Creating Better Patient Experiences with Digital Signs and Wayfinding

Health and safety in hospitals, office buildings, and shared public spaces has never been more critical. Healthcare providers and hospitals have tightened operational protocols to try and protect every person on-site. Among other things, this means reducing interactions among staff and visitors and getting patients to the right location quickly and efficiently. 

 

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Image credit: 22Miles

In healthcare campuses across the U.S., IoT sensors and digital wayfinding technology are turning into crowd pleasers, outperforming static signs and printed campus maps. Patients guided by a mobile phone and app with turn-by-turn directions can more quickly locate doctor offices, treatment centers, and cafeterias in sprawling medical complexes.

Oftentimes a portfolio of different smart screen solutions is the most effective way for integrators to help healthcare providers create an optimal patient experience. Waiting room digital signage, wayfinding kiosks with touchscreens for visitors entering a medical center lobby, and dynamic video walls for hospital staff at their stations and break rooms are all examples of where medical facilities can benefit from smart digital solutions. From keeping patients informed with up-to-date information and notifications to providing turn-by-turn hospital wayfinding directions, digital signage can add efficiencies to healthcare delivery. 

For example, by placing digital signage displays in waiting areas such as emergency rooms and outpatient procedural departments, perceived wait times are shorter. This is especially true of areas that don’t allow the use of mobile phones, where patients and families waiting for care might feel overly anxious. By adding an automated wait time display, medical care centers can increase patient, guest, and visitor satisfaction while creating a concise visual delivery of their desired message. 

Delivering Health Information with Integrated Digital Signage

One partner in the Intel® IoT Solutions Marketplace that has developed digital signage solutions for healthcare is 22Miles. It provides platforms for 3D wayfinding, 4K video walls, mobile indoor positioning and mapping, and dynamic signage. 22Miles offers a variety of integrated solutions specifically designed for hospitals and medical campuses, including digital signage software, wayfinding displays and kiosks, interactive touch screens, and cloud-based deployment platforms for automated messaging.  

The 22Miles digital signage platform gives medical administrators the ability to:

  • Integrate wait times in emergency waiting areas directly into a digital sign.
  • Promote services within the hospital or at different locations.
  • Emphasize community interaction with reminders, such as getting a flu shot or vaccination.
  • Announce future expansion or other health services, such as lab testing or in-building pharmaceuticals.
  • Introduce new physicians and staff to patients.

A Virtual and Safe Wayfinding Tool 

To get patients where they need to be, the 22Miles digital wayfinding solution provides patients, visitors, and employees with turn-by-turn digital wayfinding directions to any location at a hospital or healthcare campus. Directions are automatically generated once the user selects a destination, and the system displays a “You Are Here” hospital map icon with turn-by-turn directional arrows. 

All directions are based on the shortest path and ease of accessibility using the 22Miles Smart Pathway Algorithm. Mapping functionality sends on-the-go directions to patients’ mobile devices. With integration options to native hospital apps, the 22Miles wayfinding platform allows patients to find a specific physician’s office, the closest parking lot, a drop-off location, and the nearest public transportation option.

Digital signage with photos of physicians, their locations, and their specialties

Image credit: 22Miles

Protection-as-a-Service Office Solutions

In addition to healthcare, the 22Miles interactive wayfinding and digital signage solutions can be used in multiple markets, including education, transportation, smart cities, smart retail stores, and shopping malls, venue and hospitality space, and in corporate office buildings. The solution can operate on any Intel® Core™ i5 to i7 processor-based player with Windows 10 iOT as the preferred OS.

Going beyond wayfaring but with COVID-19 building and office safety measures in mind, 22Miles recently developed Protection-as-a-Service, a suite of integrated technology features and capabilities developed to address issues related to returning to work in the office, store, or factory. It is designed to help organizations manage evolving safety measures and social distancing. 

 

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