Given the delicate nature of a hospital, a place where people go to heal or recover from accidents, illness, or to receive life-saving treatments, the space must exude a sense of order and calm, and effective signage systems go a long way in facilitating a better experience.
It is extremely important to have an organized environment for both patients and staff so that one can save time in cases of emergency. Good signage systems will improve the overall patient experience because patients and visitors instinctively interact with signage without even realizing it. Hospitals incur losses of around $12 billion annually due to inefficient communication which is a problem that can be solved by having effective signage.
In a survey conducted to understand and improve the patient experience in healthcare facilities, findings revealed that 54.8% of patients found the waiting experience to be stressful and hectic. Based on this feedback, patient friendly signage was implemented throughout which led to a statistically significant reduction in patient stress levels. Effective signage systems can save healthcare facilities millions and can also save lives and drastically improve the patient experience.
The Different Kinds Of Signage Needed In Hospitals
1)Directional signage:
These signs essentially are designed to help people find what they are looking for by pointing them in the right direction.
Best practices would be to use clear and concise symbols and fewer words to effectively communicate directions without giving the consumer too much information to consume, this makes wayfinding a lot smoother. Modular signage can be implemented in this case since it can be easily installed, repaired and changed since they can be designed as per need.
2)Informational signage:
These signage systems are key in relaying important and critical information such as dos and don’ts, treatments offered, facility features and more.
Best practices would be to have the information against a clean, minimal background so that the patients can read from afar with ease.
3)Cautionary signage:
Cautionary signs are usually loud, high contrast signs and for good reason. They serve the purpose of demarcating hazardous zones and areas so as to warn patients, visitors and staff and to enable patient safety. You will find these in radiation zones and medical disposal zones typically.
Best practices would include using universally recognizable symbols which can be understood in just a glance, high contrast colors should be used to help them stand out.
4)Regulatory signage:
This signage is used for displaying and conveying rules or regulations, for instance, no smoking areas, no mobile or no entry zones. These are important for a hospital for obvious reasons.
Best practices would be similar to cautionary signage, try using symbols wherever relevant and the sign itself should be recognizable even from a distance.
5)Identification signage:
These types of signs are used to identify different spaces in the hospital like OPD rooms, Emergency wings, department stores, room numbers and more, these are also used to indicate floors in multi-story floor plans.
Best practices would include having modular signs which can be interchanged easily, these signs should be clean and concise in design and should be easy to understand.
6)Doctor directory signage:
These signs are used to help patients find the relevant doctors with ease.
Best practice would be to implement modular signage here since this information can keep changing over time, being interchangeable and very easy to install, these would be your best bet.
Pillars of Effective Signage and Their Outcomes
●Delivering a sense of clarity: When done right, an effective signage system will provide patients with vital information and should leave them feeling a sense of clarity.
●Making the information as easy to consume as possible: In many cases, patients and family members may be flustered, especially when dealing with the ill health of a loved one. In these sensitive situations, it helps to give patients information in an easily digestible way. This is why it helps to use universally recognizable symbols whenever possible as these symbols are easier to absorb as compared to words.
●Enabling your signage systems to be inclusive: In a country like India where multiple languages are spoken, one must factor in accessibility and ensure that signs are multilingual and inclusive so as to facilitate communication easily.
●Imbibing a sense of clarity: The signage of the hospital must reflect the brand, and a brand is nothing but a set of decided upon visual language and personality to represent the face of your hospital. Keeping this in mind, the visual identity of your signs must be consistent so that patients can instinctively understand instructions or information even when they are in a state of panic or hurry.
●Enabling easy wayfinding: While building a signage system for a hospital, visual hierarchy matters, some signs may need more visibility than others, for example, an emergency would have to be more easily recognizable than a waiting room, hospital signage must be planned while keeping this in mind.
A lot of attention to detail goes into building effective signage systems, especially for a hospital. With over three decades of expertise under our belt, we understand signage in a deep way. Reach out if you’re looking to implement or update your signage systems.
