Today, nearly everyone carries a powerful mobile device that can pinpoint their location with ease. Whether they’re navigating city streets, finding a friend at a concert, or ordering food from their couch. At the core of this capability is GPS, a technological marvel powered by a network of satellites that’s become so reliable, we often take it for granted.
But GPS has a critical limitation: it only works well outdoors. Inside large, complex buildings—like hospitals—it quickly loses accuracy. That’s where indoor positioning systems (IPS) come in.
The Why
As with GPS, a successful IPS (Indoor Positioning System) implementation gives additional context to users of an application. It also gives context about users of an application and, of course, context to the application itself. It creates a mapping between the physical and the digital, creating some unique opportunities for interaction between the two. These are all great capabilities to have, and can unlock some interesting potentials. Potentials such as these:
- Navigation: Knowing where a user is and where they want to go, applications can guide them from one location to another. This is a powerful way to empower users to make the best use of everything a facility has to offer.
- Custom Content: Location awareness gives savvy solutions the opportunity to personalize the experience. A top priority here is discoverability—direct attention to relevant areas of greatest interest.
- Targeted Communication: When and where are two great things to know when deciding what information to push to users. Segmenting communication to keep real-time updates relevant is important to keep it separate from the noise.
- Automated Experiences: Taken one step further, that physical to digital link can trigger key flows, streamlining bothersome experiences like check-ins. Or check-outs. The more of this that can be done behind the scenes, the better.
- Asset Tracking: The ability to track inventory and equipment is huge, making it easy to find things when needed. An alert system here can save staff time, and be a help if theft is a common occurrence.
- Accessibility: Many tools exist to help people of different needs. Location aware applications can help users discover them and better leverage assistive tools of their own. Something as simple as mapping out wheelchair accessibility goes a long way towards empowering users and lends confidence in navigating your facility.
- Security: When there is trouble, knowing where it’s happening and determining the closest personnel is key to a rapid response.
- Intelligence: Knowing how users navigate and congregate within a location can give some compelling and actionable analytics, improving staff efficiency and facility optimization.
- Mixed Reality Experiences: In a future where Augmented Reality technology becomes widely adopted, location awareness will be absolutely critical to anchoring that experience. Most current applications rely on visual tagging, which is just ok.
Indoor positioning isn’t just about getting from point A to point B. It’s about elevating the entire healthcare experience. From smoother operations to more empowered patients, IPS is a strategic investment for any health system aiming to meet rising expectations and build a more connected future.
