Why hospitals are switching to digital patient door signs

A door sign outside a patient’s room isn’t like a door sign in a hotel or office building.

There’s a room number, sure, but in healthcare settings, the information staff members need before entering the patient room is much more complex.

There’s safety alerts. Time-outs. FYIs and reminders.

Trying to convey all that info in a simple way that people can actually scan and read in just a few seconds can get messy.

That’s why SONIFI Health developed digital patient door signs.

Hospitals across the country are making the switch to digital door signs. Here, our clinical team shares some of the biggest reasons why clinicians and other healthcare staff are making the update.

To clean it up

Most nurses can tell you the frustrations using magnets or paper signs to indicate if there’s isolation protocols in place, or a patient is NPO, for example.

If a patient has multiple precautions, it doesn’t take long for the entry to their room to look messy and disorganized.

This can quickly turn into a safety hazard if it’s not clear at an immediate glance what staff needs to know before entering the room.

Plus, it’s not the best way to represent the quality of your care or your organization’s brand.

With a digital door sign, it makes all those alerts clean and clear.

To make it right

In addition to the time savings of nurses not having to go looking for magnets or creating paper signs to tape up, digital patient door signs also make sure the information is always accurate and up to date.

As soon as a provider places an order in the EHR, that information updates automatically on the digital sign so everyone know what they’re seeing is current.

There is no lag between when a nurse gets an update and when they find the time to get the information outside the patient room updated.

Having everything displayed in one place means staff members don’t have to second-guess what the myriad of magnets placed around the door are the highest priority, or if a patient’s condition has changed since the last shift put them up.

To be consistent

Hospitals typically have set symbols for precautions and alerts—specific colors for code status, a clear illustration for contact precautions, a teardrop or butterfly icon for infant demise—that are familiar to staff at a glance.

SONIFI Health makes sure to incorporate those same symbols onto the digital patient door signs.

This keeps the signs consistent and easily recognizable, making implementations easier as it’s not confusing what they’re looking at on the door sign displays.

It also means that no matter what unit a staff member is on, the symbols they see on the door signs are the same.

To improve coordination

Digital door signs can also display each patient’s care team on shift, and even who’s in the room.

This streamlines workflows for staff, and helps keep everyone on the floor as efficient as possible.

To keep everyone safe

When a patient has isolation precautions, those highly visible alerts outside a patient room help keep everyone safe throughout a patient’s stay.

But what about after a patient leaves?

Many hospitals need a clear and efficient way to let housekeeping and environmental services know that the isolation room requires enhanced cleaning.

With SONIFI Health’s digital door signs, the patient information is automatically cleared from the display at discharge, but if there was an isolation precaution posted, the sign displays an enhanced cleaning alert for staff.

After the room is documented as cleaned and reset, the digital sign also updates to indicate the room is ready for the next patient.

For more reasons why digital patient door signs are the right update for your organization, download this free ebook.