Good patient engagement software today includes way finding technology. This highly customized map of a healthcare facility has many benefits.
Healthcare is no longer seen as a simple case of administrating treatment to sick patients. From a noble profession to business, healthcare has now moved on to become a more interpersonal service where a business model focuses on the customer and not the profit spreadsheet.
This has given rise to better patient engagement where a healthcare facility like a hospital takes an active approach towards engaging with its patients. The aim here is not just to improve health and provide better treatment. Patient engagement also means creating a more engaging and convenient experience for patients and regular visitors to a healthcare facility. And this is where way finding comes in!
How Way finding works
Way finding in very simple terms involves using technology to help your visitors find their way around a facility. Think of it customized maps of a particular facility to suit individual visitor requirements. It is a highly specialized map which uses mobile location, GPS and internal maps to create very specialized patient engagement software.
Why do we need it?
Meeting individual requirements: When we say healthcare, we are talking of a highly diverse set of variables. Neither the visitors, nor the caregivers or institutions are the same. Patient profile can change in nationality, gender, preferences and experience. Similarly, healthcare facility can mean a multi-specialty hospital or athletics’ centre. In other words, there is no one set that fits all.
Some visitors prefer to chart their way before they leave their home, while some prefer to collect a map from the front desk. Similarly, each facility is planned differently and each may have a different organizational framework. A multi-format way finder allows for all these possibilities — from customized maps to creating multiple channels for dispensing the information.
Providing better patient experience: We’ve all been stuck at the front desk waiting for someone to help us or scratching our heads over which corridor, floor or elevator to take. With way finding in patient engagement software a visitor no longer has to do that. It combines digital technology with the know-how of an inside man to make sure you have a smooth experience!
Saving on manpower: Technology; like way finding evolved partly as a quick fix for man power problems. Busy healthcare institutions simply do not have a dedicated person to help navigate their harried visitors. Even where you do find them, they are relegated to the front desk. With technology we can handhold our visitors, virtually guiding them to their destination.
Saving patient time/effort: The basic aim of any technology is saving effort. Way finding tech is one of the prime examples of that. With this technology you can literally map your path around a hospital even before you reach leave your home. But this not just for the super-organised. Such technology has serious benefits in critical care management facilities like hospitals where every second matters.
Ease of operation & use: A multi-format way finding patient engagement software is also incredibly easy to use. New information can simply be updated in a matter of minutes. Not just that, the user can also get real time data, updates and give feedback with almost no effort.