Medical Centre Signage

The role of signage at a hospital, clinic or medical centre

For a sign-maker, planning and implementing signage for a medical facility is a complex task. While signage in department stores is mainly designed to appeal, signage for a healthcare facility must be functional and practical – designed to inform.
Hospitals and medical centres are often, by their very nature, complicated institutional structures that are accessible to thousands of patients, visitors, employees and casual staff on a daily basis. With their intricate details and numerous departments, healthcare facilities can prove overwhelming to people, who simply want to get where they need to be as efficiently as possible.

User-friendly signs

For this reason, the signage systems used in these facilities must be user-friendly. Signage must be understandable to children and adults alike, culturally-sensitive to address the needs of the diverse mix of people who may pass through, and both Braille- and tactile-friendly to support people with visual impairments and other disabilities. The signage needs to be universally understood and highly visible.
Directional & informational signs

From the moment people arrive at a medical facility, they need to know exactly where to go. Sign-makers rely on architectural signage to guide people safely to their final destination. In designing these signs, a sign-maker consults with architects, facility-owners, and operations and maintenance personnel, so that he or she can fully understand the characteristics of a site.

Floor plans and location maps are used to create directional signs that lead people to designated parking lots, hospital entrances, emergency rooms and wheelchair ramps, and away from ambulance-only driveways or doctor-only sections. Inside the building, informational signage provides the details that allow visitors to locate admission rooms, waiting rooms, X-ray rooms, wards, cafeterias, public toilets, lifts, emergency exits, stairways and other important locations.

Functional signs

To ensure that a signage system operates at its maximum, signs must be functional. The signage must be legible – which is why custom typefaces and fonts are often used. Arrows are designed to guide and universal symbols, numbers, icons, pictographs and colour-coded systems are used to provide clarity. Signs must also be updatable and easily manageable, to accommodate changing needs.

Signs of wellbeing

Sign-makers know that every institution that is open to the public requires a fully integrated and well thought-out signage system. An effective signage system is not only essential to ease the workings of a medical facility; it is also critical to enhance the sense of wellbeing of all who visit it.