Hospital Navigation App Could Improve Patient Satisfaction, Decrease Missed Appointments

I have spent a lot of time in hospitals during my medical training and practice career.  I have also visited a lot of different hospitals; I have 12 grandchildren born all around the country, from Alaska to Georgia. I have also made it a point to visit friends at hospitals in the different cities I have lived in. Every experience was different but one component was the same: difficulties finding the right place on the right floor and then finding my way back to the parking lot. These difficulties appear to be the result of hospitals growing over the decades with seemingly endless additions.

If it is difficult for a visitor like me, imagine how exponentially more difficult it is for patients with complex health care needs who must go back numerous times not only to the hospital rooms but to the numerous different departments for their outpatient testing. 

Hospitals have long used things like a “volunteer desk,” complex series of signs, special floor and wall colors, maps, diagrams, and help desks to aid patient navigation. More often than not, patients eventually resort to asking anyone in a white coat or scrubs to point them in the right direction. This leads health care workers and patients to wonder: isn’t there a better way?

A small Atlanta-based company, Gozio — founded by Joshua Titus, Kevin Lee, and Dennis Keller— has come up with a simple solution. They developed an app—also called Gozio—for smartphones that acts like a GPS for hospital corridors and hallways. The company has also developed kiosks that can be placed strategically around the hospital for people to use who do not wish to use a smartphone or download an app.

It starts with the company using a cute little robot (who is named Magellan) to actually map the entire hospital, every floor and every associated building, inside and out. This process is similar to the process Google uses to map out streets on Google Maps. The map includes the locations of parking lots, reception deskss, gift shops, various departments where patients need to go for outpatient services, the doctor’s offices, the bathrooms, cafeteria, vending machines, ATMs, exits – essentially everything within the hospital. The app even works with other GPS apps already on your phone to get you to the hospital in the easiest way possible.

The app works by pinging preinstalled Bluetooth beacons throughout the hospital.

Users can type in a destination or pull up a menu to just tap your desired destination and it will create a MapQuest or Google Maps type image complete with blinking blue dots to lead you to the goal. The app also provides explicit step-by-step instructions, such as “turn right.” The hospital can even load custom content for patients to use, like adding the daily cafeteria menu.

But the advantages are not just to the patients and visitors.  There are real advantages to hospitals and their medical staffs. Think of how many late and missed appointments might be avoided. The app would also work to eliminate a lot of the interruptions by patients who lost their way. It also means happier patients… and as every hospital CFO knows, happy patients lead to happy bottom lines!

Gozio has already installed their technology at several hospitals including Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and The University of Miami Health System’s new Lennar Foundation Medical Center.

Gozio aims to take the otherwise dreadful experience of navigating the health care labyrinth, and make it a bit more enjoyable.