Amazon expands cashierless checkout to hospitals — with a new feature

Amazon has adapted its “Just Walk Out” cashierless checkout technology for use in hospitals and other health care centers. 

The updated version includes a new payment solution called "badge pay," which lets staff pay for food and beverages purchases by scanning their employee badge. The first hospital to offer the technology and the badge pay capability is St. Joseph’s/Candler's Candler Hospital in Savannah, Ga.  Morrison Healthcare, a national food and nutrition provider serving more than 950 hospitals and healthcare systems, operates the Just Walk Out-enabled SmartBytes store at Candler Hospital.

“Just Walk Out technology brings a forward-looking approach to hospital food access to better serve both caregivers and guests,” said Tim Pierce, CEO of Morrison Healthcare. “As we continue to bring advanced digital options to our partners and create a frictionless environment for healthcare dining, Candler serves as an impressive model for how this can be achieved thoughtfully and strategically.” 

The technology enables the SmartBytes market, which is located near the hospital's emergency department, to stay open all day, every day, providing a much more robust food option than the standard vending machines that many hospital employees and visitors have relied on in the past. 

“This first-of-its-kind implementation enabling employee badge pay delivers a new level of convenience to hospital employees and visitors, enabling them to access refreshments and food day and night without waiting in line," stated Jon Jenkins, VP, Just Walk Out technology, AWS Applications. "We look forward to bringing Just Walk Out technology to more healthcare facilities across the U.S. and expanding employee badge pay to additional locations.”

To enable the badge pay capability at Candler Hospital, Amazon worked with healthcare automation solutions provider CBORD. Hospital visitors can also shop at the Just Walk Out technology–enabled hospital store with their linked credit/debit cards or mobile wallets.

The Amazon technology enables customers to take what they want without having to stop to check out, with the experience made possible by computer vision, sensor fusion, generative AI, and deep learning technology that detects what customers take from or return to the shelves. 

With the new payment capability, health care workers can link their employee badges with their payroll deduct account. The purchase amount will be automatically deducted from their payroll deduct account. Employees can look up the receipt and account balance in their hospital’s badge pay web portal or mobile app. 

Caregivers and other visitors to the hospital can also shop at the Just Walk Out technology–enabled market with their credit/debit cards or mobile wallets.

"Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology supports our smart medicine strategy by providing high tech solutions to our patients, visitors and co-workers, even with food service,” said Paul P. Hinchey, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s/Candler. “With this technology, Candler Hospital co-workers needing a quick snack or a meal during the third shift, as well as visitors taking care of friends or family members, have a convenient way to purchase the meals, snacks, and drinks they need so they can quickly get back to their loved ones. Once we evaluate its impact post launch, we will determine how this technology might be utilized on our other campuses.”

Initially rolled out for use in grocery and convenience stores, Just Walk Out has also been deployed in settings including arenas, theme parks and airports. Just Walk Out technology–enabled stores are available at more than 120 third-party locations in the U.S., UK, Australia and Canada, as well as in dozens of Amazon-owned stores.

Checkout-free store options range from custom retrofit of existing stores to prefabricated kits to unattended stores that can remain operational at all hours. 

“As our team continues to innovate and deliver new checkout-free capabilities, customers and retailers are already seeing the benefits—and we’re just getting started,” Jenkins said in a corporate blog post.