Best Practices to Educate Patients Using Digital Wall Displays

AV solutions in a healthcare setting, like a digital information display or healthcare digital wall displays, are a great way to educate patients and even staff. If you have such digital signage display solutions in place at your hospital or medical facility, are you making the most of them? Here are some best practices to follow. 

1. Aim to address FAQs. 

There may be some specific information you want to share with patients via a digital display in the lobby, but it’s important to remember who will be passing through the area. Lobbies, for instance, are where all patients enter, and where families often congregate to wait as well. Getting too specific with your signage may mean losing out on an opportunity to address information that’s more broadly applicable. 

So, you may want to share rules about your waiting room process or directions about how to find certain areas of the facility in the lobby. This way, you use the space to address more general concerns and reach the wider audience bound to be there. Then, you can use the digital display near your surgery unit to educate patients in that area about what to expect with procedures requiring general anesthesia or when they can see their family after an operation. 

2. But, recognize the individual nature of every patient. 

We’ve covered that you likely have information to share that pertains to a majority of patients, but it’s still important that everyone in your care feels like they’re being viewed as an individual. Make sure your digital signage display solutions account for this. You can do this by including asterisks and disclaimers when appropriate, or making a note to the effect that “while this is what most patients experience, we understand your situation is unique and will treat it as such.” Simply knowing that the staff understands they’re not just a number, but rather a person, can be empowering and comforting for patients. 

3. Give patients a way to learn more. 

Even the most educational digital display can’t contain all the extensive information you need to share with your patients. You can do a lot to inform them this way, but they may still have questions and concerns after reviewing your healthcare digital wall displays. Make sure you include how they can get those questions answered on your signs so they have complete clarity about next steps. 

Should they grab a pamphlet with further details of a certain treatment option from the front desk? Discuss the medication you described with their doctor? Ask the receptionist about exceptions to the visiting hours they saw posted? Being very clear about who can help them next will cut down on patient confusion and frustration, as well as your staff’s time being unnecessarily bogged down.