Create Positive Experiences with Healthcare Wayfinding

As a Healthcare Institution, Your Locations are Pillard of Their Respective Communities

Countless people depend on them every day for medical care and wellness needs. One of your strategic goals — and likely one that is ongoing year after year — is improving the patient experience. While everything from employee training and community outreach to facility floor plans and overall treatment processes influence this, one key asset that affects people 24/7/365 is your healthcare wayfinding signage.

In a previous post, we explored how healthcare wayfinding signage plays an important role in a visitor’s journey. We also detailed the four types of wayfinding signage, which we’ll quickly recap here as a refresher:

• Directional — signage that indicates where a space or service is located
• Informational — signage that provides details about a space or thing
• Identification — signage that describes what a room, space, or object is
• Regulatory — signage that is required for specific needs, such as ADA signage

Additionally, it’s important to understand the goals of healthcare wayfinding signage and why it’s necessary. These may seem obvious, but let’s pull back and consider situations where wayfinding signage is needed. Below, we’ll dig into the goals of this signage type and provide examples of each type of signage serving its purpose.

1. Recovery: Where Am I?

A new patient is visiting the main campus of a major health network for a checkup. Upon entering, he sees a directory (informational) and uses it to find out the floor number of the internal medicine department. He then looks for an elevator and sees a sign pointing to an elevator bank (directional). Reading the right floor, he exits the elevator into a healthcare-standard white hallway going both directions. He heads right but sees that it’s leading him toward a more administrative area. This is the “recovery” moment. He stops and notices a sign pointing to internal medicine (directional), which is back the other way. He arrives at a door marked Internal Medicine (identification). The sign also features the department name in Braille for visually impaired patients (regulatory).

2. Navigation: Where Am I Going?

A new employee starting her first day arrives on campus for orientation. A sign directs her to the employee garage for parking (directional), and she enters the building through a clearly marked employee entrance sign (identification). Her instructions tell her to proceed to a certain multipurpose room. She sees a large digital sign near the room entrance that names the room, states the event taking place, and other details (informational). Next to the room’s entrance, there are a variety of placard signs with symbols indicating that there is a wheelchair accessible entrance around the corner (regulatory).

3. Imageability: Will I Be Able to Get Back?

A patient visits a family health center that is part of your organization’s network. Rather than focus on typical healthcare interior design, your organization has chosen to leverage unique aspects of the local community in combination with brand colors to create more engaging branded environments. The lobby showcases a variety of graphics that describe the history and evolution of your company in the community over the past several decades. In the hall leading to where the actual appointment will be held, your organization has created branded graphics lining the walls with customer testimonials and photography. After her appointment, she is able to use those branded elements to create a map in her mind that allows her to navigate her way easily back to the lobby and the exit.

Strong Healthcare Wayfinding Requires a Strategic Approach

A great deal of research and planning goes into creating a healthcare wayfinding signage program across all of your locations. Every facility is different, has different services, and has a different overall building design and layout. All of this needs to be considered when creating the wayfinding program. At Stratus, creating these programs for organizations with anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred (or more) locations is what we do best.

Our program management team and signage division will work closely with you to understand your goals, help you design the required signage, produce the signage in-house through our manufacturing capabilities, implement it via our nationwide field partners, and create a program not only for installation but also for ongoing maintenance. Combined, your healthcare wayfinding signage will not only improve patient experiences but also strengthen your brand and its perception.

Connect with us today to learn more about finding solutions and start building your program.