Finding your way around a hospital can be challenging for patients, hospital visitors and employees.
While there is always directional signage, it is a static resource. MazeMap provides a solution to this challenge with their easy-to-use indoor maps, allowing visitors to receive graphical turn-by-turn directions on any mobile device.
Wi-Fi Interaction with Wayfinding
Mazemap is a good example of in the category of hospital wayfinding apps or an indoor wayfinding application. Hospitals can be large buildings, if not an entire campus and it's very easy to get lost. Helping patients arrive at their consultations on time helps the whole hospital to be efficient in the delivery of patient care.
How does Mazemap work?
Almost all hospitals have a Wi-Fi network deployment, with the majority having a location grade Wi-Fi network. Location Grade networks are able to deliver triangulation (or trilateration), to provide an accurate location of a Wi-Fi device.
This does require a higher AP density than a voice grade Wi-Fi deployment might need, but does open up a range of Wi-Fi services that can be delivered with added benefits for the site.
Wayfinding Business Benefits
Wayfinding is not deployed for any technical reason. It's deployed to allow patients to easily find their way around a site and has some real, tangible business benefits:
- Reduces stress by providing predictability for visitors and employees
- Reduces the workload at information desks
- Increases productivity by helping ensure patients arrive on time for their appointments
Application Example: Find My Friends
Wayfinding isn't the only available application. Find my friends is a service designed by MazeMap to help find colleagues, fellow students or friends in large spaces - while maintaining privacy.
With Find My Friends you can see each others position in real time - when indoors:
- University Find my Friends: University campuses are often complex and confusing which can be difficult and frustrating when trying to find co-students or colleagues. With Find My Friends you'll be able to locate your co-student or colleague in seconds.
- Office Find my Friends: Open plan environments and large office spaces can make it hard to know where your colleagues are. Find My Friends makes it easy to find each other, while simultaneously saving time and unnecessary frustration.
- Conference Find my Friends: Finding your colleagues at large conventions or events among thousands of other visitors, can be very challenging. Often it is also too noisy to give directions via phone. Find My Friends removes this frustration and leads you back to you friends in no time.
How Find my Friends Works
With Find My Friends, users can easily find each other throughout a campus, building of conference venue, increasing user satisfaction and efficiency.
Find My Friends utilises existing Wi-Fi infrastructure for obtaining users locations. Only users that have actively accepted to join a group will be tracked and a users can leave a group at any time.
The graphic below illustrates the process - create a group, invite your friends and be able to locate each other easily:
MazeMap in Hospitals
Back on the topic of hospital wayfinding, along with the basic turn-by-turn service, Mazemap incorporates end user reminders, such as SMS or email and MazeMap can contribute to reducing missed appointments by showing people exactly where they should meet.
The NHS in the UK has indicted missed appointments have cost ₤800M, which offers a pretty unbelievable business return on investment.
Here's a quick run down on a few use cases:
- Visiting Patients: Whether meeting up for an appointment or visiting a loved one, MazeMap can show people where to go, where to park, where to eat and where to buy gifts. Basically, you can lift the experience and increase the service to your patients and visitors.
- Clinical Staff: Need help finding their way if they are called for a meeting or appointment outside of their ward or building. With MazeMap you can include links to meeting rooms directly in the meeting invitation to help employees know where to go and increase efficiency.
- Clinical Alarms: With MazeMap you can integrate with alarm systems, so when an alarm goes off nurses, doctors or security personnel can be shown exactly where the alarm is. This can save time when time is critical.
Together with vendors of equipment tracking you can use MazeMap to visualize where important equipment is placed, help you save time searching for equipment.
Conclusion: The Future of Wayfinding
MazeMap is a searchable, linkable, user-friendly and always up-to-date map platform for your organisation/business. The future of Wayfinding lies here.
With the incorporation of high-grade Wi-Fi, MazeMap allows for simple and effective Live Location Wayfinding, Alarm System integration and equipment tracking.
If you're also interested to read more on clinical and hospital Wi-Fi, we have a free download, the Top 8 Secrets to Great Hospital Wi-Fi.
