Birmingham, Alabama. One-quarter of the city’s central business district comprises The University of Alabama, Birmingham’s Medical Center. That is 4 million square feet of hospital space. How can you find the office you seek at a complex like this? It’s like finding a needle in a haystack. UAB Medicine is not unique in this dilemma. According to Deloitte Digital, “nearly one-third of first-time visitors to hospitals get lost, and approximately a quarter of hospital workers are confused about the location of critical locations in the hospital.” (Modern)

This uncertainty has two outcomes:

1. “It can be detrimental to the health system’s reputation due to poor patient satisfaction and complaints with the HCAHPS” (Modern)
2. It can cost institutions large sums of money. Analysis labor – “An analysis at Atlanta’s Emory University found that wayfinding [patients asking for directions and taking up valuable time of healthcare workers] was costing the institution more than $200,000 a year” (Modern).

A friendly front desk can only do so much, especially with campuses such as UAB. Human support will only exacerbate the abovementioned issue with constant impediments to hospital staff. The goal of a hospital being able to help the patient doesn’t only mean the physical remedies of illness or injury but also remedying the stress induced by visiting the hospital.

Having updated campus maps in strategic and accessible in-person and online locations can help solve this issue by making navigation as easy and user-friendly as possible. To improve satisfaction, the hospital needs its maps to be accessible regardless of location. A compatible mobile app or an easy-to-find online campus map is in the hospital’s best interest.

“Traditionally, maps tend to be static. They’re drawn once, with the assumption that not much will change, and they will remain accurate for the foreseeable future.” (Gombeski) However, it is a false assumption, and we all know what they say when someone assumes. Consider the following scenarios: a department moves to a different floor, a new building opens to the public, unique common areas open, or services leave a hospital for a neighboring facility.

All these situations would lead a hospital’s map to become antiquated if not updated, and they are by no means rare occurrences. The hospital must make necessary real-time updates to make its wayfinding maps functional. Fortunately, with technological improvements, maps no longer need to be static. Hosting and building digital maps means maintaining a degree of adjustment possibility that would not be possible otherwise.

Your map can evolve alongside the physical facilities, maintaining accuracy while maximizing patient satisfaction.” (Gombeski) Suppose hospitals continue to neglect their structural design and make their facilities challenging to navigate. In that case, they must find wayfinding solutions, whether physical or online, to address the issue and improve the patient experience.