Went to a local hospital this morning to pick someone up from a minor procedure, and this particular system has done a huge amount of work on their external signage to get people to their destination as quickly and efficiently as possible. That's important in a world where staffing is low, turnarounds tight, and margins microscopic - every minute that a patient is delayed ahead of a procedure has an impact on the next one, and on the experience of others.
At the same time, when I went to pick up my car, I was given some marginally dubious directions on how to get out (and to be fair, I'm a man so the likelihood that I listened as carefully as I should is somewhat limited), and I spent the next ten minutes frustratedly following directions on walls to get out of the enormous building in the right place.
Put simply, the outsides of hospitals are changing, to reflect higher competition. The immediate insides of hospitals are changing, to reflect the need for improved patient experience. But wayfinding 'beyond the double doors' has a long way to go if my last four experiences of different locations are anything to go by. And I think that might be because it's created by people who know the buildings and the terminology, and spend all their time around it. That's fortunately not how most people experience medical environments. Patient-centered care is one thing - now we just need patient-centered directions to go with it.
Physical Security Experts
6 个月We are proud to be part of this initiative. Great work, RDC JPA.