6 Ways Interactive Digital Signage Improves the Patient Experience
As the healthcare industry shifts from volume-based care to a value-based care model, patients are more discerning than ever when it comes to making healthcare decisions.
Healthcare facilities understand improving the patient experience is critical for their future success and digital signage offers a versatile tool for helping to drive those improvements.
Here are just a few of the ways interactive digital signage can enhance the healthcare experience and improve patient satisfaction.
1. Interactive Hospital Wayfinding Improves Public Safety
Concerns about Covid-19 still affect many patients who visit healthcare facilities for routine and emergency medical services. Since hospitals harbor the sickest Covid patients, individuals who check in for non-Covid-related reasons are understandably worried about potential contact with infected and asymptomatic persons as they navigate through the facility.
That’s where interactive wayfinding and signage displays come in. Interactive digital wayfinding kiosks and signage help patients and hospital guests find their way efficiently throughout the facility with zero face-to-face contact.
Users simply search for their destination on the wayfinding interface, get turn-by-turn directions sent to their smartphone, and navigate to where they need to go — all while maintaining social distance.
What about patients and guests who aren’t keen on touching stuff? Touchless digital interfaces are an excellent option for patients and visitors who are wary of coming into contact with heavily used touchscreens.
Voice commands, QR code scanning and other software make navigation contactless and easier than ever.
2. Keep Patients in the Loop
Perhaps the easiest way to improve the patient experience is by keeping them as informed as possible at all times. With digital signage technology, you can implement content management systems that will provide essential knowledge and updates for patients during their waiting room experience.
Waiting time updates, emergency notifications, upcoming events; your digital signage screens can display enlightening information that will keep your patients in the know on all the comings and goings of your healthcare facility.
The more informed your patients are, the more involved they’ll feel, which in turn will do wonders for reducing their anxiety or increasing their patience.
3. Digital Solutions Reduce Perceived Wait Times
One of the greatest gripes about visiting healthcare facilities is excessive wait time. In fact, in a 2018 study conducted by Vitals, 30% of respondents said they’ve left a doctor’s appointment before seeing their provider because the wait time was too long.
Interactive digital signage provides a solution to the issue of long wait time by providing patients with a diversion. While hospitals may not have the resources to reduce actual wait times significantly, they can use entertainment to reduce perceived wait times.
One study found that digital signage is capable of decreasing perceived wait times by up to 35%!
4. Provide More Waiting Room Entertainment Options
Anyone who has spent time in a hospital waiting room knows how easy it is to become bored or restless. That’s why you should consider installing more waiting room entertainment options into your digital signage displays, granting more opportunities for patients to focus their attention toward something other than how long they’ve been waiting for.
Live news feeds, interactive games, children-themed puzzles and content; There are practically infinite entertainment possibilities you can provide your patients through your digital signage displays!
You can even offer numerous smartphone synchronization options, such as QR codes for downloading your hospital’s mobile app, so patients can stay more in touch with your hospital’s brand.
5. Better Connect With Hospital Brand and Staff
Digital signage can do wonders for promoting more brand awareness of your healthcare facility, specifically when it comes to enlightening patients on who exactly it is that’s taking care of them. Incorporating more brand-conscious content, such as staff introduction pages or videos, into your digital signage displays will help patients get to know their local hospital staff better.
You can also utilize your digital signage to showcase any and all credentials, awards, or other prominent sources of recognition your hospital has received, which in turn will install more trust and credibility within your patients.
When your patients can have a better understanding of your hospital’s background, staff, and goals, they’ll be able to better relate to and support your services.
6. Interactive Digital Wayfinding Kiosks Empower Patients
Patients want more involvement in their healthcare experience, and digital solutions give them the opportunity to have that.
With interactive kiosks, patients can perform a number of tasks historically reserved healthcare representatives, including:
● Check in for appointments
● Fill out new intake forms
● Update their records and personal information
● Set appointment reminders
● Much more
Because personalization is a cornerstone of the digital wayfinding experience, kiosks are also capable of using data to display customized information that’s relevant to the patient’s needs.
Ultimately, kiosks provide user-friendly, rapid, and efficient patient support, while allowing patients to take multiple aspects of their experience into their own hands.
Oppna Digital: Providing End-to-End Digital Solutions for Forward-Thinking Healthcare Facilities
Ready to discuss how interactive digital signage and wayfinding kiosks can improve the patient experience at your healthcare facility? Schedule a demo with our team at Oppna Digital today.
As a full-service digital solutions provider, we specialize in software development, hardware procurement, app development, content management, and much more. Give us a call today at 651-237-5677 or send us a message to learn more.