Using Wayfinding Data to Understand Patient Travel Within a Medical Center

Navigating through parking lots, public areas, and hallways is a stressful task for patients visiting large medical centers. Little is known about the patient experience from when they arrive at a medical center to when they check-in at their clinic. In a pilot study, we used requests for wayfinding directions from a mobile application to form a network of patient movement through the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). From September 2016 to September 2017, patients using the wayfinding application made 3493 requests using the VUMC WalkWays application. Results show that patients frequently request directions from parking garages, on-site eateries, and the emergency room. We calculated the approximate distance patients walked to determine the extent to which associated clinical areas were co-located. Applied more generally, medical centers could use similar technologies to inform clinic placement, signage design, and resource allocation to improve the patient experience and operational efficiency.