Hospitals specialize in ensuring people receive quality comprehensive care to improve their health, a goal that requires dealing with important, and often life-threatening issues.
In a hospital setting, time is of the essence. Many changes occur rapidly, making clear communication necessary for smooth management. Effective visual communication, like interactive digital signage, helps prime an environment for more efficient operations.
Finding a reliable and efficient means of communication drastically improves the internal operations of hospitals. Not prioritizing these methods can lead to medical facilities wasting $12 billion per year on inefficient communication. Clear and accessible information heightens the likelihood of hospitals and healthcare facilities improving on patient satisfaction and health outcomes.
As the industry settles into the digital era with 70% of hospitals now providing digital communication systems, screens are proving to be an ideal way to convey critical, time-sensitive information.
Digital signage systems in healthcare facilities are a powerful tool that works to increase patient, visitor, and staff experiences through advanced communication, while optimizing on management processes.
Eighty-three per cent of patients spend a significant amount of time interacting with a hospital’s digital content, making it a crucial strategy to engage and share important information with guests.
Digital signage solutions have become an integral part of the healthcare experience, helping healthcare facilities to streamline internal processes while providing quality service to patients and staff and increasing profitability.
Digital communication systems offer a variety of effective methods that upgrade how hospitals interact with its staff, patients, and visitors.
Here are some of the ways these solutions can be implemented:
Welcome screens
Hospitals are typically high stress environments, making the use of digital signage in lobbies and public areas critical to creating a welcoming space. They play an effective role in reducing patients’ stress levels by setting a positive tone with captivating graphics. Hours of operation, emergency numbers, and health tips can also be displayed to keep patients and visitors informed and reassured.
Waiting room signage
As an area where patients and visitors commonly experience the highest level of anxiety, integrating digital signage displays helps to ease waiting room nervousness and increase visitor satisfaction. The screen can display estimated wait times and the queue status to keep patients informed, while delivering educational or entertainment content for heightened engagement.
Wayfinding
Due to the nature of their service, hospitals often have several wings for a wide range of functions, making them more complex to navigate. The ability to successfully orient oneself in healthcare facilities is important for patients, visitors, and staff, as inefficient navigation can cost hospitals approximately $220,000 annually. Digital directories and wayfinding signage can provide customized directions to guide individuals to their destinations with ease.
Patient check-ins
There’s a growing interest with self-service as a favoured medium as people prefer to find solutions to their problems themselves, rather than needing human support. Combining a hospital’s appointment and queue management system with an interactive digital signage kiosk allows patients to access information more easily, and encourages them to perform self-check-ins, freeing up valuable time for staff.
With the right digital signage, hospitals can leverage effective methods to enhance their visual communication with patients, visitors, and staff while improving their internal operations. As technology advances, these sophisticated communication systems unlock a range of opportunities for the hospital industry to evolve and create more engaging and positive experiences.
