GeneralHow To Improve The Efficiency Of Hospitals Using Indoor Navigation?

Healthcare lags far behind other spheres concerning the implementation of new inventions and technologies. However, in today’s reality medical institutions need to keep their efficiency and increase the quality of customer service. One of the solutions that can help in this issue is hospital navigation, which use allows to improve patient satisfaction and increase hospital profits.

Indoor hospital navigation: Basics

Many clinics have large spaces and consist of a big number of buildings, floors, and passages. The location of their departments are often changed, moved to other premises, their services are expanded and can cover various buildings, making navigation in such places a rather complicated task. Even if there are many signs with useful information, patients can easily get lost when looking for the necessary room.

Indoor navigation for hospitals helps to solve the problem of getting access to objects. It is based on using a mobile application that ensures the mapping of hospital buildings and the exact localization of objects on the map. To find the required room and get to it as quickly as possible, a user just needs a smartphone in their hands with the pre-installed application. The system is optimal for any medical institution and can be used both by patients or visitors and by the medical staff.

Indoor navigation for patients and visitors

Wayfinding in healthcare helps visitors and patients to overcome the labyrinths of halls and corridors. The system immediately defines the location of a person and lets him get quickly to the PoI (point of interest). According to the statistics, every fourth visitor asks medical staff to help him in finding the right direction. Now this task can be delegated to the mobile app. The platform builds the maps of a clinic in real-time and helps to reach points of interest avoiding restricted zones.

After the technology installation, the following functions can become available for patients:

• Digital maps indicating rooms and other relevant objects;
• Turn-by-turn real-time navigation;
• Possibility to build routes to any rooms inside hospitals;
• Customized messages and notifications based on location.

It is known that the help rendered at a bad time can cause patient dissatisfaction and lead to sad consequences. While using healthcare navigation solutions, a sick person can get to the doctor’s office or a procedure room for various medical manipulations much faster. Indoor navigation ensures finding the shortest routes, increased visitors’ safety and satisfaction with healthcare facilities.

Indoor navigation for medical staff

Time is the most valuable resource for the medical staff. The sooner hospital staff perform his duties, the more lives he can save. Hospital workers can use tracking apps for reducing the cost of their time. The system makes it possible to find the shortest way to the necessary rooms and equipment.

When employees walk through public places, they have to waste time answering patients’ questions, such as solving technical issues, and requests to accompany somebody somewhere – all these things take much time that could be spent on their main responsibilities. Thanks to indoor navigation, this time can be released. If every visitor uses the mobile application, he will not have to distract doctors and other medical staff from daily activities.

Besides assisting in finding places, wayfinding for healthcare also improves the safety of patients’ staying in clinics. Many hospitals are known to have special restricted zones where visitors and even some employees are not allowed. After the system implementation, the authorities of a medical institution will be able to customize the access to such zones individually and prevent random people from getting there accidentally.

Benefits of the system for hospitals

• Reducing patients’ time wasted on searching for necessary rooms;
• Removing from the staff additional informational burden connected with showing the direction;
• Optimizing work processes by 30% – the system ensures smooth and cost-effective processes by optimizing routes to points of interest and assets, as well as digitizing work orders;
• Improved ward occupancy – the staff are always aware of patients’ movements in real-time;
• Timely provision of medical care – the system can find the shortest way for the staff to the wanted sick person, reducing time spent on searching the way by up to 50%;
• Enhanced quality of customer service since it is much easier for hospital employees to find the necessary equipment for medical manipulations.

The system considerably simplifies patients’ movements around the clinic, raises their loyalty to a particular place, facilitates daily working tasks, and makes clients more satisfied with hospital service.

What technologies can be applied for implementing the system?

Various methods can be used for realizing indoor navigation in medical institutions. At present the most effective technologies are the following ones:

• Bluetooth® LE ensures navigation based on beacons that are installed in buildings or on moving objects. Sensors periodically send out radio signals and scanning devices receive them and redirect them to the server. The accuracy of localization with Bluetooth® LE is about 1 m. Beacons are equipped with autonomous power sources that do not require replacing for up to 5 years and ensure cost-effective exploitation.
• Wi-Fi operates on tags sending out signals to points of access inside premises. While implementing the platform, it is possible to use the existing infrastructure, which ensures the reduction of costs on project realization. The system has a rather high accuracy (3-5 m) but its tags are much bigger and more energy-consuming.

Thus, indoor-outdoor navigation for hospitals can become an essential element of modern hospital performance. Its implementation allows the staff to navigate better around the place, be more productive, and a clinic gets the possibility to improve its service, optimize costs and increase profits.

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