Wayfinding Digital Signage for Hospitals

For large organisations, steering people, to different departments, whether they are staff, visitors of service users, is always a challenge. Nowhere is this more of a challenge than in hospitals. With so many different wards and departments, hospitals need comprehensive signage to enable wayfinding. However, most hospitals are continuously in flux, as reorganisation and improvements to facilities are necessary to maintain high levels of patient care. Digital signage provides a flexible solution.

Often, these reorganisations and changes to department locations mean hospital signage is often out of date. Constant replacement of hospital signage is an unnecessary cost and is often logistically a challenge considering the sheer size and number of entrances most hospitals have.

Digital signage for advertising and messaging is already being implemented in many hospital environments, but digital signage can provide other benefits too, especially when it comes to wayfinding.

Most hospitals employ some form of sophisticated static signage. Sometimes this is even colour coded to help visitors negotiate the myriad of corridors and departments to find the right location. However, when there are alterations in the hospitals this inevitably means visitors, patients and even staff end up getting lost; this causes frustration and delays in service provision as people end up arriving late for appointments.

Digital signage can often provide the answers to the wayfinding issues around hospitals. Because of a screen network’s flexibility, rather than having to continuously replace and move static signage around the hospital, digital signage is able to relay any changes in wayfinding when they happen.

For wayfinding, existing screens are often quite capable of relaying changes to the hospital layout, but are often a neglected resource when changes are made. Taking advantage of the screen network to provide this information can improve service and get more from the digital signage network.

For hospitals without an existing screen network, digital signage can come in various forms, from simple static posters used just for relaying changes to more sophisticated and interactive systems where touch screen can provide detailed wayfinding information.

Even outside, outdoor digital signage can assist in wayfinding and provide crucial information to visitors, informing them of changes and helping to steer them in the right direction before they enter the wrong door.

And a digital signage network doesn’t just need to provide wayfinding information. Other important messages and even advertising can share the same screen space as wayfinding information. This can even mean the screen network can become self-funded, as hospitals are able to sell advertising space to related industries. Hospital locations are very attractive to advertisers, especially in the medical and pharmaceutical industry because of the sheer numbers of people that visit hospitals and the relevance of medical and pharmaceutical products to the audience.