County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, one of the largest integrated healthcare providers in England, has installed an advanced multiscreen content management system by Hibox Systems to provide “clear and reliable digital signage” in three of its hospitals: Darlington Memorial Hospital; University Hospital of North Durham; and Bishop Auckland Hospital.
The Smartroom Health system from Hibox is said to be a “progressive system” that also enables patient TV entertainment services to be managed from the same server, leading to “greater operational efficiencies and time savings compared to multi-server systems”.
“With Smartroom Health, our hospitals can create an exceptional patient experience by providing visual information and content on more than 40 digital signage screens and door displays,” said Nigel Hauxwell, the Trust’s IT manager. “The installation went smoothly and we can now control display screens from just one server, getting maximum value from our IT budget.”
Large screens in public areas provide real-time communications to patients, visitors and staff, including general information, waiting times, news, general messages and café menus, while smaller displays outside meeting rooms are used to show current and upcoming reservations. In addition to patient-facing displays, the Trust also utilises Smartroom Health’s built-in tools for room allocation.
“We discovered the need for more efficient and reliable signage at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust’s hospitals only last summer,” said Staffan Granholm, CEO, Hibox Systems. “We were delighted to be able to make an agreement and install our Smartroom system in just a few months, and that Smartroom Health lives up to the visions and expectations of the Trust, delivering an engaging experience to patients and staff. We are proud of our first installation for the NHS, and we are confident this will be followed by many more, as it has in the Nordics where Smartroom Health is becoming the de facto standard for large hospitals.”
Project management was carried out by Lorna Garrett (formerly of Garland Partners), managing director of Zest Technologies. “Working with the the Trust’s IT and Communications teams to fully understand their signage needs and the outcomes they wanted for user engagement, ongoing system management and budget, I was able to highly recommend the Hibox digital signage solution. At Zest, as experts in IPTV and digital solutions, we ensure the solutions we offer will be reliable and secure, are cost effective and are easy to manage.”
