A hospital’s visitor management system is an essential piece of hospital security. While you don’t want to add unnecessary obstacles to a visitors’ path toward seeing their loved ones, it’s important for healthcare facilities to screen all guests, for both staff and patient safety.
In short, your visitor management solution should maintain high security standards without putting undue duress on the guests.
Here are four tips on improving your hospital’s visitor program:
1. Make your policy easy for visitors to comply
One of the best things you can do at your hospital sign-in station is to make things easy on the visitor.
While visitors inherently know a sign-in system doesn’t exist to inconvenience them, visitors can get frustrated with systems that are confusing or take a long time to work through.
Focus on streamlining your guest sign-in process. Consider an audit of your security system to determine the basic information that you need to gather from your guests in order to allow them on-site. Then, focus on finding the fastest, simplest way to get that basic information from your guests. PDC IDenticard can help with identifying the right visitor management system to fit your unique needs.
2. Provide as much information as you can in advance
If your facility requires special procedures for visitors or has made recent changes, it’s important to make sure those requirements are clear as early as you possibly can.
For example, if your facility requires that all guests produce a valid form of identification upon arriving at the sign-in station, you should state that at your front door or display a large sign at the sign-in station.
Any such procedures should be communicated to all hospital visitors, be it through email, posting on your facility’s website, or notifications from staff members.
By informing your guests of the rules and regulations before they arrive at the sign-in station, you’re drastically decreasing the chances that a guest gets caught off-guard. This helps lower the risk of conflicts between upset guests and your staff members.
3. Provide clear direction
One of the more common complaints of hospital visitors is that they don’t know how to properly check in and get to their desired department or location.
Guests aimlessly wandering around your facility is not only a security risk, but it also increases frustration for your guests.
Upon sign-in, instruct your staff members to offer directions to your guests. And, make sure you have clear wayfinding signage at every entry point and throughout your facility. Clearly mark departments and locations that are restricted to visitors.
4. Encourage empathy and de-escalating tactics when needed
While checking in visitors, encourage your staff to focus on patience as they’re often going to be dealing with people who are stressed or confused.
When possible, instruct your staff members on how to properly deal with guests who are upset or confused. Consider de-escalating training for the employees who interact with visitors most often in case a heightened emotion situation arises.
If your medical facility is looking to upgrade its existing Visitor Management installation or to add one to your site for the first time, we’ve got the solution to meet your needs. Browse our offering or contact us for a free consultation with a member of our Visitor Management team.
