Navigating a hospital is extremely challenging and time-consuming. With complex layouts that consist of multiple wings, departments, and services. Upon arrival, patients are often in a high-stress state and need help locating their destination immediately. In addition, language barriers can make the task even more intimidating.

Thereby, the ability to successfully navigate healthcare facilities is an important shared goal between patients, visitors, and staff. 
However, almost 80% of medical information provided to patients is immediately forgotten. [1]

Patients attending Urology outpatients need to visit radiology, laboratory and pharmacy departments to complement their patient care. As these departments are away from the Urology outpatient location, patients often find it difficult to locate and reach these departments in time.

A significant proportion of patients attending Urology department have to attend laboratory located on 3rd floor. Followed by pharmacy and radiology on ground floor. Patients also have to attend polyclinic for pre anaesthetic review. This information was given orally or through patient communication order; which was not pictorial. 

We have devised a paper communication order with the map layout of patient pathway to attend the required departments as needed. These information guides are available in Arabic/ English/ Urdu/ Bengali/ Hindi considering our standard patient linguistics.
Paper handouts for way-finding in hospital provides a seamless journey between departments. [2]

The aim was to provide patients attending Urology outpatients with a paper location map explaining the interdepartmental journey required for patient care.

A coloured graphic location map was prepared and provided to patients attending Urology department explaining the interdepartmental transit.

Patient satisfaction with the new tool was assessed by a five-point Likert Scale. Patients surveyed during the clinic visit have given 100% satisfaction for the new initiative. Out of 70 patients surveyed, 70 of them were satisfied who answered level 5 of the Likert scale with the picture-aided map that was provided for them in the clinic. 

The location maps have helped them navigate the hospital seamlessly. Other patients have suggested that this too must be available in polyclinic for easy navigation.

Pictorial Location Maps are a great asset which helps patients with in-hospital navigation. This reduces unnecessary stress that can be associated when attending an already stressful situation.

We feel this innovative quality improvement project should be rolled out in other departments attending polyclinic outpatients for better patient care
Furthermore, this pictorial map could be formatted digitally, in order for patients to achieve easy navigation via their personal mobile devices.

Kessels RP. Patients' memory for medical information. J R Soc Med. 2003 May;96(5):219-22. doi: 10.1177/014107680309600504. PMID: 12724430; PMCID: PMC539473.
Devlin AS. Wayfinding in healthcare facilities: contributions from environmental psychology. Behav Sci (Basel). 2014 Oct 31;4(4):423-36. doi: 10.3390/bs4040423. PMID: 25431446; PMCID: PMC4287692.