Visits to a hospital by patients or their visitors are almost always a stressful experience, especially the first visit. This stress can rapidly escalate, if they cannot get to where they need to go quickly, be it to get treatment or to visit a loved one. The difficulty to find way can be compounded for the patient or a visitor if they are less able-bodied person e.g. if they are visually impaired, colour blind, or wheelchair bound etc.

Hence, hospital and clinic designers need to have a comprehensive Way Finding and Signage strategy to assist in efficient functioning of a hospital or a clinic. This is not limited to just providing department names on wall mounted boards with arrows pointing in the right direction. Way finding requires thorough analysis of various aspects of a modern medical facility including

  • the locations of various departments with regards to entrances, –
  • foot traffic,
  • routes,
  • different colours association with departments,
  • strategic locations for signage including ceiling hung to complement the wall mounted signs,
  • use of signs in Braille along the route frequented by people with little or no sight including buttons in the lifts and in toilets, for example
  • correct use of lighting
  • use of graphics to assist with speakers of foreign languages

There is a huge variety of signage available in the market ranging from printed wood and plastic panels, small hand-held audio devices to LED and even high definition LCD and plasma displays being used to help people find their way and access information. Hospitals also use interactive computer displays to provide public information including route maps and locations of various functions and general knowledge of interest to the public.

One of the latest developments is the use of environmentally friendly materials such as water based paints, re-programmable LED scrolling signs and as mentioned above use of latest HD TV technology to name a few. The last two can also be programmed to provide assistance in several different languages and signs.

Hospital medical signage, as you can see, has an important role to play in the smooth and efficient running of a modern patient friendly hospital. Get it wrong and you may have a lot of irate patients and visitors, which in turn would affect staff morale and even safety.

About the Author:
Harry McQue is a hospital Design & Equipment Manager with Post Graduate degrees in business management and information technology. Harry has 20+ years of international experience ranging from working on hospital projects in Dubai (Middle East) to over £1 Billion hospital projects in the UK & Europe. You can benefit from his experience at: www.hospitaldesigntips.com. If you have current or upcoming projects big or small or  topics that you would like his advice on, you can get in touch via the Contact page.

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