Wayfinding in Hospitals - an £864m Problem for NHS

Here’s the deal: how many times have you got lost in a hospital? How many times have you parked in the wrong area or asked medical staff for directions? If your answer is ‘loads’ than you are probably part of those 87% of patients or visitors that ask for directions every time they visit a medical facility.

A recent Deloitte report showed that medical staff spends on average 4,500 hours in giving directions every year. That is a considerable amount of time wasted just on giving directions.

In 2016-2017 in the UK alone, there were 8 million medical appointments missed, at a cost of 108 per appointment which led to 864m being lost by the NHS. A high percentage of these were due to patients being getting lost within a hospital.

Across the ocean in the US, the numbers look more frightening as no-show appointments lead to $150 billion per year, which is a huge amount considering that the US holds the biggest market size for indoor navigation.

Maybe you ask “but why is this so important?”. It is a legitimate question giving that hospitals have their own navigation systems, some with poster signage, some based on colorful lines on the floor and some even have smart screens displaying hospital map. How well do these work though? Judging by the numbers above, not well enough.

Since GoogleMaps we are used to reliable digital navigation outdoors, so we are expecting a similar type of system indoors as well – in all sorts of venues. Indoor wayfinding is easy to understand and to use and it can adapt to every user and patient – BUZZ has been built with the end-user in mind.

One of the reasons we are really passionate about BUZZ and our technology is that we feel we can make a positive change and help people navigate easier through a hospital as well as give them a more independent experience.

Navigate with us and see how we helped a number of hospitals with their indoor wayfinding solutions: (insert link from Projects)