5 Keys to Reducing Stress in Hospital Patients With Technology

Hospitals are bustling spaces — from rotating staff and visitors to noisy beeps and sirens, they can be overwhelming environments for recovering patients. 

Stress is a normal biological and psychological response to life’s changes and challenges. In a hospital setting, many patients may experience stress during their stay — which on average is almost 5 days long.  

These are the most common causes of stress in hospital patients: 

• Anxiety & pain because of treatment - Patients may be worried about their ongoing treatment or an upcoming procedure. They may also be in pain or discomfort from their illness or injury. 
• Diagnosis of a serious illness - A patient may be anxious about an unexpected diagnosis. Patients who are experiencing stressful events before diagnosis or those with a history of depression may be particularly at risk of psychological distress when they learn they have a chronic illness. 
• Long wait times - Long wait times are shown to decrease patient satisfaction and cause frustration, especially when a patient has a scheduled appointment.
• Loss of control - Many patients feel they lose personal time and privacy during their hospital stay; they may miss important events and experience major disruption to their day-to-day life.  
• Missing family members - Patients may feel lonely during their hospital stay and miss family members, friends, and pets. 
• Unfamiliar surroundings - Some patients become stressed because they are living in unfamiliar surroundings, with little control over noise, lighting, and temperature. 

Stress is not always avoidable, but there are steps hospitals can take to help make patients more confident and comfortable during their hospital stay. While nurses play a key role in stress management for patients, facilities can also help ease worry by investing in real-time location system (RTLS) technology.

5 Ways RTLS Technology Helps Reduce Stress in Hospital Patients 

Modern technology makes it easier for patients to navigate facilities, find providers, and access their medical records. An RTLS platform, such as Cox Prosight, offers the following IoT-enabled platform solutions to help alleviate stress for hospitalized patients and visitors. 

1. Intuitive Digital Front Door

Digital front door refers to the everyday technologies patients use to interact with a hospital. From managing upcoming appointments to paying hospital bills, a seamless digital front door makes it simple for patients to engage with their healthcare providers pre-, during, and post-visit — reducing stressors associated with unclear communication and delayed check-in.

Prosight helps hospitals streamline patient check-in with mobile access to registration, scheduling, documentation, and bill payment. A virtual patient portal also provides the opportunity to collect patient feedback about their stay, which can help administrators identify future ways to reduce stressors. 

2. Streamlined Patient Navigation

Nearly one-third of first-time hospital visitors get lost. Wayfinding problems in a hospital can lead to patient confusion, stress, and frustration — expediting pre-existing hospital stressors. Help patients and visitors effortlessly navigate your hospital with wayfinding technology. 

With Cox Prosight’s real-time indoor GPS technology, patients can access a digital map of your facility and use turn-by-turn patient navigation. Visitors can drop a pin on important locations, such as the parking garage or a patient room, and easily find where they are going without interrupting staff. 

3. Personalized, Comprehensive Alerts

Another way RTLS technology can enhance the patient experience is by sending automated alerts and messages to smartphones and tablets. Hospitals can leverage geo-fencing to send customized alerts as patients enter, leave, and navigate the facility. 

Before appointment day, hospitals can notify and remind patients about upcoming appointments and navigation reminders. Then, once appointment day arrives, hospitals send push notifications for appointment check-in as patients enter the hospital. These personalized alerts both streamline the patient check-in process and give patients further control over their treatment plan.

4. Streamline Finding In-Area Providers

Patients in rural areas may find it challenging to find in-area providers, increasing stress before a patient even enters your hospital doors. With Prosight, hospitals can list physician directories and use a patient’s real-time location to recommend in-area providers. Plus, in the case a patient needs a virtual visit, they can access their provider all through one central hub. 

5. Accessible Records, Across Devices

Today’s patients want greater access to their medical records. In one nationally representative survey, only 36% of respondents reported that their providers’ electronic health records allowed them to access their records electronically, through a smartphone app or online patient portal — that number is low considering 61% of respondents said they want to be able to access their medical records digitally. 

Lower patient stress and frustration by making their digital medical records easy to access. Cox Prosight gathers all records in one platform, which patients can view and download at their convenience. 

Deliver a Cutting-Edge Patient Experience with Cox Prosight 

While hospital stays — planned or unplanned — can be stressful for many patients and their families, hospitals can leverage new technology to help lower unnecessary stress. The Cox Prosight RTLS solution gives hospitals the ultimate platform to ease patient stress with digital location-based solutions. It’s fully customizable to fit your facility’s unique staff and patient needs. 

Cox Prosight is helping hospitals redesign the healthcare journey with patients’ needs at the center of their care. Our award-winning solution is affordable, easy to implement, and secure. Contact our team today to learn more about how you can reduce patient stress by investing in RTLS technology.