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.

Following the pandemic, employers are having to adapt to new ways of working. With 37% of employees coming in full time, an increase of 4%, work environments and the role of offices have to be reimagined to create safe, productive, and enjoyable spaces for employees.

Across industries, this post-pandemic era has prompted companies to use lessons from the widely implemented remote work practice to rethink office culture in creative and bold ways.

Working from home has reshaped what employees now want from the office – from new guidelines and policies to improved technology to keep teams connected and amenities that better prioritize health.

This transition back to office urges the consideration of how to effectively plan, communicate, and attract employees to return, while mending the challenge of welcoming new team members and reorienting existing employees.

A new work culture

Creating a better workplace experience in a post-pandemic world can take many forms. Designing a workspace that best supports an organization and its employees entails strategic flexibility. As employers are the primary proprietors responsible for this space, it’s highly beneficial to understand the various practices utilized to enhance a reimagined workspace.

Understand different office models

With an adjustment to square footage needs in mind, companies must find a balance between remote working and relying on the office to create an engaged and collaborative workforce. Some companies have chosen to return to their previous workplace strategy. However, others are evaluating the changing needs of workers to understand new workplace planning strategies that optimize productivity, and satisfaction.

Unification of employers and employees

Encouraging a connection between leadership teams and employees is vital to creating an inclusive and welcoming work environment. Finding the perfect balance between in-office and remote workspaces requires open conversations with employees for their wants to be voiced and actively considered. By giving employees a sense of control, it will foster deeper trust in a company’s capabilities and intentions.

Transparency and clear expectations

Transparency encourages employee engagement by building on honesty and openness in the workplace. It forms the basis for employee recognition and satisfaction that sets your employees up for success upon their return. Once a clear return strategy has been determined, ensure there is transparency when communicating it with employees, outlining its benefits and expectations.

A new and improved workspace with digital signage

A reimagined office means new ways of engaging and communicating with employees. In a busy and everchanging world with information overload, it’s not uncommon for important information to get lost. Traditional notice boards, company bulletins, and even email have decreased in effectiveness.

The right workplace technology is critical for facilitating a dynamic workforce – enter digital signage.

This interactive medium of communication can be an incredibly powerful communication channel with high visibility. Done right, it can:

• Boost interactivity and attentiveness, capturing 400% more views than static displays. With digital signage, successfully relaying messages to employees is significantly improved
• Instantly connect with team members, displaying important announcements in real-time
• Drive engagement and collaboration in ways that creates a better company culture
• Display data-driven content like real-time travel updates, news feeds, and weather forecasts for a consistently informed workforce

Take action The work of optimizing and maintaining a workplace strategy is never complete.

Digital signage aids in adapting to new workplace practices to accommodate the evolving expectations of employees. The outcome of this reinvention will provide a safe environment that supports the well-being of employees, improving collaboration and productivity, favouring the company’s objectives

One of the main joys of the traveler experience is freely exploring new locations. But what’s something we all need without fail when traveling? Knowledge of how to find our way around safely. Regardless of your familiarity with an area, there’s always more to see and know. As technology evolves, navigation is much more accessible through digital signage.

Interactive signage is a growing trend that’s proven to have numerous benefits for travel and tourism organizations. With roughly 1.4 billion international tourist arrivals per year, implementing a safe and informed navigation system is crucial. As a new way to promptly provide visitors with live, interactive information, digital signage encourages travelers to explore their destinations confidently.

Digital Information Hubs are a cost-effective means for countries, provinces or states, cities, or tourism organizations to interact with and keep tourists engaged and connected by providing an easy guide with local points of interest, sightseeing tips, local event schedules, hotel and restaurant options and transportation schedules readily available.

Accessible information helps create a positive experience for tourists, allowing them to feel “at home” while traveling by navigating a new city with readily available information.

Image: Interactive Tourist Kiosk located near the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden

Let’s explore the five top benefits of how interactive digital signage can help cities make a positive impression and maintain a secure environment for visitors:

1. Travel from A to B in any language

Interactive signs can help tourists feel like locals by making it easy to explore your city, discover local businesses, and help find important safety information in the language of their choice.

Gone are the days when international visitors had to frantically scroll through a dictionary to decipher a static sign “directing” them from A to B.

Today, you can make it an easy and pleasant experience by offering interactive signage that makes exploring a new place fun and memorable (in a good way).

2. Intelligent Wayfinding and Live Transit Schedules

Interactive digital signage provides a captivating and comprehensive navigation guide that caters to travelers’ desires and needs.

Guests can feel comfortable exploring the area with the latest navigation and live transit information to plan their excursions. By eliminating the confusion and frustration that can come with self-navigation, tourists can orient themselves quickly, improving guests’ satisfaction by 46 percent.

3. Up-to-date, relevant information at their fingertips

Digital signage allows guests to reliably access current information that directly impacts the flow of their trip, alleviating much stress when planning a vacation.

Tourism organizations can efficiently implement and manage system-wide content updates so guests are constantly aware of all available entertainment options.

4. Show your small, local businesses some love

From a business standpoint, digital signage plays a crucial profit-boosting role in tourism. It provides an appealing advertising platform for local businesses to effectively target travelers, increasing brand recognition by over 47 percent.

This practical self-service solution connects visitors to local shops and restaurants, encouraging travelers to explore the area while promoting revenue for local businesses.

5. Collect valuable traveler insights

Digital signage is a sure way to improve your tourist-focused business with consumer data and actionable insights. An interactive information system is a valuable and efficient way to gather data to learn more about users.

Every touch of the screen creates a record so that you know how many people used the digital information hub, what they searched for, and in what language they accessed the information. You can leverage the knowledge gained from analytics to customize content for guests, improve their experience, and increase ROI.

Travelling is made infinitely easier with digital signage. It’s a cost-effective way to boost business returns within the tourism industry by ensuring travelers are fully informed for an enjoyable exploration. Improving the traveler experience satisfies tourists, which is always good for business.

Get in touch to learn more about our digital signage solutions!

As technology advances, digital signage is becoming increasingly important in the education sector. This technology is being implemented increasingly in schools to engage with and attract digitally conscious students while being a quick and cost-effective way for schools to interact with staff, student body, and visitors.

With four out of five students reporting that digital learning will help improve their grades, it becomes vital to consider the advantages of having interactive digital signage as an integral part of educational institutions to foster efficiency and entice engagement.

What is digital signage?

How can digital signage benefit your staff and students?

There are a number of ways interactive digital signage can positively impact your staff and students, ensuring a positive and engaging experience. Digital signage allows you to:

1. Communicate information with effectiveness

There’s always information to be relayed in school, and digital display boards are an ideal medium to disseminate valuable and timely information.

Individuals on campus usually overlook static messaging boards, if they even exist, so upgrading to a digital screen will entice up to 400% more views from the audience.

2. Simplify navigation and wayfinding

Finding your way around a school building or university campus can be challenging.

Displaying navigation maps with digital wayfinding helps guests, visitors, and current or newly enrolled students more confidently orient themselves around campus grounds.

These interactive maps minimize confusion while promoting timeliness amongst staff and students.

3. Strengthen campus safety

The safety of students and visitors is a top priority at education institutions. Incorporating digital signage can help improve the safety and security of the school by integrating with an emergency alert system.

Real-time updates ensure that schools can instantly reach students and staff on campus when an emergency occurs to broadcast emergency contact information, campus maps, and much more!

With these safety measures in place, individuals can roam freely, knowing they are safe and secure.

4. Real-time updates

Digital signage allows you to schedule and provide students and faculty with updates as they happen.

Interactive signage also relays weather, traffic, college team scores, schedules, and daily events that can be useful to campus attendees, making it a powerful tool to disseminate information on time.

5. Save money and increase revenue

This cost-effective method of disseminating information saves money in terms of printing advertisements and posters to be displayed around campus, and increases advertising revenue by 800%.

It cuts the effort and expense of traditional print communication while reaching a wider array of audience that traditional print couldn’t.

Using this platform is also environmentally friendly as the use of paper-based communications will have lessened.

Digital signage is the most effective way to improve communication with staff and students, while creating a sense of community. It’s an easy platform to get your message across with captivating content while reaching a large audience.

Get in touch to learn more about how our digital signage solutions can advance your educational institution’s development by keeping updated with modern, stimulating technologies.

An iconic line in automobile advertising states, “This is not your Father’s Oldsmobile.” It’s a classic slogan that dates back to a series of commercials in the 1980s, which urged people to reconsider what the brand Oldsmobile meant to them by taking a fresh look at how much the car had changed from the previous generation. 

It’s a compelling message and one that can be applied to another fast-evolving (although admittedly less ‘sexy’) product: digital hospital directories, now more appropriately referred to as digital information hubs.

Coincidently, when those car commercials were running, the first commercially available touchscreens were beginning to be made public. A few brave early adopters began installing directories using touch technology in their hospitals within a decade. But just as the cars of the 1980s bear little resemblance to today’s cars, those early directories bear little similarity to today’s models in either form or function. Thirty years ago, directories were essentially building maps, helping visitors and staff get from A to B. Today, they have become interactive information hubs that enhance visitors’ experiences.

Size matters: The Evolution Of Touchscreen Technology

Like other products with screens (televisions or computer monitors, for example), there are noticeable trends in directories from a physical standpoint—size being the most obvious. When these first touchscreens entered the market 20 years ago, screen sizes ranged between 15″ and 22″ (like televisions, measured diagonally), which evolved slowly. 

Even 8 – 10 years ago, screen sizes had increased only modestly, with 32″ perhaps the most common size for “larger format” touchscreens that found their way into shopping malls and other larger venues.  

Today that has changed, with 42″ – 55″ screens the most commonly installed sizes and 70″ and larger screens popping up with increasing frequency at much more reasonable price points than two or three years ago.

Touch technologies have also continued to evolve with touch films, applied to regular monitors competing with touchscreens, which have continued to employ increasingly more sophisticated but reliable technologies such as PCAP.

At the same time, those touchscreens are now some 40%+ thinner than those five years ago. Picture sharpness would be another attribute that has seen significant evolution, with HD replaced by UHD and 4K resolution with 8K on the way.

That said, software features and functionality are among the most significant changes in digital directories. Over the past decade, digital directories have moved from a means to locate tenants or destinations within a building to interactive digital information hubs for a building or campus. Now, the opportunity to provide relevant information to patients, visitors, or staff as they enter or move about the hospital is almost endless. 

7 Compelling Reasons to use Interactive Digital Signage in Hospitals

1. Hospital amenities such as washrooms, food and beverage options, the location of the gift shop or pharmacy, and entrances to underground or nearby parking
2. Live local transit information showing the arrival time of the next bus or train.
3. Links to third-party data feeds showing news, weather, sports, or entertainment information.
4. A neighborhood map showing local restaurants or additional parking or transportation options
5. Inter-building connectivity. Many hospital layouts are complex, having grown by addition, and comprise many wings or buildings connected by long corridors, elevator banks, or underground or elevated walkways or paths.
6. Accessibility features. Not just for the mobility impaired, but also for the visually impaired through the incorporation of headphone jacks and special keyboards
7. Additional languages serve populations whose first language is not English, an increasingly important facet of our multicultural society.

Finally, while a great deal of the focus of directory information is naturally geared toward patients and their caregivers, hospital staff can also benefit from the information displayed on the directories. Along with a number of the features listed above, we have found that sustainability information reflecting efforts by building staff and management alike to reduce energy consumption or waste production generates significant interest and pride among those who work at the hospital. 

Similarly, hospital announcements such as welcoming new staff or displaying information about initiatives such as blood donor clinics, holiday food drives, or participation in Earth Day – foster a sense of community among those who call the building home for a good portion of their time.   

Today’s Interactive Digital Information Hub is not your Father’s (or Mother’s) Hospital Directory indeed!

As technology evolves and integrates with our infrastructures, including buildings and campuses, complexity is becoming the norm. A potential emergency can lead to confused and panicked occupants when a building does not have a full emergency response plan. So how can digital signage help in situations like these?

The answer is simple.

By providing visual cues and clear instructions, digital signage can effectively communicate procedures and direct occupants to nearby exits or areas of safety during emergencies.

How Interactive Signage Keeps Your Occupants Safe and You Compliant.

Interactive digital signage is used to create a seamless and enhanced visitor experience and communicate important messages about your facility.

Additionally, providing electronic signage improves the way people experience your space and keep your employees and visitors safe.

In the past, safety information in workplaces and buildings has been communicated via static, physical building signs.

However, people with visual impairments may have difficulty reading small print or important safety notices in a language that may not be their first, leading to issues with accessibility compliance.

Digital signage provides a dynamic way to convey important information to your workers or occupants through multiple languages and text-to-voice options.

When you use interactive signage, you create a cohesive culture of safety and training in your workplace, hospital, or apartment building.

Information Hubs Help Guide Tenants and Staff during any emergency.

In keeping with the societal trend toward digitizing information, we are more accustomed to looking at digital screens for many purposes, including news, entertainment, and education. Our brains process graphics faster than text, and motion naturally attracts our eyes. These factors make digital signage for emergency messaging one of the best communication tools available. 

Historically, property managers primarily used digital signage to communicate building information and directions.

Today, interactive signage can provide life-saving information during an emergency because building managers can update information quickly through intuitive CMS systems. Safety instructions can be prepared ahead of time and saved to be easily accessed when they’re needed.

For example, a tornado warning would activate the display of relevant procedures and instructions. Implementation of electronic signage can do more for your building than inform, entertain, and communicate with your visitors and tenants.

They can serve as a valuable tool to help save lives in emergencies (including a zombie apocalypse) by delivering timely, informative messages and warnings.

Get in touch to learn more about our digital information hubs, and how they will improve your building’s emergency response plan

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