Point of View
Digitization is Reshaping the Healthcare Industry
Among all sectors, healthcare holds the greatest potential for reaping the benefits of digital transformation. Healthcare institutions face growing demands to enhance patient outcomes while managing expenses.
Consequently, numerous healthcare organizations are embracing digital technology as a means to facilitate their transformation endeavors.
Digital technology offers multiple avenues for healthcare organizations to attain their objectives, including enhancing patient engagement, enhancing medical decision-making, and automating administrative functions.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
Consumerization of Healthcare
The consumerization of healthcare is transforming the industry. Higher patient satisfaction is now as critical in healthcare as it is in more traditional consumer-oriented industries.
As a direct consequence of the recent surge in consumerism, coupled with the shift towards value-based care and a heightened focus on customer experience, healthcare providers must reassess their strategies to remain competitive. This involves placing a greater emphasis on enhancing the patient experience and engagement. Embracing innovative concepts and technologies that enhance the 'patient experience' has become a vital component of healthcare organizations' strategic plans.
Today’s patients expect a retail-like experience with personalized, effective, and empathetic communication. This necessitates innovative communication solutions at the intersection of healthcare and the patient. This involves improving access to information, breaking down silos, maximizing interoperability, and adopting a mobile-first strategy to effectively communicate with patients.
How does this affect Wayfinding Design in Healthcare?
From this perspective, a seamless patient journey, supported by efficient wayfinding, is a crucial step in the healthcare system's strategy to enhance the patient experience. The problem with wayfinding design is its lack of digitization, interoperability, and a mobile-first approach.
When patients cannot easily navigate the hospital, it leads to significant dissatisfaction, as evidenced by numerous patient complaints mentioning this as one of their top concerns in patient surveys. It is challenging for patients to understand why, in the age of consumerization and digitalization, wayfinding problems persist regularly.
When a patient visits the hospital for an orthopedic appointment that also requires an X-ray, it is becoming increasingly rare for the patient to have a conversation with the doctor, return two days later for an X-ray, and then have a follow-up discussion another two days later. This process is far from efficient. Furthermore, hospitals aim to minimize the inconvenience for patients by consolidating appointments for medical treatments, often resulting in patients having multiple appointments in one day or immediate follow-up examinations. This means that a patient often needs to visit multiple indoor locations during their hospital visit. While this may seem like a minor issue, it is not. It is a significant factor that complicates wayfinding design to such an extent that even the overall wayfinding system design is often seriously flawed.
Wayfinding design in hospitals requires a more advanced approach these days, which includes the use of generative design tools to optimize wayfinding design and adopting a mobile-first strategy.
Learn more on how Eyedog can assist your healthcare organisation with this.