR codes on packaging to verify authenticity and expiration dates.
QR Code Generator for Healthcare
Medical service providers can generate a QR code with staff’s personal information through MyQRCode. Here’s how to make a vCard code with our tool:
- Open MyQRCode and click Create my QR code,
- Choose vCard as a QR code type,
- Enter the necessary personal details,
- Customize the QR code design,
- Review and click Finish to create a QR code for a vCard.
Generating virtual business cards is just one QR code option that we offer. You can also link QR codes to hospital websites or PDF files with critical health information.