Hospitals, small clinics, pharmacies, and all other healthcare facilities can take advantage of visitor tracking and improve efficiency while reducing costs.
As we navigate the complexities of healthcare today, it’s clear that one of the biggest hurdles we face is finding ways for healthcare systems to truly connect with each and every customer in a meaningful way. This includes taking steps to limit the spread of viruses like COVID-19, as well as helping people manage chronic conditions and stay as healthy as possible.
One potential solution to these challenges lies in the development and undertaking of digital health ecosystems, which can help bridge the gap between patients and healthcare providers and facilitate better communication, more personalized care, and ultimately better health outcomes for everyone involved. While there are certainly still gaps to be addressed and improvements to be made, the promise of digital health technology is undeniable, and we are excited to see how it continues to evolve and grow in the years to come.
The healthcare industry has always been at the forefront of innovation, constantly striving to improve patient outcomes and enhance the delivery of care. In recent years, we have seen a surge in groundbreaking developments in surgical equipment and treatment protocols to combat diseases and other medical challenges.
However, the innovation in how clinicians interact with their patients is equally important, if not more so. Telehealth visits and virtual patient monitoring have become integral components of this comprehensive patient care model. Healthcare facilities such as hospitals, smaller clinics, pharmacies, and others can optimize their resources, safeguard the health and safety of patients and staff, and conserve the use of personal protection equipment by leveraging these technologies. This will ultimately lead to better overall healthcare outcomes.
While there are infinite ways to use technology in healthcare, this article focuses primarily on using people counting and footfall analytics technologies in hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies. There are numerous innovative ways to utilize technology beyond the traditional to Improve the quality of healthcare, enhance the overall safety in and around the hospital, and mitigate the spread of potential infections, which in turn contribute to higher patient and provider satisfaction.
Hospitals witness high foot traffic on a daily basis; some are patients who require long-term care, some are only there for a checkup, and some others are visiting their loved ones, all navigating through your healthcare facility to get to where they need to be. Using a hospital traffic counter allows hospitals to obtain valuable and accurate visitor traffic data to understand better how their facilities are used, thus improving the visitor experience and optimizing operations to save up on costs.
How People Counters Improve Your Healthcare Facility
A modern, smart, and reliable people counting and visitor tracking system can do help you analyze foot traffic patterns and understand visitor behavior at your facilities. You can use live visitor data —or historical data if you’ve been using these systems for long enough— to improve the visitor experience. A healthcare facility can use people counting to manage crowds better and offer safer environments, efficiently allocate resources and staff, improve patient experience, enhance safety and security throughout the facility, and further improve existing strategies.
For instance, hospital traffic counter systems tell you which areas have the most foot traffic by monitoring the number of occupants in real-time, reporting when they enter and exit a location with extreme accuracy. As a decision maker, you can use this data to understand better how your staff, your patients, and visitors navigate the hospital and, subsequently, use all the actionable insights to improve their experience.
Regularly monitoring how visitors move around your facility will also reveal which areas are more congested, which zones are being underused, and where to move amenities around or if you need to place new ones. For example, traffic tracking technology can let you see visitor flow across your facility, and you can use this information to spot overcrowded areas. Maybe a badly placed vending machine is causing congestion in specific hours, or you have a high-traffic zone, and one can use a vending machine or a water cooler to improve the visitor experience. This is just but one example of how you can control visitor flow in your healthcare facility through people counting. When you have accurate and reliable visitor data in the palm of your hand, what you can accomplish is nearly endless.
Resource Allocation and Reduced Costs
Accurate visitor data is essential in healthcare facilities to optimize resource allocation and improve patient care. Visitor data collected in a precise manner allows healthcare professionals to anticipate patient needs and allocate resources effectively, ensuring that the right number of staff, equipment, and supplies are always available. Analyzing and developing strategies powered by data-driven decision-making can reduce waiting times, improves operational efficiency, and lead to better patient outcomes.
Imagine having easy access to visitor patterns, peak hours, and occupancy trends at your hospital or pharmacy at all times and on any available device. You can leverage accurate visitor data to make strategic decisions for facility management, staffing levels, and resource planning. People counting enables proactive adjustments and strategic improvements to optimize operations, enhance patient care, and streamline workflows.
Even optimizing your staffing level can drastically reduce all your energy costs and other HVAC-related expenses. Having the right amount of staff available, managing their flow, and maximizing operational efficiency leads to lowered costs and even more income.
Optimize Facility Management
Data from a hospital door counter can determine the times in which when your hospital facility is busy and when it is not. These traffic trends will help with efficient staff scheduling and reduce costs as a result.
For instance, healthcare professionals can optimize workflow, reduce patient anxiety, and enhance overall guest experience and satisfaction simply by accurately measuring the number of visitors in waiting areas. Data-driven decision-making ensures that patients receive timely attention and care, and in turn, this leads to positive experiences during their visit.
Trust that with accurate visitor data, leaders in the healthcare space can anticipate patient needs and optimize all their operations and make the best use of their facilities to meet said needs. Plus, if the online visitor tracking platform you’re using is capable and user-friendly, you can even take special notes to remind yourself why some specific dates have sudden surges in visitor numbers. Perhaps, a disaster or a major emergency situation happened nearby your healthcare facility, and that’s why your facility had more visitors during that specific time period.
“Enhance workflow, lessen patient anxiety,
and improve satisfaction.”
Crowd Management and Safety
Another great benefit to using new and innovative technologies such as visitor tracking systems is you can easily comply with your government’s regulations and health guidelines and manage crowds in an efficient way, even during emergencies.
Using people counters, you can also turn your hospital into a much safer place, as you’ll have a better understanding of how visitors and staff cruise around the facility. You can take a proactive approach and discover the most effective emergency exit paths for people. As a manager, you can also take other proactive measures to prevent overcrowding, maintain social distancing, and ensure a safe environment overall. Yet another helpful example; is if your people counting system has an accurate live occupancy monitoring feature, you can ensure maximum occupancy limits are adhered to.
Managing hospital crowds properly can also help you battle and mitigate the spread of infections, leading to a safer healthcare facility.
Conclusion
Whether your hospital has already implemented people counter systems or is now considering it, footfall traffic monitoring technologies can act as a force optimizer to support medical teams and improve operations.
If you want to learn more and see how people counting can transform your healthcare facility, contact us now and let’s book a meeting. We’ll connect you with one of our people counting experts and help you provide a better visitor experience while dramatically reducing costs.
