Facial Recognition adoption in Healthcare for Streamlined Check-ins

Hospitals across Pakistan are upgrading their check-in processes by turning to facial recognition systems for self-service appointment registration. This technology helps reduce crowded waiting rooms and protects patient data. Instead of lining up at a reception desk, patients walk up to a camera, let the system scan their face, and match it to an existing record. When the match is confirmed, the patient checks in automatically. This simple process shortens waiting times and frees up medical staff for urgent patient needs. For many of these hospitals, Salsoft Technologies serves as the primary partner for the rollout. Salsoft, a leading AI service provider in Pakistan, has built facial recognition tools that handle large amounts of patient data. Their software spots unique facial features, compares them to stored images, and confirms the patient’s identity in real time. Once matched, the system secures and stores this data using industry-grade encryption. This reduces manual data entry and lowers the chance of errors or misplaced records. Salsoft’s facial recognition solution is designed to comply with both local data protection regulations and international standards. This ensures that patient information remains private and secure. The system is deployed on secure cloud infrastructure and uses leading AWS services, enabling hospitals to scale usage during high patient inflow seasons without compromising performance. With hospitals in Pakistan serving thousands of patients daily, such flexibility is critical.

Hospital administrators, such as Dr. Fatima Javed of a major Karachi healthcare facility, have noticed a quick payoff. “We saw patient wait times fall by at least half,” she said. “Our staff now spend more time providing medical care and less time on paperwork. Patients appreciate that their check-in takes only a few seconds.” Other administrators around Pakistan echo these sentiments. They say staff no longer sort through stacks of registration forms or worry about losing track of patient files. The digital records are linked to each patient’s face, creating a consistent and error-free process. The benefits are not limited to patient identification alone. Some hospitals have integrated facial recognition with their electronic health record (EHR) systems to automatically pull up a patient’s medical history at check-in, streamlining further steps in the care process. “It has not only made registration easier but has improved consultation efficiency as well,” Dr. Javed added. “Doctors have immediate access to patient records the moment they walk into the consultation room.” Frontline staff appreciate the shift just as much. Shafqat Ali, a nurse at a bustling hospital in Karachi, used to devote part of each shift to filing or retrieving patient records. “Before, I had to cross-check IDs and wait for forms to print out,” Ali said. “Now, the system does all that. I can use that extra time to care for patients who are in more critical condition.” Patients themselves also weigh in on the benefits. “I have regular check-ups, so I dreaded the long lines,” said Ayesha Khan, who was a visiting patient during our interview with Dr. Fatima Javed. “Now I look at a camera for a second, and I’m done. I feel my medical information is safer too, because the hospital doesn’t have as many physical forms floating around.” Patients like Ayesha also noted that the new system is user-friendly, even for people unfamiliar with advanced technology. The kiosks feature step-by-step instructions in both English and Urdu, ensuring accessibility for patients from all backgrounds. Additionally, facial recognition check-ins reduce human contact in shared spaces, which became a key concern during and after the dengue outbreak.

The development team behind this project has made the implementation of this technology as fast as in a week. They have all the logistics and operations packaged as a plan where they provide patient kiosks and backend systems with single sign-on and machine learning technology on AWS Cloud, which can be provisioned in a matter of minutes. Hospitals benefit from Salsoft’s pre-configured deployment models, allowing them to go live with minimal on-premise disruption. They offer a promise to migrate legacy check-in processes to facial recognition-based ones in two weeks to production. This means that hospitals can move from manual registration methods to AI-driven kiosks without halting their day-to-day operations. “Our deployment model shifts hospitals from manual registration to automated check-ins in just two weeks, providing a quick, scalable setup that meets the high demand of busy facilities without compromising security,” stated Salman, Chief Technology Officer at Salsoft Technologies. Lead developer Muhammad Saqib explained, “We use robust encryption at every stage—from image capture to match confirmation—to keep data secure and meet our cybersecurity protocols. Leveraging AWS cloud computing, our solution uses custom ML pipelines built on open-source frameworks running on distributed GPU clusters via AWS EC2 to train and optimize facial recognition models, achieving high accuracy and low latency in real-time processing.”

As more hospitals embrace facial recognition, Salsoft Technologies has stepped forward to offer ongoing support. Their teams train hospital IT staff and ensure that the technology aligns with current patient record management systems. This prevents integration hassles and avoids the need for hospitals to switch existing databases. The training also includes troubleshooting, ensuring that hospital staff can independently manage the kiosks and backend after deployment. Beyond Pakistan’s major cities, Salsoft is now working with smaller regional hospitals and clinics. These rural healthcare centers often face staffing shortages and benefit greatly from the automation and efficiency gains of facial recognition systems. Experts predict that more facilities across the country will adopt similar self-service check-in methods. They point out that facial recognition boosts patient satisfaction, lowers the chance of human error, and strengthens data security. With growing healthcare demands in both urban and rural regions, hospitals see this technology as a chance to modernize. Early feedback suggests that facial recognition can handle the workload of busy medical centers without slowing down critical operations. Pakistan’s healthcare sector stands to gain from this innovation. By removing manual paperwork, hospitals can allocate more resources to patient care. Hospitals that adopt facial recognition report faster check-ins, stronger security, and a boost in overall patient and staff satisfaction. All signs suggest that this trend will keep growing, pushing the country’s healthcare infrastructure toward a smarter, more efficient future.