Case Study: Elkhart General Hospital
Part of the Beacon Health System and located in Elkhart, IN, Elkhart General Hospital has provided comprehensive medical care to surrounding communities for more than 100 years. Their main 410-bed campus’s scenic location is adjacent to the St. Joseph River. They have a staff of 300 physicians representing more than 30 medical specialties, and nearly 2,000 employees serving in nursing, technical, administrative, and support capacities.
With a goal of improving the patient and visitor experience and best serving the local community, Elkhart General partnered with INNERFACE to design, plan, and implement a comprehensive interior signage and wayfinding master plan.
Phased Implementation
With limited resources for the project, the INNERFACE design team developed a comprehensive wayfinding and identification master plan and then broke the overall project into multiple phases for implementation. The first phase includes horizontal and vertical wayfinding on the first floor. Future phases will move vertically through the facility. At each phase, the INNERFACE design team will verify locations and messaging to capture changes that may have occurred and make sure they are included in the updated phasing implementation plan.
Challenges & Solutions
Common in most large medical facilities, the wayfinding challenges start with direction to and identification of each facility entrance. With six potential entry points, patients and visitors require clear identification and confirmation that they have reached the correct entrance. Starting outside at each entry point, we introduced an identification banding system mounted on the outside of the doors.
Once inside, the challenges continue as patients and visitors are directed to specific departments and waiting areas using six public elevator banks. Public elevators are a primary destination on directional signage. To best define these public elevator banks and associated destinations, we introduced a color and letter identification system. We further support the color/letter identification with graphics mounted on each elevator door.
Landmarking And Super Graphics
In addition to traditional wayfinding and identification elements, we explored with the client team the addition of large-format graphics to supplement wayfinding. These graphics serve several purposes and provide an impactful visual for direction, defining spaces, and recall of traveled routes. The graphics integrate with major wayfinding applications but do not change their modular design. The result is imagery that ties closely to the local area and helps to bring the outside in.
Future Implementation
The first phase of the project resulted in a major improvement to wayfinding and an improved patient and visitor experience. We look forward to implementing future phases and are beginning work on another Beacon Health location, Memorial Hospital South Bend.
