Smart Hospital Wayfinding - A Case Study by Cisco DNA Spaces and Pointr

Finding your way around a hospital to visit a loved one, attend a doctor’s appointment, or even find parking can be stressful. Often, patients end up missing their appointment because they misjudge their journey time, park too far from the most accessible entrance, or get lost on their way. 

The last thing that hospitals need is the extra cost incurred by missed or late appointments. At an average cost of $265 per missed appointment and an average 18 percent no-show rate, a clinic that’s scheduled to see 100 patients but only sees 82 would lose almost $2 million in revenue per year.

Hospitals should improve their patient experience to save them time and money. This post shares a real-world example of how Cisco has partnered with Pointr to deliver a smart hospital experience using wayfinding technology.

Digital wayfinding at an NYC hospital complex

One of the largest East Coast healthcare networks wanted to enable digital wayfinding in several of their New York hospitals, so as to create a seamless experience for their visitors and patients on their way to their appointment or loved ones. 

Their main requirement was to leverage their existing infrastructure to ease setup and avoid unnecessary costs. They already had existing Cisco Wi-Fi 6 Access Points deployed at one of their campuses. 

In just 45 days, Pointr and Cisco enabled digital wayfinding by utilizing Cisco BLE-enabled Access Points, Cisco DNA Spaces, and Pointr’s wayfinding technology. 

Here’s a video showcasing the wayfinding technology in action: 

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How we make it work 

Combined with Cisco Wi-Fi 6 Access Points, the Pointr SDK receives the Bluetooth signals emitted by the Cisco APs and enables high-accuracy indoor positioning (blue dot) and smart wayfinding for visitors and patients. 

The system provides accurate "blue dot" location up to 1 m accuracy, allowing the app users to know exactly where they are at any given time. With the accuracy of Pointr's indoor positioning system, the hospital can easily enable turn-by-turn navigation to help the patients and visitors guide themselves to the right buildings, floors, and rooms via the most accessible route. 

The completed system automatically syncs with the digital maps and the real-time information provided by Cisco's Access Points via the Cisco DNA Spaces platform, providing an end-to-end indoor positioning solution for the hospital. The deployment can improve efficiency around the hospital and improve the patient experience as a whole.  

Want to learn everything there is to know about indoor positioning? Download our guide.

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Our vision for every hospital 

Smart hospital wayfinding is a must-have for every large hospital campus that wants to take the hassle out of stressful wayfinding experiences, improve patient experiences and reduce the cost of missed appointments. 

Cisco and Pointr are able to deliver a turn-by-turn wayfinding solution for hospitals with 2 major benefits: 

• The wayfinding technology can handle smooth transitioning between indoor and outdoor environments, requiring no additional outdoor infrastructure. This is especially beneficial for a large hospital complex with multiple buildings and clinics scattered around the campus. 
• The technology is easy to integrate with 3rd party software or systems. For example, Pointr worked with UCHealth to integrate the indoor positioning system into an EHR system, MyChart, to automatically calculate personalized routes to specific appointments. 

Get in touch with our team if you would like to know about the many ways location technology can enable your smart hospitals as we step into 2022 and beyond.