The Benefits of Hospital Digital Signage

Healthcare providers constantly deal with important, and often life-threatening issues.  Hospitals and clinics must be accessible and well-suited to any visitor or patient, regardless of age or health. It’s why hospital digital signage has become so important to the delivery of healthcare services.

Healthcare providers must ensure the health and well-being of everyone who spends time on hospital premises.  The larger the facility, the more complex the challenge.

It’s an important role and one that is increasingly fulfilled by hospital digital signage.

Here are a few examples where hospital digital signage is making a difference.

Hospital digital signage for donor recognition walls

Hospitals have been using donor recognition walls for years, and digital signage is helping bring donor walls into the 21st century. Digital signage-powered donor walls let hospital administrators recognize benefactors with an array of visual presentation options. Static images, videos, and animations are combined to create attention-grabbing visual content that honors donors and recognizes hospital staff.

Digital donor walls can be passive or interactive. Interactive donor walls inform visitors about the people and institutions that have contributed to the hospital’s success. Interactivity creates more memorable experiences, that will be remembered for a very long time.  People learn about milestones in medical research and technology at their own pace while navigating the wall’s interactive content.

Hospital staff information signage

Internal communications are critical to a hospital’s operation. It’s why hospital digital signage plays such an important role in keeping staff well-informed and motivated throughout the day.

Hospital digital signage is commonly used in staff meeting rooms where it provides an ideal platform for employee communications. Screens installed in meeting rooms can also provide essential employee support for seminars and other group functions.

Hospital digital signage located in private areas can be programmed to show empowering, engaging, and motivational content to staff members. Meanwhile, lunchroom screens display today’s healthy menu choices and daily specials to staff and visitors alike.

Hospital lobby messaging

Lobby message screens welcome patients and visitors 24/7.  These digital screens deliver a mix of infotainment and news to help reduce perceived wait times.  This is one of many opportunities for hospitals to deliver a better visitor experience.

Hospital digital signage can also help redirect people to specific areas, like meeting with a triage specialist in an emergency room or clinic.  To perform these services, digital screens are interfaced with queue management systems and other hospital software applications. This level of integration ensures patients are directed to the next available resource as soon as they are ready.

Healthcare clinics can benefit from hospital digital signage screens as they can personalize content for returning patients.

Depending on the specialty (cosmetic surgery, dentistry, eye care, etc…), digital signage content can be educational.

Hospital lobby screens can be programmed to show videos that explain…

• Medical procedures
• Healthy eating tips and guidelines
• Medical news and innovations
• Drug information
• …and many other important topics

Patient care areas

Hospital digital signage screens are often found in common areas so hospital staff can communicate with patients at any time of the day or night.  These screens are used to relay important information like announcements, notices, warnings, and other real-time updates.  This information can also be broadcast through the hospital’s cable TV system to send direct messages to each patient’s room.

Digital signage content can be triggered to interrupt currently scheduled programming and attract viewers’ attention.  Once the message has been seen, regular programming resumes without any user intervention.  Hospital content can be intermixed with live TV or other content like RSS, Media RSS, social media feeds, and other live information.

These are great suggestions for improving patient morale through thoughtful and useful content.

Hospital wayfinding

Digital signage has emerged as one of the most useful platforms for wayfinding.

Anyone who has had to find their way around a large, unfamiliar hospital knows it can be a frustrating experience.  Traditional wayfinding signage can be confusing at times, and difficult to decipher.  It’s even worse when a healthcare facility spans multiple buildings.

Wayfinding screens can be used near…

• Emergency rooms
• Urgent care clinic lobbies
• Hospital welcome centers
• Rehabilitation centers
• Pediatrics departments
• Radiology
• …in fact, every public area can benefit from wayfinding screens.

A properly designed wayfinding map will provide useful information such as the person’s current location, emergency exits, stairways, and elevators.  Wayfinding content can include QR Codes that visitors can scan to download a copy of the site map on their smartphones.  Frequent visitors may also be able to download a dedicated wayfinding app on their smartphones.  These apps can interact with screens and provide additional information for visitors.

Benefits include:

• Easier access to the entire healthcare facility
• A better visitor experience
• Fewer resources are required at information desks
• Less distraction for healthcare personnel

Advantages of digital signage for hospitals

Modern digital signage solutions have all but eliminated complex software configurations and repetitive maintenance tasks.  Deploying digital signage today can be as easy as entering an activation code on a System on Chip (Smart) screen.  With these new technologies, there are no external hardware components to install and no exposed wires hanging behind the screen.  And since the media player is contained inside the screen’s frame, there are fewer chances for tampering or theft.

Today’s digital signage products can be deployed in minutes, with minimal technical skills.

Enhanced network security

Security has always been a top priority for healthcare providers.  Every year, hospitals spend huge sums of money to secure their networks and protect patient data.  The best hospital digital signage solutions support modern network security features and proxy servers to ensure hospital networks are protected from attacks.

Lower maintenance costs

Early digital signage software solutions required a lot of maintenance, and every task had to be performed manually.  Since then, hospital digital signage has evolved. Many software solutions now include features that free up staff from repetitive tasks, through automation and rule-based programming.

For example, content can be pre-loaded months in advance and be shown on specific days, or for specific periods in the future.  Some products even support content and player tagging, so the content will only play in specific locations.  With these types of solutions, rules govern where and when content plays.

Products that offer software development kits (SDKs) let technical staff integrate digital signage software with the hospital’s internal systems and databases.  Through customization, content updates and management tasks can be automated, so staff can concentrate on other tasks.

Looking to the future

As technology improves, we see more SoC screens coming to market with higher resolutions and increased image quality. Other media player hardware (PCs, Android devices) will continue to evolve and provide better performance in smaller devices.

Digital signage has a bright future in healthcare services.