Innovative Digital Signage Solutions for Care Homes

Utilizing care home digital signage for old people in old age homes.
10

Oct

Care home digital signage has become an asset in elderly healthcare facilities. Combined with the latest technologies, digital signage in care homes can elevate the lifestyle of the residents, and their families can rest assured. But first, let us understand the meaning of digital signage for care homes.

What is care home digital signage?

Care Home Digital Signage refers to the use of digital displays within a care home or assisted living facility to convey information, entertainment, alerts, and other relevant content to residents, staff, and visitors.

Now that we know the definition of digital signage in care homes, this blog post will walk you through the benefits of care home digital signage software and how they serve residents, visitors, and staff alike.

Top 9 ideas & use cases for care home digital signage in 2023

1. Communication

Utilizing care home digital signage to communicate important information. Care homes often get bad press for having a disconnected environment where older people feel lonely. Installing digital signage in care homes is a great way to communicate real-time updates and information to the residents, staff, visitors, and management.

It may include simple updates like:

  • How is the weather today?

  • Guess whose birthday we’re celebrating today?

  • What’s on the world news?

  • What’s on today’s menu?

  • A new member has joined our family. Would you like to meet her?

Care home digital signage is a great medium to relay interesting updates and communications. They help the staff and residents stay connected among themselves and with the outside world.

2. Visitor management

For families arriving at care homes to visit their loved ones, NGO members, and other visitors, an interactive visitor management system is very important. Interactive kiosks and digital signage for care homes help managers and staff guide visitors to different areas in the building.

Care home digital signage with visitor check-in software helps staff with the following:

  • Capture photos and digital signatures of first-time visitors

  • Pre-register visitors on a common portal

  • Issue visitors badges with date and time stamps for security

  • Have a centralized visitor database in place

To enable the above functionalities, ensure your visitor management software for digital signage has the following features: Important features of a great visitor management software.

Deploying digital signage in care home waiting areas allows visitors to watch TV, surf channels for news, or learn more about the home. The screens can also display visiting hours, rules and etiquette, and other important information.

Wondering how QR codes can improve visitor management systems for care home digital signage and other media? Check out this guide.

3. Customized experience

Care home digital signage can be tailored to offer personalized messages to individual residents. For instance, advanced CMS (Content Management System) tools can generate celebratory messages such as welcoming a new resident, announcing birthdays, giving gifts, and more.

Personalized communications can be extended to visitors as well. AI-enabled webcams connected to digital signage in care homes can detect the faces of regular visitors and display a welcome message on the screen.

On the management side, the customized experience will entail detailed reports on visitor analytics, reports on who viewed what content for what duration, etc.

4. Entertainment

Care homes for the sick and elderly can get monotonous quickly. Various modes of entertainment can help elevate people’s moods, and care home digital signage is a perfect tool for such activities. Using digital signage in care homes for entertainment and fun. The management can arrange weekly singing or dance contests to keep the residents cheerful and engaged. Several elderly care facilities host game nights where digital signage is an integral medium.

Care home digital signage can be used as a projector for fun activities. A typical example is projecting a piece of puzzle or a treasure hunt game on a large surface (e.g., walls, floors, tables).

5. Emergency notifications

A primary concern for senior care homes is the low mobility of the aged residents. During emergencies such as fire outbreaks, gas leakage, chemical spills, earthquakes, or floods, evacuating the premises and transferring older people to safer areas becomes a real challenge.

Digital signage designed for care homes becomes a savior in such scenarios.

Connected with a vast network of sensors and alarms, care home digital signage for emergency alerts should have the best audio-visual features to announce dangers and guide people safely through evacuation routes.

Modern digital signage for care homes also comes in handy during medical emergencies. If a patient experiences cardiac arrest late at night and requires immediate medical attention, the digital signage systems can alert the staff and assemble a medical team in no time.

6. Security

Old-age homes are often prone to attacks by random mobs and need heightened security. Due to the limited strength and potential of the residents to defend themselves against attackers, security needs to be tightened right at the entrance.

New visitors or people the care home webcams fail to identify should be scrutinized. Digital signage screens placed in the hallways, corridors, and waiting areas should alert the management if any intruder is detected in the facility.

Every care home digital signage should display the following:

  • A list of prohibited items

  • Directives to security personnel for screening & checks

7. Promote an inclusive environment

Aged care facilities are often homes for people with different disabilities. Some need more attention and care than others.

An increasing number of senior care homes are leveraging care home digital signage to create a diverse and inclusive space for the elderly and differently-abled people.

For patients with Alzheimer’s or Dementia, care home digital signage can be a valuable asset in triggering fond memories. Assisted living facilities often use digital screens to project an image of the patient with a loved one to help them remember their family members.

Tracking technology with sensor triggers can be used in parallel for more critical patients. The patient’s wristbands can trigger helpful reminders or greeting messages when they approach the digital screens displaying an image.

Interactive touchscreens with assisted technology can help residents with other disabilities to play games or order their favorite food directly from the display menus.

8. Health & wellness

Using digital signage in care homes for fitness classes. Medical teams visiting aged care facilities can use care home digital signage to spread awareness around fitness and well-being.

These teams can organize fitness events within the care homes to actively engage the residents and announce them on digital screens.

9. Augmented reality

Old-age facilities with slightly higher budgets can integrate care home digital signage with AR-VR technology to enhance residents’ experience.

With virtual reality, elderly residents can visit exotic tourist destinations and enjoy an immersive experience. The care homes can pair digital signage screens with interactive kiosks for a fun game experience with AR-VR technology.

These experiences help boost cognitive stimulation and social interaction.

Setting examples: How North Mid Charity, surprised dementia patients

The OmiVista Mobii projector at the North Middlesex University Hospital.

The elderly ward team for Dementia patients at North Middlesex University Hospital recently welcomed an award-winning projector funded by North Mid Charity. The OmiVista Mobii projector unveiled a range of sensory products, such as games and fun videos, with an inclusive appeal.

The engaging activities lifted the spirits of patients of all ages and abilities and brought them together in a cordial environment.

Integrated with care home digital signage, such multisensory experiences can help boost the cognitive abilities of older people.

Some of the visiting therapists in the ward lauded this initiative as a part of the Frailty Awareness Month in November. They said the activities helped promote cognition and communication by reminding patients of their coloring and music activities in their younger days.

Care homes can use digital signage to enhance these experiences by integrating with popular apps. Watch a few of these multisensory apps in action in this video.


The future of care home digital signage: How Pickcel can help

Older people deserve the best facilities in care homes; digital signage can make this dream come true. Using care home digital signage is a great stride in modernizing the elderly care system.

Join hands with Pickcel on this journey. Our digital signage software and services suite has augmented customer experiences for decades.

Reach out to our experts to learn more. Schedule a demo today..

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Esha Panda

Esha is an engineer-turned-marketer managing the development, delivery, and promotion of brand- and product-centric content. She has bagged the prestigious accolade -Most Influential Content Marketing Professional - Top 50 two years in a row. When she is not writing, editing, or ideating, Esha loves to trek, paint, and watch movies.

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