Clinical centers in most cases are complex buildings with several floor levels, many entrances and exits and confusing corridors. Most people who enter a hospital are in an exceptional situation and want to reach their destination as fast and as easy as possible. An indoor navigation and corresponding smartphone app can facilitate the stay in the hospital.
Indoor Navigation
Due to the complex building structures in hospitals, it can get difficult for patients, visitors and even employees to reach a certain location by the shortest route. Indoor navigation, wayfinding within buildings, facilitates orientation in the hospital.
A typical application for medical facilities is turn-by-turn navigation in an app (displaying directions on a digital map). Patients, visitors and staff can use the app to navigate to points of interest (e.g. ward, patient room, cafeteria, toilets) on the hospital premises.
To implement such a system, a client-based solution based on Bluetooth Low Energy is used. In order to use the navigation, an app must be installed on the user’s smartphone and Bluetooth must be activated on the phone. Smartphone sensors are always called upon to refine the positioning.
However, indoor navigation is also possible without automatic positioning – for example, when a digital building map is integrated into a digital signage system (multitouch kiosk/interactive terminal).
Use Case: Indoor Navigation and Digital Signage in Hospitals
Additional App Features
Additional functions can be integrated into an indoor navigation app. For example, a colleague finder is an interesting feature for hospital staff. When a specific doctor needs be consulted about a case, their location can be viewed on a digital map and navigation to that location can be started.
Patients can, for example, use the app to select meals for the next few days, book TV and telephone cards or find out about upcoming events in the hospital.
In addition, patients who come to the hospital for outpatient treatment can receive reminders and updates for their appointments via the app. In this way, on the one hand, late arrivals or missed appointments are avoided and on the other hand, waiting times for patients can be reduced.
For visitors of the hospital, the menu of the cafeteria or the opening hours of the clinic shop are particularly interesting. Moreover, the option of a sign translator can be very helpful for foreign visitors.