REDESIGNING
USING DIGITAL WAYFINDING

Patient satisfaction and
engagement have become the
highest priorities for hospitals.

Many HDOs are still tackling the
definition of what patient experience
means and encompasses.

The Beryl Institute, for
example, defines the patient
experience as:
“The sum of all interactions, shaped by
an organization's culture, that influence
patient perceptions across the
continuum of care."

Patient experience begins with the first
person they encounter at check-in and
ends with the person involved in check-
out or billing.
Implementing methods to provide a
quality patient experience at each step
of their visit is fundamental.

Recent studies show that up to 65% of
patient’s rate wait times in clinics and
hospitals as unsatisfactory. The concern
of course is that wait times at any step
of the visit cause an overall
dissatisfaction with the entire visit.
(McCarthy, McGee, & O'Boyle)

Patient-centric HDOs understand that a
positive patient experience goes beyond
the consultation or procedure. It spans
every interaction with the patient,
including:
• appointment
notifications
• directions to the
hospital
• the check-in
process
• navigating
between
procedures
• the discharge
process
• the journey home

Location awareness is playing an ever more
important role in the modern hospital, from
navigating complicated hallways to helping
healthcare professionals locate patients,
colleagues or machines at any given time.

Wayfinding offers the technology to keep
hospital staff alerted to patients while they
are in transit, allowing for preparation and
greater efficiency of both time and resources.

Indoor navigation and
wayfinding allows patients
and visitors to maneuver
through the unrestricted
areas of the hospital as they
follow the continuum of
care, without needing staff
guidance.

Bill is a patient due for an operation at the
hospital where Lisa works as a nurse.

On the day of the surgery, Bill receives
a notification on his phone alerting him
of his appointment later that day and
confirming he will use the hospital
shuttle bus.

On boarding the bus, his presence is
tagged and relayed to relevant hospital
staff.

The wayfinding
application also makes
Lisa and her colleagues
aware of traffic along
the bus route, letting
them know Bill will be
late for his
appointment.

Once Bill has entered the admission area,
geo-fences recognize his phone signature
and, based on his consent, tag him as
present, notify the necessary staff of his
arrival.

If Bill elects to check-in using his mobile
device, his patient record can be made
available to staff, including notifications of
behavioural and medical issues they should
be aware of, allowing them to prepare
accordingly.

Navigating through a large hospital building is
difficult for staff as well as visitors and
patients. Certain areas may be restricted to
patients and visitors but not staff, creating a
need for differentiation in navigation routes.

Enterprise Wayfinding
Platforms allow for
separation based on role:
Lisa can make her way
directly to a patient,
moving through restricted
areas, whereas Bill will be
directed along a very
specific route to a
consultation room.

This division of navigation access
allows Lisa full hospital access and
the most expedited routes, and
keeps Bill from moving through
areas of contamination, operation
rooms, labs and more.

If Lisa needs an IV pump for
a patient, rather than
searching the halls and asking
her colleagues where the
nearest available machine is,
Lisa can use her handheld
device to locate the nearest
unit, saving valuable time.

Navigation and location-sensing technologies
provide her with Wireless Health Care Asset
Management (WHAM). This allows Lisa to
discern between machines that will soon
need new batteries and those with ample
battery power, guiding her directly to a
ventilator with enough power.

Indoor navigation technologies coupled with
mobile devices help create the digital hospitals of
the future, through Experiential Wayfinding.

Not only does this technology directly
affect patients and visitors while in the
hospital, but also creates a foundation
for numerous other technologies that
improve the patient experience.

Internet-enabled smart objects have the ability to
interact with software and mobile applications, which
use data to deliver a more personalized experience
based on a users specific wants and needs at any
given time.

To ensure this, wayfinding software platforms
use three key dynamics when responding to a user
request: proximity, context and content.
By filtering each user’s request through these three
dynamics, the software ensures extremely relevant
and personalized results at all times.

Location Aware Technologies is a general term used for
technologies that are able to determine geographical
location such as GPS.
The problem is GPS doesn’t work indoors and isn’t very
accurate within 20 meters.

To overcome this, Wi-Fi positioning has become popular
as an indoor navigation technology as well Bluetooth LE,
that provides important proximity related information
and compliments Wi-Fi positioning technology.

Mobile location-based services offer numerous benefits,
from simplified navigation and locating personnel, to
tracking objects. Crucial to digital wayfinding and indoor
navigation, mobile location is now widely expected by
users in several industries.

Hospitals can also use mobile apps for patient
identification, using Positive patient
identification (PPID).
PPID begins with encoding of individually
identifying information on a wristband or tag
and affixing it to the patient. Once a patient
has been correctly identified, all following
actions and related workflows become safer
and more efficient.

BLE beacons work by broadcasting a short-range signal up
to 50 meters that has the ability to signal compatible
devices, such as a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone or tablet.
Because the signal is short, simple and usually unchanging,
the beacons do not require connectivity, and often have
battery lives that last months to years.

Navigation and location are two of the main benefits
associated with BLE beacons. Because they function
indoors, BLE beacon technology provides users with
precise indoor location and navigation, something lacking
in many other technologies such as Wi-Fi or cell tower
triangulation.

Combined with wayfinding software, BLE beacon
technology allows for accurate and detailed indoor
navigation - something necessary for staff and patients.
Proximity-based notifications are another benefit of BLE
beacon technology. Because of their range, the beacons
have the ability to trigger a message.

The convergence of this variety of
interactive technologies and the Internet
of Things, the network of autonomous
sensors and devices that connect
machines, spaces and instrumentation
to vast computing and analytical
resources gives us experiential
wayfinding.

By equipping hospitals with the
technology and methods for improved
patient experience as well as approaches
for more efficient staff communication
and collaboration, overall hospital
efficiency can be improved
simultaneously.

Jibestream's Enterprise Wayfinding Platform
(EWP), NovoMap™ 2.0 has been designed to
integrate with both internal hospital systems
(patient information portals, scheduling systems,
patient flow management systems etc.) and
external systems (mapping services, virtual
parking systems) to deliver a more comprehensive
experience for patients – before they leave the
comfort of their home.

Jibestream is an award winning software company that helps Health Care
Delivery Organizations (HDO) deliver exceptional patient experiences and
efficiencies. Our Enterprise Wayfinding Software, NovoMap™ 2.0, leverages
Location-Based Services (LBS) coupled with our Business Rules Engine to
deliver contextual messages to patients and staff.
With deployments across North America in both Federal and Commercial
venues, Jibestream’s NovoMap solution is the most secure and scalable
platform available to HDOs.
Better healthcare through
experiential wayfinding