This conversation is between the patient and the providers. If it’s done correctly, the providers guide and adapt the care process to the patient’s needs.
This conversation is at least as, and frequently more critical to a successful patient outcome as the resulting treatments and procedures. The sources for the conversation include the physicians and staff members offering care and talking with the patient, and the various written and displayed information that the patient is expected to read and interpret.
Healthcare has changed. It was once a top-down process; the patient played a passive role and was expected to just follow instructions. It’s now a self-directed, frequently confusing series of contact points for diagnosis and treatment. This has caused continuity to become a real challenge for both the patient and the caregivers.
The changes to the care delivery process have become so obvious and significant to the public that they need reassurance. Recognizable continuity is needed across the incredibly diverse forms of care sources. For the patients to trust and put their faith in an apparently disconnected series of events that are intended to heal them, they must believe that their provider has connected the care sequence for them, and ensured that all of the care sources are working together.
This message of continuity needs to be conveyed on many levels by the provider-both by the individuals responsible for administering care, and within the care environment. Since care facilities are branded environments, these messages are a vital part of the perceived quality of a healthcare brand.
Signage, wayfinding and graphics play a significant role in this message, both from a functional perspective, and from the indirect message of image and brand. Caregiving now takes place in such a broad range of environments that signage can be the single common element that the patient can see and identify.
With increased specialization of healthcare facilities, effective wayfinding has become even more critical to the patient experience and creation of healing environments. Adding to the challenge is the need to support a brand identity with a graphic and wayfinding system that must meet the needs of different facility types.
Tying It All Together
Your patients and their loved ones need to trust that, regardless of the location, they’re getting the same quality of care that they expect. Your brand, and how it’s displayed, can help maintain that trust. Consistency and quality should be communicated from the moment they start the care conversation. To find out how INNERFACE can help improve the conversation with your patients, get in touch.
