The Diaconesse hospital is a medium-sized regional hospital located in Zeist in the Netherlands with outpatient clinics in Meppel, Steenwijk and Vollenhove. ONELAN digital signage was chosen for communicating with patients and to control the flow of patients coming into the hospital. The hospital wanted to operate more efficiently: prior to the digital signage installation, it was a full time job for one nurse to manage the patient flow. In addition, Diaconesse wanted to make wayfinding around the hospital as straightforward as possible.
The digital signage needed to be able to display information clearly and simply to patients who are not only unwell but may also be, for example, elderly or shortsighted. In addition the information needed to be very easy to assimilate, as patients will just glance quickly at it. Considerable research was undertaken with a communications advisor to establish the best background colours and fonts to use for this particular audience.
Nineteen ONELAN Net-top-box (NTB) 510 and (NTB) 5000 players are installed, driving 42” screens. The screens display just one zone for clarity; the only additional feature is an HTML clock.
The system is managed by ADL in the Netherlands and a local dealer. Daily content – such as availability and schedules of doctors, reasons for doctors’ delays or absence, and patient appointment times – is changed by the nurses themselves. This is achieved using ONELAN’s Ad Hoc capability, a simple facility for local changes and input of messages, announcements, visual paging, table data, TV selection and layout changes.
ONELAN says that digital signage has considerably improved communications between the hospital and its patients, as well as reducing costs, as there is no longer the need for a nurse to manage the patient flow.
