Croydon Health Services: Saving staff time

Challenge

With such a large volume of patient and visitor traffic each year, CHS found that its 3,800 staff members were constantly being stopped by patients and visitors looking for directions. With these interactions often adding up to 10 minutes a day, it became a distraction from their crucial work.

Although this seems like a small amount of time, in reality, the high volume of patients and visitors combined with the entire staff base means that over a prolonged period, this creates a massive drain on time and costs. As a result, the hospital was losing 633 hours of staff time per day, equating to a staggering £2.1m a year in costs.

CHS sought to implement a comprehensive digital wayfinding solution, available via a mobile application, a website platform, and kiosks situated around the facility, to help visitors and patients navigate the hospital independently, thereby reducing staff distractions.

• 10 minutes lost per staff member per day
• 633 hours of staff time lost per day
• Cost of £2.1 million to the health service

Solution

Purple’s web, kiosk, and mobile application solutions were implemented in August 2021. The web and mobile application details can be accessed on the Croydon website here, and every appointment reminder letter includes a prompt for patients to utilise the solution.

There are seven wayfinding kiosks on the campus: two at the main entrance to encourage patients to use them before asking staff members for directions, and five located across the hospital.

• Mobile application with blue-dot
• Web solution
• 7 kiosks

Return on Investment

Since the implementation, 58,465 sets of directions have been displayed to visitors across all three platforms. The most queried navigation locations are the X-ray departments and A&E, helping visitors and patients reach crucial locations quickly and easily.

The introduction of digital wayfinding has saved each staff member approximately 2 minutes each day, equating to an approximate saving of £436,905 annually, or a total of 80,000 hours of reclaimed time since implementation.

Through the use of Purple’s web, kiosk, and mobile application solutions, Croydon Health Services has saved over £764,583 in staff time, which equates to a massive 80,000 hours. In addition to this, CHS has saved £730,812 in missed appointment costs. In total, this amounts to £1,495,395.

• 58,465 sets of directions delivered to visitors
• 80,000 hours reclaimed since implementation
• £436,905 of staff time saved annually