How can you improve a patient's experience and help them find their way around the hospital?
One of the main frustrations that visitors experience at healthcare locations stems from directional issues. Large hospitals and healthcare facilities have elaborate interiors, endless hallways, identical wings and confusing labyrinths of waiting rooms and stairways, which most patients and visitors have difficulty finding their way around. Even directional signs are not always helpful, and staff members tend to be in a hurry, unable to provide dedicated assistance.
Luckily, there are mobile wayfinding apps that make it easier for patients and visitors to navigate through the "hospital maze." As the majority of patients and visitors today are on mobile, end the frustration by incorporating “geofencing and proximity beacons” into wayfinding apps, ensures that people will never get lost within the facility.
Getting Better with Beacons and Geofencing
As healthcare becomes more consumer-centric, the use of mobile wayfinding apps not only makes it easy for patients to find their way around but also reduces the administrative overhead of the facility. Beacons help patients feel connected as they worry about long hallways or waiting rooms.
How does it work?
Beacons employ energy-efficient, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology to pinpoint a user's location. By placing Bluetooth proximity beacons throughout the healthcare facility, visitors and staff with a wayfinding app installed can receive directions based on their present location. Notifications can also be provided sent when users wander off course.
Mobile wayfinding apps powered by geofencing and beacons offer the following features:
• Interactive map updates
• Receive information messages
• Follow turn-by-turn directions
• Locate emergency rooms, laboratories, and other hospital locations
• Search physician and service directories
• Engage patients with relevant location-based push messages, tips, and alerts
• Assist with indoor and outdoor navigation, check-ins, pharmacy, etc.
• Improve facility atmosphere
• Parking lot navigation
When it comes to assisting visitors when they arrive at the facility, mobile wayfinding can compliment the efforts of hospital administrators. It can free up staff and cut down on time. Hospitals which deploy mobile wayfinding run more efficiently.
Admissions Assistance
With the help of beacons, the admitting process can be expedited. Whether sitting in waiting rooms or before they reach the hospital, patients can fill out forms from their personal devices or prepare what they need for admission.
Visitors love fast assistance; they appreciate reduced wait times, and nothing compares to being able to check wait times. From the instant that a patient arrives for a check-up appointment, a personalized push notification can greet them and simultaneously notify the staff. The greeting can include wait times, directions, or steps to proceed.
Communication
Coordination and communication between hospital staff are very critical in a time-sensitive environment. With beacons, all hospital members taking care of a certain patient can communicate through the app - noting visits to patient's room, completed tests, medication dosing schedules, etc. to ensure that everyone is on the same page. During emergency situations, physicians and staff can be notified of faster response times.
Brighter Atmosphere
Beacons can make the facility brighter. For instance, as someone walks around near the cafeteria, the Beacon interacts with the app sending a push notification message, "Have you had your five food groups? Grab a bite. The cafeteria is just around the corner. Show this coupon for and receive an apple."
Post-discharge Management
Beacons also assist patients leaving the hospital or healthcare facility. If the patient needs to pick up medication, beacons can guide the patient to the pharmacy. For other appointments such as X-Rays and specialty clinics, beacons can guide visitors from building to building.
Supplementing existing signage with a mobile wayfinding app powered by geofencing and beacons gives satisfaction to your patients while engaging with them on a personal level.The hospital is a brand. Boost a hospital's brand, improve wayfinding, and brighten up the place as well.