Seamless patient journeys the goal

Chris Wiegand, CEO of Jibestream, a software development company for digital interactive technologies with bases in Toronto and Arlington, Virginia, explains how technologies including Wi-Fi, GPS, RFID, and Bluetooth LE are enhancing wayfinding in healthcare facilities, and, in the process, simplifying the patient journey and helping reduce the stress and anxiety often associated with a visit to the hospital.

Traditionally, hospital wayfinding has relied heavily on colour and symbolism, flooring and ceiling cues, easily identifiable landmarks, and static maps and signs. But today this is no longer good enough, particularly since most hospitals that undergo renovation and expansion often fail to properly update their wayfinding program. As a result, patients and visitors struggle to traverse the maze of the modern medical complex. For sick patients, navigating a building that has unclear or ambiguous signage leaves them feeling lost, scared, and frustrated. Naturally, they turn to hospital staff for assistance; however, staff are already stretched to their limit in an environment where timeliness is critical to delivering quality care.

Interactive kiosks

To improve the patient experience, hospitals have installed interactive wayfinding kiosks to supplement traditional signage. Typically positioned at a hospital entrance, such ‘kiosks’ enable patients to check in for appointments on arrival, chart a route to their treatment destination and obtain an estimated walk time, and print and/or send directions to their mobile device.

However, as people have become more accustomed to the convenience of their mobile devices and ‘apps’, they expect the same level of accessibility in other industries to be extended to their treatment experience. This has prompted hospitals to develop mobile wayfinding apps that patients can download to their mobile devices, providing immediate access to appointment notifications and information, driving directions, remote check-in, turn-by-turn indoor navigation, and continuous interaction throughout the continuum of care.

Real-time data

Aside from patient convenience, digital wayfinding has another key advantage over traditional wayfinding signage – data can be updated in real-time through the underlying wayfinding platform. System administrators have the ability to manage floor maps, wayfinding data, and content directly, or to configure business rules that will automatically trigger changes based on events. For instance, if a section of the hospital is quarantined, the wayfinding application will avoid directing patients and visitors to that area.

The advances in interactive hospital wayfinding have been made possible through a combination of location-aware technologies – GPS (global positioning system), RFID (radio-frequency identification), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE (low energy) beacons – which are able to determine the geographical position of people or objects, and enterprise wayfinding software, which provides powerful mapping and third party integration capabilities.

For patients, this means a visit to the hospital begins with a notification to their mobile device confirming appointment details, providing estimated travel time and turn-by-turn navigation to the entrance nearest their appointment location. Upon entering the hospital, the patient can check in using an integrated check-in kiosk. This triggers an event in the patient flow management system, seamlessly adding the patient to the registration queue, and delivering estimated wait times directly to their mobile device. Once registered, the app prompts the patient to follow indoor directions to their appointment location, taking into account accessibility preferences configured by the user. Throughout their visit, the patient is informed of appointment delays. In some cases, a video relevant to the patient’s specific condition can be streamed directly to their mobile device. 

Improving hospital efficiencies

Advances in wayfinding technologies play an equally important role in helping hospital staff improve patient throughput and optimising clinical workflows. Because patients, staff, and medical equipment are in a state of constant movement, healthcare workers waste a lot of time locating people and equipment. 

Using wayfinding technologies in combination with positive patient identification and wireless healthcare asset management ensures that once a patient has been positively identified, all subsequent encounters and related workflows are tracked and become more efficient, thus improving patient safety, preventing infant abduction, and patient wandering. Meanwhile, healthcare assets tagged with locators or beacons can be quickly found in the event of an emergency. In the case that these assets are confined to a geo-fenced area, staff can be alerted when the machines are removed or disabled outside specific zones. 

Seeing patient movement

Because patients and visitors have very distinct needs from hospital staff, wayfinding technologies provide information-based roles. For instance, healthcare workers are able to see patient movement, locate equipment, and find co-workers. Staff also have access to more direct routes through the hospital than those provided for patients. This helps to improve staff communication, and enables better time management, saving money. Patients and visitors, on the other hand, have a distinct view of the hospital – one that enables them to reduce waiting times and increases the quality of their experience. Patients with disabilities receive essential navigation tips that help them achieve their goals, and reduce the usual stress and anxiety associated with a visit to the hospital. 

A new path to growth

With an every wider choice of healthcare providers, patients are treating the sector just like any other – meaning that they are not only fully informed, but equally have high expectations of service delivery. 

Advances in wayfinding technologies are setting apart forward-thinking healthcare delivery organisations from their competitors. By capturing a patient’s intent to navigate to the clinic, and using information from various ‘intelligent’ systems, an integrated wayfinding system can shape their journey, while at the same time saving the clinic significant time. 

Although many healthcare units have tapped into the power of data collection through social, mobile, ‘cloud’, and analytics technologies, they are not maximising the power of that information because they lack the means to integrate it with their major information systems. 

This vital data can be used to its fullest potential by integrating collected patient data with clinician workflows and electronic health records in order to provide a great patient experience. An efficient wayfinding system can correlate data from mobile, social, and cloud technologies and integrate it with a hospital’s information system, to create a personalised, seamless patient journey