A mobile wayfinding solution is one of many important tools in digitizing the hospital patient journey. Based on Steerpath’s experience in installing wayfinding systems in some of the largest hospital facilities, this article provides critical lessons learned and good practices to consider.
All hospitals have some physical signage, posters, and directories in place for guidance when you arrive. But as soon as you move away from a static map, you leave that information behind. That cannot compete with real-time Google-style turn-by-turn instructions provided by a wayfinding app.
Digital wayfinding solutions provide detailed layouts of the hospital floor plans, campus, and surrounding areas, and often integrate with GPS navigation. This makes hospitals easier places to navigate and helps ensure that visitors can locate any department without having to endure the frustration and stress of becoming lost or missing appointments.
This is the second part of our hospital wayfinding series. You can read the first part here.
Build strong technology vendor partnership
Hospitals should look for a Wayfinding vendor who will not just install their off-the-shelf technology but will continue developing and designing the solution to meet your specific organizational needs. Find a partner who is willing to meet you where your needs are and will work to learn from you. This way you can create a partnership with a shared vision and together develop the future state of your healthcare service.
To increase the system reliability, select a vendor who already has an end-to-end integrated solution with hardware and software, maps, and indoor positioning. If these fundamental components are developed by separate companies and come from different vendors, it decreases reliability and increases the maintenance cost over the long term.
Choose digital maps that are fast to implement and easy to update
There are many types of digital maps that can be used for wayfinding. The simplest one is just to use PDF images of the floor plans and make them visible online. But using simple image maps can backfire when trying to integrate with other solutions or maintain the map updates during everyday operations.
The best mapping system for wayfinding should use GeoJSON file format, an open standard for location data when converting original CAD drawings to digital maps. JSON can be extended with use-case specific information without causing issues with compatibility, and it is also widely supported by REST interfaces when integration is required.
The mapping solution should also support global LAT/LONG coordinates, and not only the local X/Y location data. Using global coordinates makes it easy to integrate with GPS maps outdoors and with any other solutions that use indoor floorplans, such as RTLS asset management and Digital Twin solutions.
Using color-coded map visuals helps identifying different departments and key locations within the hospital. The same maps should work for large touch screens as well as mobile apps or websites.
Define the ideal patient journey
Coming to a large urban hospital can be intimidating, not just because of whatever the healthcare need might be, but also concerns about how to get there, where to park, and which building and door to enter through. With mobile wayfinding app patients or visitors can navigate their arrival at the hospital, and also find the way inside the facility; locate elevators, find patient rooms, and make their way to restrooms, dining, or food options. This requires the system to be flexible in supporting many alternative scenarios and touchpoints during the journey.
The picture below gives an example of the home to hospital patient journey that can be supported by a mobile wayfinding solution.
Wayfinding with Beacons or no beacons?
The indoor position with BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) beacons is used increasingly with hospital wayfinding, as it enables Google-style turn-by-turn navigation. These beacons broadcast location-ID to mobile phone indoors, where GPS does not work. Beacons are small battery-powered devices that can be quickly installed (double-sided tape or Velcro) in the ceiling across the hospital, one beacon for approximately each 100m2 (1000sq.ft) area.
When the hospital decides to use indoor positioning with beacons, it is critical to select a wayfinding system that does not require any time-consuming onsite calibration of beacons. This can save significant time and money during the implementation phase, as the campus wide solution may require hundreds of beacons to be installed. Therefore, “calibration-free beacons” should always be a requirement when writing the Wayfinding system specification.
The alternative to real-time navigation with beacons is to use “static wayfinding” guidance, by having the user manually select a fixed start point, like the hospital lobby, and get routing instructions to the destination. But because the static wayfinding does not keep the user aware about her current location – where am I now? – the beacon-based “indoor GPS” is considered a more user-friendly method in a larger, complex hospital environments.
Verify compliance with healthcare accessibility rules, ADA and WCAG
As the recent news about lawsuits against hospitals shows us, preventing discrimination against people with disabilities must be taken seriously, also in the digital world. There are two important regulations in play here. WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is a compilation of accessibility guidelines for websites and apps, by the international W3C consortium. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Section 508 regulation is specifically addressing the North American markets. To be confident you’re compliant with the ADA, you should ensure you’re meeting Level AA of WCAG 2.0 as explained in this article.
As discussed in this article, non-adherence to WCAG does not result in any penalties but missing out on these specifications could put you in violation of the terms of ADA. This can result in formal complaints and civil lawsuits and fines up to $150,000. In the USA, the ADA guidelines must be adhered to by all state and local governments, non-profits, and businesses.
This means that your hospital wayfinding solution vendor must also comply with above regulations and requirements.
Example Wayfinding solution implementation
Using Steerpath as an example, here are the typical Wayfinding implementation steps:
Contact Steerpath to discuss the goals and objectives of your wayfinding project
Submit your hospital facility CAD Drawings to Steerpath
If you want to start with a limited pilot, define the pilot areas on the floor plan.
Subscribe to pilot license and purchase beacons
Together with the Steerpath team, define the points of interest and color-coding for the maps
Receive the beacons in the mail and install them(< 3min per beacon) in locations indicated on the map
Download Steerpath mobile app from the App Store or Play Store
Enter your proprietary venue code on the app and - start using wayfinding!
To see an example of Steerpath interactive digital hospital map, see this Oulu University hospital map published online. You can zoom in and out and search points of interest.
Already have a patient app? Contact us to learn more about Steerpath SDK at https://www.steerpath.com/products/maps-indoor-navigation. SDK is a small software that your mobile app development team can embed inside your existing hospital app, to add the wayfinding functionality and digital maps.
Do not want another app? No worries, Steerpath wayfinding can also work as a browser-based web app, so that you can get to it just by clicking the link or scanning the QR code. The limitation is that the Web app only supports static wayfinding. Beacon based real-time navigation indoors requires downloadable native App support
For more information about Steerpath Wayfinding solutions please get in touch. To book a 30 min online demo to demonstrate Steerpath wayfinding in action, contact our sales at sales@steerpath.com