Post Publish: 2021-10-17
Categories: Industry news
Updated: 2023-09-02

How to solve communication challenges with hospital digital signage?

Digital signage has been trending across industries for years, and it’s only growing.

Fueling that growth, in part, is the healthcare sector, which is turning to digital signage in hospitals and doctor’s offices to enhance the patient experience.

These days, it’s hard to find a hospital or doctor’s office that doesn’t use hospital digital signage in some capacity, whether it’s a wall-filling display for donor recognition or several interactive displays used to improve wayfinding, inform staff, educate patients or communicate important information to visitors. After all, effective communication is key to delivering positive health outcomes.

The trick to maximizing return on investment (ROI) from hospital digital signage is prioritization. Hospitals have a lot of information to communicate, but which messages matter most? That depends on your organization, your team, and your patients.

What are the questions to be asked when implementing hospital digital signage?

Planning and mapping your healthcare digital signage is a big job, one that works best when the conversation includes technical leaders, business leaders, staff leaders, and patient experience leaders — in other words, everyone who has a stake in internal or external communications.

When transforming hospital digital signage, healthcare leaders have a lot to think about.

For example, where should android tablet display be installed? What information should be shared with them? What type of display will work best to deliver that information?

But before addressing the specifics, take a step back and consider the bigger picture, answering the following questions about your larger business or organizational needs:

1. What are your greatest communication challenges?

Strong communication is important in every aspect of running a hospital, but where are the biggest gaps in your organization?

This could include:

Wayfinding:

If you run a large hospital or medical complex, chances are you have a wayfinding problem, where staff members are consistently interrupted throughout the day by people asking for directions.

Interactive displays allow healthcare organizations to share crystal-clear maps and directions with passersby, making the most of their wall space.

Patient engagement:

Bedside digital whiteboards can be used to keep patients fully up to date about their care, helping reduce anxiety. Smart signage can also deliver educational content tailored to each patient’s condition.

With healthcare smart signage — specifically designed to improve the patient experience — patients can enjoy best-in-industry brightness and color uniformity, making their stay more comfortable while delivering clear visuals for improved education.

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Waiting room:

The Kiosk allows patients to check in without waiting in line or talking with a hospital employee. After check-in, digital displays in the lobby can show queuing information for patients, relieving the stress of wondering when their names may be called for their appointment.

With the split-screen setting on the digital displays, hospitals can leave queuing information on one half while displaying educational messages about general health topics or urgent safety information on the other.

Informing staff:

Digital signage in break rooms, nurses stations and other common areas can display staff schedules, reminders about upcoming training or hospital events, safety warnings, introductions to new team members and staff recognition.

Displayed on 4K UHD screens, the most up-to-date information is always available to hospital staff, so they can stay informed without having to sort through papers or rely on legacy PC equipment.

Communicating with visitors:

Hallway displays can be used to promote hospital services, deliver wellness content, solicit donations, alert visitors to public safety concerns, estimate wait time for clinic patients and keep families informed in surgical waiting rooms.

Hospital digital signage can boost a hospital’s image from the moment visitors walk in. For example, you can set up to share heartfelt testimonials and stories from the hospital’s donors.

A donor wall can showcase exactly what makes your organization special and cultivate a more comforting atmosphere, starting in the lobby.

2. What are your top business priorities?

Most hospitals today face the same challenges: improve health outcomes and patient satisfaction, decrease readmission rates and cut costs. But where are you currently struggling most?

In other words, where could implementing digital signage produce the greatest ROI and make the greatest impact on your strategic business goals?

3. Which messages need to be delivered in real-time?

When deciding what content should be displayed, prioritize information that changes frequently — the kind of messages that would quickly become outdated on a bulletin board.

Digital signage is also a great way to grab attention and highlight ongoing content, but if space is limited, consider whether there are other ways to communicate certain information.

This ensures that staff and visitors are getting the most up-to-date, pertinent messages wherever they are in the hospital.

With a content management solution — an all-in-one platform that connects everything in your digital ecosystem — hospital staff can easily create and deploy updated content as often as they need to.

For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, safety protocols and guidelines were evolving day by day. With a robust content management system (CMS), healthcare organizations can communicate their best practices on an ongoing basis, keeping everyone better informed.

4. Which patients/staff would be best served by hospital digital signage?

Patients, staff and visitors all benefit from improved communication, but who would benefit most in your organization?

Are there certain departments where digital signage could make the biggest difference?

Are there common patient and visitor complaints that digital displays could help to address instead of requiring constant staff attention?

5. Which problems are best solved by hospital digital signage?

Once you’ve identified and prioritized your key communication challenges, consider what kind of digital signage is the best solution for each one.

For example, do you want to showcase inspirational content to visitors? Need a way to easily communicate patient status, allergies, and whereabouts? You might want to place small interactive displays outside patient rooms.

In addition to these five considerations, digital signage plans should be physically mapped out. For IT decision-makers, this may mean collaborating with hospital staff to identify high-traffic areas, such as main hallways or patient rooms, that would most benefit from increased information visibility.

This will help you narrow down what you need, whether it’s a brand-new hospital donor wall or a fleet of LED displays for your waiting rooms.

After answering these big-picture questions, you’ll be better prepared to develop an effective implementation plan for your digital signage.

Ultimately, by identifying your organization’s greatest communication gaps, you’ll be well on your way to bridging them.

Unmarked pictures come from Internet, and source: insights.samsung.com

What are your top business priorities need to use hospital digital signage?

Of course, it is to improve health outcomes and patient satisfaction, reduce readmission rates and reduce costs.

Which 5 hospital communication challenges need to be solved with hospital digital signage?