Let’s be honest — no one likes going to the doctor. A poor patient experience usually starts in the waiting room, where people impatiently sit on uncomfortable furniture, staring at drab walls, with nothing to distract them from anxiety about their appointment except for an outdated magazine or two. If there’s a long line to check in, or the doctor is running behind schedule, your visitor may leave feeling worse than before they came in!

That’s where digital signage solutions for healthcare can help. Bold, dynamic displays can be used to expedite lines, entertain and inform visitors, assist staff, and elevate your brand. Keep reading to learn how digital signage can benefit your healthcare practice.

Digital Signage Can Improve Patient Experiences

Doctor offices and hospital lobbies can be impersonal places, full of unwell people anxious to get in and get out. Digital signage can be used to distract people from their concerns, while also informing them about their place in line and the healthcare practice’s staff and services. By providing a pleasant experience, your patients can become your greatest source of referrals.

Reduce Perceived Wait Times

Waiting for an appointment while you aren’t feeling well, or worrying about a loved one as they have surgery, can be very stressful. Make the time feel like it’s going faster by providing entertaining and engaging content. With digital signage, you can easily broadcast entertainment programs or share wellness tips. Not only that, but sharing staff bios, practice milestones such as number of patients helped or babies delivered, or heart-warming testimonials from happy patients, helps your patients feel a personal connection and warmth towards your practice.

Signage can also show a patient’s place in line, which helps manage their expectations and prevents the wait from seeming endless.

Wayfinding

Healthcare centers can often be large, intimidating buildings. People are usually visiting because they have to, not because they want to, so they may be feeling stressed when they arrive. Help alleviate that by making it easy for them to get where they are going. Using digital screens for interactive wayfinding maps and directories allows guests to find exactly where they need to be. Wayfinding signs installed throughout the building can also be utilized to display critical information in case of an emergency, ensuring that important messages get delivered to a wide audience.

Promoting Additional Services

While you may be using your digital signage for entertainment or self check-in, they can also be used to enhance your marketing campaigns. Inform patients of products, services, or events effectively with dynamic digital content. A cloud-based content management system makes it easy to deploy content to one or all of your screens. This makes it simple for your team to share the latest promotions and quickly create new ones to take advantage of seasonal health trends.

Use Digital Signage for Employee Communications

Digital signage is not only a great tool for engaging visitors, but can be used to easily and efficiently communicate with staff. Your team doesn’t have time to check their emails throughout the day, and might not notice new paper signage when they are in a hurry. Displaying important information on dynamic digital signs is a great way to get their attention and make sure everyone is on the same page.

Staff Announcements

Keep staff informed of important health regulations or policy updates by sharing them via eye-catching scrolling text or video. This could include anything from office holiday closures to breaking news on a national health crisis. With digital screens placed in break rooms and throughout staff-only areas, you can reach your team quickly.

Share Information on Patient Status or Staff Scheduling

Digital screens installed outside of patient rooms are an efficient tool for letting staff know important things about the patient — who they are, why they are there, how long they’ve been waiting, what time they need their next dose of medication, or any other important information staff needs to see quickly.

Digital screens can also show what staff members are on duty and who will be arriving at the next shift change. They can display which nurses will cover which patients, or what floors a certain orderly may be assigned to. Having schedules clearly displayed so staff knows who is supposed to be where, and when, will help your teams operate more efficiently.

Staff Training

Training videos can be shared via digital screen to onboard new staff members. Create a resource hub easily accessible via touchscreen to share compliance information and training materials. This allows staff to have important resources at their fingertips — for instance, if they are unsure about a procedure or policy, a digital screen can quickly provide your organization's rules and best practices.

Benefits of Digital Signage For Healthcare Practices

As we discussed earlier, digital signage is a great way for healthcare practices to create better patient experiences and improve communication among staff. Beyond that, digital signage creates opportunities to create efficiencies that save time and cost, which means your practice will see an ROI in many ways.

Decreased Cost of Marketing Materials

Printing and hanging signs can be time consuming and expensive. The worst part is, they need to be replaced every time the information becomes obsolete or irrelevant. The cost of replacing damaged or worn signs need to be factored in, as well. With digital signage, messaging can be changed as often as you like, at no additional cost.

Save Time for Busy Staff

Labor cost is a big part of the budget for any healthcare practice, so it’s important to manage staff effectively. Using digital signs for wayfinding saves visitors from asking time-consuming questions of busy staff. Clear directions also keeps people moving, which relieves hallway congestion so staff can get where they need to go faster. Patients can use digital screens for self check-in, updating their medical information, and scheduling their next appointments, which means front desk staff can spend their time on other important tasks.

More Consistent Brand Messaging

In order to create loyalty, people need to recognize and feel warmly towards your brand. Digital signs can help with that. Private label entertainment keeps competitor’s messages out while reinforcing yours. Properly branded health and wellness tips help patients feel like their health matters to the team at your practice.

Healthcare Digital Signage from ComQi

Digital signage for healthcare practices can do everything from create a better patient experience to getting your staff informed. Sharing your healthcare brand’s message digital is an effective way to communicate and engage, while saving time and costs. Learn more about digital signage for healthcare, and contact us for a demo today.