Don’t leave patients or visitors confused when navigating your hospital. The right wayfinding signs can ensure your guests know exactly where to go the first time around without needing to ask busy hospital staff for directions. Read our overview of the magic of wayfinding signs.
With so many rooms, departments, doors, halls, and separate buildings, every hospital could benefit from the installation of wayfinding signs. These signs can help patients, visitors, and even staff find their way around a large facility like a hospital or other medical setting with ease.
Some of the wayfinding sign options hospitals could benefit from including the following.
Entrance and Exit Signs
Hospitals tend to have more entrances and exits than one can count. These include the main entrance to the hospital, an emergency room entrance, staff-only entrances, general exits, emergency exits, plus more. Talk about confusing, but every entrance and exit plays a critical role in a hospital.
To ensure guests can find their way in and out of the hospital or specific area of the hospital they’re in, the simple addition of wayfinding signs can make all the difference. This way, people will swiftly enter and exit without getting lost while also keeping from accidentally entering employee-only zones or exiting out an alarm-activated door.
Specific Department Signs
As if a hospital setting wasn’t already confusing enough due to its size and layout, hospitals are also divided up by different departments. The various sections of most hospitals include the emergency department, labor and delivery, intensive care unit, medical-surgical unit, operating room, and more.
Wayfinding signs can make it evident to anyone, including employees, in a hospital that they’re close to their destination when they enter an area marked by the correct department sign they’re looking for. Without department wayfinding signs, it would be very difficult to know if one is in the right area of a hospital.
Room Numbering
With most hospitals offering hundreds of individual rooms, numbering rooms is imperative. Without proper room numbering, medical professionals would have a hard time keeping track of where admitted patients are staying, patients would have difficulty getting back to their assigned room, and visitors wouldn’t know which room to visit.
Room numbering is one of the most critical types of wayfinding signs a hospital could ever have. Lack of clear and proper room numbering can result in not just confusion but can also decrease the speed and quality of care among patients.
Directions to Elevators and Stairs
Buildings like hospitals with multiple stories don’t just require wayfinding to get from one area to another but also from floor to floor. To easily help patients, visitors, and the like navigate to another floor, it’s crucial to offer guidance to find the nearest elevator or flight of stairs.
The quicker one is able to find a stairway or elevator, the quicker they can get to their final destination. Elevator signage is especially important to swiftly guide those in wheelchairs or staff with equipment or a patient on wheels.
Restroom Signs
Especially in large facilities like hospitals, it isn’t enough to simply label doors with a restroom sign. Offering wayfinding signs to help guide patients and others to where the restrooms are located can significantly help with navigation in an otherwise confusing and intimidating setting.
At Allmark Signs, we’re prepared to create wayfinding signs for any medical setting in Warwick, RI. Contact us today to learn about all the wayfinding sign options we offer.