Samsung Position Paper
Digital Signage in Healthcare
How Digital Signs Ease Anxieties, Boost Experience And Optimize Patient Care
Mission-critical Information
If the mission of digital signage technology really is to get the right messages to the right people at the right times and locations, healthcare is the perfect example of why that matters. With few exceptions, from small clinics to giant medical campuses, health care facilities are places punctuated by joy and sadness, anxiety, and a need for answers and clarity. At peak hours, health care facilities can be whirlwinds of activity – confusing and even overwhelming for visitors. And at all times, they are places filled with people needing and wanting more information.
In this paper, we take a look at why digital signage is increasingly essential to how modern health care is delivered and supported – from community clinics to huge, multi-building medical campuses in big cities. The paper explores the day-to-day applications and use cases for service delivery and the positive patient and visitor experiences, as well as new ideas on how screens can be fundamental to everything from operations in patient care areas, to fundraising.
Need-to-know Environments
Emotions attach to almost every visit to a health care facility1. There may be excitement about a pregnancy; frustration about an injury that persists.; or suspicions of something wrong. Effective use of networked digital signage screens makes a big difference in driving better efficiencies and boosting patient and visitor experiences – something that has a positive spillover effect for caregivers and other staff.
Common questions get answered on screens. Directions and directories make visits less confusing. Time passes calmly because there are screens to watch in wait areas. Staff, at a glance, know what’s going on. Digital signage in healthcare settings is not new, but their use has expanded through the years – extending beyond the obvious solutions of waiting rooms into many aspects of daily operations.
Broad Spectrum of Use Cases
Businesses segment thinking in two ways: What the customer sees, as in nursing stations, lobbies, and other featured spaces; and back of the house, or what goes on behind the scenes and is largely out of view. That applies very much to signage in healthcare settings. Use cases can be segmented by patient or guest experience, and by operations.
Patient/Guest Experience
Here are some of the main ways healthcare providers are using digital signage to improve experiences for patients and loved ones.
Wayfinding and navigation – In large medical centers, patients and visitors can be overwhelmed from the moment they come on campus. Where do they park? Which is the right building and entrance? Where is the clinic? How do they check-in?
To help, providers are using screens to direct visitors to parking garages and, in some cases, using the data from sensors to indicate where parking stalls are open, floor by floor, on signs.
Interactive directories in common areas, both outside and in, list clinics and physicians and provide directions. In some cases, that information is available in multiple languages, reflecting the demographics of the region the facility serves. When new physicians are added, or clinic locations shift, directories are easily changed, without any need to print new versions.
Busy individual clinics may have patient intake screens that list their appointment, and confirm their arrival for staff.
That may then map to a waiting room or queue management system2, coupled with digital signage displays, that can dramatically improve the experience. Simple screens give people a sense of how long their wait might be, easing anxiety and freeing them to go to the cafeteria or restroom, without fear of missing their appointment. For reception staff, the steady questions of where people stand are lessened or removed.
Waiting Areas – Smart healthcare service providers see waiting rooms as a time-rich opportunity to inform and educate patients who are waiting for appoints or procedures, and their friends and family. In a condition-specific clinic, the waiting area is an ideal setting to begin the awareness and education process around conditions like diabetes and heart diseases. Informed patients and families can ask better questions, and make better decisions.
