How Indoor Wayfinding can Improve Healthcare Services

Indoor Wayfinding has been improving the quality of services and management for various industries. Especially in the healthcare industry, Indoor wayfinding can improve customer satisfaction and create a comfortable environment for the patients. Hospitals with large infrastructures can be stressful for patients and visitors to find the right room. With the help of Indoor Positioning System Hospital, visitors, patients, and staff can easily navigate their way to their respective rooms without wasting any time. This can be very helpful when a doctor's presence may be required urgently in the time of emergencies. There are a lot of ways in which wayfinding can improve Healthcare services.

1. Improves Patient Experience

A lot of times it is difficult for patients to find the exact room for their appointment. With the help of interactive wayfinding, a patient can easily navigate their way to the room they want to go to. This can be done either through a mobile phone application or kiosks at various parts of the hospital. Mobile phone applications can give personalized experiences, like alerts and notifications. It is a much more convenient way to provide navigation. They can even use the app to call for assistance in case of health issues. This makes it easier for the hospital to assist their patients, making it a comfortable environment for them.

2. Enhances Efficiency

Indoor wayfinding makes work processes easy for the workers in the hospital. Staff at the hospital are usually busy guiding patients around, which increases their workload. With the help of indoor navigation, patients would not need a lot of assistance in finding the way and staff can concentrate on other important duties. Especially for aged individuals and veterans who need assistance, Indoor wayfinding can help them have a comfortable experience without the staff’s help. According to a recent report by the United States Senator Claire McCaskill, "The implementation of enhanced wayfinding mechanisms.. enable medical facilities to better respond to veterans’ needs and provide them with the high-quality customer service they are rightfully due."

3. Creates Anxiety-Free Environment

Indoor wayfinding creates an anxiety-free environment for aged patients. Not being able to figure out the way to the appointment can cause anxiousness in patients who are aged. With the help of an indoor navigation app, they can confidently plan their visit to the hospital or simply ask for a staff member to help them out. A hospital environment needs to be comforting for patients who come there to be cured. An indoor positioning system can help in establishing a safe and comforting environment without any stress of not being able to figure out where to go.

Indoor positioning in hospitals can help in getting insights into the various areas utilized in the hospital. Apart from navigation, Asset tracking, location sharing and notifications can also be very helpful to make management easier. In emergencies, when there is an urgent need for a specific person or a machine, indoor positioning can help track the closest machine that is available in the building. Even for problems like finding your car in a basement parking area, an indoor positioning system can help you navigate your way to your car with ease.

Indoor positioning and indoor wayfinding are very much in demand not just for healthcare services but also for other organizations from various sectors. According to a report by IndustryARC, "The global Indoor Positioning and Navigation market was valued at $6.92 billion in 2017 and is projected to grow to $23.6 billion in 2023 at a CAGR of 27.9%." In the coming years, we can expect indoor positioning and wayfinding to be everywhere especially in hospitals.

Various ways companies provide indoor wayfinding, and if you are on a tight budget, taking up the one with hardware installation can be pricey. Mapsted offers one of the world’s leading indoor navigation systems that do not require any hardware installations such as beacons and WiFi.

An Electronic and communication Engineer graduate from New York, Jason Davis working Technical Specialist. He has passion of writing technical blogs. He started following his passion from 2012.